FAIRMONT \u2013 It was somewhat threatening \u2013 and definitely complimentary \u2013 at the same time.
The wording on the protest sign spied at a teacher rally in Colorado back in 2018, that is.
\u201cDon\u2019t make me go West Virginia on you,\u201d the sign read.
It was in reference to the Mountain State educators who launched a nine-day work stoppage earlier that year over benefits and pay \u2013 a move that reminded the nation of the contentious labor history of the 35th state in the union.
The West Virginia walkout inspired the one that followed in Colorado.
Fairmont State University\u2019s debate team plans on stirring up the echoes of that history, along with a relevant look at the standing of working people in society at present.
\u201cWork, Rights and a Power: A Public Debate on Labor Policy\u201d is the name of the forum that will be held at 6 p.m. Monday at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the Locust Avenue campus.
The public debate will examine the country\u2019s contemporary labor rights issues \u2013 including worker protections, collective bargaining, wages, the role of government in the workplace and any reforms that could ensue by such intellectual discourse.
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just an \u2018exercise,\u2019\u201d said Samantha Godbey, the debate team\u2019s coach and adviser who also directs Fairmont State\u2019s Civics Institute.
\u201cIt really is a forum. It\u2019s a chance for our team to showcase its research while opening the community to dialogue.\u201d
With a second gathering at the folklife center, the team will bridge Mothman with Mother Jones, as it were.
Last fall for Halloween, the center hosted the team in a debate that took on the existence of cryptids \u2013 those creatures that defy biology and rationality.
West Virginia is fertile ground for cryptids. There\u2019s the aforementioned Mothman, and the lesser-known Braxton County Monster and Veggie Man, to name a few.
\u201cThat one was for fun,\u201d Godbey said. \u201cAnd now we get to be serious.\u201d<\/p>\n