| Change may not have arrived in West Virginia yet, but there's definitely a loud knock at the door. West Virginia's ruling class reads the State Journal. Look no further than this week's edition and you'll find two shocking developments.
First, in an article mentioned in an early diary, you've got the notorious Russell S. Sobel, author of the West Virginia Republicans (failed) blueprint for electoral success last cycle, "Unleashing Capitalism", saying:
So why should a conservative state pass legislation that provides protected status for gays and lesbians?
The answer is because diversity and acceptance -- not just tolerance -- are among the missing pieces of the state's economic puzzle, according to Russell S. Sobel, an economics professor and the James Clark Coffman Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies at West Virginia University.
It may be a small building block to success, but it's still important, several interviewed said. That's because entrepreneurship often starts with people who don't always fit in with what is considered "mainstream" society and think about things in a different way than others might. Those different thoughts and approaches often lead to entrepreneurial ideas.
"The idea is real entrepreneurs are different people, strange, quirky. They think differently," Sobel said.
He said Richard Florida's studies on creative class theory, while more sociological than economical, has some credibility. Florida, who wrote the international bestseller "The Rise of the Creative Class," teaches at the University of Toronto and has taught as a visiting professor at Harvard University and MIT.
Florida's study said there is a link between the areas that creative people -- such as architects, engineers, musicians and writers -- live and work and the areas where gays and lesbians live and work.
Entrepreneuship tends to flourish in such areas, Sobel said.
"It makes 100 percent sense. More entrepreneurial climates are in more accepting, diverse areas," he said.
Economists who study entrepreneurship also suggest there is a correlation between areas accepting gays and lesbians and business success, Sobel said.
"If we want the state to be entrepreneurial, we want a place that is accepting and diverse," he said.
The favorite economist of West Virginia conservatives says tolerance, gays and lesbians are good for business.
Second, there's Carl Irwin, the director of market enhancement and program development at the National Research Center for Coal and Energy at West Virginia University in Morgantown, saying West Virginia Can Lead Transition to a Low-Carbon Future.
This sounds like a sentence I would put at the end of one of my weekly diatribes:
There is no greater calling for West Virginia at this time than for working on the transition from our current carbon-based energy infrastructure to a low- or no-carbon energy economy of the future.
Wow, someone admits in the State Journal we're heading for a post-carbon economy!
This has been a week of amazing developments. Progressive activists, pat yourself on the back. Progress is afoot, slowly but surely.
Change is coming to West Virginia. |
