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Article: Hands Off Virginia; My Lovely State Doesn't Need a Despoiling Gizmo Zoo-Park
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- January 17, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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HOW MUCH do I love thee, Virginia? I can't even count the ways,
nor the persons and places. My Virginia love stretches from the wild
ponies on Chincoteague Island to the black bears hibernating in the
mountain hollows; from the sand fiddlers on Virginia Beach to the
hawks circling over Big Stone Gap. My family, friends, colleagues,
students live and die in Virginia. Only here can I, like Prospero,
give to airy nothings a local habitation and a name.
My native state is "her," not "it." My feeling for her is
complex, conscious and unconscious. But this much I know: This land
is good. I have walked on it, dug it, owned it, and I know it.
Being here is being home. Going away is missing the ...