An Open Letter to Senator Joe Manchin from KRC/PBPC Partner ReImagine Appalachia
Published as a full-page ad in West Virginia’s Charlotte Gazette-Mail, Sunday, September 12, 2021
An open letter to Senator Manchin from ReImagine Appalachia, a coalition of labor, policy experts, and community leaders from Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky working to ensure everyone who lives in the Appalachia region can have a good job and the ability to put down roots for the future.
Senator Manchin,
West Virginians are proud and independent, and we work hard. But for too long, absentee corporations have held wages down and cut corners, putting too many of our families at risk, dividing our communities, and exploiting our resources.
You’ve stood up for us and secured our place at the table of national climate infrastructure debates. Now, with your continued support, we can ensure a thriving economy that is good for workers, communities, and the environment. We can create good union jobs in 21st-century industries for all West Virginians of every color, creed, and background.
West Virginia deserves our due share of the budget reconciliation package. We have fueled the prosperity of the rest of the nation while our region has been left in poverty, our workers and neighbors made sick and our land damaged.
This isn’t about liberal or conservative ideology. It’s about taking care of people made sick from past industries and putting people to work, repairing damage to our land, reforesting the region, and manufacturing the products of the new energy economy. We can prioritize both jobs and industry while doing our part to tackle climate change. But we need real investments in the people of our region.
We cannot transform Appalachia without the substantial federal investments needed to modernize our electric grid, repair damaged lands, grow clean and efficient manufacturing, and revive the Civilian Conservation Corps.
We are counting on you, Senator Manchin, to come through for us. And we stand ready to do everything in our power to assist you in this enormous task. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build the foundation for a 21st-century, sustainable Appalachia.
Reimagining Appalachia means leaving no one behind. We can’t build a new future without taking everyone with us. West Virginians deserve an investment big enough to actually bring the change we desperately need, which means supporting the infrastructure and budget packages together.
Let’s rebuild and retool our communities so we can all live in a vibrant, thriving place. Please don’t let this opportunity pass us by.
–ReImagine Appalachia
