Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 3, 1994 TAG: 9404040004
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ABINGDON LENGTH: Medium
"We've always misinterpreted short-term growth for true long-term sustainable development," the prominent Appalachian historian said Saturday.
In a region haunted by lost natural resources, it's little wonder those proposals stir such anxiety, he said.
Yet Eller told a crowd of about 90 gathered at the first Symposium on the History and Culture of Southwest Virginia that lack of regional foresight is the greatest threat.
"It's not the projects that's the problem, it's the process. We've had no long-term community-based process."
Eller, director of the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky, keynoted the event by challenging modern residents to re-adopt the spirit of Appalachian pioneers.
"They were self-reliant with a clear collective conscience," he said. "We can regain what we've lost."
Forces of modernization have weakened traditional Appalachian ties of kinship and community, Eller said.
To keep the circle unbroken, residents of the region need to gather, talk and share their ideas of what their community should be, he said.
"We've lost our knowledge of how a democracy works. We've allowed decisions to be made for us by someone else. Appalachia will not be rebuilt from outside. Revitalization must come from within."
Instead of a backward region, Appalachia is "a microcosm of the issues and struggles that face the rest of the nation."
Eller said he was told by a grade-school teacher that he needed to renounce his Appalachian heritage if he wanted to succeed.
"Now we're beyond that. We have pride in our history. We understand where we came from," he said.
Negative images of Appalachia as a land of poverty and ignorance are persistent yet inaccurate, Jean Haskell Speer told the gathering.
"We carry a lot of cultural baggage. But perceptions are changing," Speer said.
She told of seeing a recent report on network television about Blacksburg's new Electronic Village communications network.
"The narrator said you could see the 21st century from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. That had to blow some people's minds," said Speer, a former Virginia Tech faculty member who now directs the Center for Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University.
The growing field of Appalachian studies was exemplified by Saturday's regional forum, which was held at Virginia Highlands Community College.
Throughout the day, sessions were conducted on Appalachian topics ranging from music, crafts, architecture and history to agriculture, industry and religion.
The event was organized by the Southwest Regional Historic Council and funded by a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy.
Organizers said they were pleased by the turnout. "We're hoping to have a forum so that people interested in the region can get to know each other," said Paul Witkowski, a Radford University professor.
by CNB