A note from the Sun: This is the first in what we hope will become an ongoing dialogue about ways to move Southwest Virginia forward. This is an overview of what we here in media land see and feel. As time goes on, we’ll more fully talk about each issue and others and invite you to get in on the conversation. Write a response to us. Write about something else, something we may not have missed. Send your thoughts to us at [email protected].
Demographically speaking, Southwest Virginia is facing down some hard facts. With few exceptions, the region is losing population and those who remain behind are getting older. Coupled with a declining work force, the retreat of coal and a large number of factories pulling up stakes, good jobs are hard to find.
We send our kids off to college and four years later, they just keep on trucking, over to Charlotte, up to Alexandria or down to Atlanta, searching for that better life that lies waiting. It’s not so different, really, than the previous Appalachian diaspora that sent our young to settle in places like Cincinnati, Detroit and Baltimore. The big change, this time around, is that the kids who have moved from their homeland don’t seem to miss it. At the very least, we’re not hearing songs like Bobby Bare’s “Detroit City” on the radio anymore.
So what do we do, what can we do, to solve the struggles?
Some experts, and maybe we should put that word in quotes, suggest that it can’t be and shouldn’t be, arguing that Appalachia’s carrying capacity for people has always been low. In the first part of the 20th Century, though, it was artificially inflated by America’s appetite for timber and coal and nowadays should be returned quietly to a sparsely populated wilderness. We’re not even going to respond to that thought, but it’s helpful to know what some are saying if for nothing else but to understand what we’re up against. Which leaves us once again with the original question. What can we do?
It’s a chicken-and-egg discussion, really. One where we ask what we must do first.
We need broadband connectivity. We need more, better and faster roads. We need to re-imagine education and build the schools of tomorrow today. We need to build a brain trust, stop shedding our best and brightest and create the things that will allow us to import talent and export knowledge. We need opportunities that align with what makes us “us.” We need good, high-paying jobs that provide living wages and strong retirement packages. And we need entrepreneurial renaissance the likes we haven’t seen before.
And we need to start at the bottom of the list and work our way backward. It’s easy to say we need better internet and let ourselves believe that if we build it, the elusive “they” will come, but they won’t, at least not in the numbers we need.
However, if we start with a solid foundation, one built upon the rock of small businesses invested in the community and this place, the rest will begin to fall into place.
Entrepreneurs are the backbone of any economy, especially local ones. Small businesses circulate local dollars to a greater degree than any other method and for the most part create employment that can’t be outsourced and is heavily resistant to automation.
Conversely, without a strong focus on local businesses our communities will wither on whatever vine that’s cultivated. To help nurture the entrepreneurial spirit, we need an all-in focus, with fellow businesses, governments and nonprofits all supporting one another and helping to create every flavor of local opportunities. Marion and Wytheville have dabbled in this with some great success, supporting business boot camps and helping the doers with big ideas do. Over in Wise, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise has drawn a roadmap for higher education, offering real money to students with bright new ideas as part of an Entrepreneur’s Cup.
And existing businesses, too, have shown the way for those that would come behind. Take Duchess Dairy, for instance. Since January 2010, a couple farming families in Smyth and Wythe counties have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that fresh, local milk cannot only compete but become a much-sought after, booming success. Imagine, if you will, a group of beef producers teaming in a similar way, committed to feeding folks here high-quality meat. Or vegetable growers doing the same. We can see a world where consortiums of local farmers could easily lead to other business-minded folks opening green grocery stores, restaurants or butcher shops – similar to Snow’s Fine Meats and Provisions in Abingdon.
And that’s just in the agricultural realm. Nothing should be off the table. Blue Wolf Cleaners, created in Tazewell County, can show others how we can fill local needs and reach national markets. The seeds to international energy solutions could right now be locked in the doodles of a high school kid in Bland County. Or the next Spike Lee could very well be living in Wytheville, just waiting for a time and place to how what she can do.
Let’s nurture all those things, celebrate the successes and learn from the mistakes, picking one another up after failures and repeating the cycle again.
Before long, if we do the right things, we’ll be well on our way toward changing our world for the better.
Next time, we’ll talk about some of our ideas on how we can short-circuit the path to good, high-paying jobs in a way that all political stripes, we hope, can agree on. In the meantime, drop us a line and let us hear your ideas. We’ll publish what you have to say and get this conversation going.
