My letter to President Obama about The Afforable Care Act.

Dear Mr President

I would like to begin this letter expressing my boundless admiration for the job you have done as President.  I have been in constant praise of your even temperament in the face of unrelenting personal attacks and constant barrages launched at you and your administration from the right.  I have told many of my friends that I am in awe of the way you handle these attacks, much like Kane did in one of my favorite TV shows, Kung Fu.  Sometimes I even think you may have grown up watching that show, as I did, and adopted his life view.

So I am writing this letter with mixed feelings and hope you understand why.  Your work in getting the Affordable  Care Act enacted will go down in history as one of the most important acts in our country’s history!  As I see it, it is the beginning of moving our country into the modern world with affordable medical care for all, along with most developed countries.  I know that this program is in its infancy and needs continued improvement, but there is a particular aspect of this program that worries me more than others: the cost that this is placing on the middle class.  As I talk to my friends and neighbors who are paying, in my opinion, much too much for their private health insurance, I am seeing a trend that is very disturbing.  The cost of insurance for these individuals is approaching levels that are simply beyond their reach. For example, today I talked to a friend who is a  farrier who must purchase his own health insurance for his wife and himself.  He has a $2500 deductible and is paying $1347 a month!  He told me that he has never met the deductible and so is paying out-of-pocket for all his medical needs!  I asked him if a higher deductible were applied, would it help?; he said emphatically, “NO.”  You and I, Mr President, who are on government insurance programs, do not experience this problem as so many like him do.  My friend, although he continues to find the money to make these payments, is being stretched close to his financial limits.  I am talking about middle class America, not the Trumps of the world. I feel certain you would agree with this.

On a more practical and current note, the present belief of many middle Americans is that the Affordable Care Act must be eliminated or replaced.  Much of this fear and uncertainty emanates from the enormous expense middle class individuals are being forced to pay.  At this point in time I understand there is little you can do to correct the problem, but this will certainly be a hurdle that Secretary Clinton will have to navigate in the coming years.  It would also make a great political opportunity for her to use her many skills to address.  I understand that you may very well never see this letter; nevertheless it is my hope that you may, because I believe your heart is always in the right place. I feel that you believe that Americans deserve to have much better health care at a price that will not do damage to their life-style, their sense of security and the well-being of their family.

I am sending this letter to you as well as posting it on my Blog, which is found in our local newspaper at http://www.hampshirereview.com under blogs and Cosmic Charley.  Again, thank you for doing an outstanding job as President of our great country.  I will miss you and your family.

Monsanto, roundup, cancer and grass fed beef, is there a connection?

About two years ago I decided, with the help and encouragement of my son, to become gluten-free.  This has led me to an alternative approach to eating that has changed my entire outlook on diet.  Several months after becoming gluten-free, I noticed that my enlarged prostate, along with all its life-altering effects was no longer a problem.  I also lost almost 15 pounds in a little more than two months.  As to the long-term effects, I think they are more difficult to identify but I feel strongly that there will be benefits.  Maybe as I approach senior citizenship, I will experience more benefits of this style of eating.

During this adventure I discovered what many refer to as either The Caveman or The Primal diet.  The primary belief in both of these diets is to only eat things that come from the earth, nothing altered by man and chemical free.  We sometimes call this organic, but that word is abused routinely by the food industry.  One particularly important and essential aspect of these diets is the requirement to use grass-fed as opposed to corn-fed beef.  Being the skeptic I am, I failed to see the importance of eating meat that was grass-fed which is what I intend to explore in this story.

Most of the meat consumed in this country and the rest of the world is raised or ‘finished’ on corn and grain.  This is contrary to the natural evolutionary eating habits of these animals.  Cows and other grazing animals are designed to eat grass, not grain.  Recently I met a former student of mine who is involved in the meat industry.  She shared her observations gathered at a meat processing facility, sometimes referred to as a rendering plant.  What she passed on to me was rather disturbing. When beef is grass-fed, all organs and other meat are red and appear normal; when the cow is grain-fed, the meat and organs are discolored and do not have the same natural appearance as grass-fed meat.  I had read this in a couple of books but took it with a grain of salt.  Now, someone who has personal experience with this is confirming what I learned from my reading!  For  the last several weeks this idea has been festering in my brain.  Several days ago I was reading an article called: ARE GMO’S TOXIC?  Slowly, during the next few days, the pieces fell together for me.  This is a tricky piece of logic, but I think I can get through it clearly enough to make sense.

*Almost 40 years ago Monsanto began producing ROUNDUP, its product is used to control  weeds.

*Near the same time genetic research progressed enough to create ROUNDUP READY  seeds.

*With this advancement, fields could be sprayed with ROUNDUP to eliminate weeds and in a few days seed could be  planted with Roundup ready seeds which were bred to be resistant to the killing effects of Roundup.

*This is called NO-TILL farming which reduces erosion and any disruption to the soil. At first, This seemed like a great idea at Monsanto and to farmers.

*Someone figured out that farmers could save money by spraying crops with ROUNDUP before harvest to eliminate  weed residue in the harvest.

*The amount of ROUNDUP used on a crop has proliferated over the years due to the increasing resistance of weeds and the increasing reliance on herbicides.

*The active chemical in ROUNDUP is GLYPHOSATE which has recently moved onto the ‘possible carcinogenic’ list.

*The allowable levels of GLYPHOSATE in food recently has recently been increased by government agencies.

*Along with being a herbicide, GLYPHOSATE is an endocrine disruptor and an antibiotic.

*GLYPHOSATE has been shown to accumulate in all organs of the body, animal and human.

*ROUNDUP is used on corn, grains and other crops which are fed to animals used for human consumption and fed directly to humans.

*Despite the fact that meat has been a staple of human diet since the beginning of human time, meat has become the bad boy at the market, because it has been implicated in many major human diseases, most notably heart disease.

*Current acceptable levels of GLYPHOSATE in meat has risen to 400 parts/million which is considered high by critics of Roundup.

The above are the facts and the chain of events as I see them.  No doubt someone will wish to rebut them, claiming that there is insufficient concrete data, and they would be right.  There is no absolute data at this time because these types of environmental pollution are insidious and work very slowly on living beings.  What you do with this information is obviously up to you, but it seems that there is a strong connection between meat consumption and human disease, and maybe, just maybe, that is due to the much higher levels of GLYPHOSATE in our meat and other foods!  Maybe the consumption of grass-fed meat as an alternative is a good idea!  Maybe it is the GLYPHOSATE that is causing all the problems.  As always, we are the guinea pigs participating in one of many long-term experiments that we did not sign up for.  Based on the data, I think eventually GLYPHOSATE will be removed from the food chain because public sentiment will grow exponentially or someone will win a lawsuit or two against Monsanto.  This will happen after many millions of people will suffer in a wide variety of ways.

Here are a few charts showing a possible relationship between GLYPHOSATE and various serious diseases.  This is indeed scary! If you click on Google images and write GLYPHOSATE graphs you will see many more graphs correlating this chemical to various human diseases.

Now that you have this information, what can you do to protect you and your family’s health?  You can begin by writing your representatives and letting them know your concerns.  We need GMO labeling on all products and a major push for the eventual removal of ROUNDUP from the environment!  At present, you need to switch over to products that are GMO free.  I can remember stories of people drinking DDT and washing themselves down with it to demonstrate how safe it was to humans, Ha Ha on that!  You can see this video on YOU TUBE if you would like.  This is a war!  Monsanto is one of the richest companies on the planet and plans on staying that way even if it means inflicting great human suffering!

West Virginia, the raped state.

Come one, come all, to the great mineral resource sale of the century!
Yes, come to Wild Wonderful West Virginia where you 
can cut it down, dig it out of the earth or punch holes through our 
fresh water supply in search of cheap natural resources. Over the last 
100 years,West Virginia has witnessed the destruction of its beautiful 
countryside in every way possible.  It would seem as if our leaders have 
turned their heads in response to the continued egregious abuse of our 
beautiful state. Our story begins about one hundred years ago when 
someone discovered that our state was a virtual wonderland of large 
virgin woodlands.The northeast industrial giants (the Rockefellers et al),
came here in large numbers anxious to harvest the rich abundance of 
hardwood and softwood trees that carpeted our mountains.  They used every
technology available to denude the land. The remaining abandoned 
deforested land required many decades to reforest. This destruction of our
forests continues even today but to a lesser degree.  At the same time 
our forests were being devoured to meet this nation's need for wood for 
homes and public buildings, coal became the primary source of energy 
for an emerging industrial revolution. Coal was an ideal source of 
large amounts of BTU'sand was relatively easy to extract from the Eastern 
Appalachian Mountains. The first large deposits of coal were abundant and 
nearthe surface. As time passed, the easy coal was used up and the deeper,
harderto get coal became the target as the destruction of the land and 
water continued at an ever increasing rate. Even today we can drive 
through the wastelands that cover much of our state and see the results
of the pillage. Gas and oil were discovered near the coal fields, so 
West Virginia soon became a source of oil for the industrial machine. 
Natural gas, which was simply burned off in the beginning, soon became 
itself an energy source. One good thing about oil andgas mined in the past 
is that there was very little site-based pollution from
the mining process.  That is not to say that the burning 
of these fuels does not produce large amounts of CO2 which is ushering in 
climate change,but the destruction at the site was minimal. 

  Today we have a new threat to our state: the extraction of natural gas.
In the past we simply drilled a hole into the earth and the gas came out.  
Today we use a new process called hydro-fracking which has the potential 
of destroying our water supplies. Gas companies are canvassing the state 
buying up mineral rights tosecure areas that have the potential to produce 
large amounts of gas.  This is where it starts to get interesting.  Our 
legislature is toying with (with unprecedented pressure from the energy 
companies) the idea of taking away the landowners' rights and invoking a 
system known as 'group forced pooling.' Under this program, gas companies 
can force land owners to give up their mineral rights even when they own 
those rights. 

Compounding the land owners problem is this: the gas 
company can drill horizontally in any direction with little 
regard to property lines and mineral rights, thus, the landowners have 
virtually no protection from the gas corporations; additionally they may 
have their water sources contaminated and deemed undrinkable, leaving their 
property unusable. I guess the real issue here is money and the wealthy 
gathering it up in any way possible.  If that means destroying our beautiful 
state, then it's a done deal. When it comes to natural resources, there are 
no laws that can stand up against the industrial giants and their multitude 
of lawyers. To industry, laws are simplythings that need to be changed over 
time to allow them to sell us what we have been taught we so desperately 
need. Maybe If we all were a little more interested in the preservation of 
our planet and a little less interested in the plethora a junk we acquire, 
our world would be a cleaner place to live and at the same time we could 
preserve the natural beauty and resources of our state.

 

Helping to save the world by recycling all your stuff.

Recently I made a new friend who recycles 95% of all her trash.  I was so impressed that I began the process of recycling all of mine.  When you think about it, although it’s not as easy or convenient as tossing trash into the trash can, recycling is the environmentally responsible thing to do.  Glass and plastic bottles, cans, paper, cardboard, magazines, newspaper, plastic bags and even kitchen scraps are all recyclable if you know what to do with it.  It took several months to get all my ducks in order.  First, I needed a special container in which to place all my biodegradable things, such as food scraps. Here is a picture of the item I purchased on-line, a stainless steel container that I place all my kitchen scraps in and then take to the compost pile every couple of days or when needed.  This keeps one from placing biodegradable stuff in the trash which only invariably stink up the house. It has a special lid with a filter that allows it to breathe without having the odor of food scraps escaping.  The resulting compost pile dirt is great to use to add to vegetable and flowering plants as soil conditioner and fertilizer.

Picture of canister

In addition, I needed several trash containers to place all the types of recyclable waste.  I have mine in the kitchen where it is convenient but you can place them anywhere, such as in the garage, basement or shed.

Picture of trash cans. The non-recyclable trash can is not in the picture.

In to addition to all of this I needed to be educated on how to do everything properly without having stinky decaying waste sitting around my house and yard.  With this in mind it is important to always rinse out anything that is being saved for recycling.

Below is the process I went through to decrease my trash footprint. I hope many of you join me in an effort to help save our world from trash.

Trash can #1

Here are all things that can not be recycled: metal and plastic lids, plastic storage bags, hard plastic packaging, #3, 4 & 5 plastic containers and other non-recyclables.  If you’re really conscientious about recycling, this trash can should take a long time to fill up with non-recyclables, and then has to go out for regular trash collection or transfer station drop-offs.

Trash can #2

All paper items that can be recycled: cardboard, newspaper, office paper, magazines and catalogs can be recycled at the old hospital grounds in Romney on Wednesday and Saturday from 8:00 am till noon.  Some of this paper can be used as kindling in your fireplace or wood stove.

Trash can #3

In this container you can place all your metal cans, which will be taken to a recycling center out of the area.  If you wish, you can take your aluminum cans to the Slanesville Ruritan on Saturday mornings from 8:00 am till noon where you will be paid a small amount for them.

Trash can #4

All #1 and #2 plastics can be placed in this container.  Some recycling centers require that the #1 and #2 plastics be separated.  In order to be a recyclable plastic, the opening must be smaller than the container; water bottles are OK; margarine tubs are not.

Trash can #5

This can is reserved for glass containers which usually needs to be separated by color (green, brown, clear) at the recycling center.  No light bulbs, mirrors or broken glass is accepted.  Fluorescent light bulbs can be recycled at Lowe’s stores.

In addition, plastic grocery store bags can be recycled at the stores where you get them.

If you make the effort to recycle, you’ll find that you have very little actual “trash” each week, and may find that you don’t need to pay for trash collection at your house, but instead can make occasional trips to the trash transfer station in Romney.

One of the closest places for Hampshire Countians to take their recyclable is Penn Mar Recycling at 975 Kelly Road, Cumberland, MD.  There are also recycling facilities in Winchester, but they may be only available to Frederick County residents or by obtaining a permit.

The Hampshire County Commission is working on starting a comprehensive recycling program for county residents, as required by a referendum that was passed in November, 2014.  The initial phase is the paper/cardboard recycling available at the old Hospital grounds in Romney.  Currently, a recycling center is being developed at the Regional Jail property in Augusta, using a $120,000+ grant received from the WV State REAP program.  Hopefully, this program will eventually expand to include all recyclables, enabling all Hampshire County residents to recycle.  This will be our small part in saving the world, one piece of plastic at a time.

 

The Trump effect

 

I think we are witnessing one of the greatest, most scary changes in American politics in the last several decades.  After looking at some of the results from the primaries, I would like to make a couple of observations.  South Carolina had a 30% decrease in Democrat primary voting and a 20% increase in Republicans voting. The same was true in Nevada with a 30% reduction in Democrats and a whopping 50% increase in Republicans out to vote.  New Hampshire had a 13% Democrat drop and a 14% increase in Republican turnout.  Iowa kicked everybody’s butt with the Democrats decreasing by 30% and the Republicans going wild with almost a 60% increase.  So, what is happening?  What has incited the Republicans to come out in record numbers while Democrats stayed home in what has often been referred to as one of the most important elections in recent history?

You might be surprised to hear that I have a theory as to what is going on with our politics.  Let’s just call it the “Trump effect.”  I have talked to many voters, and one clear theme seems to stand out.  Many voters are at the poles for one reason: to vote for Donald Trump!  Many think that the businessman turned politician has the best chance of fixing a broken legislative system.  No doubt our country and system of government have some major hurdles to navigate in the coming years.  I have heard many times that he is not connected with the establishment and so will bring a fresh, new approach to Washington, DC.  I have also heard him make slurs against Muslims, Mexicans, women and anyone who dares to say anything negative about him or his intentions.  I have heard him use the ‘F’ word while addressing audiences and have listened to him say things that no politician ever had the hubris to say and survive politically another day.  Oftentimes his lack of understanding of the diverse subjects a president needs to understand comes pouring out as he rambles through discussions like a bull in a china cabinet.

I do understand and share the total distrust and contempt that the American public has for our legislative system and how we might look for any conceivable alternative available, but, I question the logic and common sense putting a potential hot-head like The Donald in charge of the largest military and nuclear stockpile (22,000 active warheads) on the planet.  There is also the matter of his apparent blunders in the business world.  Currently he is involved with a case in which Trump University stands indicted of embezzling tuition from its prospective students.  Many of his companies, including several of his casinos that he brags about, have gone bankrupt.  He has refused to make his federal tax records available to the public which has raised many eyebrows.

So why all of this crazyness?  Why has Trump rocketed to the top of the Republican ticket?  Why has he become the most talked about politician in recent history?  The answer is: he is over the top; he is entertaining; he brings out voters even if they have no idea what his policies truly are.  As I have written before, we are an entertainment-driven society, and let’s face it; Trump is, sadly, entertaining.  It remains to be seen if it is a good idea to put a man of Trump’s limited political experience and questionable temperament at the helm of the most powerful country on earth.  Still, this is where we may be headed.  People who have never voted before are coming out to vote; folks who get their entire view of the world from a TV station that is not allowed to broadcast in Canada because it is not considered news!  It is difficult to point to any one factor that has led us to this time and place, but, there are several ideas that have potential.  Our education system and our parents are failing to produce students who are politically savvy and willing to get involved in the political process or understand much about it.  Our news cycle treats politics like entertainment rather than featuring a proven serious leader to take us into the future.  And finally, the Supreme Court: under the Citizens United decision, the court has opened up the flood gates for rich corporations to literally buy elections.  No one is sure just how much the money the wealthy Koch brothers and others have actually given to various political campaigns throughout the year, but I am sure it is substantial.

So here we go down untraveled waters into a new political realm that this country has not seen before.  The combination of broadcast media, internet communication, social media and what I will call repeat-it-until-it’s-true reporting, has enabled our country to elect people based on their wealth, appearance and ability to entertain a crowd.  No longer will we easily elect people who are educated and informed about world situations but someone who is able to reach into the psyche of a predominately uninformed and shallow thinking voting population.  I think it is wise to say this: beware of currents that may take you and our country where you may regret having ventured.

Maybe it was too soon

I was lucky to be able to attend the inauguration of President Obama at the beginning of his first term.  Even though I was there as a bus driver for the Washington, DC police, I was present at a historic event which in turn allowed me to observe a great diversity of people who ventured out for this once-in-a-lifetime event.  I witnessed tens of thousands of people of every color walking towards the inauguration, passing directly in front of my bus.  They carried signs and wore decorated shirts expressing their excitement over the upcoming ceremony.  The temperature was around 25, yet many of the walkers wore only t-shirts.  I was bundled up in my tour bus with the heat on, as requested by the police I was carrying. They did not want to return to a cold bus during their lunch break.  As I sat there watching the events unfold, I immersed myself in the grandeur of the moment.  This was something I could tell my grandkids or anyone else who was willing to listen.

So now move to the present and think about the events that have transpired since the beginning of the president’s term.  President Obama went on to win a second term, initiate universal healthcare, almost get us out of the middle east and reduce unemployment to historic levels.  All this was done despite a hostile congress bent on blocking any legislation supported by the first black president. For most presidents this would have been considered a successful stay in office but for President Obama, according to his critics, it was a total failure and brought about the ruination of this country.

This morning I read an article which stated that our colleges may be cauldrons of racism. This is quite disturbing!  I always felt that the college campus was a place where progressive ideas were nurtured, helping society move into a new and more humane direction.  Now I hear of increasing numbers of racial incidents on our campuses that take me back to the 60’s.  Just recently in Oklahoma college students were seen chanting racial slurs while riding on a bus. At Duke University students were faced with a hanging noose in a tree in a student area.  This brings back memories from a difficult time in our history when racism was common place. One could claim that these are random occurrences by a few crazy individuals and that we as people are not returning to an age of hatred.

I need to approach this issue from a different direction.  Societies are much like giant oil tankers that require large distances to change direction. The physics is simple: an object in motion tends to remain in motion unless acted upon by an opposing force.  Societies as well tend to continue in the same direction unless acted upon by opposing forces. Maybe the gentle nudging of society towards a non-racist agenda would have been more effective, for some people, than the shock of having a person of color in the oval office.  As with many others, I am afraid that there may be a backlash of resentment that will push us in the wrong direction.  Hypothetically we may create a sub-culture of racism that, like a cancer, destroys the body from within.  Somehow we must address this negative energy and reduce its effect!

As President Obama approaches the end of his time in office, we must reflect on where we are going as a nation.  My hope is that we are heading into an age of enlightenment, but there are many troubling signs on our horizon.  The degree of rancor, animosity and hate in this country has risen to levels unseen in recent history, and if it continues, there is no telling where we are going to end up.  There are some who think that Christ will reappear and help us find our way out of all of this, but if he were to actually return, he would be greatly distraught over what the world has become at our hands and the misuse of his name and teachings.

A man who lived in the future

There are currently over 7 billion humans living on this planet, with most of them living day-to-day with little regard to what is waiting for us around the next turn.  That next bend in the road could be the curing of cancer, the invention of warp drive or the creation of a clean way to produce energy. There is a small number of people who do look to the future, who live comfortably in the future. We call these individuals visionaries.  One came from right here in Hampshire County: Edward Buckbee.  You can learn a great deal about Mr. Buckbee by simply Googling his name.  This Hampshire County native helped create the NASA visitor center in Florida, as well as working with astronauts in the early space program.

Recently, I had the pleasure of talking with Mr. Buckbee for the first time about his life in West Virginia and how our county helped shape him to go on to do big things.  When I told him the nature of the article I wanted to write, he said that no one had ever written a story about how he grew up.  He went on to say that most everyone wants to know about his time with astronauts on their moon mission.  I suggested that his growing up in Appalachia was an essential part of him that needed to be written about, and he agreed.  Our county taught him that dreams are to be faithfully followed and not easily forgotten. He represents the necessity for young and old to know and understand that anything is possible.

So the story begins:

Ed’s boyhood home was on Route 28, about 4 miles north of Romney, WV.  Born on Sept 15, 1936 at Cumberland Memorial Hospital in Maryland, he was the son of Odel ( Ed) and Jessie (Jake) Buckbee who were an important part of the fabric of Hampshire County. Ed senior worked at Pancake Chevy as a parts distributor as well as at the Romney Fruit Growers’ co-op store in town.  Little Ed spent many hours hanging out at these establishments after school. Jessie stayed at home with the kids and managed the gas station next door until World War II came, at which time she drove a school bus because of a shortage of males in the area. Little Ed and his brother, Robert, managed the gas station after school while mom prepared dinner.

As I listened to Ed tell childhood stories, I felt a bit envious of him and of his time growing up in a small town, which was in stark contrast to my first 10 years of life in Los Angeles and my 15 years in the sprawling Washington, DC suburbs. Ed had lived the childhood I dreamed of.

One of the things that became apparent while listening to him was his love of the South Branch River, the mountains and the freedom that country life gave him. He loved to hunt, and brought down his first deer, a nine-point beauty, on Break Neck Mt. at the age of 15 with a 32 lever-action Winchester.  He spent many hours with his Scout troop #32 camping, hiking and learning about the outdoors. He told me about one of his troop leaders who they referred to as ‘Kerosene’ because he would always sneak in some kerosene when trying to start a fire with a piece of flint. Everyone played along.  John Ailes was also a troop leader who accompanied Ed and his troop on many adventures down the South Branch River.  Frequently they camped at night along the river under the stars enjoying nature at its best. One scout trip that Ed seemed to relish the memories of was a trip to Washington, DC when they slept in sleeping bags at the base of the Washington monument for several days, and then during the day explored the many museums and sites that Washington offered.  At one point in this trip, he entered the old Smithsonian, and low and behold, hanging from the ceiling was the X1, one of the early supersonic jets, once piloted by Chuck Yeager who was also a West Virginian. Ed feels that seeing that prototype spacecraft planted something in him that led him into the space program later on. It was a very special moment!

He attended Romney Grade School untill the 8th grade and then went on to Romney High School where he played baseball and was also a manager for the football team.  During this time he came to love and admire Coach McElwee who in Ed’s words ‘coached almost everything.’  Coach had played football at West Virginia University and was a local hero for many people in the area.  Some think that McElwee was the most successful football coach in Hampshire County history.  He was also a very respected teacher who taught self-discipline and proper behavior to all his students and players. When the team traveled to other schools, they were expected to behave like gentlemen at all times; nothing less was acceptable.  Another person in Ed’s life who made a huge difference was high school principal Gordon Slonaker who ran a very tight ship.  Ed admitted to spending some time in the boiler room with Principal Slonaker as he was reminded of what proper behavior is; these were not fond memories!  Slonaker later went on to become the President of Shepherd College.

After completing his high school education, Ed went on to get a degree in journalism from West Virginia University.  Returning home, he worked at the Hampshire Review writing a column called Drug Store Quarterback. I suggested to him that that title would probably not be politically correct in today’s world; we laughed.  Later Ed was asked by Mr. Ailes, the Editor of the Review,  to cover the Hampshire Board of Education meetings.  When he walked into the meeting, he was asked to leave because they wanted to protect the privacy of the meeting, but he somehow managed to convince them to let him stay to report on the meeting.  Apparently when he wrote the article about the meeting in detail, many people ( including the Board of Ed) were extremely upset.  Since that time the Review has been painstakingly reporting on everything the Board does, much to their chagrin. Somehow Ed was asked to be a stringer for the Washington Post.  His assignment was to report on everything which involved “blood or floods.”  He recalled one such story when he wrote about a severe flood of the South Branch.  His article went something like this:  A small town in WV was destroyed by a treacherous flood as God watched from the banks of the South Branch River. His boss called to say: “Forget the river; get an interview with God!”  So, every time something bad happened in Hampshire County, Ed made $15!

I have to say that talking with Ed Buckbee was a real pleasure for me and I hope to meet him in person someday soon.  As we were finishing up, I asked him this: What did Hampshire County do to allow him to make a substantial difference in the world?  He said it was the feeling of belonging, knowing that there were people always there to help out and never having to face the day-to-day struggles alone.  Having never known what it was like to live in a community that watched out for its own, I was forced to return to my childhood and the feelings of often being alone.  Thank you, Ed, for sharing your life with our readers. By the way, Ed is still playing softball at the age of 79!

If you wish to learn more about Ed’s exploits after leaving Hampshire County, simply Google his name and read about all the neat things he did as a child and a young man.  He also helped write a book, SPACE COWBOYS by Ed Buckbee and Wally Schirra. I know you will enjoy it!

 

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