When people talk about economically distressed areas in southern West Virginia, they usually focus on McDowell County. Nearly forgotten has been its neighbor to the north.

Do you remember that old song in Vacation Bible School that said, "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart?" Well, I do agree that humanity is searching as hard as they can to find contentment and desperately longs to discover peace, but rebellion and the lack of knowledge is preventing them from having it.

Whether it is driven by a topic of public policy, politics or something that perplexes me, I tend to let the words of my opinion pieces roll around in my brain for some time before moving my thoughts to text. While this submission is no different, it is also connected to the strong reaction, both mostly positive and somewhat negatively, to some recent thoughts I shared with your newspaper, titled, "Getting a much better understanding of West Virginia."