2017

When people ask how everything's going, I usually say "My life is great, but the world is coming to an end." I have the usual complaints: ten prescriptions, twenty extra pounds, not as cute as I used to be, and a life expectancy of... better not go there.

But I have a solid marriage to a handsome and smart man who puts up with me, we own a house that will be paid for when I'm ninety-five, we own two cars and a cat who loves us. The cars are six and seventeen years old, but we have them. We traveled together to Canada this summer, visiting Montréal, Québec and Ottawa. We were able to attend a wedding of the son of Joe's best friend from high school in New York, and a few days later, we flew to Memphis to spend Thanksgiving with Joe's aunt and uncle, his sister and brother and lots of cousins. We didn't have political tensions with the relatives because we are all on the same page. I only embarrassed Joe's Aunt Natalie by pointing out that Joe and I are married when she called us "my nephews." We spent time with my sister, both here and at her home in Greenbelt, Maryland, and on one visit with her, I attended my high school class's fiftieth reunion. It was there that I saw commonalities with people whose lives and views are different from mine, but with whom I shared life in a different century, a different world.

As to the world, there is climate change, there is the current President of the Confederacy, I mean, the United States. It's easy to get confused that way.

In 2016, I ran for a seat in the West Virginia Legislature. I came in eighth of eight candidates in the Democratic primary. The first five candidates made it to the general election. This year, some political people asked me about running for City Council. I found that I had more friends than I knew in the city, and not just the people who helped with the campaign. The election was at the end of April, and we were installed in early July. I have become friends with all the other Councilors, and although we disagree about some specific things, we are generally in agreement about broad goals for Morgantown. We signed on to the Paris Climate Accords, and voted for a Human Rights Ordnance that includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

I was able to continue my goal of visiting one county per month, within three hundred miles of Morgantown in any state. The cities I visited were Lynchburg, Virginia, Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, Denton, Maryland, Bowling Green, Virginia, Westminster, Maryland, Carrollton, Ohio, Galax, Virginia, Grayson, Kentucky, Olean, New York, State College, Pennsylvania and Urbana, Ohio. Although I was worried about visiting places that voted heavily Republican in 2016, I never had any problems. Part of that is that I traveled to these places alone, I'm older, I can pass for white, and can adjust my speech to a local accent. I do understand what "privilege" means.

Joe and I have both been teaching at OLLI, Osher Life-Long Learning, affiliated with WVU's School of Public Health. Joe's Bible classes are well-attended by an enthusiastic mix of seniors, as are my classes, which this year have covered pop music in 1962, 1963 and 1964. Last winter, I taught a four-week session called "Bruce Springsteen is 67." I've learned lots from my research, and my students, most of whom graduated high school in the 1960s, love going back in time.

Our life here is good. We can live comfortably on our income, Joe is healthy, I'm stable, and we are recognized in town, and respected by our constituencies, if not by everyone in Monongalia County.

Our challenge is to keep going. It's no secret that our Jewish community in Morgantown is aging, as are we, and our cars. The United States government has made itself the enemy of liberals generally, and of gay people in particular, and we must be vigilant and hopeful for the future. I make it a point to attend demonstrations about healthcare, about immigrant rights, including pro-Dreamer and anti-immigrant ban events. I spoke in Charleston last month against the EPA's proposal to scrap the
Clean Power Plan.

My usual resolutions are to lose twenty pounds, and to clean up and organize the house. I have lost a few pounds this year, very few, and I'm working on organizing paper at home. In light of the scandals this year around sexual harassment, I have promised to stop ogling HYMs (Handsome Young Men). I've been harmless for quite some time, but that doesn't stop me from checking out someone attractive from head-to-toe, or even flirting. I'm cutting that out. I can see that it is unwelcome, disrespectful to my husband, and makes me look foolish. If I can find a way, I will tell my age 70ish straight male friends to cut it out with young women as well.

I remain optimistic, at least for the short term. I might feel differently if I were twenty-eight instead of sixty-eight. We all need to work together for change.

Here are some pics:

Monument Steps, Lynchburg, Virginia, January

A nighttime demonstration at WVU, January

Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, during "Winterfest," only it was 65 F., February

Speaking at a candidate forum, February

At "Everyone Is Welcome" day at West Virginia's State Capitol, with Joe and Alexandra Kadner, March

19th century schoolhouse, Denton, Maryland, March

At Morgantown High's production of "Hello, Dolly!" with our friend and cast member, Sarah, April

The new Morgantown City Council, with the City Clerk on the far left, May

Caroline County, Virginia Courthouse, Bowling Green, May This is where the Lovings were tried for having an interracial marriage

Main St., Westminster, Maryland, June

Asking  Senator Shelley Moore Capito not to "waffle" on healthcare, June

We saw Senator Bernie Sanders speak in Charleston, June

Joe and I with my sister Robin at Cheat Lake Park on July 4

Along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Carroll County, Virginia, July

Joe in Montréal, August

Québec City, August

Ottawa, August

Prayer Service at Coopers Rock Overlook with Rabbi Joe and members of Tree of Life

With our friends Jerryl Lynn and Amanda, visiting us from Eureka, California, September

Olean, New York, September

An enthusiastic crowd on our first reading of the Human Rights Commission Ordinance, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity, October

at Woodlawn High's 50th reunion, Columbia, MD, October, with friends, some from elementary school

                         

Elk Point Lighthouse, Cecil County, Maryland, October

High Street, Bellefonte, Centre County, PA, November

With Larry Siegel in Tappan, New York. We have been friends since January 1950, November

At a formal wedding, New City, New York, November

Joe, his brother Henry and sister Martha, Memphis, November

Round barn, Urbana, Ohio, December

Joe speaking at a demonstration for gun control in downtown Morgantown, December with Morgantown's Interfaith Association

Champaign County, Ohio

This was another of those trips I didn't think would work out. We've had a cold spell the last few days, after a ridiculously warm autumn, and it was supposed to snow Sunday and Tuesday, my two travel days. We were in New City, New York and Memphis, and I spent twenty-five hours in Centre County, Pennsylvania and an afternoon in Pittsburgh last month, and, in this county, more than sixty-nine per cent of the voters last year went for the Republican nominee.  That last has become more important to me this year, as this administration does more and more horrible things. Still, I've managed to visit sixty-five counties since we came to Morgantown in July of 2012, and it doesn't seem to be the time to give up.  The original plan was to get to know what this part of the country is like, for better or worse, and unless one is near Washington or Philadelphia, the people around here were likely to vote for that guy.

Champaign County is west and a little north of here, 248 miles from Morgantown to Urbana, the largest city in Champaign County. There is a Champaign-Urbana in Illinois, which I found confusing. The 2010 census lists about 40,000 people in the county, 12,000 in Urbana, 2,000 in St. Paris and 1,600 in Mechanicsburg. The rest live in smaller towns or on farms. This is a relatively small county in area, less than an hour west of Columbus and north of Dayton.

I didn't see a lot of African-Americans in Champaign County, although there is the A.M.E. Church, still active. There are historic markers around Mechanicsburg, about abolitionists who hid runaway slaves and how marshals from Kentucky who chased down slaves were themselves arrested.

I was surprised at how nice the people were here. Maybe I need to be less judgemental about people who would vote Republican (I hear Rabbi Joe say "Ya think?") Clerks in the stores were not only polite, but joked with me.

Sure, there were signs. At the motel, there were Jehovah's Witness pamphlets around, and many of the churches had big anti-abortion signs in front of them. There doesn't appear to be much of an economy in the county, and in Mechanicsburg particularly, a pretty and historic town, most of the center of the town was empty.

There is a Wal-Mart and a fancier Kroger store on the east end of Urbana. That's about it. Springfield, a city of 60,000, in Clark County, is only fifteen miles away. I plan to visit there next summer. I guess that's where everything is.

The snow Sunday fizzled, only leaving cold weather, 29-31 F. most of the way. I stopped at the Chinese buffet, one of the best of those, in Zanesville, Ohio, between Wheeling and Columbus. I arrived in Urban about 3 and decided to look around before checking in to the motel, the cheap one from the Usual Chain. I discovered a single-screen downtown movie theater, and thought to do that in the evening, only the last show was 5:30. I slept about 20 minutes at the motel, and headed out to see "Wonder" at the Gloria Theater. It was built for stage shows in the early twentieth century, became a movie theater in 1942, then a double theater, then closed. A foundation, partly faith-based, is restoring it .

"Wonder" is a tear jerker, with the unlikely pair of Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson living  in fantasy Brooklyn, in a brownstone that would be worth a zillion dollars, raising a teenage daughter and a son with facial deformities. It was entertaining, but sentimental pap, and there were a few holes in the story. Still, the kids were great, and I liked Mandy Patinkin as the school principal. Much of it was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, which I guess looks better than Brooklyn.

 I stopped  at Kroger after the movie for some "Detox Salad," a bagel and a banana for dinner in the room. I had managed to find seven of the eight places on the National Register in Urbana, including Urbana University, founded by members of the Swedenborgian Church, and home to The Johnny Appleseed Museum, which was closed on Sunday.

I got out after nine Monday morning. It was alternately sunny and cloudy, and the temperature went above freezing. Not by much. I probably passed by a native burial mound without noticing it, then spent the rest of the morning in Mechanicsburg, ten miles southeast of Urbana, where there are twenty places on the National Register. I found all of them, then headed back to Urbana for lunch. Near my motel I had noticed a diner, called "Rockin' Robin." Since it was named for a great old soul song, and because December 11 is my sister Robin's birthday, I thought I'd give it a chance. It's small and shabby and was moved from a suburb of Dayton a few years ago. The current ownership is relatively new, and they close at 2 P.M. I opted for breakfast, and had two eggs with mushrooms and tomato, and toast. Bagels were on the menu, but no bagels. A skinny guy in a Notre Dame t-shirt cooked, there was an older woman setting up, and a young woman taking orders. The older woman asked if I had been there before, and when I told her I had never been in Urbana, she offered me a free sundae. The young girl is graduating from Ohio State in Columbus and is going back to grad school in January.

I visited St. Paris, a pretty town to the west of Urbana, and Mt. Tabor Church in Salem township, north of Urbana. I found the last of the eight historic sites in Urbana and was back at the motel just after three. I slept over an hour.

I looked at Trip Advisor to find a place for dinner and didn't find anything interesting. I looked up "Subway" and figured I'd go there. I stopped to get gas, and picked up snacks at Kroger.

I drove back Tuesday, leaving in snow before 8 A.M., because the weather forecast was for snow, wind and bitter cold.  Chanukkah started at sunset.I was home before 1. There were some flurries, but nothing threatening.

I have a lot of pictures. I'm just going to post a few of them. In addition to the places on the National Register, there are many beautiful old farmhouses and churches not listed.

Urbana Monument Square Historic District

Champaign County Court House, Urbana

Home of the Johnny Appleseed Museum, Urbana University

John Quincy Adams Ward House, 1820, Urbana

Gloria Cinema, marquee from 1942, Urbana

St. Paul's A.M.E. Church, 1866-77, Urbana

Mechanicsburg Baptist Church, 1858

Masonic Temple, early 20th century, Mechanicsburg

Mechanicsburg Commercial Historic District

Dr. Orem Nincehelser House, 1893, Mechanicsburg

Norvall Hunter Farm, 1850, just south of Mechanicsburg

Monitor House, about 1860, St. Paris

St. Paris Business District. Not much going on

Mt. Tabor Methodist Episcopal Church, church goes back to 1814, this building is from1881, Salem Township

Nutwood Place Farm Complex, Urbana. Round barn is from 1861

The Clean Power Plan

Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day in West Virginia, sunny and 65 F. in Morgantown. Of course, a "typical" November 28 has a high of 48, and it's typically overcast and damp. Climate change has possibly been good for us, maybe not good for the trees and agricultural products.

The President wants to repeal The Clean Power Plan, which would require West Virginia to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2025. The EPA head, Scott Pruitt, now denies that the climate is changing. He is from Oklahoma and a puppet of the extractive industries there. So to make sure everyone in the public had a chance to speak about this proposed repeal, EPA planned one hearing in the whole country that the public could attend, over two days, in Charleston, West Virginia, the state where I live. We elected a Democratic governor, who met with  the US President and became a Republican. All the Republicans and many of the Democrats and leaders of unions here are in the pockets of the coal industry.

I'm on the Council of the one city in West Virginia that agreed to follow the Paris Climate Accords, so I decided to go and testify in Charleston, 165 miles from home.. One could sign up for Tuesday or Wednesday, and thinking "Let's get this over with on Tuesday," forgetting that I had a 5:30 City Council meeting that day, I signed up. They sent back an e-mail saying I would go on between 2 and 2:30 P.M. Tuesday.

I had it all worked out, down to the CDs I would take in the car (Beck's "Midnite Vultures," the first Christina Aguilera album, "Ragged Glory" by Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and Nelly's Country Grammar)". I had to leave about 9:30, have lunch at the Subway in Elkview, just north of Charleston, which was closed because of a washed-out bridge for over a year, thanks to climate-related flooding last year. I would arrive about one, park, find which of three possible rooms I would be in, and be ready to go by 1:30. I brought extra copies of what I planned to say. We were given five minutes; my speech would be three. I put on a suit, and found I couldn't button my collar: too fat, or just my old-guy neck in the way.

All of that happened. I checked in early, and the EPA staffer asked if I would be willing to speak early. I thanked her, and said that would be helpful. They called up two people at a time from the people waiting to speak. Our audience was Cosimo Servidio, the EPA Administrator in our district, and two other staffers. They didn't react to what anyone said.

I wasn't called right away, and they took a fifteen-minute break at 2:30. I asked a staffer if I could be called soon, because I was scheduled before 2:30, and I had to get back. She spoke to someone, and I was first at 2:45.

Most of the people I heard were in favor of keeping the Clean Power Plan, including religious groups talking about caring for the planet, scientists speaking about the health effects of carbon emissions, and civil rights groups who explained that power plants are more likely to be built in minority communities, with negative health outcomes for those communities.

The people I heard speak in favor of abolishing the plan included a coal miner ("I'm a coal miner, my father was a coal miner, and I'm proud to say my son is a coal miner. And I'm not paid like all these people who oppose repealing the plan."), and the head of the Illinois Coal Association, saying the Clean Power Plan would be an economic disaster for all of Illinois, except those liberals in Chicago. I heard later that Bob Murray, of Murray Coal Company, spoke first and brought a cadre of coal miners with him. Murray was a major donor to the current President's campaign.

Here's what I said:

"Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to speak here today about the Clean Power Plan. I am Barry Lee Wendell. I live in Morgantown, where I have been on the city council  since July 1 of this year. I do not speak for everyone on the Council; this is my own testimony.

"Climate change harms our communities. Scientists have predicted that with rising ocean temperatures, storms will be more severe.This year, we saw  hurricanes that hit Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico with unprecedented force.  In West Virginia, there were floods in Wetzel County, and in my own Monongalia County; last year there was severe flooding in Greenbrier, Kanawha and Clay Counties. Every nation in the world has signed on to the Paris Climate Accords, only this administration in our country wants to pull out of it. Many politicians in West Virginia are climate skeptics, and while most claim to be sincere in their beliefs, the amount of money the coal industry pours into their campaign coffers makes that assertion dubious, at best. The current City Council in Morgantown, at the behest of our Green Team, has signed our city to the Paris Climate Accords, not to thumb our noses at the national Administration, our Senators and Congressional representatives (that is just an added bonus), but to help save the planet.

"From Morgantown one can see the plumes of steam from the two coal-fired power plants at the north end of our county, and from my home, I can often smell the emissions from these plants.

"One coal mogul in West Virginia was jailed for safety violations in his mines that led to the death of coal miners; another has been fined. Some coal companies refuse to release medical information from their own doctors in order to deny black lung benefits to miners. Safety regulations have been gutted thanks to our feckless state legislators, and I read in The Charleston Gazette-Mail that Congressman Mooney introduced a bill to overturn the rule that coal companies have to release records of safety violations to stockholders. As companies declare bankruptcy due to falling prices and corporate malfeasance, miners and retired miners are left with no pension and no health insurance. This is an industry that badly needs reform, and yet, it is being coddled by the United States President because coal mine owners are big campaign contributors and have his ear. The President’s rhetoric will not bring back coal jobs.

"The Environmental Protection Agency was founded under Richard Nixon as a bipartisan effort to clean the water and air in the United States. Scott Pruitt, the current head of the agency, wants to return us to the days of toxic smog and flaming rivers to benefit the oil, gas, and coal industries that support him and the President.

 "I want everyone in West Virginia to have access to  clean air and clean water. To accomplish this, and also to grow our state’s economy, we need to look to the future. We can appreciate the past and honor it, but we cannot live there.  The Clean  Power Plan is forward-looking, will create new jobs, and can be implemented  in West Virginia. I absolutely support it.

"Barry Lee Wendell
Morgantown, WV "



I only added to this that I was not paid to be there.

The woman called up with me was from the NAACP. She said many of the same things I said, and also that most coal-fired plants are located in minority communities. She gave specifics about rates of asthma in children, and other negative health effects of coal-fired plants.

Three women who came down from Morgantown on a bus with the Sierra Club greeted me, and I thanked them for coming. I brought my Council cards, and several people asked for them. I was nervous at first when I spoke, talking to an EPA big-wig, but I got into it, remembered my acting training, slowed down, spoke clearly and looked up. It went well.

I was out by three and had eighteen minutes left on my parking meter. I  bought gas at the convenience store/gas station across the street from West Virginia's Capitol, and bought a bag of trail mix (5 servings of nuts and dried fruit). I made it to City Council 12 minutes late. We had two meetings back-to back, and Christine Wallace, wife of Councilor Ryan Wallace, brought us some yummy vegetarian food for between the meetings. The second meeting lasted until 10:30. I came home and screamed at Joe about the meeting for fifteen minutes, then fell deeply asleep.

Wednesday I only went out of the house to walk for an hour in the afternoon. I needed to decompress. I couldn't make myself do anything. I thought this whole hearing was a scam. The EPA under Pruitt is totally owned by the oil, gas and coal industries and what we say may not have any impact. But at least we said it.

By Thursday morning, Hoppy Kercheval, a Republican commentator on radio and in newspapers, was crowing about how West Virginia finally got a chance to defend its coal industry. He didn't say that most of the speakers at the two-day hearing opposed repealing the Plan. That's how they do. Confronted by evidence, they ignore it.

West Virginia's Sate Capitol building, Charleston, 3 P.M. 11/28, 66 F.