So it's Wednesday and I've been irritated at myself for choosing to babble like a ninny about sports when one of the Senate's old lions roared his last. So, I'm late to the party.
Which has no real bearing on what follows, it's my blog and I write about myself. If that surprises anyone, piss off.
West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd passed on Monday at the age of 92, about the age my maternal grandfather should've passed had he not been intent on exacerbating his alcoholism. I was only mildly familiar with the Senator, a mere by-product of growing up in the suburbs of D.C. and reading The Washington Post. I'll remember him for his flourish with the spoken word and his well-reported pocket copy of the Constitution.
I'll also remember the superficially critical title bestowed upon him by his colleagues as the "king of pork."
It's apt. But as is often the case there's more to the story. And I've got a sliver- a teeny tiny sliver of personal experience to toss in.
West Virginia is the poorest State in the nation, somehow even moreso than remote Alaska. In parts of the state, what we in suburbia would call basic necessities (water, electric, sewage) are rare. Sen. Byrd was, I'm certain, well aware of this and used his position in DC to assist his constituents back home. I'm not sure how this was a bad thing. Any elected public official's job is to help the people who sent them to Washington - and failure to do so leads to political estrangement.
Rush Limbaugh once stated that acting in one's own radical self-interest was what made America, and capitalism, great. I think he meant that the drive to succeed, and the ambition to do great things propels society forward (and can line your pockets). Though Nietzche said it more poetically. So it is with politicians in Congress. 100 Senators all look out for the best interests of their own home states, regardless of party, race, or creed. They all know the penalty for failure.
So, a trip to Wheeling Jesuit University will uncover the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center. The Senator has also been credited with assisting the continuing operations of Wheeling-Pitt Steel, which helps provide some jobs to an area that remains at or below the poverty line.
I find it difficult to find fault in this instance. I was put off, for example, by the lavish spending in Utah around the Salt Lake Olympics - it was temporary and ultimately unhelpful. Yes, the workers hired for the Games were employed, but the Games ended and....zippy.
By contrast......
In West Virginia, the aforementioned Tech Center at least gives students the opportunity to develop and create new technologies for the future. Anyone can take a million buck of federal money and cynically "create" 100 new janitors earning $100k for a year. Investing in the future, well, at least it's not 100% cynical. I'm not arguing the guy was perfect...he wasn't. His former membership in the Ku Klux Klan has been well-documented - this can either tarnish him completely or serve as an example that, yes folks...men can change for the better. I'm sure he was a preening publicity-starved loudmouth Politician like all of 'em are, and enjoyed going to his home state to bask in the love of the little people. What I am arguing is that he did a hell of alot for people who needed someone to do it for them.
I attended Wheeling College, as it was known, for a year. Good school, made some great friends, and left to be closer to a girl I later married. I've lost some of those friends along the way, some for good reasons and some just because Time Marches Ever On. The town had once been a shining city on a literal hill, 100 years before I got there. My paternal grandfather grew up in Martin's Ferry, Ohio - right across the river from Wheeling, he joined the Army to leave there but now he's buried up there, too. By 1989, the place was right outta Springsteen's "Your Hometown", a dying city. I had alot of good times, but on my gloomier days I'd feel sick and sad there, the town slowly being beaten into dusty extinction.
I hear it's better, I've not been up in years. I know that the College provides many good jobs and is a pretty good school, all the folks I knew graduated and have moved on to be bright and productive citizens. Sen. Byrd was a tremendous benefactor of the school, so they all owe him a small debt for his service, as do the citizens of West Virginia. They're the butt of alot of jokes, and have been a long time. But he looked out for them and was their Advocate when no one else was.
I especially like one of his later quotes, on his former support for segregation, but there's wisdom in the words that bears on anyone who's committed wrongs against their fellow man:
" I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times....and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened."
That's what an honest man or woman does. Stand up, take your lumps. Yep, you might have to take them over and over again. In a world where stubborn pride seems to be the behavioral norm, a little humility shines like the proverbial beacon in the dark.
Godspeed
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