Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
Sept. 18
The Exponent Telegram on a statewide reaction to the death of a high school football player during a recent game:
The traditions of high school football, from the “Friday Night Lights,” to the marching bands and cheerleaders, have long been romanticized in our culture.
The thoughts of playing for the pride and glory of your school, and your community, have carried many through the tough days of summer conditioning to success on the field - and later in life.
It is a lifestyle, a way of life, as so brilliantly explained in the hit song by Kenny Chesney, “Boys of Fall”:
“They didn’t let just anybody in that club
Took every ounce of heart and sweat and blood
To get to wear those game-day jerseys down the hall
The kings of the school, man, we’re the boys of fall”
And so the games are played and champions are crowned; some win it all, but all gain from the experience, from their time in the limelight, but too from their time overcoming the challenges and, yes, the defeats.
The same can be said for all athletic competitions, for they all build character, teach teamwork and the need to overcome obstacles placed in our path. But there is something about football that attracts us the most.
And yet, it can also lead us where we don’t really want to go.
This past Friday (Sept. 13), on a football field in Clay, West Virginia, Roane County senior Alex Miller was doing what he loved to do - competing with his teammates.
A senior wide receiver and defensive back, there are video clips of Miller’s exploits in past games and that night. He was a stellar player, a team leader who had earned his teammates’ respect and love.
Between the first and second quarters on the unusually hot, sticky September night, Miller said he didn’t feel quite right. He complained of dizziness.
A teammate was talking to him when he collapsed. Emergency responders quickly began CPR, but were unable to save him.
It’s not the first time a football player has died during a game or shortly thereafter.
In 2013, South Harrison’s Dylan Jeffries died nine days after experiencing a brain trauma during his team’s game with Lincoln. Twenty years previous to that, in 1993, Ritchie County’s Chuck Schofield died the same way.
There was no such situation noted by Miller, his teammates or staff on hand Friday night. But we’re sure in the coming days and weeks, much effort will be expended to determine the cause of this young man’s death in the hopes of preventing others in the future.
But at the same time that we deal with Miller’s death, let us also reflect on his life and the actions of those around him in his and his family’s time of need.
It is said that tragedy has a way of bringing out the best in others, and Roane County and all of West Virginia have responded in remarkable fashion.
Tuesday, many schools across the state urged students to wear maroon in Miller’s honor, a tribute to his beloved school that he so proudly represented.
And the offerings of support, both in terms of kind words and financial contributions, are pouring in.
Football players from neighboring schools in Ohio and West Virginia stood on a busy highway over the weekend, collecting thousands of dollars from passersby. All of the money raised will go to the Miller family, organizers said.
And hundreds were in attendance at the Roane football field Saturday night for a candlelight vigil, trying to help family, friends and the community try to make some sense out of the situation.
There have been many other heart-felt efforts. There will be many more to come. But still, we have questions as to why someone so young and healthy is taken from our midst.
But sometimes in life, the answers to our questions aren’t forthcoming. Not here, not now.
We have been down this path before. We will likely tread it once again.
For in life, there is death, and no one can stop the inevitable.
Still, it’s supposed to be older people, people who have lived a full life. It’s not supposed to be our young.
But it has been - and will be. For death has no timetable that we control.
And so, much like those players on Friday night, we tighten our chin straps of life and muster the courage and fortitude to push through.
We rally around each other and lift our fellow brothers and sisters, knowing we could be the next to fall.
And we know that at some time, that final whistles blows and the game is done.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Alex Miller, his family and friends. They are with all West Virginians as we struggle to understand, and they are with all of our youth as they continue to play the games on the fields and courts, as well as in life.
Let us lift each other up and remember the spirit of competition is not made of hate, but respect. It is to foster the betterment of all, with the goal of making us just a little bit better a day at a time.
Online: https://www.wvnews.com/theet/
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Sept. 17
The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register on the rate of West Virginia residents who don’t have health insurance coverage:
Left-leaning health insurance advocates got a little nervous this month when U.S. Census Bureau data showed a statistically insignificant change in the percentage of West Virginians with health insurance, from 2017 to 2018. There are (gasp) still 6.4% of Mountain State residents without health coverage.
To be fair, Sean O’Leary, policy analyst at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, acknowledged a huge leap had been made in 2014 when lawmakers decided to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. And it is important to remember our state is one of the best in the nation at making sure children have health insurance (only 3% do not) because of initiatives such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
But O’Leary commented that “with recent gains in coverage beginning to be lost, there is still work to be done to make sure every West Virginian has access to quality and affordable healthcare coverage.” He then pounced on the opportunity to wring his hands because lawmakers might try again to implement a work requirement for Medicaid benefits. Last session a bill died in the House of Delegates before it could require that “able bodied” residents, with a few exceptions, must work, volunteer, be in training, or part of a substance abuse treatment program for at least 20 hours a week, to be eligible for Medicaid.
Remember that approximately 13% of Americans as a whole are without health care coverage. West Virginia is doing quite well, by that standard.
So it is disingenuous to pretend holding steady at such a low percentage translates into “gains in coverage beginning to be lost,” or that a work requirement for those who are able should be avoided because, according to the center’s news release on the matter, it is “likely to cause even more West Virginians to lose coverage.”
We can always do better, of course. But the fact West Virginia’s uninsured population is only half the national average is not something about which we should be wringing our hands.
Online: https://www.theintelligencer.net/
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Sept. 16
The Inter-Mountain on how the West Virginia Supreme Court is revamping its public education program:
Quick: How many justices serve on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals? Are magistrates required to have law degrees?
Does it matter whether a candidate for a circuit court judgeship is a Democrat or Republican?
Many Mountain State residents are ignorant of how the court system works, in part because things have changed since civics class in high school. And some schools never get to the mechanics of the state’s judicial system.
Good for Supreme Court justices, then, for revamping their public education program. It is important.
A key to it is providing judicial officers willing to go to schools and explain things to students. The court has a panel of them; we encourage educators to make use of the resource (go to the court website, courtswv.gov, and click on “student resources”).
Too many people are ignorant of how government really works. The court’s program will help - but only if it is used.
Answers, by the way, are: Five, no, and no (because judicial elections are nonpartisan).
Online: http://www.theintermountain.com/
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