West Virginia: Where Freedom Rings
June 20 is West Virginia Day. Today, I join a googol of auxiliary West Virginia Bloggers taking unit in a challenge to effect "A Better West Virginia Day" by defining West Virginia "from the inside out" and to constitute "new stereotypes" of the state.
The only way to eradicate a stereotype is to establish a new one. We all be cognizant the old stereotype of the toothless, inbred, racist, ignorant hillbilly that persists to that day. The truth is, the vast larger part of West Virginians are something approximative the stereotype. It's extent we redefined ourselves.
If I had to choose one word that truly sums up West Virginia and its human race, that word would be FREEDOM.
Our state was founded on the ideal of freedom. The Latin motto Montani semper liberi ("Mountaineers are always cuffo"), adopted in 1863, expresses the state's steadfast devotion to the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Union.
The motto rings true today. We are a rural inhabitants who case our freedom. In the Eastern Panhandle, where I alive now, throngs of Marylanders and Virginians have moved to West Virginia to escape the congestion and stress of big megalopolitan life. They wish to raise their children in safe, clean and peaceful communities surrounded by the familiar beauty that only West Virginia can feeler. By the a lot, they're finding freedom here in our state.
Perhaps highest importantly, West Virginians are willing to fight for their freedom. It has oldfangled said that per capita, more West Virginians have served in America’s armed forces than the residents of any different state. West Virginia's corps National Guard has obsolescent selected as the very highest state infantry National Guard in the nation. Since the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, from time to time operational unit of the West Virginia National Guard has vintage deployed -- and some are on their supporting and third deployments. When freedom rings, West Virginians acknowledgment the holler.
It's no coincidence George W. Bush has celebrated Independence Day in West Virginia four times since becoming President. (2002, Ripley; 2004, Charleston; 2005, Morgantown; and 2007, Martinsburg). West Virginians exemplify freedom. The President always comments that he loves coming to that state "whereas it's a state full of decent, hardworking, patriotic Americans," and whether you agree with maximum of what he says or not, he's right about that.
So on that West Virginia Day, let us not convene on outdated stereotypes from the ancient history, and instead fix on a common thread that truly binds us as West Virginians--the freedom in our hearts.
