West Virginia Miners

I have to say that I love the people of West Virginia, they are hard working and loving people. They have much in common with people of the Middle East. They come from an area that is beautiful and rich in natural resources such as Coal and Timber. However, the people themselves don't receive anything from the money the Coal companies make. Only the Coal Miners themselves get money for the hard work they do. This sense of distrust of Corporations and Government has given WV a unique culture. If the people of WV were able to get the dividends from all the money made on coal, they would be more wealthy than Texas and Alaska.

Amazing Grace in WV: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/09/bts.simone.appalachia/index.html?hpt=T1

Most people in West Virginia come from Scotch-Irish & Lebanese stock in the south, Italian to the north, and German on the east/west. The Scotch-Irish and Italian Areas tend to be Democrats and the German areas tend to be Republican. It is a very interesting dynamic, however traditionally most of WV has been democratic in politics. Religiously the majority are Christian. One thing that is striking about West Virginia and Charleston in particular is the names you see. The majority of big land areas are named after Arabic names due to the heavy influence of the old Christian Lebanese and the new Muslim communities that live there. What is very interesting is that ninety percent of the Muslim population in Charleston are Physicians! If you sit in the local movie theater, all the commercials have either Islamic or Arab names almost. It is a very interesting place and extremely beautiful. In a way it looks like paradise. The only drawbacks are the lack of places to shop/eat/etc.

More info on WV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia