[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 21, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1221]]
                        TRIBUTE TO WEST VIRGINIA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 20, 2006

  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I rise on this special day to honor my home 
among the hills, the great state of West Virginia. It was on June 20, 
1863 that West Virginia became the 35th state to enter the Union.
  The Civil War changed the landscape of America, and nowhere was its 
impact felt more significantly than in the Virginias, which, like so 
many families fighting this bloody war, was rendered into two halves, 
west and east, North and South.
  By some standards small in circumference but by any standards big in 
heart, West Virginia might have been born a child of national turmoil, 
but has grown to a State blessed with hard-working and generous people, 
awe-inspiring natural beauty, and a fount of natural resources.
  The natural beauty surrounding us lures people from across the Nation 
and around the world to visit and play here.
  Traditional industries have long played an integral role in our 
State's economy, and they continue so today.
  Agriculture provides dairy, poultry, and feed crops for our State. 
The lumber industry makes use of our forests that cover 75 percent of 
our beautiful terrain.
  And, we all know the coal industries motto in West Virginia, ``Coal 
Keeps the Lights On.''
  West Virginia is also a leader in steel, glass, aluminum, chemical 
manufacturing, and natural gas industries.
  And we will continue to support these traditional industries that 
have powered our Nation, and kept America running.
  But, as the old saying goes ``nothing endures but change.'' And we 
are seeing a change in West Virginia. West Virginia's Renaissance will 
be marked by West Virginia's foray into the technology industry.
  On that front, we have only just begun, but today our future is as 
bright as an early summer morning sunrise over the Appalachian hills--
hills that we are reminded of today by the gentle words of a classic 
tune that continues to strike a chord among all who have a ``Home Among 
the Hills'':

     There's a land of rolling mountains
     Where the sky is blue above.
     And though I may roam, I hurry home,
     To those friendly hills I love.
     Where moonlit meadows ring
     with the call of whippoorwills
     Always you will find me in my home among the hills
     And where the sun draws rainbows in the mist
     Of waterfalls and mountain rills
     My heart will be always in the West Virginia Hills
     There, autumn hillsides are bright with scarlet trees
     and in the spring, the robins sing
     While apple blossoms whisper in the breeze
     And there is music in the flashing streams
     and joy in fields of daffodils
     Laughter through the happy valleys of my home among the hills
     --Words & Music by E.W. James, Jr.

  Today, and every day, West Virginians thank the Lord for our 
bountiful blessings, and bound together in loyalty and love for our 
fine state remind ourselves that, yes, West Virginia is truly almost 
Heaven.

                          ____________________