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When I first took this job nearly five years ago, my editor Christina encouraged me at the time to not feel like I only have to write about politics or heavy topics in my weekly column. It's advice I've mostly ignored, but I have a topic weighing on my mind that you will either find humorous or annoying.
There is a social media trend, or meme if you will, that encourages people to share an unpopular opinion; a thought you have that most likely only you share. Rather than post this on Twitter or some other social media platform, I'm choosing to use it as a column topic so I can better flesh out my feelings on the subject. So, here goes...
Appalachia: it's an extremely overused word that has largely lost all meaning.
I want to state for the record that I do not live in Appalachia. I have lived nearly 40 years in West Virginia. I was born in southern California in 1982, but as soon as my father got his honorable discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1983 and returned to the Pleasants County area, I've resided within the borders of this state.
West Virginia is one of several states in the Appalachians, a mountain range formed over a period of 480 million years stretching from Newfoundland, Canada, to Alabama. It's a region to be sure, like the Berkshires in northern New York, the Smokies in Tennessee, and the Sierra Nevadas in the west.
Plenty of organizations and programs use "Appalachia." There's, of course, the Appalachian Regional Commission (you'll often hear from politicians that West Virginia is the only state completely within the Appalachian Regional Commission service area), West Virginia Public Broadcasting's "Inside Appalachia," the news website 100 Days in Appalachia, etc. There's an Appalachia State University, as well as Appalachian studies at various universities.
Look, my issue with the use of Appalachia doesn't extend to its use to describe a region or historic culture. Despite the size of the chain, I feel like only West Virginia, Southeast Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, and Western Virginia are the heart of the region (I heard an episode of "Inside Appalachia" once that had a reporter asking people in Alabama how they feel about being Appalachians and the reaction of the people there was "what are you talking about? Appalachia is up north.")
One of my issues with the overuse of Appalachia comes from those who use it almost as an imaginary world very similar to the imaginary world created by the TV show "Portlandia." I guess that's better than the usual Appalachian stereotypes you continue to see out there pushed by people who make fun of us here in West Virginia.
As we know, this state has many different competing regions with their own customs.
I also get annoyed with the "only one way to pronounce Appalachia' crowd. They will tell you it is pronounced app-a-latch-a, not app-a-lay-cha. I'm here to tell you it can be pronounced both ways, just like "Caribbean" has two pronunciations. It would be like telling someone from Great Britain that we have the true pronunciation of "aluminum."
If you can believe the Online Etymology Dictionary, the roots of the word "Appalachia," hail from the Spanish interpretation of a name for an indigenous tribe from Florida. If that is the case, then perhaps Floridians should be the true interpreters of what the true pronunciation of "Appalachia" should be? Certainly not we West Virginians who have a funny way of saying "hurricane."
Some will accuse me of being a contrarian. True. Some will accuse me of bringing down a hell storm of trouble on my own head. Also true. I could have also written about how I refuse to embrace "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver because the landmarks it describes more accurately reflect the western border of Virginia but NOT West Virginia. Again, true, but who needs that kind of trouble or hate mail?
But as for Appalachia, I just find it hard to say I'm a proud Appalachian. I am most definitely a proud West Virginian. One of my regrets is I never became a Knight of the Golden Horseshoe.
As co-captain of my middle and high school quiz bowl teams, I could have easily attained that title, but I opted instead to represent Pleasants County in the state finals for the National Geography Bee.
You can have Appalachia, but I'll take the West Virginia hills.
Happy belated April Fools.