West Virginia: Where Freedom Rings
June 20 is West Virginia Day. Today, I join a folio of another West Virginia Bloggers taking component in a challenge to institute "A Better West Virginia Day" by defining West Virginia "from the inside out" and to establish "new stereotypes" of the state.
The only way to eradicate a stereotype is to institute a new one. We all be acquainted the old stereotype of the toothless, inbred, racist, ignorant hillbilly that persists to that day. The truth is, the vast greater googol of West Virginians are something matching the stereotype. It's term we redefined ourselves.
If I had to choose one word that truly sums up West Virginia and its race, that word would be FREEDOM.
Our state was founded on the ideal of freedom. The Latin motto Montani semper liberi ("Mountaineers are always costless"), 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 folk who piety our freedom. In the Eastern Panhandle, where I aware now, throngs of Marylanders and Virginians have moved to West Virginia to escape the congestion and stress of big urban life. They yearning to raise their children in safe, clean and peaceful communities surrounded by the anticipated beauty that only West Virginia can rendition. By the millions, they're finding freedom here in our state.
Perhaps big end importantly, West Virginians are willing to fight for their freedom. It has superseded said that per capita, more West Virginians have served in America’s armed forces than the residents of any more state. West Virginia's array National Guard has obsolete selected as the very crowing state legion National Guard in the nation. Since the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, now and thereupon operational unit of the West Virginia National Guard has out-of-style deployed -- and some are on their secondary and third deployments. When freedom rings, West Virginians remark the command.
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 "seeing it's a state full of decent, hardworking, patriotic Americans," and whether you agree with big end of what he says or not, he's right about that.
So on that West Virginia Day, let us not spotlight on outdated stereotypes from the extinct, and instead adjust on a common thread that truly binds us as West Virginians--the freedom in our hearts.
