Baratunde here with another Citizens story. This is for April nineteen, twenty twenty five. I think we're up to story number six out of eight, just three more to go, and this one West Virginia can't wait. So I you know, there's a setup embedded. And the thing my point in doing this audio in front of the audio from the video is just to check in with you a little more loosely. We don't have to keep keep it so rigid as in the three minute limits on Blue Sky
and Instagram. So we're we're coming into the home stretch on this effort. And we've been posting these on substack, on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on blue Sky, on Mailchimp, where else. We've been putting it the backyard, the front yard, the bus station, you know, wherever, wherever we can get it. And this this story is about places that we overlooked, and it's about people that we overlook in in our
political process. So I love this story because it is based in Appalachia, and I grew up visiting parts of Appalachia. I'm from the DC world, uh, Washington, DC world, and so the Blue Ridge Mountains uh is almost my backyard.
And went camping there with my mom and all kinds of explorations, and then I got to revisit in my adult life with the America Outdoor Show I wasted on PBS and the thing that I felt there, you know, we we were doing stories about uh, adaptive whitewater rafting, about regenerative agriculture, about coal miners who became bee keepers, and I was just like, this is a story of Appalachia. We're not seeing. We're We're only hearing folks who want to cling to a particular business model cause it makes
them some money. They want to just cling to the coal industry they want, you know, in this case, it was Senator Joe Mansion at the time, who has his way of doing things and a lot of financial interests to make sure things stay a certain way. But I was seeing this new story, this innovative, adaptive, creative spirit of some fiercely independent but also interdependent people, the people of of Appalachia, the people of the Hills. And the story that you're gonna hear today reminds me of that.
It's not about white water rafting, but it is about navigating choppy waters of our political system and what is going on in West Virginia. It is a lack of patience for the status quo, and it's really an invitation to everyday people to get into the process. But they're aided. There's facilitation, there's training, there's there's a community around, and there's accountability and follow through. And so if you're tired
of your politicians, make some new ones, become one. But do it, you know, not alone, so you don't get eaten up by the machine. Anyway, I'm not trying to spoil the whole story. Enjoy the sounds of West Virginia can't wait, and please if you want to follow through on what you're hearing in these we're always linking to uh the substack version of the post where we've got links to the group, to the Instagram post, to the LinkedIn post. You want to find all these folks in
their social platforms. You want to support them, you want to learn from them or or connect it to something you know going on, which we're trying to make it easy and just put it everywhere and find us at stories dot howdositizen dot com. This is a group effort, by the way, so just a major appreciation to share a Bromlitz who has been like project managing this to my partner Elizabeth Stewart, to my brother from another mother,
John Alexander, and to our video producers. That video producers are test No Vaughtnoy and gut Ridge and Alexa Limb. And they went out and really conducted these interviews that you're hearing and edited them down and we try to package them so they could travel the farthest in this particular test. All right, enjoy your weekend, and if you hear this years later, enjoy whatever day it is for you in the future. I'm talking to you from the past. Look, time travel is a real thing. Are you tired of
your limited political choices? So am I? And sometimes it helps to be reminded that we are not limited to what is on the menu that someone else chose. That we can just go in the kitchen and start cooking, mixing ingredients the way we want. But the point is this, real people can take over the political process, especially when they work together to do it. And some of the best democratic innovation in America is happening in that way.
In Appalachia, check out the story of West Virginia Can't Wait.
We passed a non discrimination ordinance as well as a ban on conversion therapy. Those things seemed impossible in a conservative Appalachian city, and they passed unanimously. My name is Rosemary Ketchum. I am a volunteer and formered candidate for West Virginia Can't Wait. We have run Republicans, Independents, and Democrats, all on very similar platforms. Local politics is often very practical.
It's about potholes, it's about preservation and restoration. We want to make sure that our candidates put these local issues at the forefront of their campaigns. Folks feel like, well, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know how to write a bill. Those are the very people that we need in elected office. If somebody got elected and they were like, how do I write this? Are there examples from other cities,
we would be that liaison. So we build a Counsellor's Club, which is essentially a text group of dozens of city councilors across this date who can share policy ideas, or commiserate about a tough council meeting, or essentially have a friend group. We've seen over fifty one primaries run with West Virginia Can't Wade candidates and nearly twenty five elected officials across the state get elected on our platform with
our support. One of our great candidates in Parkersburg, Wendy Tech, has been working fixing their roads in a new fire station. Brian Butcher and Ixye Vega in Morgantown, West Virginia have been focused on houselessness to support their local free shelter. I think one of the things that I'm most proud of in my own political career is helping demystify politics. It is just everyday work for everyday folks.