{"id":1300,"date":"2014-09-22T21:46:39","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T01:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2014-09-22T21:46:39","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T01:46:39","slug":"ken-hechler-celebrates-100th-birthday-says-a-win-for-brenda-hutchinson-would-be-a-victory-for-the-people-everywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1300","title":{"rendered":"Ken Hechler Celebrates 100th Birthday, Says A Win for Brenda Hutchinson Would be \u201cA Victory for the People Everywhere\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ken Hechler, an iconic figure in West Virginia politics, celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday in Romney, West Virginia before a crowd of well wishers.<\/p>\n<p>From 1958 to 1977, Hechler was a member of Congress.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/ken.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-1299\" title=\"ken\" src=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/ken-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While in Congress, Hechler was a strong advocate for coal mine health and safety and for environmental protection. Hechler was the only member of Congress to march with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama in 1965.<\/p>\n<p>He was West Virginia Secretary of State from 1985 to 2001.<\/p>\n<p>In 2009, at age 94, Hechler was arrested with actress Daryl Hannah and others protesting mountaintop removal mining.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/mtr.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1301\" title=\"mtr\" src=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/mtr.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"228\" height=\"221\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">And Sunday, Hechler met with Independent Brenda Hutchinson who is running against Republican Daryl Cowles for House of Delegates in District 58 &#8212; a district that includes parts of Morgan and Hampshire counties. There is no Democrat in the race.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Hutchinson is opposed to mountaintop removal mining, fracking and is for raising the minimum wage.<\/p>\n<p>Cowles, the House minority whip, favors mountaintop removal mining and fracking &#8212; and is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legis.state.wv.us\/legisdocs\/2014\/RS\/votes\/house\/00059.pdf\">one of only five members of the 100 member House of Delegates<\/a> who voted earlier this year against a $1.50 raise in the West Virginia minimum wage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very much in favor of raising the minimum wage,\u201d Hechler said. \u201cI\u2019m very much against fracking and I\u2019m very much against mountaintop removal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI very much hope [Brenda Hutchinson] wins because those are very important issues\u201d Hechler said. \u201cIt will be a victory for the people everywhere if she were to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Hutchinson, Hechler said &#8212; \u201cit\u2019s very important that the people know where you stand on these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1nzCBovk-24\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Hutchinson reassured Hechler that she was taking a strong position on the issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get signs out everywhere,\u201d Hutchinson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got rack cards that say that I\u2019m against mountaintop removal and against fracking and for the minimum wage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During his remarks to the crowd gathered at the South Branch Inn to celebrate his birthday, Hechler said that every public official should be guided by the principle of one word &#8212; \u201cand that word is justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be a Supreme Court judge to be called a justice,\u201d Hechler said. \u201cYou can practice justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe principle of justice should be the guiding north star of every public official,\u201d Hechler said.<\/p>\n<p>Hechler said that when he was a member of Congress, one day a week he would answer his own office phone.<\/p>\n<p>And he would also regularly hold an open air gathering outside of a post office in his district.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would put up a big sign that says &#8212; Ken Hechler, Open Air Office Hours, Come and Speak to Me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In August 2013, at age 99, Hechler was married for the first time to his long time partner Carol.<\/p>\n<p>Carol Hechler wrote a letter to Hechler for his 100th birthday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told Ken I finally figured out why he was a great politician,\u201d Carol wrote to her husband. \u201cIt\u2019s because he didn\u2019t play the game. Ken wasn\u2019t running for office in order to become a powerful politician. He was running for office to do what he does best \u2013 be a true<br \/>\npublic servant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA friend told me the other day that Ken was the only person he ever knew who could walk down the street in Huntington and call everyone he met by name. I think it goes deeper than a knack for remembering. He remembered their names because they were the people who entrusted him to be their voice in Congress, and this was not something he took lightly. He worked very long days ensuring he was representing his constituents to the best of his ability. I\u2019ve noticed in my \u2018short\u2019 life that during election time when those running for office\u00a0are out trying to win votes, the voters get overwhelmed with attention. After the election, most of those we\u2019ve elected hide behind staffers who field their calls only to have yet another staffer return the call with an apology as to why the elected official didn\u2019t return it personally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t tell you the number of times over the years that I walked in the Secretary of State\u2019s office to find Ken on the phone with a concerned citizen as I waited patiently to go to lunch,\u201d Carol Hechler wrote. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t one of his staff returning the call. It was Ken. These people elected him time and time again because he made time for them not just during the campaign but each and every day between those elections. He\u2019s raised the bar very high for any elected official, but that is a bar that each of them should strive to meet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hechler brought down the house a number of times on Sunday, most notably after the Mayor of Romney read a ten minute proclamation, reading through <a href=\"http:\/\/media.charlestondailymail.com\/hechler100.html\">the highlights of Hechler\u2019s illustrious career.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>After the Mayor finished, Hechler took the microphone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Mayor,\u201d Hechler said. \u201cThat reminds me of something Adlai Stevenson told me once. \u201cHe told me &#8212; flattery is all right as long as you don\u2019t inhale.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ken Hechler, an iconic figure in West Virginia politics, celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday in Romney, West Virginia before a crowd of well wishers. From 1958 to 1977, Hechler was a member of Congress. While in Congress, Hechler was a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1300\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}