I have always been opinionated. Often, when my granny would see me fired up and going on about this or that, she’d tell me, “Now, Sis, you need to go along to get along.”

I can still hear her saying those words. She and I didn’t agree on much, but I still appreciate her wisdom. Her advice served me well in some situations, and it is ringing in my ears as I sit down to write and share my opinions right now.

Living in a tiny town is like living under a microscope. Because our county’s population is small (fewer than 15,0000 residents), participation in local politics somehow seems more important now than it did before we moved back home. But participation in local politics can also feel like standing in front of a deer spotlight when my opinions contrast with the widely-held status quo.

The Old Dominion has seen a lot of ugly divisiveness lately. Local counties have co-opted language that was originally used by the left to symbolically declare themselves Second Amendment “Sanctuary Counties.” There was the January 20th gun rights rally in Richmond where citizens gathered to protest Governor Northam’s proposed gun regulations (which passed both the Senate and the House afterward). Residents in Kentucky, one of our neighboring states, have also ridden the gun rights rally train to glory. Locally, county governments are also proposing, and, in some cases, passing militia resolutions.

The proposed militia resolution in my county is what motivated me to attend the most recent Board of Supervisors meeting. What I saw and heard there made my head spin. I listened to people as they begged for our county to repair their roads. I listened to folks ask for gravel because some of our county’s roads aren’t even paved. I listened to representatives from agencies that assist our elderly population ask for additional funding. I listened to a gentleman who is trying to plan a county fair ask for financial assistance. There was a request for funds to replace lighting in front of our county courthouse. The audience and Board members listened respectfully to everyone’s requests.

When the meeting was opened to the public for comments, I listened to questions about natural gas meters and an announcement about a meeting to promote local artisans. I heard people mentioning taking Jim Justice and Jerry Falwell, Jr. up on their offer to annex our county to West Virginia, the state that currently ranks 50th in the nation for infrastructure and economy, 48th in health care, and 44th in education. There were also comments from the local III Percenters who had attended the meeting in support of the local militia resolution. There were comments about the “Muslims and Communists” taking over our country “without firing a shot” from a gentleman who said that our First Amendment rights had already been taken from us. Those comments were met with shouts of “Amen, Brother,” applause, and cheers of support from the audience.

When a few brave folks – folks braver than I am – stood up to ask the Board to NOT use funds to pay for concealed carry training for citizens and they attempted share ideas for how that funding could be used to help our county – clearing ditches, litter control, infrastructure improvements, and funding for community libraries were some of the ideas mentioned – there were shouts and jeers and interruptions from the audience. Folks who spoke in opposition to the proposed resolution were put on and held to a timer, even though the audience’s interference made it difficult for them to get their points across.

Historically, militias have been formed in opposition to and completely separate from all levels of government. That’s pretty much the point, as far as I understand. The idea that local governments in our area are passing official resolutions that appropriate funding for private citizens to take concealed carry classes and using language from the Second Amendment – including the word “militia” in their proposals – to justify this funding is hard for me to square. Conservatives are finally okay with folks getting something for free, as long as “something” is a class that qualifies citizens to carry a concealed weapon. It feels very Friends of Coal to me, except instead of a multi-billion dollar industry telling us that people who want clean land and water are to blame for a declining industry, now it’s the NRA (with the support of local government agencies) telling us that anyone who supports gun control is the enemy. And that feels much more dangerous to me.

I hope that local leaders have prioritized the best interests of all of our county’s residents. I hope that everyone who reads this considers how resolutions of this type are moving the pieces on the national chessboard, as explained here by journalist Bruce Wilson.

Lastly, I would very much like it if our little county doesn’t entertain West Virginia’s offer. Wild and Wonderful is a beautiful state, but the state’s quality of life indices are quite dismal. I think I would contact Letcher County, KY to seek refuge there if Vexit goes down. I’ll take WMMT, good Kentucky roads, and a local recreation center over Jim Justice any day.