#55strong

It has been awhile since I have blogged, but I can assure you that I have tried.  I have typed out two or three blogs then would just delete them.  The reason being, there has been so much to process in my head that there could not be just one focal point to communicate an actual point.  It has been and currently is like that huge ball of string all knotted up or the slinky that is tangled up.  You know when you see those things coming, you take a deep breath and think to yourself, "Not again," and then say, "I can figure this out."  That is where I am.  However, in actuality I am enslaved to the system. The systematic processes of the untangling.

I am involved in a movement of justice for the people, that actually I did not ask for, yet desperately need.  It is one of those times in life you do not realize how hungry you are until you smell food, or you do not see how poor you are until someone outside your poverty befriends you.   The history of that fight in this part of the country at least dates back to the Civil War.  West Virginians, the mountain people, never knowing how much we look like a third-world country.  Do not get me wrong, I love my home state.  Even while I type I have a WV sweatshirt on, now do not get it confused with a WVU sweatshirt, because I live in Herd Country, which could make some around me go into convulsions.  Yet, I am proud I am Alumni of Marshall University.  It was the school in West Virginia that use to be deemed 'the teacher school' back in the day when compared to West Virginia University.  However, I can whisper and say, "I like WVU sports"....sigh, I know.  In Huntington, WV that is blaspheme.

Lately, WV has made national and international news dealing with a Teacher Strike.  It is an awful place to be in terms of security.  Will I get paid?  How long is this going to last?  I have already paid for a beach vacation.  Fact is we are ranked 48th or 49th in teacher pay, depending on your sources.  I have a Master's Degree and I do not make a decent wage.  The cost of living has surpassed my wage and that is the cost of living in WV, which you know is not high according to any other parts of the country.  The cost of living has raised 4.9% and teachers are asking for 5% raise, which only continually puts us at the bottom of the barrel.  Are there times I have worried about feeding my children? Yes.  Have there been times that I worry about paying my bills? Yes.  Though those are my worries, I do realize there are others that have it worse off than me.  My thoughts do not take away their own poverty, but I have mine too.  I pay for the beach trips by my income taxes and go to the cheapest beach in America, which ALL West Virginians go to...Myrtle Beach, SC.  I use my taxes to pay off bills that I have gotten behind on throughout the year, because my wage isn't enough.  But what about your spouse?  Doesn't she make good money?  Ummm, no! She works for a program funded by the State.  She has two Master's Degrees and has been in  her job 25+ years and makes the same as I do.  In the real world our salaries together would equal one salary outside of the Mountain State, which still would be considered a low wage.  There have been times we go shop at Goodwill not because we want a cheap bargain, but I have growing boys and search for good clothes there.  We have a Goodwill located in Barboursville (outside of Huntington), richer people live there.  I can typically find name brands there.  When things get really tight I go through the boys clothes or things even we do not use anymore and sell them.  I do not say these things for pity.  I say them for reality.  Other states I could have public assistance.  Actually, I did.  When I first got divorced from my Ex-husband I moved across the river to Kentucky, and my college degree wage from WV got me on the system.  I had a food stamp card and the boys had a medical card.

My story is not uncommon.  I have never asked for hand-outs or even for money.  Actually there was this one time I asked my mother for money, and my sister, because I needed more money for a down payment for a car.  It was my first ever car to own by myself, and I had no credit.  You know how I paid them back...Student loan money.  However other than that, never.  Teachers have made their demands in this strike, 5% raise or we do not go back, and fix our insurance.  The insurance is on track for solutions, but the 5% has not happened for a multiple of idiotic and political gaming reasons.  Therefore on Monday I still do not get to return to my classroom.  The place where I am called to be and the place that reminds me why I even take a low wage.  Children.  The poverty of learning, or the poverty of the development of children.  My whole make-up, my happy place is always around children.

Teachers are survivors in the State of West Virginia, nothing has ever been handed to any of us.  We work hard to teach those same skills.  The true teacher drive will outlast anyone.  How do I know this?  I know it because we are the type of people that get a cussing in one breath by a 10 year old and then make sure they are fed by lunch time.  We move sometimes 20+ students along heading to a common goal everyday as we move them in UNIITY, no matter their development levels.  All eyes are on us to see our next move.  We will win this!  Once again I know this, because we have been taught to fight through.  Figure it out.  Find ways.  This game that is being played with our lives and the lives of our students is not anything new for us.  This is our daily job, as we barely have educational resources, like paper for our students (paper for teachers is gold currency).   Our slogan that is our driving force to continue is #55strong.  We will stay 55 counties strong in this, because we were 55 counties strong before this...Now everyone else in this country is hearing the screams and groaning of labor pains of this Mountain Momma... Take US home country roads...to the place where we belong.