White Lies & Big Deals
What's Going On in The Village of WestVirginiaVille | nov1.2020
Welcome. If this newsletter was forwarded to you or you found it online, subscribe for free at: westvirginiaville.substack.com. | Douglas John Imbrogno, editor & co-founder
1 | White Flight
West Virginia native Jeff James has written a book with one of 2020's most provocative titles: "GIVING UP WHITENESS: One Man’s Journey." Fellow West Virginia native Elizabeth Gaucher, editor of the literary magazine Longridge Review, takes a deep dive into the themes of the book in "5 Questions" with the author. | 5 QUESTIONS: West Virginia native tracks a journey into “Giving Up Whiteness”
2 | A Big (Pharma) Deal
Trump-ublican West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is up for re-election. This video is pertinent to a race in which he faces Mountain State labor attorney Sam Brown Petsonk. It features an excerpt from Eric Eyre's best-seller, “DEATH IN MUD LICK: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic.” Morrisey played a key role in the outrageous story of Big Pharma’s malfeasance in the opioid crisis, detailed in hundreds of stories. His reporting earned Eric—a former Charleston Gazette-Mail colleague of mine—a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. Can you say ‘complicit’? | For more on the video: EDITORIAL | “Pills & Suits,” a Justice Project Video
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3 | How Do You Solve a Problem Like Shelley Moore Capito?
Odds are long her Dem opponent, Paula Jean Swearengin, can eject WV Sen. Shelley Moore Capito Tuesday. But West Virginians disgusted with Capito’s M.I.A. stances on key issues of the day will take any odds at all.
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In a triple-play at the link, we present: 1) An entertaining dissertation in ‘Hillbonics’ on Capito’s bonafides by certifiable WV treasure Rebecca Kimmons; 2) A WestVirginiaVille Justice Project video, which proposes a new Capito slogan (“Nothing! It’s What She Does.”); 3) A point/counterpoint of the kind of letter you get when you write the senator all serious-like and she writes back. Sort of. | EDITORIAL | A Shelley Moore Capito Reader
4 | The Great Lies/Ad Nauseum
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We’re happy to publish a timely poem by PJ Laska, born into a coal mining family in Marion County. After high school, he spent two years in Japan as a guest of the U.S. military, where he studied Zen and developed a lifelong interest in Eastern philosophy and literature. After completing Ph.D. in philosophy, he taught at universities in the U.S. and Canada, and at Antioch’s Appalachian Center in Beckley, where he was part of the Soupbean Poets collective. Recent publications with Igneus Press are “Seasons in the Ravine” (2017) and “The Sleep of Reason” (ed.) (2019). | POEM | “The Greats” by PJ Laska
5 | Subscribe
Send feedback and suggest stuff to: heythere@westvirginiaville.com. Subscribe for free: westvirginiaville.substack.com. | Wear a mask in public like a superhero or superheroine. Be well, stay safe. Vote. | Douglas John Imbrogno, editor & co-founder, WestVirginiaVille.com