Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990 TAG: 9005270102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
"They are people who have not held elective office anywhere," he said. "They are usually theoreticians. . . . If they believe that, they should give up believing the nation has any future whatsoever."
At a recent Harvard University conference on "Race, Politics and the Press," a Harvard scholar on black politics termed Wilder's election "an oddity," and other participants said it stemmed from an unusual combination of circumstances unlikely elsewhere.
"Where were these persons in 1985 . . . " when he was elected lieutenant governor, Wilder said. "I guess they would call that an oddity . . . I don't," he said. "If I had listened to what people like that had to say, I would never have won."
Wilder helped Wythe County celebrate its 200th birthday as grand marshal of Saturday's bicentennial parade, and he spoke Saturday morning at Bluefield College's 68th graduation.
Bluefield Mayor Cecile S. Barrett told Wilder they had firsts in common. She is the town's first woman mayor.
"Too few people can understand the great progress we've made in our state," Wilder, speaking on economic development, told a crowd at the parade. "And I say to them, `Why not Virginia?' "
In both his commencement speech and an interview, Wilder said he is working to end economic and educational disparities throughout Virginia.
"Of what value is a college education . . . if the community does not have sufficient industry" to provide jobs? "It shouldn't be like that."
Wilder told graduates that providing equal funding for education will help Virginia's neglected rural communities achieve the same economic success as the state's urban areas.
Like free speech and religion rights, he said, "each individual in this nation also has a fundamental right to a quality education.
"Education is the greatest of all social equalizers - it is the very soul of economic opportunity," Wilder told the 48 graduating seniors.
"This nation's educational system is seriously flawed when some schools can't afford to buy a handful of computers while others have little problem finding the money for a 5,000-seat gymnasium."
Wilder assured the Southwest Virginians in the graduating class and in the audience that late this summer he will convene the state's first Rural Economic Development Conference. He said the conference will "bring together leaders from the private and public sectors to develop comprehensive strategies for revitalizing communities in need throughout rural Virginia."
"While it may be financially rewarding to have a sound education and a good job, how rewarding are these advantages in life when in order to take that high-paying job many of you must be uprooted and forced to move from the communities in which you may have spent your entire lives?"
Wilder wondered if the graduates were moved to prayer as he was at his own graduation, "praying that the commencement speaker wouldn't talk forever . . . I don't have the answer to many prayers, but that one I can help you with," he said, finishing in 12 minutes.
The Associated Press contributed information for this story.
by CNB