Democrat Womens Club

My speech presented at the Pocahontas County Democrat Womens Club

Note: some of the material herein was used in an earlier writing of mine. But that’s okay—I give myself permission to do so. ;-)

I grew up on a small farm down in Spanishburg, in Mercer County. I’m the youngest of six; 3 boys, 3 girls. Whole family alive and doing well. We raised sheep, chickens, a few steers here and there. Hogs a few times. My mom loved raising sheep, especially. Only a couple of years ago did my folks decide it was time to sell off the stock; they’re getting up in their years.

After high school, I went to Concord College right next door in Athens. That’s where Monica and I met. After graduation I went to WVU for a Masters and PhD in Computer Science; Monica also went to WVU and earned a Masters in Geography. She finished up in 1994 and worked for a few years in Guthrie, north of Charleston at the Department of Agriculture on the Gypsy Moth project. I finished up school in 1997 and we both returned to Concord College to work, she as an adjunct instructor and I as an assistant professor. We did that for 5 years, during which time our daughter Maddy was born. In 2003, I took a job up here at the NRAO as a software engineer and we moved on in. We had discovered Pocahontas County over the course of a few summers while I was working at Concord; I attended some teacher workshops sponsored by the NRAO. We also found that we wanted to live here.

We quickly fell into place. Growing up on a small farm in Spanishburg, being here for me was a lot like that only bigger and quieter. Monica, having worked with K-9 search and rescue efforts elsewhere, found that the BFD in Durbin was a good place to get involved. She also got hired on in the health clinic at Snowshoe, her skills lending well to the team’s task of fixing up broken skiers. And Maddy, well she had the biggest back yard any young’un could hope for in the Monongahela National Forest.

As part of life setting in, the NRAO was experiencing some growing pains as it adapted to funding cuts and restructuring of its management. After a couple of years, I no longer enjoyed the work I was doing. So in 2005, I left the NRAO for the University of Illinois on related but personally more interesting work. By this time, we were well settled into Green Bank, Maddy loving school and friends. We were becoming part of the fabric of the community. Being West Virginian all my life, I was asking, Illinois? We decided the best thing to do was for me to go out there and get settled in, let Maddy finish out the school year, and so on. So I went to Champaign, Illinois while Monica and Maddy stayed home in Green Bank. Two years went by. But the pull of Pocahontas County would prove too strong, and after those 2 years I’m glad to be back home running a fledgling website design business.

While in Illinois, outside of work I spent my time missing family and thinking of home. Everything about West Virginia became more important to me. Anything affecting families became important to pay attention to. Primed with this state of mind, two events happened in early 2006 that drove the point home: Sago and Slatyfork.

When twelve miners lost their lives on January 2, 2006 in the Sago mine disaster, families lost sons, husbands, and fathers. As a husband and father, instantly there was nothing of more value to me than my own family. Likewise, when news spread that the land of a Pocahontas County family would be seized by eminent domain for a highly suspect reason, all Pocahontas’ families lost the promise that what had been earned and kept over generations actually belonged to them and theirs. As a family earning our own way in Pocahontas County, there was a need to stand up and defend this promise. So a couple of years back I started the website www.SaveTheSharpFarm.com and began lending my energy, efforts, and writing to the defense of a threatened way of life right here at home.

Much faces this county besides eminent domain abuse. As luxury and second home development progress, we struggle to recall who we are and to understand just what kind of community we have and want. As wind power blows in our ear, we are reminded how outside speculative interests continue, always, to want to profit from our unique geography and leave the tab on our front yard. As development and growth continue, we are called back to our moral responsibility to safeguard our farms, streams, and valleys by pursuing nothing less than the best we can do to simultaneously prosper and protect. We are called to emphasize the rights of our families to keep their lands and way of life, to nurture the hope that our own children will be able to do so in the future.

Not just here in Pocahontas County, but for the nation people are looking towards change. Obama carries a message of hope and unity, and Clinton nailed it when she stated, “We’ve got a lot of repair work to do.”

This is a great time for our country. But I’ve heard it said, isn’t it a shame that on the Democratic side all we have to choose from is a black man and a woman. The last time I checked, our constitution and guiding principles were founded precisely upon such a “shameful” view. The last time I checked, our elected officials, judges, citizens and soldiers upheld and fought for this “shameful” view. No, it is not shameful, it is hopeful. This country has gone many years towards the goal of allowing, of having just this kind of choice to make. To see such a choice before us right now, in 2008, speaks very highly to openness, speaks very loudly of victory of the will of a people.

This is an open time in American politics, an intelligent and courteous age where candidates on both parties emphasize respect and admiration for one another’s devotion to this country and our democracy. This open, intelligent, and honest approach to solving problems can have its time right here in Pocahontas County too; right now can be that time.

Pocahontas County has arguably the most beautiful streams, mountains and valleys in all of West Virginia. She has some of the oldest farms and longest-lived families. She is the foundation that, while never easy to live in, makes our ways of life here worth living.

Pocahontas County deserves an honest, open, and intelligent treatment on the issues facing us right here at home; and many of these issues come before the Pocahontas County Commission. We need a commissioner that embodies and promotes these qualities for the will of the community. We need a commissioner that can and will listen. We need a commissioner who seeks to nurture our history and heritage while at the same time offers a fresh, hopeful, and complementary vision of the future that unfolds before us.

In the weeks and months ahead, people across America will continue to voice their will for change in many offices across this country. On May 13, Pocahontas County will begin to make its voice heard. On May 13, vote for the kind of change, honesty, and hope that I speak of. On May 13, vote for David March Fleming. Thank you.