W.Va. Day: Celebrate our state’s history
Celebrate our state’s history
When the Terre Haute Express advised, on an 1851 editorial page “Go west young man, and grow up with the country,” the author was encouraging adventurous young people to follow their destinies, even to the Pacific Ocean. More than a century earlier, the kinds of folks who were making their way west of the Alleghenies to settle the wild portions of Virginia were of a different stock.
These were men and women who could fend for themselves — who could hunt, farm, fight, build … and anything else they needed to do to survive. They could make their lives among these untamed mountains and valleys because they, too, were a bit untamed. And proud.
Not just proud, but free. By the middle of the 19th Century they had become perhaps a bit more refined, but no less independent; and in becoming the only Southern citizens to successfully remove themselves from a Confederate state and create a brand new state that remained part of the Union, they reminded the world Montani Semper Liberi — Mountaineers are always free.
Today we celebrate the 155th anniversary of West Virginia’s birth. There will be parties in Charleston, special events at museums, welcome centers and festivals. There is even a special marketing campaign by the tourism department to get as many of us as possible to pick up “Almost Heaven” bumper stickers.
That reminder that we are blessed to live in “Almost Heaven” is important, even as our state continue to face challenges that would grind weaker souls to their knees.
Those who are born and raised in the Mountain State know what a special gift that is. Now is our time to repay all that she has given us. Now is our time to remember the strength and resourcefulness of the people who chose this hard, beautiful life all those generations ago. We have it in us to explore new possibilities, to be creative, to use our heads and hard work to forge a new path for this wild, wonderful state — and we will.
Happy birthday, Mountain Mama.
Let’s go!