Views: 2nd Story Press
Donation protected
We know what it is to be muzzled and mistreated. It happened to us when our local newspaper refused to print “our articles.” We know what it’s like to feel injustice as we have felt it. We plan to support others like us.
From this hurt and anger springs our vision for Views from the 2nd Story Press: to provide a space that gives voice to the voiceless, a space that provides an outlet for writers and story tellers that have been silenced and ignored,
In return, we offer the community varying to encourage questioning, free thinking, discourse, and engagement.
At our core, we believe media exists for the betterment of the community and oppose media that puts profits over people and our welfare.
We are telling our second story and offer that second story to you. We promise it will told by a real uncensored human being invested in seeking truth, justice and better future.
From Edwina: We grew out of the Women’s Movement after the last election and then from the Indivisible movement. Upshur Indivisible was granted a bi-weekly column in the local newspaper. For the first time, fresh local voices were being heard; my voice was being heard.
I, Edwina, began writing for the first time in a long, long time to write a piece for the paper. This was like opening a floodgate. I had more to say. It was extremely liberating. It felt so good, I wanted to give others a chance to do the same, to feel the same.
Unfortunately, this was not to happen as our shot-lived column, consisting of three articles, was unceremoniously cancelled. It was devastating and infuriating. After our Board of Directors met with the new publisher, it was clear he would not consider publishing our work. To him, it was all about money (so he said).
Being an English teacher and connoisseur of language, I saw the quality of the writing produced and the passion of those of us writing, When it was blocked, I felt a personal injustice but also a collective intellectual, constitutional, and artistic injustice.
I, Edwina, refuse to be silenced and ignored. So, this newspaper is to be my voice and a voice for others like me who are crying to be heard and who have been silent and silenced for far, far too long. “I can’t keep quiet…not anymore.” Milck
****
Are all the voices of our communities being heard?” we ask.
Does it feel like censorship in your community? Does it feel like all the voices are heard? Do you live in rural America?
It feels like our voices are being silenced, and we are experiencing censorship here in Upshur County, in Buckhannon, West Virginia.
If a local newspaper (local anywhere) caters to only one side or refuses to print real news and different views, this is dangerous to freedom.
In this case, a group of us had, for months, published a column in The Record Delta that was unceremoniously discontinued. And we understand that another column like ours has also been discontinued, both a few weeks before the WV primary election. We kept waiting to see these articles for many releases (our local paper is printed three times each week). It never was.
My Two Cents: Our Visit with The Record Delta Publisher
Record Delta Publisher Spreads Community Cancer
Since the political struggles of this century have been so divisive, more and more of our small communities are suffering from subtle Amendment One attacks, our freedom of the press. Liberal voices, progressive voices, and voices of dissent are most often the ones being silenced. Many local newspapers are refusing to print opinions different from the party in power locally and/or corporately. All in the name of “loss of revenue.”
Edwina and I think that smacks of censorship. We believe that newspapers have an obligation to serve the communities they are located in. If these are merely businesses and nothing more, they are using our communities and children to line their own pockets with no moral compass and no concern for our communities and citizens. Why should we support them?
Keeping other or opposite ideas out of sight, is dangerous to our way of life, diminishing our freedoms. Freedom of the press and the independence of a free press is mandatory for our country. Our nation is under attack from within. If there is no independent or free press we lose. All of us. We must fight back.
We are angry that our voices are being silenced. We, the two of us, have decided to do something about it.
We are starting a newspaper. A Free Press. Its name? Views from the 2nd Story Press. We want to begin immediately and have talented writers, editors and publishers ready to go! There is a real sense of urgency for us about getting this up and running.
We want to hear views from Appalachians. We are starting this in a 2nd story garage apartment in the heart of Appalachia, and this is our 2nd story, in many respects. Thus, Appalachian Views from the 2nd Story Press.
We will never be silent or silenced again. And we will not go away.
But we need your help. We need funding for start-up costs. If you support our cause, please, contribute to our Go Fund Me. We will credit you in our first edition, unless you wish to remain anonymous. You will be part of an amazing story that is just beginning and we will be extremely grateful for your help.
Who are we? Edwina Howard-Jack and Thom Keely.
Our movement, that has grown out of the #METOO! energy and marches of January 2017, has organized around issues, not for or against this party or that, but for issues important to us. We are for and support those folks who come out politically for the issues we think are necessary for our community and state. Yet we were considered too radical to be published.
A Women's Movement Grows in the Heart of Trump Country
Battle Cry of a Redneck Revolution
We are on a watch and ask you to join with us. We are on a lookout for censorship of divergent ideas, voices of dissent, and free thinkers here in Upshur County, WV and in other rural areas of West Virginia and Appalachia.
And perhaps we should widen our lookout area to other rural places across the country. Why? To expose the stories they don’t want us to tell and those who don’t want us to tell them. And to give a voice to all.
Are you interested? Reach out to us with your stories and ideas.
We also need advertisers. If you are willing to advertise with us, please, send us an email.
About the Entrepreneurs
Edwina Howard-Jack: Edwina graduated from Buckhannon-Upshur High School and subsequently attended WV Wesleyan College where she graduated with a BA in English and Secondary Education. She has taught in Upshur County for over eighteen years, primarily in English but also in Special Education. Edwina also earned her master’s Degree at WVU in Special Education while working and raising her family as a single mother.
She served as the English Language Arts Coordinator at the WV Department of Education in Charleston for two years and as an education professor at WV Wesleyan after achieving National Board Certification in English Language Arts. She currently teaches English 12, Dual Credit English, and Speech at B-UHS while serving as Adjunct Professor at Pierpont Community and Technical College.
Edwina is most proud of designing and facilitating a project this semester that enabled students to start a B-UHS Clothes Closet to help those in need. She enjoys seeing the students excited about helping others and about the clothes they are getting (some that still have the tags on them)!
In addition to her career, she is a sixth-generation Upshur County resident raised in Pleasant dale. Her grandparents owned Howard’s Place, a beer garden on Route 20. Her two children, Seth and Taylor, and her grandbaby, Adalaide, are the loves of her life.
In her free time, Edwina enjoys reading, writing, spending time with family, traveling, enjoying the outdoors, and community functions.
Edwina started Upshur Indivisible and Upshur County Indivisible—Votes to make a difference in her community and to improve the quality of life for all who call Upshur County home.
Thomas Clifton Keely: President, Board of Directors, Opportunity House, Inc. (Non-profit with a mission to provide a safe and supportive environment to those working to recover from addiction), Convener, Methodist Federation for Social Action, West Virginia (Non-profit MFSA mobilizes clergy and laity within The United Methodist Church to take action on issues of peace, poverty and people’s rights within the church, the nation and the world), and Vice Chair, Board of Directors, Upshur Indivisible and Upshur Country Indivisible-Votes (whose reason for existence is the betterment of the community good and general welfare, specifically by focusing on social and economic justice, including equality, inclusion, and fairness for all).
Keely grew up in Charleston, West Virginia. His father worked for Union Carbide for 30 years. His mother was a homemaker. He has one brother. He is a Senior Chief Petty Officer, USN Retired. He has been a pastor, a chaplain, a clinical pastoral education supervisor, and a writer.
He attended college in Glenville, West Virginia, then as a lay pastor, provided pastoral care to nine churches on the Newton Circuit, in Roane and Clay Counties for two years prior to attending United Theological School, Dayton, Ohio. He also received a Master of Arts in family counseling from West Virginia College of Graduate Studies. He did clinical studies at Colombia-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY. He was a Diplomate, College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy.
Thom pastored United Methodist churches in West Virginia for 10 years. He was a chaplain at the Louis A. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Clarksburg, West Virginia for 10 years.
Thom has had travel adventures (other than his travels with the USN) in Nicaragua, Brazil, Europe, Israel, Poland, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Canada. He has been working on his autobiography for the last 7 years.
Thom is married to K Almond, a 30-year pastor of The United Methodist Church. He has two sons, Scott and Brad. Thom and K live in the house where K grew up, “up on the hill” here in Buckhannon.
Some of Thom’s favorite things in his retirement are: being a President of the Board of Directors, Opportunity House, Inc. for the last 10 years, Convener, Methodist Federation of Social Action, West Virginia, newbie Vice Chair, Upshur Indivisible and Upshur County Indivisible—Votes, breakfast at Alice’s Restaurant, mowing his meadow, and reading Scifi.
From this hurt and anger springs our vision for Views from the 2nd Story Press: to provide a space that gives voice to the voiceless, a space that provides an outlet for writers and story tellers that have been silenced and ignored,
In return, we offer the community varying to encourage questioning, free thinking, discourse, and engagement.
At our core, we believe media exists for the betterment of the community and oppose media that puts profits over people and our welfare.
We are telling our second story and offer that second story to you. We promise it will told by a real uncensored human being invested in seeking truth, justice and better future.
From Edwina: We grew out of the Women’s Movement after the last election and then from the Indivisible movement. Upshur Indivisible was granted a bi-weekly column in the local newspaper. For the first time, fresh local voices were being heard; my voice was being heard.
I, Edwina, began writing for the first time in a long, long time to write a piece for the paper. This was like opening a floodgate. I had more to say. It was extremely liberating. It felt so good, I wanted to give others a chance to do the same, to feel the same.
Unfortunately, this was not to happen as our shot-lived column, consisting of three articles, was unceremoniously cancelled. It was devastating and infuriating. After our Board of Directors met with the new publisher, it was clear he would not consider publishing our work. To him, it was all about money (so he said).
Being an English teacher and connoisseur of language, I saw the quality of the writing produced and the passion of those of us writing, When it was blocked, I felt a personal injustice but also a collective intellectual, constitutional, and artistic injustice.
I, Edwina, refuse to be silenced and ignored. So, this newspaper is to be my voice and a voice for others like me who are crying to be heard and who have been silent and silenced for far, far too long. “I can’t keep quiet…not anymore.” Milck
****
Are all the voices of our communities being heard?” we ask.
Does it feel like censorship in your community? Does it feel like all the voices are heard? Do you live in rural America?
It feels like our voices are being silenced, and we are experiencing censorship here in Upshur County, in Buckhannon, West Virginia.
If a local newspaper (local anywhere) caters to only one side or refuses to print real news and different views, this is dangerous to freedom.
In this case, a group of us had, for months, published a column in The Record Delta that was unceremoniously discontinued. And we understand that another column like ours has also been discontinued, both a few weeks before the WV primary election. We kept waiting to see these articles for many releases (our local paper is printed three times each week). It never was.
My Two Cents: Our Visit with The Record Delta Publisher
Record Delta Publisher Spreads Community Cancer
Since the political struggles of this century have been so divisive, more and more of our small communities are suffering from subtle Amendment One attacks, our freedom of the press. Liberal voices, progressive voices, and voices of dissent are most often the ones being silenced. Many local newspapers are refusing to print opinions different from the party in power locally and/or corporately. All in the name of “loss of revenue.”
Edwina and I think that smacks of censorship. We believe that newspapers have an obligation to serve the communities they are located in. If these are merely businesses and nothing more, they are using our communities and children to line their own pockets with no moral compass and no concern for our communities and citizens. Why should we support them?
Keeping other or opposite ideas out of sight, is dangerous to our way of life, diminishing our freedoms. Freedom of the press and the independence of a free press is mandatory for our country. Our nation is under attack from within. If there is no independent or free press we lose. All of us. We must fight back.
We are angry that our voices are being silenced. We, the two of us, have decided to do something about it.
We are starting a newspaper. A Free Press. Its name? Views from the 2nd Story Press. We want to begin immediately and have talented writers, editors and publishers ready to go! There is a real sense of urgency for us about getting this up and running.
We want to hear views from Appalachians. We are starting this in a 2nd story garage apartment in the heart of Appalachia, and this is our 2nd story, in many respects. Thus, Appalachian Views from the 2nd Story Press.
We will never be silent or silenced again. And we will not go away.
But we need your help. We need funding for start-up costs. If you support our cause, please, contribute to our Go Fund Me. We will credit you in our first edition, unless you wish to remain anonymous. You will be part of an amazing story that is just beginning and we will be extremely grateful for your help.
Who are we? Edwina Howard-Jack and Thom Keely.
Our movement, that has grown out of the #METOO! energy and marches of January 2017, has organized around issues, not for or against this party or that, but for issues important to us. We are for and support those folks who come out politically for the issues we think are necessary for our community and state. Yet we were considered too radical to be published.
A Women's Movement Grows in the Heart of Trump Country
Battle Cry of a Redneck Revolution
We are on a watch and ask you to join with us. We are on a lookout for censorship of divergent ideas, voices of dissent, and free thinkers here in Upshur County, WV and in other rural areas of West Virginia and Appalachia.
And perhaps we should widen our lookout area to other rural places across the country. Why? To expose the stories they don’t want us to tell and those who don’t want us to tell them. And to give a voice to all.
Are you interested? Reach out to us with your stories and ideas.
We also need advertisers. If you are willing to advertise with us, please, send us an email.
About the Entrepreneurs
Edwina Howard-Jack: Edwina graduated from Buckhannon-Upshur High School and subsequently attended WV Wesleyan College where she graduated with a BA in English and Secondary Education. She has taught in Upshur County for over eighteen years, primarily in English but also in Special Education. Edwina also earned her master’s Degree at WVU in Special Education while working and raising her family as a single mother.
She served as the English Language Arts Coordinator at the WV Department of Education in Charleston for two years and as an education professor at WV Wesleyan after achieving National Board Certification in English Language Arts. She currently teaches English 12, Dual Credit English, and Speech at B-UHS while serving as Adjunct Professor at Pierpont Community and Technical College.
Edwina is most proud of designing and facilitating a project this semester that enabled students to start a B-UHS Clothes Closet to help those in need. She enjoys seeing the students excited about helping others and about the clothes they are getting (some that still have the tags on them)!
In addition to her career, she is a sixth-generation Upshur County resident raised in Pleasant dale. Her grandparents owned Howard’s Place, a beer garden on Route 20. Her two children, Seth and Taylor, and her grandbaby, Adalaide, are the loves of her life.
In her free time, Edwina enjoys reading, writing, spending time with family, traveling, enjoying the outdoors, and community functions.
Edwina started Upshur Indivisible and Upshur County Indivisible—Votes to make a difference in her community and to improve the quality of life for all who call Upshur County home.
Thomas Clifton Keely: President, Board of Directors, Opportunity House, Inc. (Non-profit with a mission to provide a safe and supportive environment to those working to recover from addiction), Convener, Methodist Federation for Social Action, West Virginia (Non-profit MFSA mobilizes clergy and laity within The United Methodist Church to take action on issues of peace, poverty and people’s rights within the church, the nation and the world), and Vice Chair, Board of Directors, Upshur Indivisible and Upshur Country Indivisible-Votes (whose reason for existence is the betterment of the community good and general welfare, specifically by focusing on social and economic justice, including equality, inclusion, and fairness for all).
Keely grew up in Charleston, West Virginia. His father worked for Union Carbide for 30 years. His mother was a homemaker. He has one brother. He is a Senior Chief Petty Officer, USN Retired. He has been a pastor, a chaplain, a clinical pastoral education supervisor, and a writer.
He attended college in Glenville, West Virginia, then as a lay pastor, provided pastoral care to nine churches on the Newton Circuit, in Roane and Clay Counties for two years prior to attending United Theological School, Dayton, Ohio. He also received a Master of Arts in family counseling from West Virginia College of Graduate Studies. He did clinical studies at Colombia-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY. He was a Diplomate, College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy.
Thom pastored United Methodist churches in West Virginia for 10 years. He was a chaplain at the Louis A. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Clarksburg, West Virginia for 10 years.
Thom has had travel adventures (other than his travels with the USN) in Nicaragua, Brazil, Europe, Israel, Poland, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Canada. He has been working on his autobiography for the last 7 years.
Thom is married to K Almond, a 30-year pastor of The United Methodist Church. He has two sons, Scott and Brad. Thom and K live in the house where K grew up, “up on the hill” here in Buckhannon.
Some of Thom’s favorite things in his retirement are: being a President of the Board of Directors, Opportunity House, Inc. for the last 10 years, Convener, Methodist Federation of Social Action, West Virginia, newbie Vice Chair, Upshur Indivisible and Upshur County Indivisible—Votes, breakfast at Alice’s Restaurant, mowing his meadow, and reading Scifi.
Organizer
Edwina Howard-Jack
Organizer
Buckhannon, WV