In his New York Times article on the revival of the Greenbrier Hotel and Resort at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Dwight Garner writes:
"The resort is this struggling state’s mansion on the hill, a beacon of native pride. Actress Jennifer Garner — she is, alas, no relation — spoke for many in the state when she intoned about the Greenbrier at the casino’s opening: “I’m just going to burst with pride that my home state has something this beautiful to offer.” Ms. Garner was raised in West Virginia.
"That pride, for many West Virginians, is mixed with a dash of resentment. In a state where the median income is $38,000 a year, the Greenbrier is a place most residents will never spend a night. (Rooms begin at $249 a night, and go much higher.)"
The notion that "many" West Virginians have a dash of resentment toward the Greenbrier, because they can't afford to stay at the hotel, is exactly the notion that would occur to a New York Times reporter or his editor, because of their keen Leftist sensitivity to the great class divide of America that has, supposedly, created a working class deeply bitter toward wealth and its holders.
Of course, the journalist did not identify or quote from a single named individual, among the "many", who expressed such resentment. Why? Because there are not many West Virginians who resent the high prices of the Greenbrier. What they resent, as their vote in the presidential election of 2008 demonstrated, is the Leftist elite that looks down on them, their guns, and their religion, and assumes they must be curdled with bitter resentment at how they've supposedly been left behind by modern, hip America.
All the West Virginians we've met have been thrilled to have the Greenbrier revived, thrilled to have one of the state's largest private employers, with a unionized labor force, out of bankruptcy and attracting business, thrilled to have an example of the alternative economy of tourism, which the state has been cultivating for several decades as coal declines as a large employer, given such a boost. Not one has expressed resentment toward Jim Justice or the Greenbrier, or toward Justice's willingness to spend a part of his fortune to restore the hotel and bring it attention, as he did with the Greenbrier Classic Tournament on the GPA tour this summer.
There's an old rural yarn that is appropriate to Dwight Garner's snarky review of the Greenbrier. It goes like this. A fancy, out of state, car, filled with a family, pulls up to a farmer, who is standing by a field gate by the gravel road. A man rolls down the window and leans his head out. "We're thinking of moving out of the city to here. What are the people like?" The farmer responds, "What are the people like back in your city?" The man says, "Oh, they're small and mean-spirited and that's why we want to move." The farmer replies, "Well, the people are like that here, too." The car driver sighs, says thanks for the warning, and drives away. Shortly thereafter another fancy car from out of state comes by, the driver stopping to talk to the farmer. The driver says, "We're from the city and think we'd like to move out here. What are the people like?" The farmer says, "What are the people like in your city?" This driver says, "Oh, the people are warm, friendly, and wonderful. We have many friends. We hate to leave the city, but we have to move." The farmer responds, "Well, people here are warm and friendly, too. You'll like living here."
Dwight Garner came, with family and a friend, to the Greenbrier with a chip of superior trendiness on his shoulder and a moldy Leftist formulaic script in his laptop. He and his family didn't think they'd find anything hip at the Greenbrier, and they didn't. But that tells you something about them, nothing about hip, and nothing about the Greenbrier. I can't imagine that anyone wants them back.
(Dwight Garner, "The Greenbrier Resort Hopes to Preserve Its Past", The New York Times, August 12, 2010.)
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