Robert Byrd, 1917 – 2010
How will you remember Robert Byrd? As the man who was elected to the Senate before Barack Obama was born-back when Hawaii was barely a state that issued fake birth certificates, not long after the time when the KKK was a normal-seeming kind of social organization to which one might belong? As the man who built a thousand bridges, roads and tunnels for the people of West Virginia, a lifetime of steering money home that still didn't do much for the state? As the loudest, most vehement opponent to the invasion of Iraq? As a pioneer of open government? As one of the last politicians we'll ever see to have ever worked as a gas station clerk or a butcher? As a symbol that weirdly both affirms and refutes the popular (and possibly wrong!) idea that we all just have to wait for the older, bigoted generations to die off so that we can live in a better world?
He was old-timey, all right.
In 1971 it was estimated that it would cost $250 million to repair what strip mining did to WV's environment, which is still one of the most polluted states in the country. And miners are still dying in WV in this century.
He was good for steering money home, but WV still has one of the lowest rates of literacy.
On the one hand, it's a state with plenty of washing machines. On the other, they're usually used as lawn ornaments.
As proof that the fossilizing, the senile, and the demented have a pivotal role in our government?
Looks like the fossilizing didn't take.
That's how I want to go: by being remembered well in only one state.
Still better than most people get.
Countdown to revelation of secret black baby in 10,9,8….
West Virginia's next Senator? Jesco White. http://bit.ly/18oi6O
But we still have Foghorn Leghorn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTwnwbG9YLE
A major disappointment is that I've never been able to scan my circa 1981 Congressional guidebook (gift of Joseph A. Florio!) with a photo of Robert Byrd and Zimbawbe dictator Robert Mugabe.
It is my very own Elvis meets Nixon.
"Of course, Byrd has been an unapologetic supporter of mountaintop removal. A decade ago, he led the West Virginia congressional delegation's efforts to overturn U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II's ruling that blocked valley fills."
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/06/16/whats-sen-byrd-up-to-on-mountaintop-removal/