Parents had to worry about the safety of their school children long before COVID-19 became a problem. It’s time to invest in education to address these disparities, starting with the pandemic relief package. Rural schools are sick, and it’s not just the coronavirus. As the nation’s gaze turns to the […]
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Commentary: The Confederacy, QAnon and the Cult of the Shining City
It’s appropriate that I began reflecting on what to write in this piece on the Fourth of July, the celebration of America’s independence. After all, I grew up in a small Indiana town that held the state’s biggest Independence Day parade. People came from miles around to watch the floats, […]
Read MoreWhy ‘Crisis Schooling’ Shouldn’t Be Part of Our New Normal
What most kids experienced this spring was not online, virtual or blended education. At best, it was crisis schooling. It’s time to shift to something better. When asked if schools would be able to go back to “normal,” a superintendent recently quipped, “Normal is a setting on a washing machine.” […]
Read MoreThe Jobs We Earn*: The Progress Made Toward Economic Equity Wasn’t Given to Us, It Was Won
Last week, The New York Times editorial board published, “The Jobs We Need,” an opinion piece addressing the important issues of corporate power, wages and the workplace. The editorial rightly points out that average worker’s wages in the United States have not kept up with inflation nor productivity growth, while […]
Read MoreBlack Lives Matter at the Mountaintops in My Old Kentucky Home
Young, Appalachian whites are changing the conversation about race in rural communities that are predominately white. It is a joy to behold. I have watched, with unbridled joy, the crowds of predominantly young white people who have poured into the streets, chanting “Black Lives Matter” in places as overwhelmingly white […]
Read MoreThe Hidden Costs of Appalachia’s Trail Economy
Driving between Pocahontas and Boissevain in southwestern Virginia, it’s easy to miss the mouth of Haynes Branch tucked into the woods along State Route 644. Like much of central Appalachia, this landscape of hills and hollows west of the Bluestone River in Tazewell County owes its existence to water. There’s […]
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