After Congress approved the bill for West Virginia statehood, it sat on Lincoln's desk until the very last minute. When the movement for West Virginia statehood first started in 1861, President Lincoln was ready and willing to compromise on the issue of slavery, and even talked about his decision to overturn General Framont's Emancipation Proclamation in Missouri. Over the course of 1862, while Congress was debating the matter of West Virginia statehood, President Lincoln was beginning to consider the matter of emancipation for reasons we will explore in future episodes. When the bill for West Virginia statehood landed on the president's desk, he was indecisive. On the one hand, it would be more likely for Virginia to rejoin the Union if the secessionist and unionist regions were not separated. On the other hand, the war had been waging for a year and a half and recognizing the loyal government in Wheeling, Virginia seemed to be a practical necessity. But the deadline to either sign or veto the bill was December 31st, 1862. And in September, Lincoln had issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which was essentially an ultimatum to the Confederate states that if they did not rejoin the Union, he would issue a proclamation emancipating their slaves. That ultimatum was to expire on January 1st, 1863. So the day before Lincoln issued his final Emancipation Proclamation, he faced the decision to fix his signature allowing a new slave state into the Union. Slavery was still a matter of controversy in West Virginia, but a compromise had been reached known as the Willy Compromise that allowed for gradual emancipation. After a great deal of deliberation and at the very last minute of the deadline, President Lincoln agreed to sign the bill on the condition that the gradual emancipation clause remain in the new state's constitution. I don't present this to either defend or condemn Lincoln, but simply to highlight a complicated aspect of the history of Lincoln that is left out from both sides of the debate. On the one hand, as the modern opponents of Lincoln like to point out, the great emancipator did admit a new slave state into the Union. Slavery even then was not his top priority. On the other hand, Lincoln did require a provision for gradual emancipation which demonstrated a shift in his personal policy on the slavery question from his attempts at compromise in 1861. Derived from that what you will, I'm just trying to present an accurate account of a controversial aspect of history. I'm Chris Calton and this is the Mises Institute podcast Historical Controversies. As we've moved through the beginnings of the Civil War in 1861, I hope you've noticed an important theme that I think is often underappreciated in histories of the Civil War, and that's the focus on the border states at the outset of the war. The actions of the Lincoln administration were largely decided upon according to how they expected the remaining Unionist slave states to react, and to make sure that they could not succeed. We've looked at Maryland and Missouri, which are particularly interesting cases, but I also want to talk about West Virginia and Kentucky. This secession of Western Virginia will be the topic of today's episode. When the Virginia legislature voted to approve an ordinance of secession on April 17th, the Unionist leaders in the state were outraged. The delegates from the northwestern portion of the state led the movement against the secessionists. Although the ordinance had been approved, secession was scheduled to face a popular vote on May 23rd, so the Unionist delegates vowed to return to their districts and campaign against this eastern tyranny, as they saw the matter. At this time, the unofficial leader of the anti-secessionists was a man named John Carlisle. All over northwestern Virginia, special meetings took place to decide on how to respond to the state's ordinance of secession, but Carlisle's meeting in Clarksburg was probably the most important. At the Clarksburg meeting, the attendees adopted a set of resolutions that Carlisle drafted that called for a special election to be held in each of the northwestern counties to elect delegates for a May 13th convention to decide on the future of their portion of the state. This was the beginnings of the West Virginia secession movement. Up to this point, the anti-secession political activities amounted to denunciations of the ordinance with no real counter-revolutionary behavior. The Clarksburg revolutions energized the Unionists and the state, but the secessionists made a somewhat ironic counter-move. After the resolutions were published, the Virginia secessionists held their own state's rights convention in Clarksburg, which they held on April 26th. At this point, by the way, the news of the state's secession was only just now reaching some areas of Virginia. So this was all taking place while some people in the state still didn't even know that Virginia had joined the Confederacy. And the state's rights convention, which was led by former Governor Joseph Johnson, the secessionists condemned any proposal that sought to sever the state of Virginia. Now I've been trying to offer less commentary as I progress in this podcast, but there are certain events that really call for it, and this is one of them I think. So forgive me as I offer a bit of an aside. But I think this secessionist convention in Clarksburg is telling. On the one hand, the secessionists in Virginia, who did not approve secession until after Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops, which they saw as an unconstitutional usurpation of executive power, the Virginia secessionists were claiming that it was a state's right to secede from the Union, that the Constitution did not form a binding government. Now there are to this day different constitutional theories about this, but the only one that is truly a matter of history is the perspective of the founders and framers of the Constitution upon drafting and ratification. And from this perspective, the Virginia secessionists were following the clearly stated original belief of their own ratifiers who reluctantly ratified a Constitution according to the assumption that Virginia could leave the Union whenever it pleased. There are other legal philosophies that are inserted into this debate, but any genuine historical interpretation of intent has to acknowledge that the Virginia ratifiers in particular believed that secession was a constitutionally valid failsafe against encroaching federal authority. However, in modern parlance, the idea of state's rights is typically used as little more than constitutional vocabulary for decentralization and localism. It alludes to the Tenth Amendment of course, but when modern commentators are talking about state's rights, it almost universally refers to the general idea of smaller government and the reduction of federal authority in favor of state authority as simply an easy step in this direction. That's all fine, but when we look at the use of state's rights in antebellum and civil war rhetoric, this was not necessarily the context of the phrase, the idea of localism and decentralization, and we should be aware of this potential for historical equivocation. When the Virginia legislature called for their state's rights convention, they were referring the legal authority concentrated in the hands of the state of Virginia. This was not a localist or a decentralized doctrine. When we equate historical state's rights talk with decentralization, we can easily fall guilty of presentism because that is what we think of in modern connotation, so we should be aware of these distinctions. To be sure, there were some Southerners who did genuinely believe in localism as a philosophy of government, but these people were the exception, not the rule. In a previous episode in the season on the antebellum period, I think the one on the California Gold Rush, if I remember correctly, I pointed out John C. Calhoun's rejection of California statehood because it had to go through the territorial government phase first, which was a right of the national government. He evoked state's rights in that debate to reject California on the grounds that territories did not have rights because they weren't states. This is very similar to the state's rights logic of the secessionist state's rights convention in Clarksburg, Virginia. They believed it was a state's right to secede from the union, but they did not believe it was a district or a county or a city's right to secede from the state. So this is important to understand, especially if you want to defend the idea of secession as a legally or ethically legitimate action, because you can certainly defend secession on principled grounds, but you should be wary when invoking the philosophy of the 1860 and 61 secessionists, which I find to have some philosophical contradictions, though whether or not local secession from a state was constitutional would depend on the state's constitution, and I haven't studied that area of legal history enough to even take a position. So take this for what it is, but regardless of your views on the constitutionality of secession, states' rights, or the Civil War, I think it's worth being aware of the nuanced differences with which people then view the idea of states' rights in the sense that they were Virginia nationalists rather than United States nationalists, and the way a lot of people view states' rights today, which is usually just a way of arguing for decentralization in smaller national government within the context of the Tenth Amendment. Anyway, let's get back to the story of the secessionist movement in Northwestern Virginia. So in response to the Clarksburg Resolutions against secession from the Union and suggesting a response of secession from Virginia, the Clarksburg State's Rights Convention reaffirmed secession from the Union, rejected the legitimacy of secession from Virginia, and it urged citizens to show their loyalty to Virginia by obeying the state's laws and volunteering to join Virginia militia companies. In Carlyle's May 13th meeting to decide on the Northwestern response to Virginia's secession was to be held in Wheeling, Virginia. George Caldwell, another Unionist leader in the state, wrote a letter to President Lincoln asking for his support for the Unionist plan. Support from the national government was considered crucial to the Unionist activities in the state. Other Western delegates followed his lead in reaching out to the president for support. The biggest challenge the Virginia Unionist faced though was figuring out how to hold elections. Since they were still technically part of the state of Virginia, the elections that were proposed in the Carlyle Resolutions were not exactly legal. They were extra legal rather than illegal, but this meant that there was no formal mode of elections in the Northwestern areas. Each district had its own manner of holding local elections and everything else was organized by the state. So instead of holding formal elections, each county held public meetings where delegates were named by the county seats, but this sounded better in theory than it worked in practice. In one such meeting, the one held in Fairmont, a brawl erupted between two factions, each side having at least 80 participants involved in the chaos. In areas in which there was still a respectable secessionist presence, meetings couldn't even be held at all. Instead, smaller groups had to hold secret meetings in the dead of the night to select a delegate due to threats of action by secessionists if a public meeting was held. In Philippi, a small number of participants chose a delegate by candlelight and a midnight meeting held at a local shoe shop. But whatever problems they faced, 436 delegates representing 27 western counties were chosen and they met in Wheeling as scheduled on May 13th to decide how to respond to their state's secession. The first question the delegates faced, though, was the matter of what exactly was the character of their convention. Although secession from the state seemed to have been suggested by the Carlisle resolutions, this was still far from formally decided upon. If the delegates were there to merely pass advisory resolutions for the future of Virginia, then the nature of the convention was the only matter that concerned them. But if they were there to do more than just offer advice to the state's legislature, if they were going to consider breaking away from Virginia, then they faced a second question. Who exactly did they represent? Many of the counties represented in the convention were split on the matter of secession, which is why some places had to appoint delegates in secret. The delegates had to figure out who exactly constituted their constituents. Some proposals for how to launch the convention in light of these questions were offered, but Carlisle once again set the stage for secession by insisting on forming a committee to decide on constituent representation, an issue that only mattered in the event that real political actions were taken. By establishing the constituent character of the assembly, Carlisle was paving the way for the secession of the represented counties. But this made it easier to open the debate up to more radical options of how Northwestern Virginia could effectively combat secession, which was the matter for which the convention was formed. This wasn't a secession convention yet, but the idea was already in the minds of many of the delegates present. But the federal officials, who had responded to requests from support, added another complicating element. They did support the wheeling convention, but they seemed to suggest that the purpose of the convention was to establish a provisional state government representing all of Virginia, rather than a separate state government representing the Northwestern counties. This would be similar to what would be established in Missouri, where the secessionist government in Missouri actually sent representatives to the Confederate Congress while the Union government was formed and maintained presence in the U.S. Congress. But both Missouri governments claimed representation for all of Missouri. In Wheeling, Virginia, the idea that many people had was to form a new state with a new government, but the federal support for a provisional Virginia government made a lot of the delegates believe that this was the route they should take, essentially maintaining the facade that Virginia was still part of the Union. Carlisle led the call for immediately forming a new state, and several people got behind him, but other important figures, including Francis Pierpont, who will soon play a much more significant role in the story, believed that Carlisle was being hasty.  The immediate goal, they argued, should be to try to make sure that the referendum on secession that was going to take place later in the month should demonstrate a strong outpouring of Union sentiment, so the Virginia legislature might see how unpopular their decision to secede actually was. The assembly ended up agreeing to a compromise. They adopted resolutions denouncing Virginia's alliance with the Confederate States, calling for the citizens of the Northwestern counties to vote against secession in the upcoming referendum and to participate in federal U.S. elections as normal, and most significantly, if popular vote did end up approving a Virginia secession, a new convention should be held to decide on further action, but the delegates unwilling all pretty much agreed that the secession ordinance would be popularly approved. So these resolutions were designed largely as a delay tactic so that they could try to consolidate support for the new government, they were already envisioning. On May 23rd, the Unionist fears were confirmed when the people of Virginia voted to popularly ratify their ordinance for secession, and in response, John Carlisle drafted a document titled An Address to the People of Northwestern Virginia, in which he called for citizens of western Virginia to resist the tyranny enrichment that wanted to rip them from their beloved Union and thrust their state into a bloody and fratricidal war. The road to West Virginia's secession had now been paved. The new convention had already been called to be held and willing, and what the Virginia Unionists now needed was support from the Union government. On May 3rd, the War Department established the Department of Ohio, which had military jurisdiction over Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and placed General George B. McClellan as departmental commander. McClellan was headquartered in Cincinnati, and like most Ohioans, he was very interested in the resistance movement in western Virginia. To support them, he assigned troops to various points along the border of Ohio and Virginia, but it wasn't just that McClellan was interested in protecting loyal Virginians, he was eyeballing a route to Richmond for a potential invasion of the Confederate capital. If Virginia citizens could help secure areas between him and Richmond, it would make his invasion that much easier. But McClellan didn't want to appear aggressive, so he wanted his Ohio troops to be moved according to requests made by western Virginians, so McClellan sent one of his subordinates, Lieutenant Orlando Poe, to gather information along the border and organize a network of spies to deliver occasional reports about the goings on in Virginia's border counties. For long, spy reports started landing on McClellan's desk in Cincinnati, informing him of secessionist activities in several of the western counties. He was given warning that moving Ohio troops across the border might encourage more people to support Virginia's secession, so he backed away from his plan to invade Richmond for the time, but western Virginia became his primary concern. On May 24, the day after Virginia's referendum for secession, General Winfield Scott sent word to McClellan about two companies of Confederate troops that had moved into Grafton, one of the northwestern Virginia cities. Scott told McClellan to offer a prompt response, but McClellan hesitated. This kind of indecision would cost him his reputation in 1862 and in fact even the end of 1861. While McClellan wavered, the Confederate-Virginian colonel George Porterfield took the initiative. Porterfield occupied Grafton and he ordered the burning of the Baltimore and Ohio bridges to hinder union movement. This was enough to spur McClellan into action. The Union General ordered an advance toward Grafton from two directions, one moving south from Wheeling and the other moving east from Parkersburg. The two union companies moved slowly following orders to protect the railroads as their top priority. As they approached, Porterfield became anxious. As being still late May, a month before the first battle of Bull Run, Joseph Johnston was still at Harper's Ferry, but he refused Porterfield's pleas for reinforcements as he was busy worrying about the Union's army of Pennsylvania. So on May 28th, Porterfield decided to withdraw to Philippi, which was home to more Confederate supporters. There, he hoped to gain some additional troops and reorganize before moving back to Grafton, which was home to an important rail junction. But now that he was out of Grafton, the Union forces were able to occupy Grafton on May 30th, facing no resistance. Brigadier General Thomas Morris arrived in Grafton on June 1st and he was the highest ranking officer there. He was given instructions to scout the Confederates in Philippi and, if possible, move the Union troops even further into Virginia. But by the time he got to Grafton, Colonel Benjamin Kelly had already been there for two days and he had been working on a plan to immediately attack the forces in Philippi. When Morris took over as commanding officer, he delayed the attack and spread false information about Union troop movement to filter out and hopefully mislead the Confederates into thinking they were going to attack Harper's Ferry. Then he revised the plan so that 1,900 men under the command of Colonel Kelly would travel by rail toward Harper's Ferry. But instead of going all the way there, they would secretly debark in Thornton, Virginia, only six miles from Grafton, and start moving south to Philippi, where they would conduct a surprise attack at 4 a.m. on June 3rd. Another body of 1,500 Union soldiers was to take the train to Webster and then march toward Philippi under the command of Colonel Ebenezer Dumont. They were also supposed to arrive at 4 a.m. where they could make a demonstration that would divert attention away from Kelly's attack. Thus, the plan was to wage a two-pronged assault on Philippi. But coordinating the two marches was easier said than done. The soldiers had to move in the dark of night and a recent rain had left the ground muddy and hard to move through. Dumont was able to make it to his location at 4 a.m. But his men arrived exhausted, having covered the last five miles of the march in only an hour and 15 minutes to make it on time. But when they arrived to make their diversion to allow Kelly's company to attack, Kelly was nowhere to be found. During their march, Colonel Kelly led his men down the wrong fork of an overgrown country road. They ended up arriving in Philippi from the wrong direction, and by the time they finally made it, Dumont's demonstration was already taking place. They were running behind schedule. The Confederates in Philippi only amounted to around 800 men, so the Union attack should have devastated them. But because Kelly got lost and delayed, the Union assault was not as coordinated as intended, and the Confederates had the opportunity to make an escape. In fact, the Confederates were even aware of the Union forces moving toward them in time to make a retreat, and all the officers under Porterfield agreed that they would have to evacuate Philippi, but nobody bothered giving any actual orders to do so. Apparently, they figured they'd just move out once the skies were clear and the weather had improved. But they underestimated the timing of the Union attack, and they were jolted into action once the two small cannons that Dumont had with him started lobbing cannonballs their way. So the Confederates had more than enough opportunity to make a clean escape, but they squandered it, and were left to deal with chaos instead. Dumont's men charged in from one side of Philippi, driving the scrambling Confederates the opposite direction, only to have Kelly's men jump into the fight and drive them away again. It was pandemonium for both sides, and Colonel Kelly received a relatively serious wound, but nobody was killed. And the Confederates were able to make the retreat down the road that Kelly was originally supposed to have been occupying before he took a wrong turn. Although the casualties would be light, the Battle of Philippi would actually see the first battlefield amputations of the Civil War. It was an insignificant Union victory, but since this was still nearly two months before Bull Run, the Union victory was heavily publicized throughout the North, greatly exaggerating its significance and reaffirming the pre-Bull Run idea that the war would be quick and decisive. It also allowed General McClellan to receive a great deal of praise that he really didn't deserve, but would play into a significant promotion that would come right after Bull Run. But in Western Virginia, the Battle of Philippi did have a greater degree of significance. It temporarily quelled the secessionists in these areas, but when they came back, they did so with a vengeance. Animosity between the Virginia Unionists and secessionists exploded, and as secessionists in certain districts threatened the lives and property of the disloyal Virginians as they saw them, the Union Army was increasingly seen as the safeguard of persons and property who wished to remain in the Union, and this made it easier for the Union forces to consolidate in Northwestern Virginia. When General McClellan arrived in Grafton on June 22nd, he received a warm welcome from the Virginians he passed and wrote an optimistic letter to Simon Cameron saying, quote, the Union men are daily gaining strength. I anticipate a happy solution to our difficulties in Western Virginia. End quote. Just over a week after the Battle of Philippi on June 11th, the second wheeling convention was held to decide on how to respond to Virginia's secession. The delegates met for several days. On June 17th, the assembly unanimously adopted a declaration of the people of Virginia, which was drafted to remind people of the Declaration of Independence. The declaration did not contest the right of revolution, but it did object to the way it was carried out as illegitimate. By calling for a secession convention without the consent of the people, the Virginia legislature had violated the rights of the citizenry, and thus the May 23rd referendum that ratified the ordinance could not be accepted as legitimate. It also accused the state's governor of conspiring with secessionists to terrorize Unionists and to wage war with the United States. The document called for the reorganization of the Virginia government. Two days later, in order to carry out this declaration, the wheeling assembly passed an ordinance to form a loyal government of Virginia, loyal to the United States, of course. They would select a governor and lieutenant governor, as well as a five-member advisory council, and they would serve for six months until elections could be held. Members of the General Assembly were also required to swear a loyalty oath to the United States in order to serve, and one person was expelled for refusing to take his loyalty oath. On the surface, this was all done to obtain recognition from President Lincoln and the U.S. Congress that they were the legitimate loyal government of Virginia. But the delegates in wheeling were already set on forming a separate state. Worried that immediately revealing their intentions to form a new state, John Carlisle said, quote, the truth should always be spoken when we speak at all. But the whole truth should not always be spoken. There are times when men should keep their mouths closed. What if we do contemplate a division of the state? End quote. What the Lincoln administration wanted was not a new state, but the whole state of Virginia restored to the Union. So this is the facade that the convention decided to maintain for the time being, and they referred to their new government as the restored government. Francis H. Pierpont, who I mentioned earlier is one of the voices advocating the strategy of appeasing the federal authorities, was selected as the governor. Immediately after his appointment, Governor Pierpont sent a wire to Washington to inform President Lincoln about the convention's decision, and he asked for support in suppressing the rebellion and protecting the loyal citizens of Virginia. War Secretary Cameron sent the reply confirming the president's recognition of the new government in Pierpont's title and promised to send military support. The new government also needed money, and they obtained some by borrowing, and even more from the federal government under an 1841 law called the Distribution Act, which entitled every state to a share of the funds, but Virginia had refused to apply for it because of its leader's desire to avoid federal dependency. Now, Francis Pierpont applied on behalf of the restored government and obtained $41,000 in federal funds. Another $27,000 in specie was seized from the exchange bank of Weston, which had been deposited there to fund the building of a state hospital. But Pierpont wanted to make sure he took the money before Governor Letcher could have it moved to Richmond, where it would be safer. On July 22, the first bill was proposed in the General Assembly to authorize the formation of a new state. The Assembly shot it down, but only because they thought the bill to be premature. Lincoln's rhetoric on the matter had made it clear that he saw the Wheeling Assembly as representing all of Virginia. Instead, they adopted a series of resolutions that advocated separation from Virginia when the timing was more practical. For the time being, the Wheeling Assembly would content itself with the pretense that it represented all of Virginia, and it filled the vacated Virginia Senate seats in Congress with two of their own, one of whom was John Carlisle. On July 26, the restored assembly adjourned, scheduled to meet again in December. While the Assembly was meeting to decide the political fate of Western Virginia, General McClellan was still working to decide its military fate. His forces met again with Confederate troops under the command of General Robert Garnet at Rich Mountain on July 11. McClellan subordinate General William Rosecrans led a force of 2,000 troops up the mountain under a heavy rain to attack the Confederate force of 1300. They first came upon a group of 300 Confederates in the early afternoon who quickly dispersed. The celebratory cries from the Union soldiers were mistaken by the other 1,000 Confederate soldiers on the mountain as their victory celebrations by their own Confederate comrades. But while Rosecrans was leading his men to battle against a smaller force, cutting a path through the forest to make their artillery useful against the enemy, McClellan was once again holding back his own attack against the Confederate front. But eventually Rosecrans got within artillery range and he started pelting the Confederates from the rear with his infantry adding volleys of musket fire. The Confederates scattered, leaving two filled cannons behind for the Union. Rosecrans continued pushing and met the Confederates again at Cheat River. The Confederates were rushing to make it across a pair of fords, both called Corksford, that stood between them in safer territories. But as they were crossing the second ford, their supply wagons got stuck. The Union army was moving past the first Corksford while the Confederate soldiers were working to release their supply wagons and Confederate General Garnett stopped to personally direct his men during the crossing. Just as the stuck wagon was coming free, he was killed by a Union bullet. The Confederate retreat at this point had no organization. Several of the men never returned to their regiments and a handful were left behind, killed, or wounded. McClellan's rich mountain campaign allowed him to claim credit for minor victories for which he probably deserves far less credit than his subordinates. But even if they were minor, they were victories the Union greatly wanted to duplicate after the disaster at Bull Run that would take place less than two weeks after McClellan's campaign in Western Virginia. And after Irvin McDowell's embarrassing defeat, McClellan, who is now being called the Napoleon of the West, would be promoted as McDowell's replacement. McClellan would rename the Army of Northeastern Virginia the Army of the Potomac, not to be confused with Beauregard's Confederate Army of the Potomac. General Rose Kranz would take over the operations in Western Virginia. Even though it requires me to move far ahead in the chronology from everything else I've talked about so far in this season, I do want to quickly conclude the story of West Virginia statehood, only because there isn't enough interesting material here to justify making this a multi-part episode, I don't think. I'm not going to go into significant detail about all this, but I want to highlight some of the bullet points. In November of 1861, the restoration government called for a constitutional convention to be held in Wheeling. The time had finally come to start formally talking about the plans to create a new state. One of the first issues to come up was what to name the state. In August, an ordinance had been agreed upon to name the state Canawa, but too many people were unhappy with this name, so new names were being discussed while Judge James Brown from Canawa County thought to retain the name. Other suggested names were Western Virginia, Augusta, and Allegheny. But most of the delegates wanted to retain the name Virginia in some form, so the name West Virginia was ultimately decided upon. The boundary of the new state was also an obvious matter of discussion. Most of the questions revolving around whether or not to include a handful of border counties in Southwestern Virginia. A boundary committee was formed to draft a report on which counties should be annexed. This led to interesting debate points. In the report, the committee showed that some of the counties in question were predominantly secessionists, and opponents of inclusion used this to argue that they should be excluded from the new state. But other delegates wanted their new state to be as large as possible, and they argued that because these counties had union men at all, it would be wrong to leave them out. Other arguments in favor of including some of these counties were concerned with geographical symmetry of the state's boundaries. In the end, the counties in question were organized into two districts, and the matter of the inclusion of each district was left to the popular vote of the people within them. The complications over the boundary led to complications of legislative apportionment. The county geography that West Virginia was inheriting would not provide for equal representation in proportion to the new state. This would mean either combining some counties into a single representative district, or to have such a small representation quotient as to have an enormous legislature. Ultimately, the matter was settled by drawing new senatorial districts, and then deciding on delegate representation by taking the new districts, calculating how many delegates were to be apportioned to each district, and then assigning delegates to each original county without combining any counties together. But the two most difficult issues were that of internal improvements and slavery. The matter of internal improvements saw a heated debate. This mostly came from the people of Kanawa Valley who had been trying to get a railroad through their territory for years. They wanted to make it legal for the legislature to take on debt in order to fund such projects. Many of the delegates from elsewhere resisted such provision. A compromise was finally reached to allow the legislature to purchase stock in internal improvement corporations, but only if it could pay for the stock outright or with newly levy taxes to be collected within one year of the purchase. Slavery, by contrast, was avoided for much of the convention. It was a topic the delegates wanted to dance around. Many of the people in Western Virginia did hold anti-slavery views, even though almost none of them were outright abolitionists. But the matter of separate statehood took precedence over any slavery issues, and many people were worried that resurrecting the bitter slavery debate that had been plaguing the country for more than a decade would only serve to endanger the plans for a new state. Some of the delegates present were themselves slaveholders, and several more represented slaveholding constituents. The delegates also decided to avoid the slavery question for as long as possible because they wanted the citizens of the Panhandle to join them. The Panhandle held the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which the new state wanted to maintain control of, but it was also home to one of the larger populations of slaveholders. If an anti-slavery clause were added to the new constitution, it would be unlikely that they would join West Virginia. It was also the matter of exactly how the federal government viewed slavery. To obtain approval for statehood, their proposal had to be passed by Congress and signed by the president. This meant dealing with radical Republicans and Unionist Democrats, as well as an executive branch that had been compromising on the matter of slavery. It was hard to tell which way the winds were blowing on the slavery question, so the issue was easier to just avoid. But eventually, the silence on slavery was broken by Robert Hagar, a Methodist minister and delegate from Boone County. He presented resolutions that called slavery, quote, the origin and foundation of our national troubles, incompatible with the word of God, detrimental to a free people, as well as wrong to the slaves themselves, end quote. In mid-December, Gordon Battelle, another Methodist minister and delegate from Ohio County, offered another resolution for gradual emancipation. The resolutions were tabled without debate. In January, Battelle offered two more resolutions that sought to prevent the importation of new slaves into the state and to declare children born to slaves after July 4th, 1865 to be free. Again, the resolutions were tabled. Battelle's next move was to propose a popular referendum to let the people vote on gradual emancipation. This was tabled as well. However, this was enough to get other delegates to start discussing the issue. A compromise was proposed that would reject gradual emancipation, but prohibit the importation of any new slaves as permanent residents. This compromise was approved 48 to one. Although the process of becoming a state would be drawn out for another year and a half, on June 20th, 1863, West Virginia would be admitted into the Union as a slave state, though the compromise measure did clearly pave the way for gradual emancipation, which was a condition that President Lincoln required before agreeing to sign the bill the day before he issued his emancipation proclamation. With the secession of Western Virginia from the rest of Virginia, the story of the Upper South controversies is almost complete. We will finish with the state that Lincoln allegedly believed more crucial to have on the Union side than God himself. The story of Kentucky in 1861 will be the topic of the next episode. Historical controversies is a production of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. 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All right, welcome everybody to the March 1st OpenShift Commons briefing. My name is Paul Mori. I'll be your host today I have with me Yuri Tsarev from ABSA group and he is going to talk to us today about the Kubernetes global balancer So why don't you take it away Yuri? Hi, thanks a lot Paul. So I'm Yuri, I'm principal engineer in ABSA and I'm part of the platform engineering team and we are mostly focused on building advanced automation on top of Kubernetes. And one of the open source projects that we produced in 2020 is the Kubernetes global balancer. So roughly around the concept. Guys, can we go? Yeah, we can hear you. Yeah, yeah, sorry, there was some. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah, thank you. So this project is originated out of the need of global load balancers that is Kubernetes native and pretty much cloud native. So we tried multiple vendors, none of them work for us well. So we decided to develop one global balancers from scratch, but this global balancer is not a standard approach for load balancing. It doesn't pass the traffic through itself. It's actually modifies the initial responses on fly and it monitors the Kubernetes primitives from inside the cluster. So it is developed as an operator pattern like this point from Corez back in the days. It doesn't have any single point of failure. So a controller is installed on top of the target clusters where work load are running and there is no control cluster. So there is no single point of failure in that regards. And everything is built on top of standard Kubernetes primitives ingress services associated endpoints and down to aliveness and readiness for props. So the core of the operations DNS protocol and as it's running internet is pretty reliable. It obviously has its own limitation, but for global global balancing scenario, it works pretty good. And we built, we try to build the KGB this way. So it's as much independent of environment as possible. So meaning that we relying on environment DNS, for example, we call it edge DNS. It's route 53, for example, or info blocks now on print scenario, or NS1 as we have another integration. So we are configuring only the DNS zone delegation on a input block. And the rest of the DNS responses are served dynamically by KGB itself. So from implementation standpoint, we use the operator SDK SDK and it worked very nicely for us and it allowed us to bootstrap project pretty quickly. Another integral in the part of KGB score DNS, that's exactly the tiny part that serves the DNS responses dynamically and basically steering traffic to desired clusters according to load balancing strategy. External DNS is taking care of communication with external DNS providers as I mentioned. So it's as a route 53 NS1, info blocks and maybe something else in future. So these three we already very well tested. So this part takes care of automated zone delegation. And we also were using at CD like dedicated at CD cluster and associated at CD operator to actually populate local at CD database dynamically so external DNS would read information from dynamically for that dynamically populated DNS and point CRD. And external DNS would locally create the at CD entries. So for, and eventually core DNS would read from this at CD. It's so called the SkyDNS backend. So it worked like out of the box. We would do less community procedure here, but it had quite amount of reliability and maintainability problems. So for example, at CD operator is dropped by community completely at CD itself and it wasn't working reliably enough. So, you know, long running clusters we were finding at CD in a degraded state from time to time. So it was a problem for KGB reliability itself. So that's why in a recent version we dropped at CD and CD operator completely completely and we replaced it with a core DNS built with a custom. Kubernetes CRD plugin that we developed recently. So core DNS in our case can read information directly from DNS and point. I will show everything like in a demo how it works. So now we can create this dynamically morphed to DNS responses. This information out of DNS and point CRD directly from communication of core DNS is basically Kubernetes API bypassing unnecessary layer of at CD at CD operator and it made whole setup much more reliable and everything is driven by a single CRD of GSLB type. So we have quite amount of integrations. So this is the DNS provider some mentioned the info blocks we carefully testing like not testing the using in the bank and that was the first provider we implemented so we'll fill our business needs. Route 53 using AWS reference setup that I will show you today on top of two geographically dispersed DS clusters and NS1 as our future integration. We are very close collaboration with these guys. They are amazing. And we have very nice open source cooperation with Admiralty project which is a multi cluster scheduling and it works very nicely where Admiralty schedules workloads on top of multiple clusters and page B basically enables a load balancing for them. So we have a associated. Tutorial for that on both of the on the pages of both of the project. So you can quickly go to the demo. So just to quickly on a on a project website so it's KGB IO and associated you have obviously so just to provide a context between the demo so we will run to a case clusters. Yuri and I hope if you just bump the font size up or zoom in on that picture a little bit. I'll try. Is it somehow better. There we go. There we go. Oh cool. Thank you for that. Yeah. So, we will run a demo setup similar to the picture here. So to geographically dispersed clusters. One is in Europe and Dublin another one in Africa Cape Town. Both clusters page B is already pretty ployed and there are some simple workloads and we will work with GSLB customer source definition and customer source definition pretty much works. It looks like like that it's on the index page so we have a kind of GSLB obviously have a special API. And we have embedded ingress resource type so basically it's kind of the same respect as a standard to bring this one. It's actually behind the scenes. Under the hood it's exactly the same goaling type and we embedded into GSLB. And we specify this pretty standard to also host and backend service so and the controller will be monitoring its healthiness. And on top of that we attaching the adding the specific load balancing strategy. So let's go straight to the demo I guess. Is my console visible or good? It's visible to me, yeah. Cool. All right, so what we're running here. So two clusters. As I mentioned, you just will check these get nodes the geographical locality. Okay, and I'm surprisingly logged out. Sorry for that. Sorry, token just got expired. Wasn't very lucky. So yeah, we are in Europe. The second cluster is in a Cape Town. So we see it by this text right now, you know, not names. So on the right pane, we just running continuously this stuff. It's just a demo script which continuously pulling the associated FQDM. So it's just while true, right? And it grabs the message because the sample application contains the geotech to actually demonstrate where it's located. So it's super simple. So we continuously pulling it currently everything is healthy and located in Europe as we can see by a geotech here. So let's investigate the testing setup. So first of all, how KGB setup looks like. So controller itself, core DNS, and external DNS, which is taking care of the three side of configuration. So effectively on delegation. So as you can see pretty minimal footprint as of now, especially after the good read of at CD operator and at CD, especially the clustered part. So for testing workloads, so we are running in test GSLB namespace special workload, which is like standard for the info, which exactly returns this response with a geotech. And we have GSLBs. So this special GSLB failover one, which is actually deployed out of the spec, which is very similar to to the ones that I showed on the index page. So again, failover test KGB IO as a main cost backend service, which we are running in a testing namespace of test GSLB here. And failover strategy and we are pinning European cluster as the main one. Before the failure occurs. So in case of some malfunction. It should be failed over to African one to a kept down. So, in a, in runtime. It looks like this. But better to specify. It's fully with the status. So it detects that the service is healthy. The ones that is running in test GSLB namespace. The ones that is that is front end put info and the ones that is referenced in number embedded in respect right and it populates the DNS endpoint. With the IP addresses of. Of a load balancer associated with the, with the workload ingress. So if we will get ingresses. And a specific test GSLB. Failover. Now, we will have in a AWS that have that we are running associated and I'll be so if we dig this and I'll be. You'll see this addresses and that's exactly the ones that are getting populated. In DNS. By page to be so you pretty much and deep right now. And they are identical. So, basically, currently workload is running and we are pointing to European cluster. If you go to. The Cape Town. So just to verify that we in Cape Town. In Africa. You'll see that we are running exactly the same setup. So, without any modification is the same spec. And both clusters are returning consistent responses. As you can see this. African cluster also returns. A DNS response which consists. IP addresses of European. Cluster where workload is healthy. And which is a. Labeled as a main one. You're a question that I that I thought of looking at this. How does the geo tag field of the status get computed. Yeah, so geo tech, it is specified at the very. Beginning of deployment of the cluster. So, for example, if you look in a European. Pgb configuration, right when you it's basically calm values. So we specify and geo tech. And we specify and geotechs to talk to and in case of. In case of. African. You're doing exactly the same advice. Geotech is the ones that we label the cluster with. And. Extra objects to talk to is European one. So we love them and the rest is. Is created by convention. So. Zone navigation. And servers names they are all consistent geotech and zone. And basically clusters out of this geo taking. They know how to contact each other through this convention. And that's how they basically sharing the information. Also through DNS protocol. Got it. Thank you. So we can actually. Go to the European cluster. And try to emulate the filler. So we can do it simply by. As we usually doing it by scaling right so. Of deployment. So this is important for the info and scale it to zero. So what about to happen. Just will be. Should. Detect on healthiness. Is there a next reconciliation. So as you can see is a limitation of DNS protocol. So we're running like DNS details 30 seconds. Also running some reconciliation loop on top. So is there will be some. Five or three during the failure. Let's see how fast it will happen. So reconciliation loop already done. So basically it already. Ready to return. African. IPs IP addresses. And basically failover already happened. So it was pretty quickly. So. What important to. Pretty much repeat button in a failover scenario. That again we have exactly the. My mirror resource in Africa. And it also returns it against the uniform response. Right. Now it took over. And both European and African clusters are returning. African Cape Town IP addresses. Of C slot bouncer and basically. Both of them are steering traffic to Africa. Because for quote in Europe is that. So. Everything looks great. And as expected. So we are getting African. Geo tech as a response. So we pretty much can scale it back. In Europe. And see. How it will return back to master cluster. So next reconciliation. It should pick it up. While we're waiting for that to happen. Here's another question. What is the. The highest number of clusters that you. Used. The global balancer with so far. Well we always using it in pair right. So we even have a ticket like to test it like. Is more than two. But so far the all the testing was. Done with one player. So we have a multiple players. Like the running. Around. 122. Clusters and the page being able. But they always like in this pair. So we are not. For example for three clusters or four clusters. Not yet. Definitely have it in the back lock. Yeah. Understood. I think this is a pretty new project right. How long have you been working on this. Well it started in December. 2019 so it's like slightly more than one year. Okay. Yeah. And it is already. Used to be seen. So we run it and production for server projects and more and more teams are. Adapting. So yeah obviously finding new issues and challenges. On the way so for example. Currently we are thinking how to actually. Handle multi-tenancy. Usually our clusters as to like. Yeah. Controlling them. With the rancher centralized way so. There is no problem to spin up. A new pair of clusters for a team and they will fully own it. But sometimes. We need a multi-tenancy and page B is actually not ready for it right. And by the way yeah if. Overpack. To switch back to the main customer. So now we are in Europe. Everything is expected. Yeah so and to. You have like if you go to the. Github. Pretty much. Good activity. We'll be using github issues as a. Not just like the reporting box but also.  Outstanding lots of for example. How to implement more complex. Strategies so currently it's a failover. And around robin. I can quickly show you around robin. Yeah. So. Basically it's pretty much the same. Here in this. Example. We just operating. Several applications. Several services in background right. So just to. Demonstrate the statuses like none existing on healthy. In front and pitch scales are ready. And around robin strategy. Yeah this one additional controls. Over the specific stuff like DNS detail for example. If you want to make it shorter. Or longer. So it's all available. So. For actually I can. I can show the round robin runtime. We should have this. Just to be. Around. Yeah so round robin is basically. Merging the array of IP array of both clusters. Right. And basically making them. DNS standard DNS round robin. Out of two clusters. So as you can see. So. If you scale so. If you emulate yet another failure. And. It should return only half an array and then return back. So. While. It's converging. Yeah so the next step for us. We figure out. How to implement more advanced load balancing strategies like. We don't have a. We don't have a. We don't have a. We don't have a. We don't have a. Argent business needs for that. Like these two reliable strategies are pretty enough. As of now for us. But from community standpoint. We definitely want to implement. Something like more interesting. Like geographically where geographically like. Return the closest. DNS response for example. Poses to the. Requestor and all that stuff. So we are thinking of idea. Of writing some. For DNS plugin which is like. Aware of situation more. And. Modified DNS responses on the fly. Was currently it is. It is nice. It can do its job but it's pretty much. If you. If you get to this DNS and points right. That's. How it works in the back end. Controller dynamic to complete this DNS and points here. This kind. And. And. For DNS reads it. And according to the strategy. With a specific. IP addresses and. Obviously it has its limitation. It's enough for basic load balancing strategies. One I demonstrated but it's not enough. For something more advanced like. Weighted. Load balancing or again geographically. Geographical locality because. It's not enough dynamic here right. So. Is there. Is there a particular strategy that you. Heard request for. Many times from community folks. Well. Not yet. So we are still. A little bit on the radar right. So. There is no yet direct response but. It's very nice that red hat actually. Initiated some. Conversations so. And doing to contribute so. You probably. Know him. Very nice person. Here. Approached us. Is a very technical question. Regarding KGB and. Like. We are going to have very nice. Collaboration. In regards of integration to open. Shift. So yeah looks very promising. And we definitely. Have some some plans. Regarding. Regarding strategy so. Here. Pretty much. Look at the issue so you want to add the topology some. Manual weighted. Consistent round robin because currently it's. It's pretty much random so yeah. We have this. Plans in mind. So far. We heavily. Worked on. IPI stabilization. And the overall. Reliability of solution itself. So. Many. Enhancement in a management for example. So. Easy adoption. By teams. We implemented like a. Backward. Ability to create. Just will be strategy with a simple. In recent notation I think. It's better to show in a. In a documentation. So if we go there. Yeah so. So. So one of the main goals of KGB. Is actually to give. Developing team a power over gold. Load balancing right so. Instead of standard. We would listen. Both props which are defined by application teams. So and the strategy. Is the describable. By a simple CRD. But sometimes like it's a little bit overhead. To. Add yet another CRD into health charts. And we have multiple teams. So that's why. And it was also. Community request for modern reality project. We added ability to. Add the specific page be annotations. On top of standard ingress. Controller. The same. Information. As we specify in the spec. So like. Strategy type and geotech in case of fail over. Controller would pick it up. And create this will be automatically. For this specific progress reference it. And they'll close the loop this way so. Basically. Application teams. I even not required to. Control. Yet another CRD they can. Pretty much. And they can. Provide a standard ingress visa. Couple of additional annotations. And the global load bouncing will work for them. Control. Controller will take care. There's a question in the chat about whether. KGB has been. Submitted all to CNCF. Or is that on the radar is that on the road map. It's totally on the radar. Yeah. I really. Want to submit it to send box as soon as possible. It's really good question. Yeah. Just getting ready. So it will be stabilization. So I think we are pretty much. Tested currently like. Both internally and we will be by community. So. Project is pretty good shape. So I think it's ready for the sandbox. If folks want to get involved. I'm sensing that the github. Repos are the best place. Is that accurate. Yeah, totally. So we are doing everything in github. Yeah, for pgb. So again, you have issues I use. Not just as the issues, but as also. And it's anything future request road map planning. And. Anything and probably will sleep or request a welcome. And. To shoot an idea. Yeah. And for chat. We are hanging out in a. Sigma cluster. In a. So. You can find us there as well. Diane, I see you have a question in the chat. Why don't we take that one offline. Absolutely. Yeah, I was trying to trying to figure out who. Who's working on this besides absa. Is it or is this just coming out of absa. Mostly. Contributing. This project. Yeah, so it's coming out of. But we are trying to gather community. And as I mentioned, we really have a very nice. Conversation with Red Hat. And. Looks like. We're happy about this. And there's another question. Yeah. Any other questions. Yeah, vipin is asking how is. This different from F5. CIS. Because he's there using F5. CIS. I'm not sure if I'm familiar with CIS, but generally. Different from any kind of standard. Ballaster. So the two things. So. Doesn't. Pass the traffic through itself. It would be less so. It basically. Works purely over DNS. And it is aware of internal cluster resources. So it doesn't employ any standards. HDB checks. It uses. So. To make that. Balancing steering decision. Kind of start to open source. Hopefully. Somehow answers the question. I know we have a built in load balancer. I believe. For open shift. Now. So is this, would this replace that Paul. I'm. I think you're referring to the router. Yeah. I, I. I don't think that I have enough information about what's been discussed. To. To comment about that. I look forward to seeing it in the sandbox and. And getting some more folks and more red headers. Working on it. And seeing it again in action and integrated into open shift. And a demo of that sometime soon. That would be awesome. So. Yeah, maybe we'll have. Maybe we'll have a. A sequel to this one sometime soon. Yeah. That would be great. All right, let's see any other questions in the chat. If, if not, what I'd have you do Yuri is go back to your home page there for your project for KGB. Yep. And it's so close to KGB. I'm going to have to keep myself from saying that. Yeah. That's not bad. And then I would say. This is where people can go as well. More information, or as you said, Yuri, this, the SIG cluster, the CNCFC. Buster. Yeah. It would be a great place to find you all. And. I look forward to seeing it used in at scale and production and getting some more feedback on this. I think it's going to be a great addiction, a great addiction, I almost said addition to the CNCF and to, you know, just to the open source communities. This is really a very, very interesting project. So, we'll be definitely following along closely. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us, Yuri. And just one thing, I think that was Kubernetes SIG multi cluster. Yeah, it was great. Yeah. So basically, I'm utilizing your flex channel guys. Yeah. That's okay. That's good. That's what it's there for. It's perfect. All right. Well, it's great to hear from the Apsa group and looking forward to hearing more great things. And this is the beauty of open source. So thanks, Yuri and Paul for having us today. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you everybody soon. Bye bye. Thanks a lot.


A very good morning to you. You're welcome to the breakfast on Class TV Africa. My name is Romare Paulson. How are you doing today? How was your weekend? Well, it's a beautiful Monday morning. It's the 15th of April, 2024, and I'm sure you're ready to start your week. Now, to this show, we'll be talking about the war in Israel, as well as Oshoon Monarch expressing discomfort over Nigeria's preparedness for state police. We'll also be taking global stories making headlines in our national dailies as well as some top trending stories. But first, let's check out our quote of the day. The person miscomplains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change, and the realist just adjusts the sales. And that is by William Arthur Ward. He was an American writer and he says this morning, the person miscomplains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change and the realist adjusts the sales. Now, where are you in this whole conversation? Are you a pessimist? Are you an optimist? Or are you a realist now? You can stay and keep complaining about something, but if you do not try to make a change, nothing is going to happen. You're always going to stay in that position. So do not be a pessimist. Are you an optimist? You can say, yes, I expect it to change. It's good to be hopeful. It's good to, you know, have those lofty ideas. But also what are you doing about it? You need to execute it. You need actions in place. And that is where the realist comes in. So in as much as you want to be an optimist, you should also be realistic about where you are and what you need to change. Now, the realist just adjusts the sales. You know, you're like, maybe this isn't working here. This isn't working there. Let's move over. Let's just move the sale, right? And that just takes you to where you want to be. So how do you apply this to your life?   That is where it comes in. You adjust the sales.  Are you looking at I want to be better? You know, I want to be business savvy. What are you doing about that?  Are you getting the right personnel, you know, for your business? What are you doing? Do you think you need more time for family? You can be complaining and saying, I don't have time. I don't have time. But you have to create that time to make sure that you're spending time with your family, your friends, the people you care about. So don't just be a pessimist complaining about everything. You can be an optimist. Yes, you're hopeful that things will get better. But in as much as you've been hopeful, you should also be realistic about your situation and look for the things that would help you to get to that place, that place that you want to get to that place of beautiful, bountiful, wonderful ideas and, you know, a better life for yourself. So please we're telling you this morning in the words of William Arthur Ward, that do not be a pessimist, you can be an optimist, but also be a realist. And that's it for our quotes of the day. We'll move over to some top trending stories this morning. And the first one, well, the first story talks about armed men besieged all your state secretariat. Now some armed men or some armed intruders laid siege on the all your state government secretariat early on Saturday, attempting to enter the governor's house and the state House of Assembly complex. The intruders were said to have arrived at the secretariat in buses, hoisting a flag suspected to belong to some agitators. The reason behind this onslaught is unclear, as the secretariat is on break and deserted. An eyewitness account said men dressed in military camouflage covered their faces with masks and scarves. According to the eyewitness account, it took the combined effort of policemen on duty at the governor's office, operatives of the Southwest Security Network, better known as Amotecum and other security reinforcement to stop the intruders. Now some arrests have been made in connection with the invasion. The police later said 20 persons were arrested. The arrest sources said were made after a gun duel between the invaders and security agents. Now this is coming from all your states. I mean, I know Amotecum has been doing great work here, which is so great. And in fact, one of the topics we're going to be talking about later on the show is about the idea of the state police. So we're seeing Amotecum, which we can liken to some form of state police or local police. And we're seeing how they rise up to the challenge and chase away these intruders. Now, I know we keep talking about our security system in Nigeria and we're like security is just really poor summer blame dates, you know, to be lack of employment.  And so they're saying maybe some people are not really employed, they need to find ways to put food on their table. But having, you know, to threaten the lives of Nigerians is not a good way to put food on your table.  You don't do that. Instead, you try as much as possible to get a job. If the government doesn't provide something for you, you should be your own government as well and say, you know what, I'm going to provide a job. You can start a business. But yeah, we're talking about security here.  And so we're seeing this happen in all your states. And we're thinking, you know what, why can't we just replicate state police in other states as well? Because at the end of the day, I would always say this, a local policeman obviously knows the terrain of the community. You know the nook and crannies, you know, even if there's some gangs, you know them. So you can know how to fight this insecurity. If we're seeing that we're really trying to fight insecurity, then maybe this is an option that we need to look at because at the end of the day, you need to exhaust all options before you give up, right? So we know that security takes a huge chunk out of our budget, a lot of money, because that's like the number one in the Nigeria's budget at the moment. And so if security is taking that chunk, it's not just about saying we're going to allocate money for this. What are you doing? What are the actions, you know, that are being put in place by the federal government? Because at the end of the day, the lives and properties of Nigerians should be paramount. That should be your number one priority. And so if state police might just work, why not? Now, could as to Amotecon, thank you guys for the work that you're doing in the southwest of Nigeria. Thank you so much. And you know, we just hope that other people would rise up to this challenge and we can fight insecurity head on. And at the end of the day, the lives and properties of Nigerians will be safe. All right, moving over to another top trending story. Now, this one says Labor proposes fresh 615,000 minimum wage demand. The new wage of 615,000 monthly was reached after consultations between the Nigerian Labor Congress NLC and the Trade Union Congress TUC. The labor union said that the current minimum wage of 30,000 a year can no longer cater for the well-being of an average Nigerian worker, lamenting that not all governors are paying the current wage award, which will expire by April, five years after the minimum wage act of 2019 was signed by former President Muhammad Dubehari. The act is supposed to be reviewed every five years to meet up with the contemporary economic demands of workers. The NLC and the TUC have at various times called on the administration of President Bolatinebo to hasten the upward review of wage awards. Early in January, the federal government inaugurated a 37-man trope trite committee on national minimum wage with a mandate to recommend a new national minimum wage for the country. The NLC had announced 1 million Naira as the new minimum wage due to the rising inflation in the country, which had pushed many into poverty. While the TUC demanded for 447,000 Naira as a new monthly minimum wage per worker, the NLC later requested 794,000 Naira power worker. But it was guarded that the two unions in a fresh proposal to the government presented 615,000 Naira as a new minimum wage for workers. Now we know that, you know, in recent times, I can say in the past few months, in fact in the past 11 months of this present administration, because President Dubehari is almost a year in office, in fact by May 29th, which is next month, he would be celebrating one year in office. And we know how difficult, you know, these times have been. I mean, the president has come out to talk about how we need to make certain sacrifices. And in fact, one of the sacrifices that we had to face head on from the first day he assumed office was the fact that fuel subsidy was gone. And that was just how it went.  In fact, transportation was at an all-time high. You know, if you go to the market, things are super expensive. And I just think to myself, how are we supposed to cope in this, you know, in these times, really? Because if the minimum wage is 30,000 Naira, that could barely afford anything. How do you get 30,000 Naira a month? You have to pay your rent. You have to, you know, pay transportation to your place of work. You have to feed. You have to pay your children's school fees if you have some. So there is a lot that you need to do with money. And 30,000 Naira is quite a meager sum, if I can say that myself.  I know 1 million seem like a huge amount for a person, right, as minimum wage. But we're just hoping that there's dialogue and disnegotiations. And we just need to be realistic. I know that Nigeria, you know, has a lot. You know, they are in debt at the moment. Our debt profile, you know, is quite huge. And I'm sure the government is also going to be thinking of that. Like, how can we, you know, pay these people? And is it going to be sustainable? Whatever amount we're going to put out there and say this is the new minimum wage, is that going to be sustainable? Can we always pay this amount? So I'm sure that's a question, you know, that's on everyone's mind, right? Especially the government. But at the end of the day, you need to understand the plight of Nigerians and give them something that is substantial, right? 600 and something thousand. I don't know how that is going to fly with the government because, I mean, if you're going from 30,000 to over 500,000, we don't know what's going to happen, but at least something that's substantial.  I mean, we're not even asking for so much. It's just the basic, really. We don't have good healthcare.  Well, I do not think so, even if you're going to a government hospital. I don't remember that there's still a lot of things that you need to do with that money. So 30,000 error definitely is not enough. Is 600 and something thousand error going to be what the government will pay? Well, we are not so sure. And also, let's not forget that these are for civil servants. Now, in the private sector, I don't know how this is going to translate. I don't know if, you know, they're also going to adopt this and say, you know what, if this is the new minimum wage, this is what we're also going to pay, you know, even in the organized private sector as well. But I mean, we're just hoping that everybody can just have a good life. You can have money in your pocket. If you need something, you can, you know, just easily afford it because we're really, really deep into the poverty line. And we do not want this situation whereby Nigeria is the poorest country in the world. I mean, we cannot be the giant of Africa. And then, you know, people are impoverished. You know, we need to really, really do something. I don't know what the government is trying to do about, you know, getting more revenue. I know we have a lot of crude rides and in fact, some would say that the crude that we have have been sold in advance and we're not really making money. But we need to explore other options because we need to ensure that Nigerians are living good lives. Nigerians are happy they're, you know, flourishing. And so if we know as a government that we need more money for these people, then we need to explore other options on how to make money. What do we do with agriculture? What are we doing with tourism? I mean, over the weekend, I went to the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Ibadon and it was a beautiful place. In fact, I think everyone needs to go there, right? You're seeing the beautiful waters, you're seeing agriculture, at its finest, you're seeing farms. How many people, you know, go there for tourism? And that is just one place. We have other places, you know, in Nigeria that people can go to for tourism. Now, I know security is a major issue and that's the reason why people don't want to, you know, just travel or even come to Nigeria because of the security issue. But I mean, if we can tackle that, we can also look at tourism. We can also look at agriculture. We can look at manufacturing things where a country that keeps importing. How about we start to export other things, you know, and make money?  Now crude oil came and it just seems like we've forgotten how we survived. So we need to go back to the drawing board. How can we make more money? How can we get more revenue and make sure that Nigerians are happy, right? And so for the minimum wage, we hope that the government and the NLC can come to an agreement as swiftly as possible because I, for one, I would think you know, this has lingered for too long. It's just dilly-dallying. How about we reach an agreement and people can start to see these monies. Now for all the other states, because here there's some states are also not even paying the current minimum wage, we hope that it would also comply, you know, to that. And if you're owning, you know, workers' money, please pay them because they need to be able to leave. So we're hoping that the NLC, TUC, and the government reach an agreement as swiftly as possible and they have a good minimum wage for Nigerians. All right, over to our final story. Now, this one says disclosed Nigeria's loan agreement since 1999, Serap urges Tinibu. The socioeconomic rights and accountability project has urged President Balotinibu to disclose the agreement and spending details of loans obtained by the administration of the Nigeria's past precedents since May 1999. Serap urged Tinibu to direct, in quote, appropriate ministries departments and agencies to provide our organization with copies of the loan agreement obtained by the government of former precedents Ulusegun Obasunjo, Umar Musa Yarodwa, Goodluck, Jinnaknen, and Mohamedu Buhari. This was disclosed in a statement issued by the organization's deputy director, Kala Wale Oluwadare. Serap is also seeking, in quote, the spending details of any such loans as well as the interest and all other payments so far made on the loans. The organization stated that widely published the agreement would allow Nigerians to scrutinize it and demand accountability for the spending of the loans. Now I think one thing we've always said on this show is it's okay to take loans but what are you using the loans for? We cannot be taking loans and it's just for some people to splurge and, you know, live good lives while others are leaving in penury, while others are leaving in poverty. So I agree with Serap. I mean Serap is coming out and asking the current administration to, you know, publish all the loans that Nigeria has taken so far since 1999. That was the day, you know, that was the year that we started this whole democracy. So if we're saying that we are truly a democratic country, I think democracy, you know, is linked with transparency and accountability. Now you cannot be saying you are or we are, you know, having a democracy and things are still, you know, on the wraps. No, we need accountability, we need transparency and so here if Serap is asking for, you know, the loan agreement since 1999, they're just asking for transparency and they're asking the government to be accountable. Now if the government does that, we start to build trust. Nigerians and the government are not in the best, you know, trust position at the moment and so the government needs to find ways to build trust with Nigerians and so, I mean, Serap asking for this loan agreement, it's a great idea. The Nigerian government should be able to provide this. We can look at it and say, okay, this is where we are. Where are we at the moment, where was our debt profile like, you know, we're wearing debt so much that we don't even know how much now they say on the average that every Nigerian owes about $3,000 or something. I don't know about that but come on, just let us know where we are. It's just like a company, if you are in debt or if you're not making money, you have a conversation and say, this is where we are, this is our financial position. What is the financial position of Nigeria? We really don't know but if the government can come out and, you know, publish even the loan agreements, that is starting from somewhere and then we're just still, because I mean, I love the fact that, you know, we're doing certain things like, you can hear of the New Coastal Highway coming in the next, at least it will be built from now to the next eight years. So we're seeing infrastructure coming, we're seeing the government trying to do something and we expect that if you're taking loans, I mean, loans are okay but that's if you're using it for something good, that's if you're using it for a substantial project that we can see but you cannot be taking loans for you to buy, you know, SUVs of $160 million of yachts, of, you know, foreign, you know, going on foreign travels, you cannot be doing that because at the end of the day, we're talking about an entire country that is a make-up of so many people and you don't want them to be impoverished. So syrup asking for this loan agreement since 1999, it's a great idea and we would expect the government, you know, if they're kind enough to let us in on that, that would be amazing and like I said, that would start to build trust because that's transparency and accountability. All right, that's it for our top trending stories. We'll go on a short break, we'll take a look at the weather and when we return, we'll be reviewing the papers. Please stay with us.


This episode of the anxious truth is brought to you by me because I'm not just a podcaster I'm also an author. I've written several useful books and anxiety and anxiety recovery And I know you're gonna find them helpful. You can find them on my website at the anxious truth comm Hey everybody, welcome back to the anxious truth. This is episode number 181 Welcome back to the program. Welcome back to the show This episode is entitled what are coping skills and do we want them? Which I know probably sounds kind of weird because of course we want coping skills. Everybody wants coping skills, right? I get it But and this might be largely a semantic argument one word versus the other But let's really get into what coping skills are and let's find it if we really do want them or not So first of all, I am Drulence a lot of creator and host of the anxious truth And if this is your first time here, welcome, I am glad that you are here This is the podcast where we talk about all things anxiety anxiety disorders and recovery related If you have been here before and you are back to listen to another episode welcome back I'm very appreciative of your time and attention. So let's talk about coping skills This is a phrase we hear all the time in mental health circles Especially when it comes to anxiety like coping skills coping skills coping skills Everybody wants to teach you coping skills What are coping skills and do we actually want to use them? What is the question of the day? So here's the way I see it Coping skills and again, this might be semantics, but sometimes the semantics matter. So stick with me on this Coping skills Traditionally in what I see our skills techniques tips tricks Rituals that people will often try to teach you sometimes Therapists and counselors and doctors will teach you or try to give you that are designed to be used in periods of Anxiety related distress discomfort and fear So when you are afraid because you are having a panic attack or you're in the middle of an anxiety wave or in some way You are feeling fear or discomfort based on anxiety anxious thoughts sensations ideas Then many people will try to give you coping skills or will try to teach you coping skills that you can use in those moments What are those coping skills designed to do? Well in many instances? They are designed to do things like make an end. Some people will flat-out tell you Here's three things you could do to stop a panic attack I don't think anybody would argue that that falls under the realm of coping skills, right? Here's five ways to stop a panic attack. Here's four things you can do to prevent a panic attack Here's three things you can do during a panic attack. So admittedly I'm speaking Quite specifically here to the panic disorder crowd people who are dealing with panic disorder and our experience in recurring panic attacks And are afraid of them but in the coping skills Sort of universe you see that stuff all the time So the coping skills that you are being given or people are trying to teach you are very often designed to try to make it stop Or go away Here are ways that you can ground yourself here are things so here here that the coping skills that we most commonly hear Involve special ways to somehow ground yourself things to repeat to yourself. I am safe. I am safe. I got this I'm okay. I am strong. This too shall pass Count four blue things. Tell me all the things you can smell We all know the usual coping skills Get ice and hold it in your hand or pop a strong mint in your mouth or take a glass of cold water or splash water on your face Or snap a rubber band Literally somebody sent me a Dr. Oz reel the other day where Dr. Oz the famous TV doctor says Here's how a rubber band can cure your anxiety and my head almost exploded But okay, we all know the usual coping skills, right now Let me address something pretty quickly here that grounding thing Name four blue things. Tell me all the things you can see tell me four things you can smell has a place that is not completely who-who and They are often used in situations where people are really having a hard time Emotionally regulating and sometimes begin to lose touch with don't be afraid of this But they're having a hard time staying in touch with the here and now in reality, right? So often those tools are used in those extreme circumstances and they are useful So I am not completely dismissing the grounding exercises I understand the context in which they are most useful But they are also often handed out for people who are dealing with and generalized anxiety anxiety spikes or panic attacks As coping skills So most of the the coping skills in the traditional sense that you're going to be taught or given in the online mental health community Are generally designed or at least you're told that they should probably make this anxiety Less make it go away altogether Prevent it from happening short-circuit it or otherwise talk yourself out of it Those are the most usual coping type skills. Okay, is that a bad thing first thing? I want to say is anybody who's trying to teach you coping skills in that sense in the more traditional sense to help you through periods of distress Or discomfort or fear. I don't believe that any of those people have any malicious intent They're not trying to give you bad information They are trying to help you and that probably comes from a place of compassion and caring. I Absolutely will acknowledge that. I don't think anybody does that just because they feel like it. They genuinely want to help you However, is coping that way what we want to do If we are trying to learn that we do not have to fear our own bodies anxious Sensations anxiety symptoms that we don't have to fear our own mind anxious and fearful thoughts or intrusive or recurring thoughts Then do we need to find ways to handle deal or cope with them? Questionable from where I said I don't know if approaching this as a coping problem is necessarily a good way to frame it so if we are Primarily concerned with finding coping skills that are designed to make it stop less in it or somehow Talk us out of it so that we can extract ourselves from that discomfort and fear as quickly and painlessly as possible Then we are essentially saying that yeah This is a thing that must be stopped should try could be prevented if we can do it And if you do get into the thick of that we can try and get you out of it as quick as we can But really and truly if we're trying to learn that what you're going through is just a misdirected threat response Then do we want the message that we need to extract ourselves from this as quickly as possible? And here are 17 different tricks you can use to do that So coping skills generally designed to get you out of that fearful distress Situation which I totally get I want you out of that distress fearful situation too. I would prefer if you learn Experientially that you can handle it You don't have to make it stop really quickly You're capable of processing your way through that and navigating it through to its natural end and Therefore you will be less afraid of it the next time and the next time in the next time So I want you out of that uncomfortable Distressed fearful situation too, but I would like that to be a little bit more lasting and durable and have Larger implications in your life other than When I panic I must do these rituals to get me through it So what are coping skills? Well, we went through them What are they designed to do generally speaking coping skills that I we usually in a traditional sense in the mental Health community are designed to extract you from that situation or get you out of it And as quick and as painless away as possible or to make it go away or to make it feel less scary But in reality, what are we learning if we think that we must use these rituals to cope or handle or Somehow get us through this episode again So the quest second question what are coping skills and do we want them? Well, do we want coping skills? I can tell you that in my own recovery coping skills were not helping me at all not at all and I did have a therapist for a short amount of time And you guys know that I'm constantly beating the drum of finding a therapist that specializes anxiety disorders I love my therapist. She is awesome. Sure. She still is But she was not an anxiety specialist. She was not she was very helpful to me But I knew that going in that she wasn't a specialist She was kind of into the coping stuff But we had such a great relationship and she was so Understanding so caring and listened so closely to me that we quickly like no, well, I'm not doing that I'm not doing the count the blue things thing. I gotta have a better way and she was so open to that So interestingly my therapist personally started to go down the traditional coping skills route So that I did not want to do that because I didn't think it was gonna have any lasting benefit for me I tried all of those things already and she she was less. She listened and she said, okay How do you want to do it? I told her what I was doing and she was so supportive of me So in the end like the people who are trying to teach you coping skills are trying to help But is that really helping you? so if you have been dealing with panic disorder or Goraphobia or OCD or whatever the particular situation is for a protracted amount of time and you have been continually trying to use traditional coping skills and all you're really Managing to do is sort of, you know Crawl your way out of one episode after another then it probably is worth thinking about this Do we really want coping skills? Is it really doing anything for you in the end? So I would assert that coping skills in the traditional sense I could just I'm hearing the comments in my head now I know this is not going to go over well But I'm hoping that you're getting what I'm trying to tell you in the traditional sense All those coping skills are could be more counterproductive than helpful in the long term So what would we want instead of those things because we don't want things that reinforce the idea that we must Escape from our anxiety and our discomfort you need special rituals to get you through being afraid and without those rituals What would happen? What would happen if you didn't do your coping skills?   Like we run the risk of saying that oh the only reason why I make it through my panic attacks is because of my rubber band Which is not true Like it's not true in any way whether you had a rubber band or not whether you count blue things or not That panic attack will always end You might not believe me and you might want to argue that no if I don't count blue things my panic attack will last forever That is patently not true So in the end do we want things that teach us that we must do this to make it end or to get through it Or do we actually want to say no no no no I can let it Start we reach its natural peak without resistance and then dissipate because as anybody who has done that will tell you The first few times you do that you don't snap the rubber band. You don't pop the mince.  You don't start repeating mantras obsessively and compulsively When you don't do that and you come through the other side of that fear and it starts to naturally come back down on the other side It is a charge like you would not believe it's such a good feeling So the number of people every day that I get to hear say oh my god. I did it and it feels amazing There that's what we're looking for right there. That's what we're looking for when they actually drop the traditional coping skills And say I'm just gonna let this come in and hit me full force Because I need to learn that even when I do I am capable of moving through this and coming out the other side Afraid shaken feeling not so great But still okay, and then the next time I'll be a little less shaken and a little less afraid Like that's what we're after and none of that necessarily involves coping skills So we hear words like willfully tolerate the anxiety in the panic accept it float through it I use the term surrender all the time like surrender is a pretty brutal term But I like it because it's super descriptive. It's accurate Like instead of saying I must use all my coping skills to get through my next panic attack I'm an anxiety wave if instead I said I'm just gonna surrender to and I'm gonna let it do whatever it wants to do Well, then it will do whatever it wants to do which is to naturally rise peak and fall When we don't add to it. That's what it does That is the natural function of the anxiety cycle it rises it hits peak and then it comes back down again As long as I don't send more danger signals that will make it rise again As long as I can show my fear center my lizard brain my amygdala that the danger has passed or better better The repeated experience is that there isn't really any danger the better that's gonna end up for me Those attacks or episodes become shorter Lesser duration farther between that would that's that's what starts to happen over time If instead I send the signal that I must run for my rubber band or my cold water or my mints or my Essential oils to sniff or I must call my mom or I must be with my husband or whatever it happens to be If I send those signals all the time then essentially I'm saying well The only way I could possibly get through this is if I call my safe person Or if I go home before I stop the car and put the lavender oil under my nose, whatever it happens to be So if you use your usual coping skills, I have to count the blue things or I'm not going to get through this You haven't learned that lesson you haven't experienced the peak and you you still think that somehow you must do that Or it will do some sort of damage or you you won't get out of it But then you're just afraid of the next one like okay I guess I just had to wait for the next attack and all I know is that it'll come And I'll just use my lavender oil or my rubber band or whatever my mantra is to just get me through it again So coping skills generally designed to extract you from the anxiety and make it stop or lessen it And I think the lesson there is that you must take special evasive action in the face of anxiety and panic and discomfort But do we want that I would say the answer is no So I know it's sounding like I I'm not trying to do a whole another podcast episode Dumping on lavender oil and your favorite, you know, like whatever crystals. I mean if you like those things There's nothing wrong with that But think about coping skills. What do they represent? What are they teaching you? What do they say and do is that what you want? Is that actually what we want for long lasting durable recovery? Now don't get me wrong On a minute by minute day to day hour to hour basis. You may find coping Way more attractive than surrendering floating through and willfully tolerating Anxiety and panic that's true in the moment In the moment that lavender oil or that mint that cold water calling your mom and feeling like somebody is saving you Does feel better. I am not in any way going to deny that you do get more immediate relief When you try to use those traditional coping air quotes coping skills It's harder to not use them But the lesson is more valuable and leads to more productive recovery. So There you go What are coping skills and do we want them? Well, I think we know what they are now and I think the answer is do we really want them? Well in the moment we do but really on the long term we kind of don't We kind of don't we want to be careful about how we use them We want to be careful about using coping skills as crutches or necessities or rituals that you think save you every time They do not because you have never needed saving and you can do this even without those traditional coping skills So there you go. There is our coping skills episode. I've been meaning to do this one for a little while Hopefully it has been helpful If you have questions or comments always want to hear them I have a feeling this one is going to spark a lot of discussion. I am ready for it So bring it but uh, I'm kidding. The discussion is always really good. I so appreciate this community I can let me begin to tell you because 99.5 percent 99.9 percent of the time the discussion is fruitful. It's supportive It's mature. It's it's Caring and compassionate you guys help each other out and we share ideas and we move forward together And I love that so bring what you got. I am happy to hear it I'm going to play you out of this episode with afterglow by my friend ben drake as always You can find ben on his website at ben drake music dot com tell me said hi If you're watching on youtube hit the subscribe button like the video if you're listening to the episode on itunes or spotify Leave us a five star rating and take a minute to write a review If you don't know anything about my books and all that stuff go to the anxious truth dot com check it out And thank you as always for coming by and giving me your time and attention. I hope this has been helpful I will see you next week and remember This is the way You got the feeling that you're gonna win Yeah, you're doing fine now in the city and you're living fast No looking back at wedding on the past You know, you're never