Damn dude, that’s fucked. I loved going to WV for summer camps as a kid, the wilderness in that state is incredible, but you’re absolutely right about the church density and lack of infrastructure.
Every time I pass through that state, it’s always small Americana towns loaded with beautiful architecture and small businesses on the verge of collapse, while the town churches look like new. It’s a truly baffling phenomenon until you recognize that Churches provide a lot of the social structure and safety nets for people there.
And while a lot of their issues can be traced back to the coal-dependence of the state, a lot of it can be traced to regional policy that just left the state behind. WV isn’t near dead last in the nation in every category because it wants to be, but damn it all if they aren’t doing anything that could help change that. Louisiana is like that too; dead last in everything, with so much squandered potential.
Damn dude, that’s fucked. I loved going to WV for summer camps as a kid, the wilderness in that state is incredible, but you’re absolutely right about the church density and lack of infrastructure.
Every time I pass through that state, it’s always small Americana towns loaded with beautiful architecture and small businesses on the verge of collapse, while the town churches look like new. It’s a truly baffling phenomenon until you recognize that Churches provide a lot of the social structure and safety nets for people there.
And while a lot of their issues can be traced back to the coal-dependence of the state, a lot of it can be traced to regional policy that just left the state behind. WV isn’t near dead last in the nation in every category because it wants to be, but damn it all if they aren’t doing anything that could help change that. Louisiana is like that too; dead last in everything, with so much squandered potential.