Bluejay Rising

Mutual aid changes minds. When we show up for struggling families, we prove solidarity works, not greed. That’s how we turn Appalachia blue again. We’re making progress, but this movement needs support to keep going. Every act of kindness counts. 💙✊ secure.actblue.com/donate/neighbo…

Appalachia was not abandoned because of progress. Appalachia was abandoned because we stopped being profitable to exploit. The moment the profit margins dipped, the corporations packed their bags. And instead of reinvesting in new industries or building a real future for our people, they walked out and left us holding the bill. And our politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, just shrugged and let the market decide whether our towns lived or died. To them, Appalachia was only worth something as long as our labor was cheap and our land was easy to tear apart. When the coal markets crashed, they did not step in to save the miners. They cut checks to the companies. When opioids tore through our communities, they did not hold the pharmaceutical giants accountable. They threw our people in jail. When our schools, hospitals, and infrastructure crumbled, they did not show up with resources. They showed up with lectures about “self reliance.” But here is what they never understood: self reliance is something we have always had. We have been feeding our neighbors, raising each others kids, hauling each other out of floods, and surviving what most places would not. Self reliance was never the issue. What we have lacked, what they have denied us, is power. And that is why we fight. Because this region deserves more than abandonment disguised as progress. We deserve the power to build our own future.

Rural communities deserve the same future as everyone else. For too long, places like ours have been treated like an afterthought, good enough to power the country but never worth investing in. Broadband, clean water, and safe roads are not luxuries. They are basic rights, and every family in Appalachia should have them without a fight. Our kids should not have to choose between staying home and chasing opportunity somewhere else. We bring opportunity home by investing in our people, rebuilding what was left to crumble, and making sure the next generation can build a life in the same towns that raised us. No more being written off. No more being told to wait our turn. The future belongs in the mountains too, and we are going to claim it.

The only thing that is going to pull this country out of the mess it is in is a real working class populist movement. Not the consultant class. Not the folks in DC guessing what life is like out here. I am talking about the people who wake up before daylight, pull on worn out boots, and hold their families and these mountains together with grit and determination. Appalachia does not need another smooth talking politician pretending they know our struggles. We need our own people. Folks who have lived this life, who have felt the weight of these hills, who have fought their way through hard times and still show up for their neighbors. Meanwhile our so called representatives handed our future to corporations and special interests without blinking. They watched our jobs disappear, our water get poisoned, our towns dry up, hell, they dropped pills on us like bombs in a warzone, and they still expect us to sit quiet while they shake hands with the very people who gutted us. So here is the truth. It is time for a new generation of working class leaders to stand up. People who know the cost of groceries because they have had to make them last. People who know how broken the system is because they have had to fight it just to survive another week. People who refuse to bow, refuse to forget who they are fighting for, and refuse to let these mountains be written off as a sacrifice zone. If you have ever felt that pull in your chest to run, to raise your voice, to lead, this is your moment. These hills need you. Our people need you. Make no mistake, we must beat back every enemy that will and has tried to choke the life out of Appalachia. We will beat back greed. We will beat back corruption. We will beat back the good ol boy machines, the corporate vultures circling our communities, the politicians who fold the second a donor calls, and every cheap imitation of leadership meant to keep us quiet and in our place. This is how we bring power home where it belongs. This is how we build a future rooted in dignity, solidarity, and truth. A future that finally puts Appalachia first in every damn thing we do.

Today we honor every veteran who carried the weight of duty, not for power or profit, but for the people beside them. At Blue Jay Rising, we recognize that service doesn’t stop when the uniform comes off. 🕊️ Blue Jay Rising — leading the forgotten to the ballot box.

SNAP benefits are running out and when that happens, it’s not just numbers on a screen that disappear. It’s food off the table. It’s kids going to bed hungry. It’s seniors skipping meals to keep the lights on. In Appalachia, that means entire communities are about to hurt. And when that happens, Blue Jay Rising steps up. We’re launching an emergency effort to supply food banks and pantries across West Virginia and the Appalachian region but we can’t do it alone. We’re already getting calls from struggling families and local food banks that are running on fumes. We need your help right now to keep shelves stocked and bellies full. Every dollar you give will go directly toward food, transport, and community aid for the hardest-hit areas the hollers, the coal towns, the places that the rest of the country forgets until it’s too late. Appalachia has always looked out for its own. Let’s do it again together. ➡️ Donate now to keep our neighbors fed. secure.actblue.com/donate/neighbo…

As the cold season approaches, Blue Jay Rising is preparing. 👉 Bluejay Rising, Inc. — Donate via ActBlue (secure.actblue.com/donate/bluejay…) Together, we can make sure hope doesn’t freeze this winter. #BlueJayRising #MutualAid #AppalachiaStrong #CommunityCare #WV

There are now 500,000 more people selling houses than buying them, marking the largest imbalance ever recorded.

Appalachia deserves more than scraps

The hollers, coalfields, and small towns of Appalachia hold the strength of generations. We are organizing so that no neighbor is left behind.

They’re organizing to criminalize poverty. We’re organizing to defend life. No fascist law will stop us from helping our neighbors.

Mutual aid isn’t charity. Its survival, solidarity, and rebellion.

Finished this week at Learning Day Camp at the Appalachian South Folklife Center. Kids from all over southern WV and beyond come together on the mountain to learn, create, laugh, and connect. This is what community should feel like. Folk music, sustainability, storytelling, science, art, and good old-fashioned play, it’s hands-on, soul-deep Appalachian learning. This camp isn’t just fun. It’s transformational. These kids are leaving changed in the best possible way. I’m glad I could help sponsor it along with @BluejayRising.

Everyone’s pissed off and rightfully so. Here’s what you do: 🗳 Register to vote. 🧠 Do your homework on who’s running. ✊ Keep organizing your community. 🚫 Stop voting for the same corrupt bastards just because they’ve got the right party letter beside their name.

If you want to become an activist, a real organizer you have to understand first you’re not just fighting bad policies or corrupt politicians. You’re fighting a system capitalism itself that feeds off your labor and your misery. Organizing starts small. Feed people. Protect your neighbors. Stand with workers on strike. Build mutual aid networks. Create structures where none exist ones that serve the people, not profit. Study revolutionary history not the sanitized, textbook versions but the real stories of workers, peasants, and poor folks who fought and bled to tear down systems of exploitation. Understand that nothing we have was given it was seized through solidarity, sacrifice, and struggle. The ruling class wants you passive, isolated, and docile. Organizing is about waking people up to their collective power reminding them that the wealth they break their backs to create is theirs, not the billionaire’s. Don’t wait for permission. Organize your workplace. Organize your community. Link your struggle to others. Build the bonds of solidarity strong enough to shake the foundations of this rotten order. Revolution isn’t a dream. It’s a necessity. And it will come from the organized power of the working class or it won’t come at all.

The WV Gov says he wants to "prioritize clean water and clean air" but signed off on HB2233 to allow increased water pollution.

Thank you Mailyn Sadler and @Butcher4wv for inviting me to Morgantown to speak on May Day. “We must remember something here this May Day as West Virginians, The oligarchy have tried to bury us under coal dust, opioids, and broken promises. They told us we were backwards. Told us to be quiet. Told us to be grateful for scraps. But this soil remembers. And so do we. They drained our hills for profit and tossed our people aside when the wells ran dry. They sent preachers to pacify us, bosses to watch us, and cops to crush us. They stole our labor, poisoned our rivers, then blamed us for being poor. But on this May Day, we say no more. This land has always belonged to those who worked it not those who stole it. We built this country with our hands. We broke our backs while they lined their pockets. And now they fear us because they know we’re rising again. The billionaires, the landlords, the corporate Democrats and crooked Republicans They call us lazy, violent, ignorant. But they are terrified of what happens when we remember who we are. Because when Appalachia stands….the working class stands The world shakes. We’re organizing. We’re striking. We’re taking it back. We come with dirt under our nails and rage in our blood We are the children of Blair Mountain and the Battle of Matewan. We carry the memory of union songs and broken chains. Every time they evict a family, cut a pension, fight against a union. We grow another fist. Every time they lie about who we are, We raise another voice. This isn’t a protest. This is a declaration. We are building a world where no one starves and no one rules over another. Where labor means dignity, not exploitation. Where the bosses answer to the people, not the other way around. We are not waiting for justice…we are justice. And to every parasite still feeding off our pain Sleep light. We’re coming. This is our West Virginia. These are our mountains. This is our fight. This is our May Day. And we are just getting started. Solidarity, forever.”

❗️Mayday mayday mayday❗️ Schools & universities are under attack! Join us to defend public school funding, the integrity of higher learning institutions, & the right to free speech & academic pursuit. #maydaystrong #mayday2025 #mountaineersindivisible #MICA @bluejayrising

Thank you Appalachians At Work for coordinating this town hall and allowing @BluejayRising to co-sponsor with you. We had a great crowd of over 100 people all engaged and ready to fight for our state. We will try and host more of these over the summer. Become involved in your communities. Hold your representatives accountabe and take back our home from these sell outs who won’t bother to listen to you until they want your votes.

wild because thanks to @BluejayRising and @HollerGospel I seem to recall the @wvgovernor saying something in February to the effect of hmmm what was it? ... oh.. hell.. Let's just check the instant replay