Vol IV: #19 Catching Up With Tom
Last week I began writing the first of a series of stories born from my time in West Virginia. And today, as I researched exact locations of various homes and events, I fell into a rabbit hole. It’s been twelve years since my last visit to and so my rabbit hole consisted of digging for up-to-date information on various personalities I came to know during my four years of work in the community.
I lingered mostly to find all I could on Tom, who I lived with for a year. Short with puffy silver hair, Tom always sported a black or gray sweat shirt, blue jeans, and white walking shoes (as known as ‘dad shoes.’) He was a proud local and self-taught artist with a focus on nostalgic Americana. And he aspired to turn his massive coal baron home into an artist colony.
From what I found on the internet, he’d run for House of Delegates in in 2014. The associated Facebook page stated Tom is pro-coal, pro-gun, and pro-Jesus. That’s a solid platform given the area, though he did not win. The Tom I know is soft spoken and avoided crowds. And he was not quick on his feet- a fact I’ll demonstrate in a coming story about our trip to New York. The election result was not a surprise. What was shocking was his involvement in the January 6th insurrection at the Capital building.
The thing is, people like Tom are completely hated and belittle by the left. And while it’s appalling he was in DC the day an idiotic mob decided to break into Congress, I know the man is harmless. Misguided, but harmless. Tom is like so many Americans- scared our of his mind. And scared people do dumb shit. I see liberals do the same thing, in their own way.
What I would tell Tom if I saw him is he will do more with a paint brush than in office. He will do more in his community by continuing to walk out his vision of an artists colony in his home. And this is what I’d say to anyone who believes the sky is falling. Most of power comes from how we live our lives and love the people around us. The enemy wants us to have contempt for our bosses and neighbors and our family. But fear cannot drive our fear just like violence doesn’t heal.
I know this post is little out of left field, but I had to get this out.
