Meet the Candidates in Durbin
This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Pocahontas County Democrat Womens Club luncheon. There, I spoke of where I and my family come from, and of the formative experiences that brought us into Pocahontas County 5 years ago; a collection of feelings and convictions that tell us this is our home.
Today, I want to tell you a story about reaching home to family from 650 miles away. As I've talked about before, I spent the 2 previous years working in Illinois while my wife and child stayed here, in Green Bank.
One midwest evening, my wife Monica sent me an email about this new website called etater.com. I checked it out. I couldn't believe some of the stuff on there. Yet in the weeks to come, I wouldn't believe how much of a connection it would give me to home.
Etater does have its moments. One of those moments came when a thread was started called "Why I Love It Here." Being a 650-mile-distant husband and father, I could think of a couple reasons. So I, like nearly 200 other respondents, began to write why we loved it here. I'd like to share one of those posts with you. From April of 2006. Unedited, straight from the mouth of a then unpolitical, non-candidate David Fleming:
April 19, 2006
I've thought of another reason why I love it here: the Sharp Farm. :-)
Pocahontas County is unique and beautiful for many reasons. Here's a few I have in mind: the land, the people, and the history.
Pocahontas County is like a puzzle. Some of the pieces in that puzzle are national forest/public lands, some pieces are owned by people, and still others by businesses and corporations. Pocahontas County is, to me, a magical blend of these kinds of puzzle pieces. And the blend has a balance to it that suits me pretty well.
My malfunction, as it were, is that I get disturbed by the changing of the balance too quickly. Things change, and we all adjust or whatever. But the kind of change concerning the Sharp Farm is happening in such a small area, and so quickly. To me, it's like an avalanche of greed has swept down the mountain and into the valley, the front of which is some kind of real estate machine that has its sights on any privately-owned lands in its path.
"Greed" is probably not the right word, I admit. Perhaps it's just the many-minded nature of a critical mass of influential people who, taken as a whole, are seeing too many dollar signs for what I perceive is the good of the area. Perhaps I'm just being selfish.
It hurts me to see so many "for sale" signs in that area. But I do not criticize or judge those who have sold forth their pieces of the puzzle to other interests; another's land and what they do with it is their business alone (that's the whole point to all of this). But I can, and do, hold in moral and ethical account those interests who hold not the concern of the established residents as paramount.
I think that without the people - the established residents of Pocahontas County - land is just land, and history is naught. The Sharp Farm is to me, in this period of time, a most beautiful and precious piece of the people's part of the Pocahontas County puzzle, of why land is more than land, of how history is made and kept.
This is why I love the Sharp Farm.
That was what I wrote two years ago. Then I started the website www.SaveTheSharpFarm.com.
On this issue, there is more to do. But this county commission will not do it. I welcome and support both sewage and water infrastructure for our communities as they are deemed appropriate, needed, and affordable. It's hard to argue against improving the quality of life with clean water and dependable sewer when it's done correctly. But for this project, "correctly" continues to be shunned. We deserve an approach to infrastructure that brings all stakeholders together and fully addresses the concerns of both environment and economy.
Snowshoe is a valuable part of Pocahontas County. It provides us with many jobs; my wife works at Snowshoe and we are glad to have the income. But Snowshoe isn't Pocahontas County. Snowshoe is a stakeholder. There are many stakeholders. At the end of the day, at the start of any weighty issue, know this: you, your family, your voices are the most important stakeholders of all. Always remember that. On May 13, insist that your county commission remember it also.