Byrd dies

WASHINGTON — Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.
I did some research on him a few years back, a family member James Furry's Mother was a Byrd and so I looked at the most famous Byrd for him. Robert Byrd wasn't born a Byrd he got the name from the family who raised him. He was Cornelious Calvin Sale Jr. at birth his mother died when he was 1 year old and his aunt and uncle, Titus and Vlurma Byrd raised him Naming him Robert C. Byrd.

He was truly a son of West Virginia having been a member of the KKK at one time and then taking up the mantle of civil right when it became the popular thing to do. I think he was like most in our government being for what would get him elected and against what wouldn't . There is no doubt he served his state well. Not long ago a Republican brought a bill to vote in the middle of the night because Byrd was ill and they hoped he wouldn't show up for the vote. lost cause, Byrd was present he was wheeled in by an aid casted his vote and went home to bed.

In 1997 he said in an interview he encouraged all young people to get involved in politics but to avoid the KKK, he said don't get that albatross around your neck. I have apologise a thousand times and I don't mind apologising again and again but I can't erase what happened. He said he was affected with tunnel vision and thought joined the KKK would help him in his ambitions. It probably did at that time.