See, Armstrong Axed

This is ironic, but irony happens in my life just about every day. Even as my mother visits one of my father’s dissertation students in Baltimore. Another one is fired without an explanation from being Director of archives and history at the State Capitol of West Virginia. A job he held since 1985. Apparently, so that the archives library in the Cultural Center can be converted into a Cafe/Gift Shop. What?!

Here is Fred with Governor Manchin and his wife Gail showing them how to navigate an online exhibit at the Cultural Center. Wait isn’t this the same Governor who changed the slogan of WV to “Open for Business”? Yesterday, the results of an online vote were revealed; we can now return back to “Wild, Wonderful” West Virginia.

My father has been deceased since 1982, but I am sure he is keeping up with this piece of history about Fred Armstrong, one of three of his dissertation students.  After all, he was a highly esteemed History Professor at WVU, and his ghost follows me around everywhere I go. This situation smells suspiciously of what my father, a Holocaust Survivor, warned us all about. There are people who are intent about blotting out history. One type of history some people want erased from the public’s mind is WV’s turbulent Coal History. I am sure this is one type of history that Culture and History Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith wants replaced with a Cafe.

If you read the article you will observe that to add insult to injury he was “escorted out of the building by a security office” despite years of a proven work history of appropriately managing valuable records. It is easy for me to imagine what this was like because WV Government seems to enjoy strong-arming people who oppose its environmentally damaging Coal Industry, with practices such as Mountain Top Removal (MTR). Apparently, this also applies to anyone who is involved with the true history about WV.

This reminds me of a photo (searching for it) of someone who wanted to speak to the Governor about a Sludge impoundment pond a few yards away from Marsh Fork Elementary School, but who was roughly escorted away by a snarling Capitol Security Guard. In a similar fashion, Fred Armstrong was traumatically removed from a job without a good reason or even a previous warning. That is how it works in Open for Business West Virginia, oops, I mean Wild, and Wonderful West Virginia. Corruption abounds, we rank highly for that, however, we rank at the very bottom for sustainability and conservation according to this article at Forbes magazine.

The reason why I didn’t go with my mother to Baltimore to visit my father’s other beloved PhD student was because tomorrow I have an all day West Virginia Sierra Club ExCom meeting to attend. At this meeting there will be anti-MTR activists, and lawyers; people who understand issues like Blair Mountain and its historic Mine War. They understand how the Coal industry hates Blair Mountain History, and how they are extremely interested in erasing this history by mining it with MTR methods that would prevent the historical site from being listed in the National Register. Indeed, we are fighting the Battle of Blair Mountain again. Could Fred’s axing be related to this .. YES, very much so in a State that is in denial!