Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Welcome to WRD 111-017!
This semester we will be going-green with all of our homework assignments, and turning them in digitally through blogger.com. Throughout the semester you will submit your homework assignments through your own personal blog, and your colleagues will be able to view and respond to your ideas and thoughts. When creating your blog, please use your first name and last name initial, like this:
[first name] [last name initial] . blogspot.com
WesD.blogspot.com
Once you have created your blog, please "add" our class blog to your account, and I will respond by adding your blog to the class blog's account. This way, everything will be linked up and when you post your homework to your blog, it will automatically appear on the class blog, turned in on time. Pretty sweet!
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According to NPR Jimmy Weekley has lived in Piegeonroost Hollow in West Virginia, for over 70 years. Weekley says that his great great grandfather was the first to settle in the hollow in 1834. Weekley also states that he has been a coal miner all his life, as well as his father and great grandfather. For Weekley coal mining was, “the economic lifeblood of his community.” For me it came as a surprise when Weekley stood up to the Arch Coal Company and refused to sell his land. While everyone he knew sold their land and went on with their lives. For Weekley his land and home are worth way more than a price tag. The hollow that Weekley calls his home is his culture; it is the only environment that he has ever known. His identity is his house that he and his wife built with their own two hands, were he was a father, a husband, a grandfather and much more. The only culture that Weekley knows is the one that has surrounded him all of his life. For Weekley moving from his home and selling his land would mean selling his roots and selling the only culture that he has ever known. Weekely says that he would like to travel and see different places but he would still always think about his home and he isn’t ready to let that go yet. I believe that for Weekley his culture is in fact derived from his environment.
ReplyDeleteMr. Weekly's refusal to move out of his home so that the mining company can have their way with the mountain top, shows a very human characteristic that shapes our culture in the United States. Resiliency is something that can be considered a part of our culture. Jimmy Weekly continues to fight the major corporate "machine" that has bought off tens of people in order to achieve considerable profits. This mere piece of land has huge sentimental value to Mr. Weekly and he holds on with everything left inside him. His entire generation grew up on these lands, and he refuses to let go. This is HIS home, it's where he and his family find shelter and it's the place where Jimmy Weekly identifies himself first as a West Virginian, and second as an American.
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