I too am a hillbilly, but for my own reasons I bounced from corner to corner of this state before deciding to stay here. From what I honestly believe to be an objective perspective regarding literary quality, Denise Giardina's writings are really not good at all. They are so simplistic that it is hard to view them as anything more that politically motivated screeds. Frankly, at this point in my life I am unapologetic in saying that I have interacted with her many times and I have never found her to be a person burdened by an excess of intellectual curiosity or observational capacity. She is an angry person that looks for any opportunity to seize the floor and vamp about environmental concerns while focusing attention on herself. The causes she purports to champion are important, but she is vapid.

The history of southern West Virginia's social and and economic development is tragic and devilishly complicated. There are no simple roads into the future for most of the people that still live there. I can't help being deeply disturbed by false or simplified analyses of these issues, and honestly, yours is somewhat offensive. You identify as one of West Virginia's natives who "clawed our way out," yet you simultaneously seem to look down upon those who have failed to do so and throw up your hands when it comes to identifying a solution. This is easy, and it has been done to death.

Honestly, wealthy civil war officers marched through West Virginia and noticed lumber and coal? People "defend the companies that poison them because, without them, they go right back into the hollers?" This is nothing more than a circlejerk it doesn't provide much of a meaningful starting point for conversation.