The Morgantowner: October 2018

I am the spouse of the rabbi here in Morgantown, West Virginia, Joseph Hample, "Rabbi Joe." Our congregation is called "Tree of Life"; we are eighty miles south, an hour and a half drive, from Tree of Life in Pittsburgh. The news tonight is that eleven people were murdered by a man at this morning's service in Pittsburgh.

I was at a meeting today with City Councilors and other local officials and the three men on the Monongalia County Commission. I am on Morgantown's City Council. Rabbi Joe has Torah study every Saturday, which I don't attend. I got the news from one of the Commissioners about the shooting.I stepped out of my meeting and called Joe to tell him the news. I tried to concentrate on the meeting, but I was too freaked, and left early to be home with my husband.

This wasn't the first time I was upset about an event in another Jewish community. Last summer, Nazis carrying swastika flags and guns demonstrated in front of the synagogue in Charlottesville, Virginia, about 230 miles from Morgantown, over the mountains. They have a small synagogue on a main street in the middle of a college town, just as we have. I was already on the City Council and suggested we have a plan in case something like what happened in Charlottesville happened in Morgantown. I couldn't get anyone excited about "doing something" including the rabbi.

Two bouquets of flowers were left at the door of our synagogue today and both Rabbi Joe and I have gotten notes of support on social media and concerns for our safety and well-being. I was in Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh, the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, just this past Wednesday, and posted about my trip on Facebook.

I've heard lots of cries of "How can this happen here?" People who go to Europe are always surprised that synagogues are often unmarked, that someone has to vouch for you to be allowed in. Here in the United States, synagogues sit boldly on main streets with little or no protection.

Of course, it has already happened here. People were murdered at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in South Carolina by a white supremacist in 2015. Someone with a grudge shot up a high school in Parkland, Florida last year. And in just the past week, pipe bombs were discovered mailed to figures in the Democratic Party, and another white supremacist killed two people at a Kroger near Louisville, Kentucky, because the African-American church he originally targeted was locked, and he couldn't get in.

The shock is that this could happen to us, to Jews, as if we were somehow on a different plane than African-Americans and high school students. We are not exempt, not even in the United States, and despite our wealth and the relatively conservative political bent of many Jews in Pittsburgh, we are not "better than" any other religious or racial minority.

Even though there are still many Jews in this administration, there is a prejudice against anyone who is not "white" and "Christian" pushed by the right-wing ideologues who are now in power, and despite their denials, anyone who is a Republican has signed on to that. And we still need sensible regulation of firearms, desperately.

Thoughts and prayers are something we, as religious people, can do. We can also call out prejudice, not just against Jews, but against Muslims, African-Americans, immigrants, and certainly against gay and trans people. There is an election coming up. I've already voted here in West Virginia. It might help, but we need to form alliances and be out on the street with all people of good will. There will be a vigil on WVU's downtown campus, at Woodburn Circle, Monday, October 29, at 7. I will be there.

Rabbi Joe at Tree of Life Morgantown, with flowers left at the door on Sunday after the shooting in Pittsburgh

I was burned out by the whole Brett Kavanaugh thing and by politics in general. I thought I would get away from here over Columbus Day, Sunday and Monday. Clearfield County is about 150 miles north and a bit east of Morgantown. It's been way too hot here in Morgantown, while climate change is still "debated." I thought maybe I'd see some leaves changing color.

There is one city, Dubois, in the county, and the county seat, Clearfield, a borough, which typically means "City" in Pennsylvania. I decided to stay one night in DuBois, the bigger of the two places, and a more-or-less straight shot from Morgantown on US 119 north, where it ends at US 219, the most interesting, but not the fastest way to go. It was about 145 miles to DuBois. I booked The Usual Chain, in this case next to a country club, on a little lake. It looked like an old wood-frame hotel, but it is actually of newish vintage, built when the clubhouse from the country club burned down, and they decided to make it a destination resort for weddings and such.

I left Morgantown at 8:20, and arrived in town just about noon. I decided to start at the mall, east of town on PA 255, the main road to I-80, which runs through the county at the top of the Allegheny Mountains. The mall was half-dead, but still has a Sear's and Penney's as well as a chain bookstore, a Ross Dress-For Less, and a consignment store with CDs and records, although nothing I wanted to add to my vast collection. The restaurant is a stir-fry place, where you put ingredients and sauce in a bowl, pick a meat, and they stir-fry it for you. I would do less sauce and more vegetables next time, but I like the idea.

I visited S.B. Elliott State Park, where there are buildings built by the W.P.A. in the 1930s on the National Register. Penn State DuBois campus, just a few buildings for commuters, is on 255, the same road as the mall, on the way back to town from the park. I looked around in town, which has a downtown historic district. There wasn't a lot going on, but there were anti-abortion protestors lining the streets just north of downtown, waving signs like "Abortion is bad for women" and "Jesus will forgive you." So much for avoiding politics. I should have known. Clearfield is a classic rust belt county, overwhelmingly white, older, with decaying factories and a declining population. Seventy-three percent of voters went for the current president in 2016. The county population peaked in the 1920 census with over 120,000 people; now it's under 80,000.

I checked into the hotel, not expensive, but comfortable and quiet, with views of the golf course. I felt better after a nap. There was still time before dark, so I headed back south where there are a number of sites on the National Register. I had divided my one afternoon and one morning by West (DuBois) and east (Clearfield).The two towns are in the northern part of the county, but there are many historic places in the southern part of the county. I made it only to one before dark, the McGees Mills covered bridge, in Bell Township, built in 1873. There is a little park there along the west branch of the Susquehanna River.

It looked like most of the restaurants were on State Road 255, the route out of the city to I-80. I was going to eat at Eat 'n' Park, a chain diner out of Pittsburgh, with a branch in Morgantown,when I saw a sign at a strip mall for Napoli's, and stopped in there for chicken parmigiana, delicious, although with spaghetti and bread, not exactly on my diet.

In the morning, I started out to Parker Dam State Park, northeast of S.B. Elliott along the same road. The morning was cool, and there is a lake with a boardwalk around part of it. I thought I could walk all the way around it, but a spillway prevented that. There is a W.P.A. museum, and an octagonal cabin that was damaged by a tornado in 1985 and rebuilt. Walking back to my car after checking out the dam, four kids came by on bikes, two with training wheels attached. Two moms were walking behind them. I was in jeans and a purple Ralph Lauren t-shirt of many years wear. One of the training wheel kids said "I like your shirt" as he rode by. That made my day. I said "Thanks! I like your bike." It was emerald green and sparkly. Leaves were turning color uphill in the park. A sign pointed out that the W.P.A. men had planted most of the trees in the park, as the area had been logged over by that time. I thought about those men planting those trees, and how they were not likely around to see the beautiful forest they had created. I related that to the politics of our day- how we have to work for justice, even if we don't live to see it come to fruition. I know leaders of the civil rights movement, like Dr. King, talked about that often, but seeing the forest, started eighty years ago, reminded me. I went looking for, and found, St. Severin's, a wooden church farther east off I-80 and past a sign that said "Highest Point on I-80 East Of The Mississippi," built by German settlers in 1851 and a National Historic Landmark

I ended my tour in Clearfield Borough, a somewhat smaller but more fixed-up town than DuBois. I figured a fast look around, then lunch. There was once a synagogue in town, in a former telephone company building, now owned by a community theater. The synagogue merged with the one in State College, over the next hill to the east. I found the courthouse with the ten commandments in stone in front, and a district of historic homes along the west branch of the Susquehanna, then headed to lunch at a restaurant on Main Street. I ordered a salad, which took so long that I had to go out and put money in my parking meter, which was only a quarter for an hour. So I left town at 1:20 and arrived home after five, driving courthouse to courthouse on the recommended route, less scenic, $3.40 in tolls, but faster.

The temperature both days reached well into the 80s, warm for Morgantown, even more so for north central Pennsylvania. I also noted, traveling over hills and winding roads, that I want a nicer car than the Suzuki SX 4 I've been driving the last six years and 98,000 miles. I want more power and a quieter ride. This week, I talked Joe into buying a used Honda Civic, 2015. We're keeping the Suzuki, but traded our 2001 Civic, which I typically do not take on trips. Other than being banged up, nothing was wrong with our old Honda;, and the Suzuki, as it approaches 100,000 miles, drives as it always has. I just wanted something else.

I did get away, but for once I enjoyed the open spaces and parks more than the towns.This week is already cooler, and the leaves may reach peak color in a week or two. People I spoke to in Pennsylvania were annoyed that most of the leaves were still green and the temperature twenty degrees above normal for October 7th and 8th, but I don't think anyone put a political spin on it, as I did.