A Wild Image Now Less Wonderful

[MountainLaurel]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23103-2003Aug20.html

West Virginia was having a pretty good run, up until a few days ago.




The state in perpetual need of an image makeover -- always the butt of poverty, ignorance and intermarriage jokes -- had enjoyed a nice turnaround of late.

Last December, when a West Virginian won the $315 million Powerball drawing, America drooled with wolfish anticipation to meet, as one friend described it, "the world's richest redneck." Instead, Jack Whittaker Jr. stepped forward, a businessman in a cowboy hat who delighted the network morning shows with just the right mix of down-home wit and sophistication -- hey, he was a millionaire already. Add to that his vow of donating 10 percent of his winnings to state churches, which he is on the way to fulfilling.

Pfc. Jessica Lynch of Palestine, W.Va., became the home-front story of the Iraq war. No matter what the truth of her odyssey ends up being, her sweet-faced humility upon her return home in July reminded people that any fighting man or woman who can survive battle is a hero. Her father struck the best chord of the entire overheated scandal caused by Jayson Blair, who falsely reported that Lynch's porch overlooked tobacco fields and cows. Nope, her dad said, guilelessly flying in the face of pseudo-literate phoniness, all you can see from this porch is a couple of chickens. Perfect.

This is a good piece about the psychology of a state, written by a native.