[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 20, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5477-S5478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WEST VIRGINIA DAY
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, today, on June 20, 2000, the 35th star on
the American flag--the star on the third row up from the bottom, second
from the left--glows just a little bit brighter than the rest, at least
for me and my fellow West Virginians. For today is the 137th
anniversary of West Virginia's statehood in 1863. And like the star, I
think that I, too, glow just a bit with pride, basking in the reflected
beauty of my home State of West Virginia.
I am especially glad that West Virginia's birthday falls in June.
While every month has its special joys, June is an exceptionally
beautiful month in West Virginia, full of wildflowers and birdsong, of
neat gardens laid out in orderly rows, of trees still fresh and richly
green. June is a month of optimism, of outdoor weddings and picnics, of
fresh corn still just a promise on the stalk, of children learning to
fish along quiet streams, and of knobby-kneed colts and calves peeking
shyly from between their mother's legs in meadows lush with grass. June
is a month for celebrating.
We celebrate a fairly young State laid over a very old foundation.
The history of West Virginia as a State has lasted for but an instant
in the geologic scale of the steeply curving mountains that comprise
most of the State's landmass. The soil and the rock of these mountains
was first mounded up some 900 million years ago in the Precambrian era.
Over time, this first Appalachian mountain chain eroded to form a
seabed during the shifting movement of the continents. Then, about 500
million years ago, during the Ordovician period, the continents drifted
back together, and these titanic forces pushed that sea floor up,
creating the multiple parallel ridges that form the Appalachian
mountains today. During the subsequent Triassic and Jurassic periods,
known to every schoolchild as the age of dinosaurs, the continents
settled into the configuration we know today. They are still settling.
In the most recent period, 200 million years of wind and rain and snow
and ice have eroded the Appalachian mountains to about half of their
original height--a happenstance that I am sure West Virginia's early
settlers appreciated as they hauled their belongings over rough tracks
in wooden-wheeled carts.
West Virginia's topography has always been important. It shaped the
kind of agriculture still seen today--smaller family farms carved out
of sheltered hollows, small valleys, and steep hillsides. It shaped the
kind of industry that developed, favoring resource extraction of fine
timber, rich coal deposits, and chemicals over land-intensive, large-
scale manufacturing. It shaped the politics of West Virginia's history,
creating a divide between the independent mountaineers who settled
these hills and the rest of what was then the Commonwealth of Virginia.
And the mountains have always served as a kind of fortress wall around
the hidden beauty of the State.
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Before the advent of modern highways--which came late to the State of
West Virginia, and which are still coming--it took a special
determination to make one's way into our mountain fastnesses.
A child of war, West Virginia has the somewhat dubious honor of
hosting the first major land battle of the Revolutionary War, at Point
Pleasant, as well as the last skirmish of that war, at Fort Henry in
Wheeling, in 1782.
Now, this information I came upon in a history of West Virginia,
written by a West Virginian.
West Virginia gained her statehood during the Civil War, and her
hills are dotted with battlefields from that conflict. Many historians,
in fact, consider the clash at Philippi between Union Colonel Benjamin
F. Kelly and his First Virginia Provisional Regiment and the forces
under Confederate Colonel George A. Porterfield on the morning of June
3, 1861, to be the first land battle of the Civil War. So, from these
violent beginnings, West Virginia has come a long way in just 137 years
to host an international peace conference earlier this year in
Shepherdstown.
West Virginia has come a long way, as well, from her early days as a
resource-rich provider of building-block essentials like coal, and
chemicals, and timber to a diversified economy of old staples and
leading-edge, information-age high technology. And West Virginia has
come a long way from being a quiet backwater region of narrow, winding,
gravel and dirt roads that kept people isolated and insular to a State
traversed by modern, safe, business-attracting highways.
I have seen these changes happen. I can remember the old dirt roads,
the old gravel roads. I can remember when there were only 4 miles of
divided four-lane highways in my State. And I can remember prior to
that. When I was in the State legislature, in 1947, West Virginia only
had 4 miles of divided four-lane highways.
Let me say that again. In 1947--53 years ago--when I was in the West
Virginia Legislature, West Virginia only had 4 miles of divided four-
lane highways.
It is much different now. West Virginia has at least between 900 and
1,000 miles of four-lane divided highways. Now there are some people
who would like to see us go back to the time when we only had 4 miles
of divided four-lane highways. In some ways I would like to go back to
that time, too. But certainly I do not want to go back to that
circumstance.
West Virginia has blossomed as she has matured, reaching out
gracefully to the future while preserving and honoring the rich history
of her past.
As a State, West Virginia is aging, and her population is aging, as
well. West Virginia boasts the oldest median age in the Nation. I like
to think that this statistic, in part, proves that West Virginia is as
attractive a place in which to retire as are some of the more steamy
States in the Nation. Of course, West Virginia's bracing climate, with
its breathtaking seasonal changes, may be responsible for keeping West
Virginia's elders active long after retirement. There is always a
garden to plant, or leaves to rake, or simply beautiful walks to take,
activities that keep the joints--joints of the arms and legs--agile and
the mind busy. Age, and the wisdom that can only be accumulated with
experience, is respected in the Mountaineer state. Just two weeks ago,
the State hosted the first-ever United Nations International Conference
on Rural Aging, taking its place at the forefront of efforts to keep
the 60 percent of seniors around the world who live in rural areas
healthy, active, and independent.
Yet despite all the changes, one thing has remained constant in West
Virginia; namely, the down to earth, faith-in-God values of her people.
We have no hesitancy in using that word and not using it in vain. There
is a tendency these days to kind of put the lid on using the word
``God.'' No, don't use his name; don't use God's name. I am against
using his name in vain. I can't say that I have not done that in my
time, but I am very much opposed to that. But I am not opposed to using
God's name in schools and anywhere else. I am for that. I will have no
hesitancy to do it myself, no hesitancy whatsoever.
West Virginians are taught to honor their mother and father and to do
what is right, even if that is not the easiest path. In West Virginia,
we try to live by the Golden Rule, and always remember to give thanks
to the Creator for the many blessings he has bestowed upon us. We ought
to go back and read the Mayflower Compact and see how those men and
women felt about God. In a time when society is focused on speed and
instant gratification, West Virginians know the value of taking time to
enjoy the beauty around them. Those values, which have survived for 137
years, I expect will be around for another 137, at least.
So, at age 137, the 137th birthday, West Virginia is a youngster on
the geologic time scale and just entering her middle age on the
political scale. In terms of her population's age, well, let us be
polite and say only that she is ``of a certain age,'' still at least a
few steps way from becoming, a grand dame. All that I will say is, she
certainly is grand!
West Virginia, how I love you!
Every streamlet, shrub and stone,
Even the clouds that flit above you
Always seem to be my own.
Your steep hillsides clad in grandeur,
Always rugged, bold and free,
Sing with ever swelling chorus:
Montani, Semper, Liberi!
Always free! The little streamlets,
As they glide and race along,
Join their music to the anthem
And the zephyrs swell the song.
Always free! The mountain torrent
In its haste to reach the sea,
Shouts its challenge to the hillsides
And the echo answers ``FREE!''
Always free! Repeat the river
In a deeper, fuller tone
And the West wind in the treetops
Adds a chorus all its own.
Always Free! The crashing thunder
Madly flung from hill to hill,
In a wild reverberation
Adds a mighty, ringing thrill.
Always free! The Bob White whistles
And the whippoorwill replies,
Always free! The robin twitters
As the sunset gilds the skies.
Perched upon the tallest timber,
Far above the sheltered lea,
There the eagle screams defiance
To a hostile world: ``I'm free!''
And two million happy people,
Hearts attuned in holy glee,
Add the hallelujah chorus:
``Mountaineers are always free!''
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