Bernie in Lenore!?
On July 26 I found myself in Marietta, Ohio, on the back deck of Over the Moon Pub and Pizza. I’d just played my set and needed to get some air. I was doing my usual laps of talking to the other musicians when I got a text from a friend with some political history. The text was from former U.S. Senate candidate Zach Shrewsbury. Zach is a marine corps veteran and had made a stop at the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, where I work as the manager.
It’s not uncommon to see politicians of either ilk make their way into the museum around election time, but Zach seemed like a regular guy. He didn’t force any photo ops inside the museum space and even offered to do a drone tour that we could post to our social media. Unfortunately, Zach didn’t fare too well in the election (hard to compete with generational money and power). We kept in touch, and he ended up showing up again in Mingo County during the floods back in February. He reached out to me and ended up bringing several truckloads of items to Matewan.
Today Zach had another proposal. He asked if I wanted to play at a Bernie Sanders event in Lenore. First off, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor in surprise. Then I immediately said yes! I get enough gigs that this seemed transactional enough—until I found myself on a phone call with Max from Bernie’s staff. After a few questions we were set. I headed off to a rehearsal about an hour from work and got a start on thinking about my set list.
It’s not often you get a chance to be part of a message that might really reach someone. I began to freak out a little more when I got home after rehearsal. I logged into Facebook and immediately saw the event being shared. My wife, Kim, was with me, and I gave her a look. “I need to post about this, huh?” It’s not easy being anywhere left of center in West Virginia these days. Democrats’ last real push was the teacher strikes, really stoked by another retired-military, working-class advocate, Richard Ojeda. COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter protests were brutal times to have way too much time to be online. I remember how divisive it was—nothing like the teacher strikes. I exchanged many harsh words I regretted with people I didn’t really know. That really caused me to pull back from publicly sharing opinions.
If you’re expecting anything too juicy you can probably stop reading here. I’m not going to give a laundry list of every belief I hold. What I will say is everyone deserves a chance at building a decent life. The choices you make in your personal life or the way you are born should never affect the opportunities afforded to you. People need access to health care, and young people need to be able to afford homes. So many of us are only a single major medical emergency or loss of a job away from losing everything.
Many politicians come here to make promises or take photo ops. They love to tell us how much they love coal. Bernie isn’t running for anything, but I believe he understands what’s at stake for regular people under our current political landscape. That’s why he’s going out on a speaking tour. It’s not always comfortable to take a step out, but it’s important to stand up for what you believe is right. I’m humbled to get a chance to perform before Senator Sanders and use my voice and music to spread the message I believe in.