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Manchin tells West Virginia University at Parkersburg grads they have work to do

Photo by Jeffrey Saulton U.S. Sen Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., spoke at the West Virginia University at Parkersburg spring commencement Saturday.

PARKERSBURG — U.S. Sen Joe Manchin told the West Virginia University at Parkersburg Class of 2018 they hit the jackpot living in the United States, but to maintain what lies before them will take work

Manchin, D-W.Va., told the graduates they, like many others before them, probably had times when they thought they would not reach their goals of graduating.

“You think back about how you got here,” he said. “How many times did you think you were not going to make it, how many times did you think you could not afford it,” he said. “Thinking about those in the back of the room, how many of them made the extra effort, how many of them made a sacrifice and how many times did you take it for granted.”

Manchin said while he did not grow up in a wealthy family in Farmington, W.Va., where they lived in a three room garage apartment between the railroad tracks and Buffalo Creek, he saw himself as a privileged child.

“I stand before you against long odds,” he said. “I was not on an academia trajectory, I did as good as I had to do to get through high school because all I wanted to do was play ball, I was lucky enough to have a football scholarship to WVU and got to play quarterback until I got hurt pretty bad.”

Photo by Jeffrey Saulton About 145 of the 300 West Virginia University at Parkersburg graduates attended the commencement exercises and heard the address from U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

After the injury ended his football career, Manchin said things changed for him and he had to kick in and work.

“People ask me why do I feel I’m a privileged child,” he said. “I didn’t live in a big house in a fancy neighborhood, I didn’t have any amounts of money I could ever see, we always lived good.

“I had unconditional love, there was not a day in my life I did not know somebody loved me. They might have whipped the heck out of me, but it was a good lovin’ whipping because I deserved it. I knew they would never turn their back on me.”

Manchin told the class they “hit the jackpot” by being born in the United States of America.

“You hit the jackpot if you were born into this wonderful country of ours,” he said. “Now if you think you hit the jackpot you think you hit the lottery and what to do with all the wealth. You hit the jackpot being born in America, what are you going to do with it?”

Manchin said now that they have completed their education, it is the beginning of the journey of life. However he said they will have to work.

“We are not in normal time; what you see in Washington, what you see in the world today is not normal,” he said. “You can do one of two things: you can curse the darkness or you can make the sun shine throughout.”

Manchin spoke of the opioid epidemic.

“We have to win this war,” he said. “We need to start with mandatory education in K-12 what every child should know about the perils of these drugs. How could a country with five percent of the population use 80 percent of all opiates produced.”

It is a battle fought every day, he said.

“I go around the world and talk to world leaders and I know what their thought process is,” he said. “There is not one country, or combination of countries, who believe they can take us on and defeat us militarily; in your lifetime that will not happen,” he said. “China would like to sometime, but not right now. Russia is the big, bad Russian bear but their economy is poor.”

Manchin said the same is true economically. He said the GDP of the U.S. is 22 percent and closest is China at 11.5 percent. All others, Japan, United Kingdom and Russia, are in the single digits.

“They are going to wait for you to turn it over,” he said. “They think if they wait you out you will not be educated enough and you won’t be able to maintain super power status.

“That’s exactly what they think and trust me, they are good at waiting.”

WVU-P officials said the college graduated 300 students this year, with 146 taking part in the exercises Saturday.

Manchin said he has all the faith in this generation that it will not turn over leadership to the rest of the world.

In Vienna, Ohio Valley University also had its Commencement in the Alumni Gymnasium on the main campus Saturday morning. The commencement speaker was Rick Story of Nashville, Tenn. He owns Story Construction Co. LLC., which specializes in restaurant construction, and Wingin It LLC, which franchises Buffalo Wild Wings. He is a graduate of Tennessee Tech where he has a bachelor’s of science in civil engineering. He has been involved with OVU for a decade and is on the Board of Trustees and is the Imagine, Renew, Soar campaign chairman.

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