[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.

[[Page S5478]]

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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