A time (and place) to test

 One of the populations most at risk of COVID-19 infection are people held in jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers and those who work there. In such institutions, social distancing is impossible.

In addition to working with allies to reduce the number of West Virginians in confinement, AFSC in WV signed on to a letter to state officials urging that universal testing for the virus be made available to all detainees and workers in the system. This is particularly urgent because a significant percentage of those with the virus show no symptoms--and since outbreaks in one setting can easily spread to the community at large.

Please feel free to share the contents of the letter and to urge state officials to take appropriate action. Here's the letter:

Monday, April 27, 2020 

Dear Governor Justice, Commissioner Jividen, and Secretary Crouch:

As the COVID-19 crisis continues in West Virginia, so does our concern regarding its impact on those behind bars or otherwise detained in congregate settings across the state. Many West Virginians are extremely worried about loved ones of all ages who are incarcerated in jails, prisons, juvenile detention facilities and other out of home placements, where following social distancing guidelines is nearly impossible. The same is true of those who work in these facilities, their families and communities. We, the undersigned, share their concerns.  In fact, we would go even further to stress that what occurs in those settings can impact all West Virginians.  It is clear to all by now that prisons, just like nursing homes, schools, colleges and other locations that you have worked hard to address are at heightened risk, which then can adversely impact the general population.
  
We highly commend state leaders such as yourselves for taking effective measures to stop the spread of the disease. However, the recent news that a correction officer has tested positive raises disturbing possibilities.  Given the very high risk for this population and for the thousands of West Virginians connected to it in one way or another, we are writing to request that the state make universal testing available to all people detained or employed in these facilities as testing supplies become more available. Since studies indicate that many people who have and can spread the virus are asymptomatic, this is the surest way to identify cases of infection and to allow authorities to take appropriate measures in the interest of all West Virginians.

This would be consistent with federal guidance for the use of the CARES Act, which states that funds can be used for "costs of providing COVID-19 testing, including serological testing" as well as "COVID-19-related expenses of maintaining state prisons and county jails, including as relates to sanitation and improvement of social distancing measures, to enable compliance with COVID-19 public health precautions.”

Further, because of the vulnerability of this population, it is imperative that West Virginia provide robust transparency with regards to COVID-19 testing occurring in our corrections system. Other states like Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia publicly
report not only the number of positive cases in correctional facilities, but also the total number of tests performed as well. We’re asking that this information be made publicly accessible.

Ongoing forthrightness about COVID-19 testing and results within the prison system will maintain the public trust in our health and law enforcement officials. Transparency will similarly put incarcerated individuals and their families at greater ease.

Limiting the spread of COVID-19 in high-risk environments like our prison system is imperative for the health of incarcerated individuals, correctional staff, and our communities as a whole. The more incarcerated individuals and correctional staff that need treatment at local hospitals, the greater the strain will be on our health care system’s capacity.

The organizations listed below represent a diverse cross section of West Virginians supporting this request. We thank you and those who work with you for your service in this difficult time and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Americans for Prosperity
American Friends Service Committee
 WV Council of Churches
WV Access to Justice Commission
Catholic Diocese of WV
 American Civil Liberties Union-WV
Our Future WV
WV Center on Budget and Policy
Appalachian Prison Book Project
Mountain State Justice
NAACP – Jefferson County

#55strong: counting the wins

(Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. No connection to overpriced sweatshop shoes.)

First of all, damn. I didn't see any of this coming two months ago.

I was expecting another brutal WV legislative session which would see more anti-worker legislation rammed through. Instead, we got a real peoples' uprising, a beautiful statewide work stoppage that showed amazing heart and solidarity and won some pretty miraculous victories. (Yes, I know some downer stuff happened too, but I'm not letting that spoil my day.)

So many victories, in fact, that it's hard to count them. Here's my partial list. Feel free to add to it:

Category: health insurance under the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA). Several wins here, including

1. Taking away some hated changes;

2. Some extra funding;

3. A freeze in benefit changes for 17 months;

4. A task force charged with finding a long term fix.

Category: salary increases

5. A five percent increase for teachers and support workers, with an unexpected five percent for all state workers. This is amazing for several reasons. In recent years, the default setting for raises for teachers and public sector workers has been zero. Further several earlier proposals for increases were tiny.

Category: bad stuff that didn't happen

6. In January, it looked like a safe bet that a constitutional measure that would have cut business taxes on machinery and equipment by $140 million or so would pass. The proposed tax cuts were way more expensive than the raises (which some Republicans in the senate said "we" couldn't afford). All this despite the fact that one reason WV went in the whole was the previous round of unproductive business tax cuts. Any now, thanks to teachers and education workers, that didn't happen.

7. At the beginning of the session it looked like the legislature could ram through SB 335, the so called "Paycheck Protection Act," which in reality is more like the Paycheck Reduction Act. This measure would have hit organized teachers and public sector workers hard. Without these unions, none of these victories would have happened. Anyhow, it died a well deserved death.

8. Charter school legislation which would have undermined and drained resources away from public education died on the vine.

9. Threats to teacher seniority were defeated.

Category: intangible but priceless

10. This strike showed the world that the labor movement is alive and well--and not just in West Virginia.

11. The strike woke up lots of people who had not been involved in labor, legislative or policy advocacy before. It's too soon to tell, but it looks like it woke up a lot of people politically as well. It also clarified who the friends and opponents of working people are.

12. The strike showed people of all ages--and especially young people--in WV and beyond that people can accomplish great things if they stick together and act up. The fact that all this happened under horrible political circumstances makes it all the more amazing.

13. (Personal) It showed me that the true spirit of West Virginia hasn't died. For the last few years I've been afraid it had suffocated under a mountain of greed and lies.

Way to go, West Virginia--and thanks to everyone who played a role in this historic struggle!

Unveiling Appalachia: #55strong

When teachers, school support workers and public employees rise in West Virginia, they rip away the veil from West Virginia's open secret, which is hidden in plain sight.

(Geek moment: the word "apocalypse" comes from the Greek meaning to  unveil, uncover or reveal, which is why the last book of the New Testament in English is called Revelations. So we could actually call this an Appalachian apocalypse even if the moon doesn't turn to blood.)

That open secret  WV workers are revealing is that behind the squalor of our public institutions and poverty is the fact that for over 100 years the wealth of our state has been drained away by outside extractive industries which left a lot of wreckage in their way. And it's still happening.

This is an old secret but it's still new. As far back as 1884, the Tax Commission appointed by the WV state legislature warned of the dangers ahead if state leaders didn't act to protect the interests of the people who actually live here.

The Commission argued that economic activity alone was not a measure of prosperity or progress unless the wealth generated remained in the state and benefited its residents. It warned that extractive industries owned by outside interests would, in the end, leave West Virginia “despoiled of her wealth and her resident population poor, helpless, and despondent.”

The report’s conclusion is worth quoting in full:

“The wealth of this State is immense; the development of this wealth will earn vast private fortunes far beyond the dreams even of a modem Croesus; the question is, whether this vast wealth shall belong to persons who live here and who are permanently identified with the future of West Virginia, or whether it shall pass into the hands of persons who do not live here and who care nothing for our State except to pocket the treasures which lie buried in our hills?

If the people of West Virginia can be roused to an appreciation of the situation we ourselves will gather this harvest now ripe on the lands inherited from our ancestors; on the other hand, if the people are not roused to an understanding of the situation in less than ten years this vast wealth will have passed from our present population into the hands of non-residents, and West Virginia will be almost like Ireland and her history will be like that of Poland.”

Alas, this warning went unheeded. But this struggle has once again awakened thousands of West Virginians to the need to ensure that our natural wealth contributes to the lasting well being of all West Virginians.

For starters, this means increasing severance taxes and eventually creating a functioning Future Fund to create a lasting source of wealth. That  could help prop up PEIA and deal with many of our other problems.  That struggle won't be won right away, but at least many more people are aware of what needs to happen.

Speaking of apocalypse, if we actually did that it really would be the end of the world as we know it.

What's next in WV's Appalachian uprising?

It's pretty much official. This is more of an uprising than a work stoppage. The movement is driven from below and no formal organization is pulling the strings.

Historically, that's often the way change happens. Working people's organizations fight the day to day fight for their members and allies but most of the time they do so in the absence of a huge movement willing to disrupt business as usual. When movements like this arise--they can't be manufactured or sustained at will, alas--there's sometimes a bit of a disconnect.

But spontaneous mass movements need organizations to consolidate their gains. And organizations can always use the power of a mass movement behind them. But either alone is in this context could be a recipe for disaster.

I could be way off but here's my take on where things stand now:

*First, as I argued here, this uprising has already resulted in major victories in a political climate MUCH more hostile than the 1990 strike. I'll say it again, don't minimize the victories. To see all the changes most of us want means we need to change the composition of the legislature so that friends of working people are in positions of leadership. And Congress.

*Second, I think the proposal to use the $58 million, wherever it may come from, for PEIA is just a distraction designed to defeat the movement. I'm no PEIA expert, but the people I know and trust who are all say it needs a long term fix, not a one time bump.

*I think the best outcome would be to push for the raise and long term task force with adequate representation from people directly affected--but to commit to long term educating, organizing and mobilization through May and November and beyond. The progress made shows what can happen when people wake up--but the ground working people have lost in recent years shows what damage can be done when we fall asleep.

*As to the senate president's assertion that the state budget is a fixed amount, that just isn't true. The state budget is the product of deliberate values and choices--or the lack thereof--not cosmic destiny.

*Division and confusion play into the hands of our opponents. And time may or may not always be on our side.

Calling public employees: two charts tell it all

Below are two charts that show where the money that could have paid teachers, school support personnel and public employees went. Hint: it didn't go to them. Really.

The business taxes were meant to "pay for themselves" and create jobs, neither of which happened. They were, however, enough to pay for a 12 percent raise for all public employees.

This isn't about fate. It's about choices and priorities. Stay strong! (Shoutout to Ted Boettner and West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy):

Solidarity forever!

It's a little known fact that "Solidarity Forever," the international anthem of the labor movement,  was inspired by events in West Virginia. Ralph Chaplin, writer and long time rebel worker, lived for a time in the Mountain State and edited a labor paper in Huntington, one of several then published in the state.

While here, he was inspired by the solidarity of coal miners during long and bitter strikes that raged in Kanawha County in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek areas around 1912-1913. It took him a while to finish the song, which is sung to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Today most people familiar with the song only know the chorus. In honor of West Virginia's teachers, service workers and public employees, here's the whole thing:

When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
But the union makes us strong.

CHORUS:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong.

Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong.

Chorus

It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid;
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made;
But the union makes us strong.

Chorus

All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own.
While the union makes us strong.

Chorus

They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.

Chorus

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the union makes us strong.

Chorus

(Note: this song has shown up in this blog before, but it seem especially relevant today.)

The die is cast

As a classics geek, I can't help but remember that when Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon river on his way to Rome to take on the aristocratic party, he said "The die is cast."  Today, we might say "the dice have been rolled." Or just "It's on."

That seems to me to be where teachers and public employees are now unless there is positive action soon at the legislature, which doesn't seem likely.

That probably means that there will be a lot of voices, some from people we know and some that almost seem to  make sense, urging people to step back and/or give in before Thursday's action.

But it seems clear to me that the decision to act wasn't made lightly. People have been consulted statewide and votes have been taken. Waffling now would likely be seen as a sign of weakness.  What's needed now is a strong showing of strength and solidarity.

The die is cast. Or, if you prefer, it's on.

Talking points for WV teachers and public employees

When it comes to a decent income and benefits, you may hear a lot of “We can’t afford it.” The question is “We who?” Here are some talking points:

1. Since 2007, WV has cut state taxes by over $400 million per year. “We” could have done any number of things with that, including treating working people right;

2. Over $200 million of those cuts went to business through eliminating the business franchise tax and reducing the corporate net income tax. That was more than enough to pay for debt free two and four-year college for every student at state institutions.

3. Those business tax cuts were supposed to create jobs. They didn’t. We have fewer private sector jobs in WV now than we did 10 years ago.

4. Those business tax cuts were supposed to “pay for themselves.” They didn’t. They never have.
5. What works, on the other hand, is having an educated workforce and a decent quality of life to attract and keep people here.

6. You may hear that “We have to live within our means.” Here’s the deal: our “means” aren’t caused by fate. Unlike a teacher or public employee, the state legislature decides how much income it gets.

7. State legislators get to decide to reduce income (tax cuts) or increase income (things like increasing the severance tax, rolling back some unproductive corporate tax cuts, a modest sales tax on sugary drinks, etc. West Virginia could be a failed state or one that invests in its people.

8. Incredibly, the legislature is pondering yet more unproductive tax cuts, including the business machinery tax on certain industries (mostly based out of state) and massive giveaways to the gas industry.

9. The legislature is even moving to cut SNAP food assistance for low income people, which includes many public employees. Even worse things are rolling down from the federal level.

10. Teachers and public employees in recent weeks have made a lot of progress in pressuring politicians to do the right thing and in gaining public support. This is no time to slow down or stop. It’s pretty much now or never.

Last word goes to escaped slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.”

Cuts and more cuts

If you're a public employee in WV and you feel something on your back, it could be a target. PEIA, aka the Public Employee's Insurance Agency, is gearing up to make millions of dollars in benefit cuts. This could be the next major health care fight here. Or one of them anyway.

On top of that, food assistance in the form of SNAP benefits is declining around the nation as many states impose time limits and difficult to comply with work requirements. WV did that in nine pilot counties. Meanwhile, right wing groups (whose staff seems to be pretty well fed) are pushing for further food cuts in WV. I guess that'll be another fight.

Bone deep

West Virginia's working people have definitely been in the cross-hairs of our Republican legislature.

First was passage of the union busting right to work for less law, which mostly effects workers in industry settings.

Then there was repeal of prevailing wage, which slammed workers on public construction projects.

In the spirit of inclusiveness, the failure of the legislature to arrive at a budget and come up with needed revenue makes it look like public employees are next.

The PEIA (Public Employees Insurance Agency) board didn't have much choice but to reinstate $120 million in benefit cuts that had been proposed before the legislative session.

It makes me wonder how all this will play out.

Meanwhile, could the war on workers have anything to do with this?

This could get interesting in all kinds of ways

The WV legislature spent a lot of time this session on...stuff. Some things it didn't get around to were minor items the state budget and the looming funding crisis of the Public Employees Health Insurance Agency, which provides health care to over 230,000 West Virginians.

Prior to the session, "draconian" cuts were planned, although it was hoped that some kind of fix would be worked out in the session. However, other urgent priorities, such as mucking with the constitution, making it easier for angry white men to carry concealed weapons, and the terrors of gayness took precedence.

Now, the cuts are back on the agenda. This is a loaded political issue that could echo through November if it doesn't get fixed.

On a more positive note, the Our Children Our Future campaign is urging political candidates to make kids' well-being a top priority.

Sweet

A hearty congratulations to voters in Ohio, who delivered a stunning rebuke to union busters and others who wished to declare open war on the middle class. CNN projects that voters defeated attacks on collective bargaining by a measure of 62 to 38 percent.

That should be a major setback to the plutocratic agenda (and, I hope, the tripartite alliance of greed, ignorance and hatred on which it depends for political success). It would be nice to think that some kind of change is in the air.

Here's the NY Times on yesterday's elections. Aside from the victory in Ohio, I think it's interesting that voters in Mississippi rejected a strict anti-abortion measure.

The whole thing of what constitutes a person is a bit murky these days. I modestly propose that we focus instead on distinguishing between real people and corporations. Sorry, Mitt.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Of snuff and stuff

The Spousal Unit diligently scans those parts of the Charleston paper wherein readers call in to vent their views on various issues. These can range from the ridiculous to the sublime and everywhere in between. Some of the best ones wind up on the refrigerator door.

Here's one from yesterday's paper:

It's never really right to leave your filthy snuff spit for the janitor. I don't care who you are. Deal with it yourself or don't do it. It's filthy.

So there, snuff spitters.

LAID TO REST. West Virginia native and world renowned musician Hazel Dickens was laid to rest yesterday in Mercer County. Here's an item about her life from NPR.

IT'S ABOUT MONEY, NOT IDEOLOGY. Dean Baker suggests that the key to understanding the Ryan budget plan is to look at who gets what.

MILITARY SPENDING. Here's an interesting take from surprising sources.

WORKING WEST VIRGINIA. The state's labor force participation rates, generally amongst the lowest in the country, got even lower during the Great Recession. Also, public employees in the state make less than private sector workers when you control for age and education level.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES may reveal a lot about people who believe them.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Short rations again

El Cabrero has been running around too much to put together a decent post today. However the following items caught my bleary eye this morning:

REMEMBERING REAGAN. If we must, let's get it right.

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES, and especially those represented by unions, are major targets on the right.

LIBERAL MEDIA? Here's an article on what that might actually look like.

PUBLIC OPINION ON THE FEDERAL BUDGET discussed here. Again, there's no mandate for massive slashing.

STATE OF THE STATES. For most, not good.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Hobby horses

It has long been noted that individuals and groups often have certain pet ideas or obsessions that they enjoy fiddling with and thinking about. In Lawrence Sterne's immortal Tristram Shandy, the author refers to these as hobby-horses:

...have not the wisest of men in all ages, not excepting Solomon himself, - have they not had their HOBBY HORSES; - their running horses, - their coins and their cockle-shells, their drums & their trumpets, their fiddles, their pallets, - their maggots and their butterflies? - and so long as a man rides his HOBBY HORSE peaceably and quietly along the King’s highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him, - pray, Sir, what have either you or I to do with it?

The Anglo-Saxons, whose culture gave us Beowulf (the theme here lately, by the way) had some hobby horses of their own. They were especially fascinated with the biblical story of Cain and Abel. You may recall that the Beowulf poet states that the monsters Grendel, his mother, and a host of other nasty critters were descendants of the primal brother-murderer Cain.

They weren't the only ones who found fratricide interesting. The theme of enemy brothers shows up in all kinds of myths and legends, including the story of Romulus and Remus and the sons of Oedipus. But the story of Cain had its special place. What was up with that?

For starters, the North Sea raiding societies, including Danes, Norse, Swedes, and the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons, were prone to killing and feuding. War was very common, but so too were fights that could break out at any time in a culture of honor. Just as many fights today take place in bars, so then boasting and insults in the mead halls could easily lead to killing. And, then as now, one good killing seems to call for another, with revenge killings and feuds.

They did devise one way to put an end to the cycle of violence, i.e. by paying the weregild or man price to the dead man's survivors. That worked fine as long as the killing took place between people of different families. BUT, when a man killed his brother, there was no way to atone; one could not pay oneself. Hence people who killed their brothers were seen as especially cursed. They probably felt this way even before their conversion to Christianity, but when they finally did, they found special resonance in the Cain story.

This theme also shows up in Beowulf when the hero has an unpleasant exchange with Unferth, who challenges Beowulf's courage. Beowulf dismisses him, saying

...you were a man-slayer, killed your brothers,
closest kinsmen, for which you must suffer
damnation in hell, clever though you are.

Today's take home message: if you have a brother, try not to kill him.

THE LATEST SCAPEGOATS on the right are public employees.

SPEAKING OF SCAPEGOATS, here's Frances Fox Piven, a frequent target of Glenn Beck's conspiracy theories, speaking for herself. In Glennbeckistan, Piven, who has written extensively about poverty and poor people's movements with Richard Cloward, is believed to be a mastermind of revolution. She has been the target of many death threats as a result.

SPEAKING OF IRRATIONAL BELIEFS are alive and well.

TEEN'S BEST FRIEND. Here's another story about how dogs are good exercise equipment, in this case for teens.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Funeral for a friend

I spent part of the last weekend at another funeral, which is something I hope does not become a habit. This time, the memorial was for a remarkable woman who was my one time boss and long time friend.

Elizabeth Ann "Toney" Reese, grew up in the coalfields of Boone County, where her father died in the coal mines. For most of my childhood and a good chunk of my adulthood, she was the librarian in my small town.

(She even broke up a fistfight of mine in the alley beside the old library when I was in junior high.)

I hung out there a lot as a kid and got a job there while going to college as a part time janitor. It was a calling I pursued with lackadaisical diligence. It was while I should have been running the vacuum cleaner that I discovered such things as the poetry of Langston Hughes and the radical beliefs of American icon Mark Twain on issues of race, religion, empire and politics. After a while I started doing other things there and a summer job turned into a 10 year detour.

She had the amazing gift of turning that small library into the kind of place where everyone felt welcome. People sometimes have to go to schools, courthouses, social service agencies, and the department of motor vehicles, but nobody has to go to a public library. You have to make it the kind of place where people want to go. And she did.

I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed the work. I loved bantering with all kinds of people, trying to come up with creative programs, and finding the answers to challenging questions patrons had in those days before Google. And I learned a lot about my hometown along the way.

I'm glad that I had the chance to tell her more than once before she died that I learned everything I knew about how to deal with people and work in the community from her.

She turned that little library into a liberated area. While it may well be a utopian dream to think the whole world could be like that, I learned from her that here and there it can be done.

CREATING "THE OTHER." Here's an interesting take on violent rhetoric and dehumanizing political opponents and the consequences thereof.

I THINK I REFUDIATE THIS. In Sarah Palin's denial that political rhetoric can lead to violence, she used the term "blood libel," which is an example of exactly the kind of rhetoric that led to a great deal of violence. The term refers to the old anti-Semitic accusation that Jews used the blood of Christian children in their rituals. Such accusations frequently led to murders and pogroms in Jewish communities. Not surprisingly, a number of Jewish groups are not amused.

REVISITING THE SOCIAL SECURITY FIGHT. Here are some words of sanity on the subject from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES are the latest object of attack on the right, which maintains that these are overpaid in comparison with private sector workers. Here's a little reality check.

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT: the WV state senate. Meanwhile, acting Governor Tomblin's first state of the state seems to indicate continuity with Manchin-era policies.

TALK ABOUT OLD WINE. People were brewing it in Armenia over 6,000 years ago.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

WHY DO WE WEAR RED SUSPENDERS?

Caption: Admit it, you want to ride it.

The guiding thread through this week's Goat Rope is a fond look back at El Cabrero's short and inglorious adventures in the local volunteer fire department. Many other topics will be covered.

If this is your first visit, please scroll down to earlier entries.

After completing various kinds of training came actual practice in the real world. I’ll never forget the first time I responded to a call that was announced over our pagers as a possible structure fire, a fortunately fairly rare animal.

The call came in the middle of the night and I was half asleep, very nervous, and very green. It was intimidating to think that some people’s lives and most beloved possessions were at risk and I could screw it up.

I remember trying to pull on the pants of my turnout gear, a process somewhat hindered by the presence of my suspenders (and, yes, they are red and they do in fact hold up our pants) between my legs. I made a quick note to self that this was not a good idea and managed not to repeat it.

The call turned out to be a downed power line instead of a house fire. This was a welcome letdown, although power line calls are about as popular with firefighters as mosquitoes or ticks.

Although I live so far out in the country that the engines usually rolled by the time I found my shoes, I was able to run a fair number of calls over the next few years, experiencing a range of situations such as, floods, brush fires, floods, auto accidents, medical calls, dangerous conditions, floods, and the occasional structure fire.

Did I mention floods? We get lots of floods.

Although I am most emphatically not God’s gift to firefighting, I learned that mechanical idiocy is not necessarily a hindrance. To paraphrase John Milton, they also serve who only have all thumbs. I found that in any emergency, there is usually stuff to carry, traffic to stop, or hoses to roll while the mechanically apt take care of other business.

Probably the most dangerous duty I did was working at some of our bingo fundraisers. People where I live take bingo pretty seriously, plus the air was smokier than most forest fires. The scariest, aside from a savage nocturnal box turtle attack on a mountain during a brush fire (which gave me my 1000 yard stare), was writing and trying to manage federal grants.

The best call of all was providing fire protection for female demolition derby drivers at our county fair. It was an honor and a privilege to be of service to the finest flower of Appalachian womanhood, although the women in question could probably have walked through fire unscathed and punched their way out of any car wreck.

At the time, I kept saying, "Take me now, Jesus! It don't get no better than this!"

BAD FIREFIGHTING. I was taking fire service classes during the Bush administration's disastrous buildup to the unnecessary war in Iraq. I remember thinking at the time that this response to the post 9/11 world was like pouring gasoline on a structure fire filled with flammable toxic and hazardous materials.

Here's what the Red Cross has to say about the situation there today. Sample:

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- The situation for civilians in Iraq is "ever-worsening," even though security in some places has improved as a result of stepped-up efforts by U.S.-led multinational forces, the international Red Cross said Wednesday.

It is difficult to determine the numbers of people killed in shootings, bombings and military operations, but the overall picture of what is happening the country has been steadily deteriorating, with numbers of refugees swelling, medical staff fleeing and other problems growing, a key official said.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department yesterday extended the tours of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

NEW FIG TREE NOTES. The latest edition of Jim Lewis' Notes from Under the Fig Tree is available. This one contains reflections on illness, cancer, mortality, healing, faith and all that kind of thing.

PUBLIC INVESTMENTS. Here's a good item by Max B. Sawicky in TomPaine.com about why public investments in research and infrastructure matter in helping the economy grow, a fact that seems to be lost on the Bush administration.

MEET AND CONSULT. WV Gov. Joe Manchin announced yesterday a new pilot plan to give state employees in three agencies more of a voice on the job. According to Phil Kabler in the Charleston Gazette,

Meet and consult committees will be set up in the Department of Administration’s Purchasing and General Services divisions, the Division of Highways, and the Regional Jail Authority.

Committee members will make recommendations on personnel issues and other policies to their department’s cabinet secretary, who in turn will send evaluations of the recommendations on to the governor’s office.

This is a positive step for WV's public employees.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED