* * Habitat For Humanity builds community

Shelley Fortier is working to provide boots, so to speak. She’s the Executive Director of the local affiliate of the Habitat For Humanity. There’s an old expression about people picking themselves up by the bootstraps. Some people face daunting financial obstacles. Habitat For Humanity helps people in a real, tangible way to make improvements in their lives, by helping them achieve home ownership.

Hers is a fascinating story that led her to that position. She told me, “I was raised in Blacksburg and went to Virginia Tech. I got a degree in Political Science, but I entered the corporate world.” She met her husband Joe in New Jersey, and had a series of jobs in the New York, New Jersey, and New England areas, and then in California, working in management for retail chain stores.

“He finished a graduate degree from Berkeley in Energy Resources. We were both pushing 40 and were asking ourselves what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives. My parents were still in Blacksburg and we ended up moving back here.”

They arrived with two kids, great job skills, no plans, and no jobs. “One day, Joe came home and said, ‘I bought a building in Radford.’ He had a vision. He thought Radford needed a coffee shop and more affordable housing. They have an inventory of great, historic buildings.”

They have gone on to purchase several other downtown buildings in Radford and Blacksburg, and most recently the old Prices Fork Elementary School. Meanwhile, Shelley started volunteering for Habitat For Humanity. Habitat was founded in 1976 in Georgia, and is the largest not-for-profit home builder in the world.

So Joe came out of financial services, and became a developer and carpenter. Shelley came out of corporate retailing and became immersed in providing affordable housing. How did that happen?

“We looked at investing in rental properties. Many landlords bought substandard buildings and never improved them. They were low quality and not putting anything back into them. We believe in fairness. Conversations about privilege always made me uncomfortable. We worked hard. My parents worked hard. Yet my successes stand on their shoulders and theirs on their parents’. That’s privilege. I had that. Not everybody has that. Some people can’t pick themselves up by the bootstraps because they’ve never had boots. I had boots.

“We are social entrepreneurs. We live here. We’re going to invest in the community.”

They got grants and subsidies from a variety of sources. Historic tax credits. HUD money. Private investments. Then they got income from their tenants.

“I saw that Habitat was opening the ReStore in Christiansburg. With my retail background, I thought, ‘That I can do.’ I volunteered lots of hours.

“Everybody knows Habitat as a construction company. We facilitate the energy of human and financial resources of a community to build affordable houses. We are a retailer. We are a lender. We do family counseling, primarily financial counseling. We are housing advocates. The homes we build are sold, not given away. The buyer pays us back at zero interest, and we put that money into more homes.

“Affordable housing leads to a strong economy. Big corporations won’t move here if their $14/hour employees can’t find affordable housing. Companies seek a stable, motivated workforce that can find inexpensive housing. Stable households build stable communities, and stable communities build stable economies.

“I describe my job as popping corn without a lid. I try to catch a combination of land, money, home buyers, and community energy in the same bowl at generally the same time to make a project come to fruition. There is no typical day.

 “Our donor dollar never dies. When someone donates to us, the home buyer pays it back over time. It fuels itself for the next one. The community invests. The family invests. Lots of people have skin in the game. Our buyers build confidence as home owners. We don’t give them boots. We sell them affordable boots and they build themselves up. I spoke with one of our homeowners and he said ‘I was surprised that there are people out there who will come and invest their day for me and my family. I only hope that me and my family can do the same thing for someone else.’ It’s powerful stuff; it’s what love looks like. When volunteers devote their days off to build a home for someone, it builds communities. That’s where the value of life is.

“I have a lot of good days in this job. I’m not an emotional person, but when have dedication days, when we hand someone the Certificate of Occupancy and a set of keys to their new house, it gets me every time. It’s the culmination of all that love.”

Two major Habitat projects are in the works, a single family home in Christiansburg and a multi-tenant apartment in Blacksburg. Visit the website at www.habitatnrv.org for more information and volunteer opportunities.

* * The Board owes Erica Williams an apology

Here in the USA, we’re blessed to live under a set of foundational tenets of democracy that form the cornerstones of our republic. For example, in the eyes of the law, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

We all take this as a matter of faith, except apparently some members of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors. That is, except by the Republican members. Because two years ago, in February 2016, these Republicans, three of which still serve, punished Circuit Court Clerk Erica Williams for a perceived transgression she never did.

Background: In November, 2015, Williams was re-elected to a second 8-year term. Shortly thereafter, she declined to re-appoint four members of her staff and a fifth refused reappointment. Reasons are widely speculative, but obviously she felt they were unresponsive to her needs as head of the clerk’s office. She had the full legal power to do this; the statute is clear. Other constitutional officers have done exactly the same in the past.

In response, Republicans on the Board, without justification, voted as a block to remove the $20,700 annual supplemental pay she’d been receiving as part of a Memorandum of Understanding she and the other Constitutional officers had signed. There was no trial. No evidence was presented to the Board. This was merely a partisan witch hunt by Republican Board members who reacted with vengefulness because they’d lost an election. In fact, Williams won by a landslide, a margin of 64% to 35%.

Thereafter, the county’s most partisan Republicans, spearheaded by newcomer James Willis, undertook a futile effort. On March 1, 2018 the State Supreme Court threw out the petition, citing that many signers were not informed that they must sign “under penalty of perjury,” which may have kept many of them from signing.

The ill-fated petition drive was not only unsuccessful, but philosophically a bad idea because the voting process is not well-served if a winner can be removed because of an unpopular decision. Rightfully, Virginia sets a high bar for removal of someone legally elected, making removal possible only under extreme conditions of neglect of duty, criminality, or misuse of the office. Williams’ situation clearly did not apply, as she was never accused of a crime. Mr. Willis’ frivolous war against her was doomed to fail from the start.

Because Willis and his accomplices obtained the requisite number of signatures, the County was forced to act, providing a legal challenge to Williams. Williams also wisely employed legal representation. Because Williams (who now uses her married surname Conner) ultimately prevailed, the County, and by the County I mean you and I as taxpayers, incurred her legal expenses (over $26,000) as well. What this means is that tens of thousands of our tax dollars that could have gone into other County services, instead were frittered away.

Responding to the news of the failure of his effort, Willis was quoted in the local daily newspaper, “We’re disappointed, but we started in this process knowing it was worth doing.” Oh? Maybe if it was “worth it,” he and his collaborators should pay for it!

In addition to the monetary loss we’ve incurred, the matter has been stressful to Erica, as she expressed when I met with her recently. She steadfastly refused to comment on the situations that led to the dismissal of the four employees, only to say she did it to improve the services provided by her office. In spite of all the stress, Erica was composed and professional, never once lashing out at her accusers. She mentioned to me that she took her oath seriously and that she worked every day to uphold that oath, even under the circumstances.

Furthermore, this action has cast a pall over our County, both in how a newcomer can lead a challenge to a fair and legal election, and in how acrimony and recrimination can distract us from the health, economy, education, and welfare we should be focused on. By removing her supplement, the Board validated and lent credence to the recall effort, damaging its own reputation.

Mr. Willis and his collaborators’ reputations are damaged, as they came across as vindictive and incompetent. And people who signed the petition come across as uninformed and easily manipulated, lending their signature without fully understanding their legal responsibilities.

This episode has shown any outside observers that our county is pre-occupied by petty, internecine squabbling, an image none of us want.

If the members of the Board of Supervisors have a shred of integrity, they will admit their error in judgment, reinstate her supplement immediately, and compensate her for two years of lost supplement with interest, unfairly withheld from her. And the Board will issue her a formal, public apology.

* * Ferne Moschella, President of Warm Hearth, loves elder care

Warm Hearth Village is the largest elder care facility in Southwest Virginia, and one of the most successful, with an occupancy rate of over 96%, providing homes to almost 600 seniors. Ferne Moschella, who has been with Warm Hearth for 18 years, is its current President and CEO, carrying on the legacy of Wybe and Marietje Kroontje, who founded it in 1974. I spoke with Ferne in her office and asked about the joys and challenges.

“I was hired as Chief Operating Officer,” she told me. “I had worked for Carilion for 9 years, and was traveling a lot. My office was at Roanoke Memorial (Hospital). I wanted a job closer to home. I have lived in Christiansburg since 1991, and I raised my two children there.”

Ferne is from the Queens borough of New York City. She and her husband moved here from Ithaca after her husband finished his PhD at Cornell, when he got a job in research in physics. With her MBA, she felt flexible about her career. They came down for a visit, liked what they saw, and then moved.

Long story short, she was hired on at Warm Hearth in 2000, and she started her new job the same day that the Kroontje Center opened and their workforce doubled.

I asked about her impressions in how Warm Hearth today matches the founders’ vision. She said, “Their legacy is alive and well. ‘Our mission is to enrich the lives of seniors of all socio-economic backgrounds through a wide range of choices in housing, services, and care.’ It has been modestly tweaked from its original version. I hope this is a vision that (all our staff) can recite. We try to ingrain it in every person who comes to work here. Enriching the lives of seniors is what we’re here to do. All of us here, regardless of our title, have the same job, which is adding meaning and value to people’s lives.”

About her predecessors, she said she is perhaps more liberal-minded in allowing customization of homes and with Warm Hearth’s pet policies. “We believe that having pets enriches people’s lives. So we encourage it. Our staff is willing to go the extra mile to help our residents take care of their animals.

“About the customizations; these are people’s homes. If they want to do something to it that makes it more livable to them, and it’s not going to diminish the value, we let them do it.”

I asked, “Your background is not in geriatrics. What ‘is it’ about old people?”

She said, “Our elders have resilience, wisdom, and a depth and breadth of experience that is unique. What we have to learn from and be inspired by, on a daily basis here, is just phenomenal. This feeling permeates our staff as well. Absolutely. The people we’re serving have served others their entire lives. They’ve been our doctors, our nurses, our teachers, and our professors. Our friends and our neighbors. This is our opportunity to give something back to them. They are at a time in their life where their world is narrowing. As humans, our need for relationships does not change as we get older. When you live to be among the oldest people in society, your peer group has fallen away, by definition. When your life expectancy is 78 and you’re 88, or 98, or 100, and we have people here are over 100, you’ve outlived your support group.

“When you’ve outlived your spouse, your life partner, your friends, your siblings, and sometimes your children, our job becomes being friend and family. Whether you’re the caregiver, the nurse, or the CEO, you’re now their friend and family. In working here, we all find we receive more than we give. We develop deep relationships with our residents.

“I went to a funeral yesterday for a woman who lived here for 11 years. Two years ago, we were at a memorial for one of her neighbors. She said to me, ‘Ferne, it means so much to us that you come to funerals. I hope you’ll come to mine.’ I said to her, ‘I appreciate that and I hope it’s a long time before it happens. But I’ll be there.’ So come hell or high water, I was going to be at hers. 

 “We have amazing, accomplished people here whose lives deserve to be celebrated. Knowing these people is a real benefit for me. They deserve the best we can give them, to help them live their best lives. That’s what we’re about.

“Every time I go to our Village Center and I see residents and people from the community from all walks of life, in the pool, exercising, having lunch, just socializing, I just want to pinch myself. Warm Hearth is a place for living. Wow; that’s it for me.”

* * Anne Giles wants us to know about opioid use disorder

Blacksburg’s Anne Giles is on a mission to educate us on opioid use disorder. Anne is in recovery from addiction to alcohol and is acutely aware of the problems and stigmas associated with addiction.

Anne spent most of her formative years in Blacksburg, getting her bachelor's and master’s degrees at Tech. She left Blacksburg in 1983, earned a master's in counseling in Florida, and returned to Blacksburg in 2006 to spend more time with her mother during her final years.

In 2008, Anne started a technology company that proved not to be successful. Meanwhile, she began volunteering on the Board of the New River Valley Community Services. “I was so uplifted by their programming that I asked to work there,” she told me. “I was hired part-time as a counselor and I have been there for several years, and that’s what I’m doing now professionally.

“Opioid use disorder is one of many substance abuse disorders. It is one of the few that research shows that responds well to medication, to two in particular: methadone and buprenorphine. Methadone is only available at federally regulated clinics. However, buprenorphine is inexpensive and plentiful, but heavy regulation limits access to it.”

“We have declared that we have an opioid crisis across the nation, but the medicines known to treat it are essentially inaccessible. Most people with substance use disorders have experienced some sort of trauma. Physical trauma. Mental Trauma. Sexual trauma. Neglect. Violence. Loss. Death. All of it. Often someone is traumatized in childhood. Childhood trauma is correlated with mental illness in adulthood.

“Human beings have used substances for thousands of years. The beauty of being human is that we take risks, we adventure, we discover and explore. We desire, we long. 5000 years ago in Sumer, the Sumerians were ingesting beer. We have way more problems with alcohol than with opioids.

“Marijuana. Caffeine. We use substances for many purposes. When our use persists despite negative consequences, then it becomes a problem. That’s the definition of an addiction. Functionality in taking care of oneself. Functionality in maintenance of relationships. Functionality in citizenship or at work. When these functions are impaired, use has become a problem.”

Admitting to be virtually ignorant on the topic, I asked, “How big a problem is this?”

She said, “If death rate is what we care about, there are many more things that are causing pre-mature death than opioid use disorder. But basic humanity calls us to alleviate suffering. People with opioid addiction are suffering. Medications are denied them, and they are suffering. If you had diabetes, and you were not permitted access to insulin, I would be upset about it.

“Doctors have to be waivered to prescribe these medications. They have to go through training and are limited in the numbers of patients to whom they can prescribe.

“I would like for our citizens to speak to their representatives, their elected officials, to ask, ‘why can’t people have these medications?’

“I developed alcohol use disorder following the Virginia Tech shootings. Fifteen percent of people who experience violence develop PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). Of those, 5% develop addiction. We live in a whole community affected by the event.”

“Why were the 15% different?” I asked.

“There are many pre-disposing factors to experiencing trauma in a way that develops into PTSD,” she said. “There are numerous research studies on known factors. It’s a social phenomenon (following these shootings). It happened at Columbine. It happened here. I’m sure it will happen in Parkland (Florida).

“The problem with substance use disorder is that it is perceived to be a moral and personal failing. The Surgeon General’s report that came out in 2016 disabuses us of that notion. It is a health condition. But the majority of people still think it’s a personal problem or failing. The research doesn’t support that. We’re having a national conversation on a number of fronts, and this is one of them. There’s a larger problem with Americans not valuing science and knowledge. Changing beliefs with knowledge is harder than I thought it would be. The problem with substance use disorder is that it can result in pre-mature death. It’s an emergency. We need to honor the facts.”

* * The courage of convictions

“Just showing up isn’t that impressive; he works for those people,” deadpanned late night TV talk show host Stephen Colbert, speaking about Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who on Wednesday, February 21 held a town hall mass meeting, attended by about 7000 people, including many victims of the latest American massacre at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Maybe showing up isn’t that impressive to Colbert, but Rubio showed far more valor than our own congressman Morgan Griffith could muster the following night, as he was conspicuously absent at a similar, if far smaller, town hall meeting in Blacksburg.

To say that Rubio has a cozy relationship with the NRA is a massive understatement. As of last October, the NRA had bolstered Rubio’s campaign war chest by over $3.3 million. We can assume the NRA does not lavish that kind of money frivolously; they know what they’re buying.

I watched much of the event, and each speaker was more compelling than the one before. A teen boy whose best friend was annihilated openly wept as he implored the Senator to act. The father of a slain 14-year old daughter told the senator, “Your comments this week and those of our president have been pathetically weak.” A survivor of the shooting asked Rubio, “Can you tell me you won’t accept a single donation from the NRA?” Rubio, rather than giving a definitive answer, skirted around the issue and said, “People buy into my agenda and I do support the Second Amendment.” And then said it was fine if the NRA wants to flood him with donations, and he prefers to keep their money. Hey, a man’s got to win his elections, eh?

But here’s the thing; as hostile an audience as I’m sure Rubio expected and then got, he showed up. Apparently our own congressman is too much of a coward. In rejecting the local event organizers’ invitation, Griffith angrily called it a “political ambush.” In spite of his announced absence, the Blacksburg event, held in a hotel ballroom, was well attended. There were armed guards to keep the peace, but they weren’t needed. Speakers self-selected, coming to the front of the room to address the audience, a vacant chair set aside for the absent congressman, and three men, Anthony Flaccavento, Justin Santopietro, and Scott Blankenship, vying to face off against the congressman in November’s election. Attendees were giving bright red and bright green pieces of paper on which the words “disagree” and “agree” respectively, were printed. Speakers were impassioned but civil. The three designated topics were the recent tax bill passed by congress, the environment, and health care. Then there was an “open” session where people could speak about whatever they had in mind.

To anyone who’s spent much time following our national conversations lately, there were no surprises. There was much discontent expressed; otherwise why speak? On health care, people spoke about personal or familial situations where the ACA was a lifesaver for them, or how when visiting other, often poorer nations found far better and cheaper care ($250 MRIs, without a prescription, anyone?), and the insanely brutal prices of pharmaceuticals. On the environment, speakers with advanced degrees in environmental and ecological sciences spoke about the immense progress our country has had in cleaning up its air and water since the 1970s because of legislation like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act passed by a Republican congress and signed by a Republican president.

In the session on the tax bill, most speakers generally agreed that the plan was a brilliant ploy by the Republican-dominated congress to placate the masses with miniscule, temporary tax breaks while showering the overwhelming benefit of the savings to the richest citizens, all while adding $1.5 trillion or more to the deficit (which apparently is a problem to Republicans only when Democrats are in control).

True, if he’d bothered to attend, Griffith would have heard many things uncomfortable to him. But if he had the courage of his convictions, he’d want to defend his positions, and would feel confident he could actually win more votes by articulating them.

It seems to me, however, there’s more than cowardliness at play here. Griffith didn’t attend because in his political calculus, he feels he doesn’t need constituent approval to win. Our deadbeat congressman hasn’t sponsored or attended a constituent meeting in over 5 years and has zero legislative accomplishments of any value to 9^th District communities or individuals since taking office. Nay, he doesn’t work for, nor does he rely on for sustenance, his constituents. He works for the nation’s most dominant corporations, political action committees, and special interest groups, and to them he owes his attention and allegiance. And it will remain that way unless and until voters prove otherwise and send him packing.