Belmont County, Ohio

This trip was a joke on me. Joe agreed to go with me to my next county, alphabetically: Bedford, Virginia. We were supposed to go Monday to Wednesday, November 17 to 19. Then I looked at the weather report. Tuesday, the day we would be touring, had a forecast high in Bedford of 24 F., with 21 mile per hour winds. And Monday and Wednesday we would be traveling over the mountains in West Virginia, where it would likely be snowing. So we didn't go. Monday night we stayed in Morgantown,  saw the movie St. Vincent and then ate dinner at a Chinese buffet in University Town Center.

This weekend, the forecast was a high of 49 Saturday, with even warmer weather Sunday, but

rain all day. So, I thought I would go to then next county, Belmont County, Ohio, originally scheduled for December, on Saturday November 22. I didn't want to fall behind.

I took the back route across West Virginia 2 to New Martinsville. For some reason, although it was 32 when I left the house, the temperature got colder. Then it started to rain. And then there was ice all over the roads. An accident on the bridge across the Ohio River at New Martinsville held me up for a half hour. I was behind a truck salting the road on Ohio 7 heading up the river. I still didn't understand about the ice. I stopped at Dollar General in Powhatan Point to use the bathroom, check directions and buy a big bag of pretzels for a dollar.

I followed a back road, where I saw a car in a ditch. Then my car began to slide. That's when I got it. The car's gauge said it was 32 outside. I drove slowly after that. Southwestern Belmont County is mountainous, like West Virginia. It's dotted with well pads and access roads from fracking, disturbing the landscape. I hadn't gotten to my first historic place in the town of Belmont by 12:45. This man doesn't live on pretzels alone, so I continued on OH 9, instead of turning off to Belmont, to St. Clairsville, where I knew there was a mall off I-70.  I knew I could get a cheap and fast lunch at the mall. I had a slice of pizza, a small salad, and a diet Pepsi. Coming out, I could see that the traffic heading back to St. Clairsville was backed up. I decided to go back to the Ohio River and visit the old town of Bellaire.

I was on I-470 in Ohio, the bypass around Wheeling, West Virginia. Traffic stopped dead for a half hour. I saw trucks stalled on the road for no apparent reason. I thought maybe there was some kind of trucker strike, like last year. A Pittsburgh radio station talked about how traffic was stopped all over the region. Apparently, it was because of ice on the roads.

I finally reached Bellaire, stopping at a Dairy Queen for an ice cream and another bathroom. I tried to get Mapquest on my phone, but typically, I couldn't get internet service on my useless Samsung Galaxy S4 with Sprint service, when it works. I had written the addresses of the five historic places in town. I found two. My research found that once upon a time there were three synagogues in this town. The 1920 census showed 15, 061 people in Bellaire. In 2010, there were 4, 278. This is what the rust belt looks like.

I had planned to be out six hours, three to drive both ways and three to explore. With  all the traffic problems, the only place I really got to look at was Bellaire.

The joke on me was that Sunday was much warmer, and there was no rain. If I were into magical thinking, I would say I was punished for ditching Torah study Saturday morning to go exploring.

Here are some pictures from Bellaire, Ohio, Saturday, November 22, 2014, between 2;30 and 3:45 P.M. The temperature was around 45 F., and there was an on-and-off drizzle under cloudy skies.

Traffic backed up on I-470 in eastern Ohio

Village square in Bellaire. The high school is in the background

B&O Railroad Bridge from across the Ohio River into town

First Christian Church. This is near where there was once a synagogue. Maybe it was in this building?

United Presbyterian Church

Bellaire Public Library

Belmont Street, the main drag through downtown

Zweig Building and abandoned Ohio River Bridge, Bellaire, OH

Israel

Note: I am in a same-gender marriage to Rabbi Joe Hample, spiritual leader of Tree of Life, a Reform synagogue in Morgantown, West Virginia. I am publishing this without showing it to the Rabbi. The opinions here are my own, not his. Nor do they necessarily represent the views of members of Tree of Life.

Rabbi Joe sermonized about Israel on Yom Kippur. He called for a separation of the Jews and Arabs in Palestine with the establishment of an Arab state in the West Bank and Gaza. It was brave of him to say that when the government in Israel seems to be opposed. Still, if Israel is to remain a Jewish state, the Arabs need to have their own government.

Since then, the world has seen the rise of militants in Iraq and Syria, failing governments in Yemen and Libya, and Arab attacks on Jewish civilians in Israel, particularly in Jerusalem. This past Tuesday, November 18, two Arabs attacked a group of Orthodox Jews at morning prayer in Har Hof, a West Jerusalem neighborhood favored by English speakers from the United States and Britain. People were shot, stabbed and hacked with a meat cleaver in the middle of their prayers. Ultimately, a police officer, an ethnic Druze, shot and killed the two attackers. The policeman himself died of injuries.

Israel annexed all of Jerusalem after the Six-Day War in 1967. Many in the Arab community, who were the majority in that area before 1967, are not happy to be in a Jewish state. They have the rights of citizenship, but Israel is clearly set up for the benefit of Jews. The definition of "Jerusalem" has been expanded to include all the land up to Hebron. Jewish-only settlements have been built on land the Arabs want for their own state.

Until the attack this week, I had the impression, from visiting Jerusalem in 1985 and 2007 and from talking to friends and reading about Israel, that religion was not an issue between people. There was a "live and let live" attitude. Tensions were worse between the so-called "Ultra-Orthodox" and "secular" Jews. I use quotes because many in both camps object to those terms. Some pundits think these killers were inspired by ISIS to kill Jews at prayer, and that is possible. Tension may be high because some Jews are demanding the right to pray on the Temple Mount, site of Solomon's temple, but the site of a mosque since the seventh century. After the 1967 conquest of East Jerusalem, the Temple Mount was placed under Moslem jurisdiction and Jews could visit, but not pray. Maybe it shouldn't be a big deal, but I don't see the point of Jews praying there if it affronts Muslim sensibilities. Our prayers, as Jews, have not depended on being at the Temple Mount for almost two thousand years. As a liberal, Diaspora Jew, I say "Let them have it."

Speaking of liberals, the rhetoric from friends on Facebook has been hysterical and not helpful. People are quoting from sources without investigating them. I mean from "TheRightScoop.com or well-known haters like Pamela Geller or Michelle Malkin. People I know buy whatever these horrible people are saying about how "Liberals hate Israel."I won't even repeat what they say about Islam generally. In the past, I've asked well-meaning people not to post from people like Mike Huckabee,  Glenn Beck, or Ben Carson. When I read something, I consider the source before I consider their arguments. If it's Cal Thomas (who appears in the Morgantown Dominion-Post) or someone who I know is racist and homophobic, or if it comes from an unreliable source like Fox News, I ignore it. Yes, CNN, The Washington Post and even the New York Times have been unreliable. My readings on Israel are likely to come from Ha'aretz, a liberal, English-language paper from Israel that provides a variety of opinions directly from Israel. I follow Ha'aretz on Twitter. My few Israeli friends are people who have moved there from the United States. I don't often agree with them.

What I've read about the community where these murders took place is that the people are at prayer. Thousands attended the funeral of the non-Jewish police officer who was killed. They are not asking for revenge. What they have done is mourn the dead, affirm their attachment to Israel, to the Jewish people and to their own families. I join with my fellow Jews in these endeavors.

I feel helpless. The Islamic world is spinning out of control. Israel, like the United States, has become more divided, more ruled by ugliness, money and thuggery than in the past. I ask that we take a step back, listen to the other side, be charitable and pray for peace with respect for everyone in the world.

The Election

My initial dismay at the national and West Virginia election results has become more rational. Nationally, the Republicans wiped the floor with the Democrats. Here in West Virginia, we will have a majority-Republican House of Delegates for the first time in many, many years., and although the state Senate election resulted in a tie, a Democrat was convinced to change his party affiliation to Republican to give the Republicans a majority. I wonder if he was paid to do that, and if so, how much?

I don't know if the Democrats could have gotten around the hatred that has been fomented against President Obama by Karl Rove, Roger Ailes, the Koch Brothers, and locally, coal mine operators like Bob Murray of Murray Energy, who owns mines here in West Virginia. When we arrived here in 2012, the state was awash in "Stop Obama's War On Coal" signs and bumper stickers and even license plates that say "Friend of Coal."

Our junior Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin, came up with a simple law, along with a Republican from Pennsylvania, to close a loophole that allowed anyone to buy a gun at a show without any kind of check. He was subjected to a blowback of hate from the gun lobby. I think he must have been shocked at the ferocity.

With all this as background, it's no wonder that Natalie Tennant, from all reports a good person, the Democratic Senate nominee to replace retiring Jay Rockefeller, ran against Obama and the EPA. In a debate on public radio with Republican nominee Shelly Moore Capito, Tennant stated over and over that she was raised on a farm and owns a gun. For her part, Capito only stated, over and over, that Tennant supported Obama.

In West Virginia, with its palpable dislike of outsiders and racial minorities, it's hard not to think Obama's race had something to do with this. Capito had been in Congress, and no one could point to anything she accomplished in the last few terms. She presented no agenda except stopping Obama and the EPA.

It didn't help that the Supreme Court wouldn't hear the case for maintaining the ban on same-gender marriage in West Virginia. President Obama, at least in his second term, has been a supporter of gay rights, and I'm sure that rankled people here and in other states. West Virginia passed a law against same-gender marriage a few years ago, with only three dissenters: two here in Morgantown and one in Huntington. One of the two in Morgantown, the first African-American mayor, was defeated in this election. In our district, we have gone from three Democrats and two Republicans in the legislature to four Republicans and one Democrat. Voters here could press one button to vote "all Democratic" or "all Republican." People should have had to vote for each office. Republican campaign materials tended not to state which party the candidate belonged to.

I voted for Tennant, maybe because singer-songwriter Carole King came here to support her.  I'm not sure that King, a well-known liberal, a Jew and a New Yorker by birth, was helpful to the campaign. She got me to vote for Tennant, but I'm not a typical West Virginian. I was sorely tempted to vote for The Mountain Party, whose views are closest to mine. Their problem is that they have no chance of winning.

I read Kathleen Parker in our local paper, The Dominion-Post, this morning (November 13). She blames Democrats for alleged lies about The Affordable Care Act. She is upset that people lost their insurance despite promises that they could keep their insurance. That was always conditional on those policies meeting certain standards, which many of them didn't. I don't believe it was the big issue she states it is. I think she knows that and is just looking for something to throw at President Obama. She's delusional if she thinks, as she says, that the Republican victory was about "restoring that trust" in government.

I think the Republicans won by limiting voting among African-Americans, who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, by nefarious reapportionment schemes, difficult ID laws, and not accepting new registrations, even though they were filed timely. I credit the Supreme Court with allowing "dark money" to pollute elections, and overturning The Voting Rights Act, allowing mostly formerly-Confederate states to impose new restrictions on voting that would adversely affect African-Americans.

There is no denying that Democrats could have done a much better job of presenting themselves. They could have stood up for the ACA and promoted clean air and water, even in West Virginia. In our district, Democrat Glen Gainer ran almost no campaign against Tea Party favorite David McKinley, a climate change denier.

If the Republicans are proud of their victory, I'm fine with it. They got it from Democratic timidity, racism, homophobia, cheating on the rules, and money from only the top 1% of our economy. Maybe a majority of voters are fine with that. I'm not.

High Holidays 5775 (The Remix)

I didn't feel much of the holiday spirit this year. If I were to repent of anything, I would have said I need to say "No" more often. What I want to do is write more; what I'm doing is chanting Torah on Yom Kippur, working on a history project for Tree of Life, serving on a commission for "LGBT Equity" at West Virginia University, and keeping house. Not that all these things aren't worthwhile, or that keeping house wasn't to be expected when I got married.

Being Jewish in Morgantown does not entirely give me what I need. I'm starting to fight back against the "War on Christmas" mentality that dominates this area. I wished all my Christian acquaintances "Shana Tova" in the way they all wish me "Merry Christmas" because "Happy Holidays" doesn't work for them. The more curious asked me what it meant and when were the holidays, the less curious just looked at me. One of the slogans in Morgantown is "Building A Diverse Community." And yet, WVU's homecoming parade was Friday night on Yom Kippur, and the big football game was late afternoon Saturday. Morgantown High had its homecoming parade the evening of Rosh Hashana, and apparently would not excuse absences for the next day. I'm feeling that "Diversity" does not include Jews. Last week was "Diversity Week" at the University, and they did advertise Israeli dancing, but that's as Jewish as it got.

The High Holy Day cantor at Tree of Life flies  in from Mexico every year. This year he called around September 1 to say he was ill and couldn't come. In the scramble to find someone else, Joe and I came up with a mutual friend, Rabbi Yossi Carron, who worked as a cantor at one time, then became a rabbi. He has worked as a chaplain in the prisons, and Joe interned with him one summer. This gave Joe the confidence to pursue a job in the prisons.

The way it worked out with the congregation, Joe and I had to drive him eighty miles to and from the airport in Pittsburgh twice, and put him up at our house. Someone offered to find him somewhere else to stay, but he told this person he wanted to stay with his friends. This was hard for us, because I needed time to work on my Torah chanting, and Rabbi Joe had sermons to write, and three funerals in the days after Rosh Hashana. It was stressful for us to have someone in our two bedroom house.

Services turned out well. The congregants loved Yossi. He kissed and hugged all the older women, flirted with the young men (who didn't seem to mind), schmaltzed up all the singing, which people considered "spiritual." The sticklers didn't like that he forgot or mispronounced much of the Hebrew. The complainer I heard from asked me why I didn’t take over for the holidays. I told him “ I don’t have the strength to do a full holiday schedule. And I would never do holidays with just three weeks to prepare.”  I hope he realized we were blessed that Yossi had the chutzpah to walk in at the last minute and do a full holiday schedule.

 I laughed when Yossi sang "The Way We Were" during the Yizkor Memorial service on Yom Kippur afternoon. But by the end of the song, I felt nostalgic for the past, and sorry for the passage of time strongly enough to tear up. Of course, it was late afternoon, and though I didn't fast, I hadn't had a lot to eat and I was tired. Ultimately, the Yom Kippur magic worked for me, even though I was determined not to feel it. At the end, I knew I would be a better person in 5775.

Yossi  charmed us too. One of my complaints about Morgantown is that we don't have older gay men for friends here. Yossi and Joe sat around at dinner and breakfast challenging each other with the lyrics of obscure Sondheim musicals. It was the only time during the holidays that Joe really relaxed and had fun.

In addition to loving Joe, I admire him as a rabbi. He was always a skilled speaker. At the evening service on Yom Kippur, he spoke about Israel, from the heart. He took what would be considered a leftist view in most synagogues, calling for an Arab state in the West Bank and Gaza, whatever it takes, and despite the obvious risks. People praised his speech to me, but said they feared others would be critical. I'm not sure anyone was. I have rarely been more proud of my Joe.

We've finished the holidays, and today, October 9, is the first day of Sukkot, the harvest holiday where we eat lots and hang out with friends in the autumn air. Despite the stress, we enjoyed having Yossi with us. Joe still has work for Sukkot and Simchat Torah. I try to take this time to enjoy autumn and relax.

65

I'm sixty-five now. I keep having to repeat that. Soon I will believe it. On my actual birthday, I taught a class to people over fifty (mostly over seventy) about the music of the British invasion of the Sixties. This week was 1968. I played music and videos from The Beatles, "Hey Jude" and The Beatles (aka "The White Album"). I played The Rolling Stones singing "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and some excerpts from Beggars Banquet. I lost them with a video of Cream playing "White Room" and excerpts from Wheels of Fire. A woman I'm friendly with raised her hand and asked "Why are we listening to this noise?"

I tried to explain, as I did to family and sometimes friends in 1968, "This isn't 'Yummy, Yummy, Yummy I've Got Love In My Tummy.' It's not aimed at ten-year-old girls like most Top 40 music. You have to listen more intently. It might take time to get used to it." So I guess I haven't learned anything in the last forty-seven years. I got the same blank look I got in 1968. Someone in the class brought cookies because they knew it was my birthday.

I had lunch at Subway with a seventy-five year old man in the class. He grew up in New York, and although not Jewish, he knew lots of Jews then and even now in Morgantown. His wife died some time ago, and he asked me "Are there available women at your temple?" I mentioned two widows in their sixties who might be available. "I know them. I don't want anyone like that. Look at me. I'm in great shape for my age." (He's not.) " Isn't there anyone younger?"

At that point, I silently thanked God for sending me Joe, gray-haired, balding (not as bald as I am) and only seven years younger than I am. Old enough that we have things to talk about, and young enough to be my "young man."

There was a class about Yiddish theater with a movie in the afternoon, then I ran some errands and went home to crash. Tappuz the cat slept with me.

Joe thought we should go someplace fancy for dinner. We did, although I wasn't hungry after all the cookies, and I was tired. There was one other occupied table with an older couple and a young woman. I didn't know them. At least that's what I thought, but the older woman said "Hi, Barry. Happy birthday!" I couldn't place her, but it turns out she is in my class. She couldn't come that day. I should have remembered her.

Some of the food was good. My entrée was just average. Everything was expensive. I couldn't wait to leave. I'm always glad to go out, but I was tired and not feeling that well. I was reminded of my mother insisting we go out someplace fancy for my twenty-first birthday. I was a hippie college student then, a senior, and seriously depressed. Depressed enough that I wouldn't go to a shrink because I was afraid they would hospitalize me. The thought of getting dressed up enough to go to a nice restaurant sent my stomach into spasms. I hadn't eaten much that day, and I was in pain. I barely got through dinner then. An allergist years later explained that my stomach ailments, always around my birthday, were a seasonal allergy. Now you tell me.

I look at now and I have to do the Jewish thing. I have to be grateful for all the gifts in my life. I have a handsome, good, hard-working man at home who loves me. The times have changed enough that I can thank the waiter for not asking if we want separate checks and he'll answer "I'm young, but I'm not that young." I'll introduce my husband to a male-female couple, and they'll say to him "We've heard so much about you from members of your congregation. They just love you." As of two weeks ago, the state accepts our marriage. Most of the people aren't happy about it, but we've already changed people's minds about same-gender marriage, even here.

I have a body that works, with a little pharmaceutical help. I've dodged polio, teenage drivers, Vietnam and AIDS. I survived a heart attack, and done many dangerous things I hope no one finds out about. I'm still here. Sounds like a Sondheim song :" I've lived through George and George W., Nixon-Agnew. " I should leave lyric writing to Mr. Sondheim.

I understand mortality. I'm four years younger than my father when he died, and ten years younger than my mother. I get it. Still, I look in the mirror and say "Not bad." I remember and study the past, live in the present, and still have plans for the future. Joe is throwing me a dinner and dance party this weekend.

Bedford County, Pennsylvania

Between the Jewish holidays, a spate of funerals, my weekly British Invasion class, and the five other classes I'm taking at OLLI, we have both been stressed out. Last Sunday, Joe had a full day of Sunday school, Hebrew classes and teen programming at temple. The weather looked good, and I decided to take the day off and visit my October county, Bedford, Pennsylvania. It's just one hundred miles from home, so I figured I could go and come back. Statistically it had 49,762 people in 2010, is part of metropolitan Altoona, is overwhelmingly Caucasian and votes Republican. I couldn't find a synagogue or decent shopping mall. Both of those exist in Altoona, less than forty miles away. The county seat, Bedford is small and dates back to colonial times. Nearby is Bedford Springs Resort, a sprawling hotel with mineral springs, similar to  the Homestead, in Hot Springs, Virginia, where I spent a night in August. Both are just barely on the east side of the Appalachians, so geographically in the same region.

I ran into the Fall Foliage Festival, a two-weekend event in the center of Bedford. Lots of booths selling wood-carved Santas and black cats for Hallowe'en, homemade jewelry and signs saying things like "Steelers Fans Only" or "Retired, Gone Fishin'." Most of the town is a historic district, so I took a few pics. The leaves were beautiful as advertised, it was sunny and the temperature rose from 55 - 60. I ate a sloppy chicken on pita sandwich, and because Tappuz, our cat, was a rescue, and because the local Humane Society was sponsoring it, I had to have a big bowl of fresh homemade apple cobbler, topped with locally-made vanilla ice cream.

I found two other historic districts in smaller towns in the county, pretty, but a bit rundown. There's an ancient mill on the Juniata River, with a trail through the area.  There are maybe sixteen covered bridges in the county.The weather clouded up after a while, and started to cool down. Winter is not far away.

I drove back over the mountains, and I was home by six.

Bedford Springs Resort

Pitt St., downtown Bedford

historic cemetery, Bedford

Fall Foliage Festival, Bedford

Juniata Mill, Snake Spring Township

Jackson's Mill Covered Bridge, East Providence Township (under repair)

Schellsburg Historic District

Summer Lake, Shawnee State Park, near Schellsburg

Russell House, Bedford

Re: Marriage

In my last post, I mentioned that the Supreme Court, by refusing to hear appeals by states to overturn lower court rulings in favor of marriage equality, opened the door to our marriage being recognized in West Virginia. The circuit court gave West Virginia's anti-gay attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, two weeks to come up with a reason to stop same-gender marriage. Last week, Morrisey folded and same-gender marriage is now allowed in West Virginia. The papers have had pictures of couples, often two women with children, signing up for marriage in some of West Virginia's more rural counties. A pastor in a rural town not far from Morgantown railed impotently against the new rules. He swore he would not marry a same-gender couple in his church. As if anyone would ask.

I wrote a letter to the editor of The Dominion-Post, which they published Wednesday, October 14. Next to it was a letter from someone in a town of 380 in the eastern panhandle, complaining that the courts had overstepped, because the states have the right to define marriage, according to his reading of the Constitution. That issue was settled with the demise of laws against interracial marriages fifty-some years ago.

Here's my letter:

It didn't seem like it would be a big deal. We married in California in 2008 just before Prop 8 passed there, ending the spate of marriages that  had lasted a few months. Our marriage remained legal in California, and when asked, I always said "I'm married," even when we moved to West Virginia in 2012. We've made lots of friends here, but I still  felt hostility, particularly when I asked Senator Manchin and Congressman McKinley to support same-gender marriage and they wouldn't. Just this week, Senate candidate Capito said she believes "marriage is between a man and a woman." Attorney General Morrisey has never even pretended to be a friend to gay people. Still, when DOMA was defeated, I was able to put my spouse on my health insurance, saving us $6500 per year.

Despite my jadedness, both Joe and I have been walking around smiling since marriage equality came to West Virginia. We feel more "at home" here.

What has moved me are the pictures and stories of people in rural counties as well as the cities signing up to marry. They usually say "We're just like everybody else." But they're not, and we're not. We've all been through a lot.  We've had to come out to ourselves, risk losing our families, our friends and our religion to be who we really are. Those of us who are married and marrying have found love and are running with it, and the court has recognized our right as free people in the United States of America to marry the person we choose.

Many people in West Virginia oppose same-gender marriage, they say, because they are conservatives. To me, marrying my boyfriend six years ago was the most conservative thing I could have done.

It's been a great week in West Virginia. Thanks to Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, the Morgantown City Council and WVU President E. Gordon Gee for supporting us.