If I Can't Dance, It's Not My Revolution
Hear y’all, hear y’all! Your local bookseller at the helm this week to talk about *deep, primal sigh* the 2025 West Virginia legislative session and some of the ways it matters here locally.
The last day of this year’s lawmaking session is April 12th, with crossover day—the day by which a bill with any chance of being signed into law must pass through its house of origination—is this Wednesday, April 2nd. Mercifully, those dates are fast approaching, but there’s still plenty of time for the folks in Charleston to do us all plenty of harm.
Take HB3518, which originated in House Finance just three days ago. In short, if the federal government reduces its Medicaid match for the Medicaid expansion population by any amount (it currently covers 90% of Medicaid costs), West Virginia would revoke its Medicaid expansion entirely and 165,000 West Virginians would lose their health insurance. 6,312 people in Monongalia County alone would be impacted, and local hospitals and providers could see losses of as much as $41 million in revenue.1 Catastrophic is what that is, and you can take action here.
For some real down home chicanery, one need look no further than a trio of bills sponsored by Mon County delegate Geno Chiarelli (R). As Scout readers will certainly recall, organizers with the Morgantown Coalition for Housing Action successfully obtained the several thousand voter signatures necessary to put City Councilor Louise Michael’s camping ban to a citywide vote for repeal next month.
In a deeply antidemocratic move, Chiarelli introduced HB2382, a near-identical statewide ban in the legislature this session that is currently parked in the Senate (having cleared the House and successfully “crossed over”). When asked about the impetus for the legislation, Chiarelli told West Virginia Watch that “the legislation is in response to Morgantown’s ban being challenged and possibly overturned… he thought the ordinance would have been a positive step for the city.”2 Important sidenote here: this man does not live in the city, nor do the overwhelming majority of the people he represents.
Okay, so Geno doesn’t like the decision it seems City of Morgantown voters are poised to make about the *checks notes* City of Morgantown so he has done everything he can to preempt that vote before it happens. Disgusted yet? Well. Chiarelli also introduced HB2381 which would, in short, allow non-City of Morgantown residents to vote in our municipal elections.3 Own a rental property, part of a business, or pay a user fee in the city? Congrats! Your vote now matters as much as those of us who live here. Oh! And you ALSO get to vote for your elected officials where you live, too! Votes for everyone and their brother! Unless they’re early, or mail in, or you don’t have 12 forms of identification, or… you get the picture. Extra votes if you agree with the authoritarians, suppression for the rest of us.
The last of Geno’s bills I’ll mention is HB2892, which is facially innocuous now, but originally intended to deal with, and these are the sponsor’s own words here, “unlawful protests and panhandling.” Again, as a reminder for the locals, both the City of Morgantown and Monongalia County are both currently involved in free speech lawsuits challenging their respective panhandling bans—seems their delegate is doing them a solid and trying a, um, holistic approach? FWIW, the bill was amended and now just says folks can’t stop traffic, which duh? But I’m certain that this law will be used in a pretextual way to harass poor people exercising their First Amendment rights to ask for donations because we’ve seen it time and time again.
Maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “wow, Republicans are the worst.” But here’s the thing: some of your local “democratic” elected officials have lobbied for the above-referenced policies, sometimes quietly, sometimes as “Bloom News.” I guess my question for you, Dear Reader, is what are you going to do to hold these anti-democrats, which is to say people who operate in ways antithetical to democracy, accountable?
There’s no shortage of other soul-crushingly horrible things happening down at the Bad Idea Factory™️—new restrictions on abortion care; making it a serious crime to give your undocumented neighbor a ride; creating, I kid you not, work camps for homeless people—and I guess I’m left wondering how long we’re going to let the Genos of the world run the show for us. I know we can do better and we sure deserve better. And if it gives you any solace, there are so many of us fighting our tails off every single day for each other and you. 13 more days.
Wow, that was depressing. So what can we do? Lots of stuff! Always, always lots. of. stuff.
First, just a note: ICE has been in Morgantown. Here’s a brief post I did with a basic resource. Folks with immigration questions can call Mountain State Justice at (304) 344-3144 for referrals or information about our confidential clinics.
The Appalachian Advocacy Network is hosting a discussion and workshop on Monday March 31st (today) from 6 - 8 p.m. in the Mountainlair, where they’ll also be writing postcards in support of repealing Morgantown’s camping ban during the city election in April.
Also today, the WV Trans Coalition is hosting a Queer Rights Protest at the state capital—more info here or email the Coalition at wvtranscoalition@gmail.com.
Also also today: the Greenmont Neighborhood Association meets at 7:00 p.m. in the speakeasy in Gene’s.
On Wednesday April 2nd, West Virginia Housing Justice is hosting a Deep Canvassing Training beginning at 6:30 p.m. located at the Ascend WV space (1279 University Avenue). Check out their post to learn more about deep canvassing—this is a great opportunity to build the grassroots networks of care and power we need to do something about the Genos and other authoritarians in power who aren’t looking out for our best interests!
Speaking of city council elections, we have our first forum this week! The League of Women Voters is hosting a meet & greet and forum (in-person and online) located at OLLI in the Old Morgantown Mall on Thursday April 3rd from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. More info here!
So far as I can tell, there appears to be a Hands Off! march and rally on Saturday April 5th beginning at 3 p.m. Folks are gathering at First Presbyterian Church, located at 456 Spruce Street. You can learn more about what the protest entails here.4
And on Sunday April 6th, there is an international street festival with food, music, and dance hosted by WVU Global Affairs which sounds super fun—fingers crossed for good weather! Downtown on High Street.
Oh! And don’t forget that this Friday is First Friday for the Arts. Be sure to come downtown and stroll.
On Saturday, the young people I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by convinced me to go square dancing, something I’ve not done since elementary school gym class. My barista and extremely talented musician Gray Buchanan was playing the dance and their dad Ron Buchanan was the caller. A local group called Friends of Old Time Music hosts the dances, this one at The Encore near Marilla Park.
The tale of the square dance is a bit too long for the closing of this newsletter, but let me say this: I left with more faith in just about everything than before I arrived. I don’t know if it was the music, the endorphins, the unabashedness of not knowing a damn thing but giving it your best try anyway, but I enjoyed it maybe more than anything I’ve done in who knows how long.
The moment in time in which we find ourselves, if we’re a caring people, is quite heavy. I felt my burden lift a little as I stomped my (and others’) feet, reached for strangers’ hands, and laughed that deep real joyful laugh—the one that comes from the depths of our love for and bonds with other people in this world.
More more more of that please.
Until next time,
Linds
PS - Did we miss an event? Something local on your mind? Drop it in the comments for other folks to weigh in.
Numbers from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.
https://westvirginiawatch.com/2025/03/04/wv-house-judiciary-considers-statewide-camping-ban-aimed-at-homeless-people/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJWyaRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYaTxAJQHllBTnVKtJl0hRbq5LihZg7jli2euJpPVRpbIiXLONYlSfgJVQ_aem_zH6jrXKdfOlRc7W6vzdEWw
https://wvmetronews.com/2025/03/17/monongalia-county-delegate-proposes-bill-to-give-user-fee-payers-others-a-voting-voice/
I guess since it’s my circus this week, I get to editorialize here a little: I remain at least marginally frustrated that so many bad things are happening in our city, county, and state—upon which at least some we have rare opportunities to radically impact outcomes and shift narratives—and instead folks are expending big time and energy directing resources to mostly performative and feel-good protests (there are, of course, places for these in advocacy work during normal times but these are not normal times) aimed at the national level where we, without question, hold the least bargaining power. What a shame, particularly when fascism is fascisming right here in our backyard.