Trending
Hearing Ethan Reese read his essay and seeing him light the Capitol Christmas Tree on Tuesday was a delightful affirmation of the fact that students are doing many things well in our schools. Ethan is a fourth grader at Beverly Elementary School, and his winning essay is a credit to his family, his school, and West Virginia.
I liked the fact that Ethan is proud of his family heritage, and that he values the importance of studying nature academically. First of all Ethan pointed out that his great, great grandfather Arthur Woods was appointed supervisor of the Monongahela National Forest in 1931.
Next he noted that his family loved to go camping and hiking in the woods and that his forefathers were biologists and botanists. His love of nature is both personal and scientific. He enjoys going on wildflower walks and watching birds, but he recognizes that we need to protect our public lands as precious places for the next generation to visit.
After reading his essay, Ethan was clearly eager to light the 63-foot tall tree, but he was willing to count down with Mike Johnson the Speaker of the House.
It was fun to see a little person who had such confidence, but he was not the only West Virginia student who performed well.
The Lumberjack Express Richwood High School band was full of plucky musicians who braved the cold to play in Washington, D.C. Director Greg James brought the Richwood band to the first Capitol Christmas Tree lighting when he was a new band director thirty some years ago. Now he is trying to keep the band together after the instrument room was destroyed by flood, and he is fighting cancer.
Of course, all the West Virginia Congressional Delegation was there and each elected official needed to say something.
Senators Capito and Manchin said a few words; then Representatives Miller and Mooney added a line or two, but they were clearly not as familiar with the Monongahela National Forest as Ethan Reese.
We live in a place that offers many answers to current problems. We have an opportunity to make young people more aware of the value of trees as our best natural protection against global warming. Our forest plants are naturally balanced and may be useful in the place of harsh pharmaceutical chemicals that can be harmful to the body, and we have space here to accept immigrants since we have been losing population for 50 years. Finally, we can find peace and quiet in the woods when the news reports are just too upsetting.
At the end of the day, the light of the Capitol Christmas Tree gleamed in all its glory on Tuesday beside our national capitol, and I was reminded of the Bible quotation, "And a little child shall lead them" (Isaiah 11:6).