* * Donna Alvis-Banks loves stories

Donna Alvis-Banks has always loved the written word.

She is going through some changes in her life right now, preparing for a retirement move to Florida with her husband. She was downsizing and getting rid of some stuff at her house, including a series of 8 x 10 photographs of classic American writers. When I heard about this, I thought it would be fun to get together and catch up. We met at a local fast food restaurant, she nibbling away at some chicken bits.

Donna graduated from Christiansburg High School a year before me and then got an English degree at Radford University. She taught at Blacksburg High School for six years before her two sons were born, and then she took several years off as a stay at home mom. When she returned to the workforce, she did not want to go back into teaching.

She said, “I took a course at Radford University that I thought was fascinating, and I fell in love with 20^th Century American writers. I love the naturalists, the writers of that period.”

She had photos of John Steinbach, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner, and Carson McCullers. “There was lots of turmoil, lots of stuff happening. They were trying to make sense of it. My favorite book is the Grapes of Wrath. It is so depressing, but at the same time so hopeful.

“To inspire myself during college, I got photos of them and hung them over my desk. I never did well in math. I remember during grade school I’d hide a novel inside my math textbook and act really fascinated.”

When her sons were old enough for her to return to the work force, she didn’t want to return to teaching. “It’s the hardest job in the world. The Roanoke Times was producing a tabloid called the Current. It was 1988. They needed material to fill it to satisfy readers and advertisers. I applied and got the job as an editorial assistant.”

She worked for them for 20 years.

“It started off entry level, doing calendar listings and the arts and entertainment column. I worked closely with the public. I wrote feature stories when I had time.” Finally, she was given the job as a feature writer and reporter.

“I think I had the compassion beat. They told me I was the most compassionate reporter. What that meant was that every time there was a tragedy, they’d send me to interview the affected people. I wrote lots of obituaries.

“I interviewed people who lost children in fires or explosions. Despite the stress and anxiety of interviewing those affected by such tragedy, I loved feeling that I could be their voice. It was what I was supposed to do.”

“I think there is a need for more compassion in journalism. I think reporters are known for being intrusive, in your face, interfering, asking inappropriate questions. But I think they can provide a service and some comfort in the way they approach people in their worst times. I wanted them to be comfortable when they talked.

“Everybody has a story. We did what we called the obit of the week. I’d look over the obituaries that came in and then reach out to the survivors to get his or her story. I wish I’d known many of them. Then I went into Christiansburg government reporting, that fed my interest in politics.”

I asked about her views on the changing nature of journalism. She said, “Economics. Back then newspapers were highly profitable and were looking for ways to spend money. Subscriptions and advertising were generating lots of money. We had staff that could spend the time for investigations. That was the height of good journalism. That all began to diminish as the Internet came into common use. Papers started laying off people. That makes for a terrible work environment.

“When the Tech shooting happened (in 2007), I spent most of a year working on that. It was the best and worst thing that happened for me. The demands were constant. It was stressful with all the constant pain and suffering. It was taxing. The national media descended. People thought they were intruding on them and were resentful. There was animosity towards the media that was sometimes directed at me. I tried to be kind and report respectfully. People decided the press was bad. The local media was invested in being kind.

“Most people have no idea of the ethics that go into journalistic decisions. Spreading misinformation is irresponsible. There is still plenty of good journalism sources out there. The first rule of journalism is, ‘If your mother says she loves you, check it out.’ Newspapers are not sound bites. It gives a full understanding of the community.

“There is nothing like a beautifully written story.”

* * Medical charges make no sense

Old things can break down and it can be expensive, but sometimes it’s worthwhile to fix them. For example, suppose you need to replace the clutch in your Studebaker Lark. You do some shopping, call on some reputable repair facilities, and contract for the work. Your invoice has costs for parts and labor, and the vendor is bound by supply and demand, subject to going out of business if the workmanship is poor or the costs too high.

Which brings me to my wife. And her wounded knees.

It seems that the medical industry isn’t subject to the same constraints. This was illustrated in the aftermath of her recent knee replacement and the EOB, the Explanation of Benefits.

Before I fill this column with numbers and charges and such, let me say that the surgery, done at a local Blacksburg hospital that won’t be named, was excellent in every way: skilled and caring medical professionals, world class equipment, widespread professionalism, which produced outstanding results. But at what about those costs?

The EOB is seven pages long, each page with a spreadsheet of charges. Understanding them is nothing less than a major challenge. For example, there are four primary columns, with two each of charges and payments. Under charges are “Total charged” and “Patient savings.” Under payments, there are “Medicare pays” and “Your health plan pays.” (Note: My wife is over 65 and thus covered by Medicare, with a supplemental plan through Anthem.) What do these numbers mean?

I’ll jump right to the bottom line: The “Total charged” for everything (You better sit down.) is $118,975.00. This new artificial knee is over 1/3 the average price of a Blacksburg home.

Then, we see that the “Patient savings” is $109,219.29. The “Medicare Pays” is $8,356.13, and “Your health plan pays” $1,399.58, a sum of $9,755.71. What will my wife pay? $0.00.

This all begs some serious, disquieting questions. First, does anybody really pay $118,975.00 for this surgery? I’m guessing not. And if not, why publicize it or mention it or even attempt to calculate it at all? It should have an asterisk beside it, saying “Attention foolish people: don’t pay this amount; nobody does.” Second, if a hospital can make a profit charging $9,755.71, how can they morally ask someone to pay $118,975.00?

I did some reading online about knee replacement overseas, and costs vary from around $15,000 to $24,000 in Singapore down to $6000 to $13,000 in India. There is an entire industry in medical tourism where Americans travel overseas to obtain necessary surgeries they can’t afford here.

One of the line items on her invoice was for the implant itself; that is the physical artificial metal-and-plastic knee put in place of her original biological one. Cost for that? $62,243.00. “Patient savings,” is $62,243.00. What I think this means is that the hospital would like to charge $62,243.00 but instead are accepting a payment of $0.00. What’s with that? We all agree that some compensation is necessary as they had to pay for it. How can they give it away?

Overall, I get the impression that there is lots of smoke and mirrors here, lots of backroom dealing and backslapping. I envision a spinning wheel in the billing office as prices are plucked from the peg where it stops.

As I type this, it is being reported that the President has signed an executive order to expose prices in health care. Wonderful! I have zero confidence this will produce any measurable, positive results. For one thing, industry groups will fight back. “Donald,” they’ll tell him, “you’re ordering us to disclose private negotiations between hospitals and insurers. How would you like the government (Remember, Donald, you hate the government, especially its intrusion into free enterprise.) to force details on private negotiations between contractors and real estate developers?” He’ll back down. If not, we may see hospitals RAISING costs to match what rivals are getting. In exposing rates, it may fuel support for universal health care, perhaps Medicare for All, which I’m sure Republicans will fight. I’ll be astounded if we ever see anything positive from this.

Maybe someday we’ll see open, transparent, and reasonable pricing for needed medical care. Meanwhile, I hope you can find a clutch for your Studebaker Lark.

* * Railroading in Virginia

Railroads. It is difficult to overstate the impact trains have had in nearly 200 years of service to our Commonwealth, as employers, drivers of the economy, and objects of fascination and desire.

Railroading in America began on Christmas day, 1830, when a locomotive named the Best Friend of Charleston steamed passengers and crew on the ride of their lives out of Charleston, South Carolina, reaching an astounding 25 miles per hour. In the years after 1830, it was thought that the railroads would supplement the various roads and canals around the nation rather than supplant them. Nevertheless, right-of-way acquisition and track building activities were active, and by the mid 1850s, tracks extended from Lynchburg to Salem, Christiansburg, Wytheville, Abingdon, and Bristol, and by 1858 from Lynchburg to Petersburg and Petersburg to Norfolk. These lines would later become part of the Norfolk and Western Railroad, now Norfolk Southern.

Carriage of this line would greatly benefit the Confederate war effort and would present a constant target for the Union, including the raid in May, 1864, when Federal troops overwhelmed the Confederates at Cloyd’s Mountain in Pulaski County and proceeded to destroy the bridge over the New River in present day Radford and burn the station and much of the community of Cambria, now an annexed part of Christiansburg.

One of the most colorful figures in Virginia railroading was William “Little Billy” Mahone, who after the civil war, where he was lauded for his victory in the Battle of the Crater outside Petersburg, brought together the railroads across southern Virginia to form the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad. It extended 408 miles from Norfolk to Bristol, including his marvel of engineering, the laying of thousands of cypress tree trunks in a corduroy pattern at a right angle to the rail to cross the Great Dismal Swamp, which is still in use to this day, having carried untold millions of tons of freight.

The zenith of American railroading was reached in 1916 at an incredible 254,037 miles of track, with the largest track mileage in the world. That is more than seven times the approximately 33,000 miles of Interstate highways that crisscross the nation now. Afterwards, track mileage began an inexorable decline that continues today.

Railroads began in corporate ownership (and with the exception of Amtrak, still are, which we’ll discuss momentarily), with lines typicaly named for the communities they connected, for example the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad. While there are now still several independently run railroads in Virignia, most have been subsumed into either Norfolk Southern or CSX Transportation, which have a duopoly throughout much of the eastern states.

Mahone lost control of his A,M&O during the financial panic of 1873, after which it was purchased by the Philadelphia private banking firm E.W.C lark & Co, and the Norfolk & Western was born. For most of its existence, it was headquartered in Roanoke.

The N&W’s main line was from Norfolk through Roanoke to Cincinnati, with important spurs from Lynchburg south to Durham, Roanoke north to Hagerstown and south to Winston-Salem, from Radford to Bristol, and from Portsmouth, Ohio to Columbus. In the Appalachian coal fields, these arteries spawned into dozens of spur capillaries, reaching into coal laden hollows of Virginia, Kentucky, and especially West Virginia. The lion’s share of N&W’s revenue came from carrying coal to Norfolk for export markets, where N&W operates the world’s largest coal loading pier, and to Cincinnati and Columbus, for domestic markets in the Rust Belt.

Railroads and Appalachian coal have a tight, co-dependent relationship, because it was impossible to transport the coal from tight mountain hollows to market without a train, and, at least in the steam era, impossible to run a locomotive without coal. Because of its dependence on coal, both for income and for motive power, the N&W stuck with steam locomotives longer than any other major railroad in the nation, switching to the operationally superior diesel-electric locomotives in 1958.

N&W also was distinguished by building its own steam locomotives, employing thousands of design engineers (many from nearby VPI), pipe fitters, welders, and boilermen.

Like most American railroads, N&W provided passenger services and maintained a series of stations. The famous Powhatan Arrow, for example, plied the main line, originating in Norfolk and stopping in Suffolk, Petersburg, Blackstone, Crewe, Farmville, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Christiansburg, and Pearisburg, then the West Virginia communities of Bluefield, Welch, Williamson, and Kenova, before crossing the Ohio River and stopping in Ironton, Portsmouth, and Cincinnati. Because of the relative scarcity of population on the route, passenger service was always a minor part of its business, and never more than 5% of its operating revenue. So it discontinued all passenger service in the early 1960s.

As other railroads were ending passenger service as well, Amtrak was founded in 1971 as a quasi-public corporation to provide intercity passenger services across the country, essentially picking up the pieces of what was thought to be a doomed industry. But a funny thing happened; it didn’t die. As airports are seen as increasingly inconvenient and troublesome for passengers and highways become choked with traffic, more people are returning to the rails.

Because Amtrak is government subsidized (as are airports,flight operations, and highways), it is always begging at the governmental trough for funding. Amtrak faces significant operational challenges, as decades of underinvestment have left it with an aging infrastructure struggling to keep pace with increased demand. Amtrak’s performance falls far behind many of the world’s trains, where its fastest reaches 150-mph while trains in China, Japan, Italy, France, and Spain routinely whisk passengers at speeds over 200-mph. Amtrak trains are frequently truncated or canceled due to weather events, infrastructure outages and repairs. America has abdicated its passenger rail leadership. And yet ridership is on a steady year-over-year increase.

In 2017, after a 40 year absence, passenger service returned to Roanoke, a city founded by and for railroading. Efforts are underway to extend service to Christiansburg, and potentially to Bristol, where rail fans and people who have never ridden trains before eagerly await its return.

* * Rotary’s GSE builds international friendships

Seven years ago, I was selected by my Rotary Club and our district to be the leader of a GSE team to Bolivia in South America. Group Study Exchange programs send young professionals for vocational and cultural exchange. Programs typically last 4 to 5 weeks.

Last week, I was tasked with providing an itinerary for a visiting team from the island nation of Taiwan, off the coast of China. This nation, a third the size of Virginia, has 23 million people. Many Taiwanese have both a traditional name and an English name.

• ·      
• ·       Maggie, a trim, shy woman who worked for an immigration consultant company,
• ·       Champion, a quiet, intense PhD student in Computer Science who programmed the animated tiger in the movie The Life of Pi,
• ·       Billy, an outgoing young man who was marketing manager at a cosmetology clinic and who spent several years living in England,
• ·       Brett, a boisterous, big guy with an infectious laugh, who worked in the biotechnology industry,

These folks were all house guests of local Rotarians; Maggie stayed with my wife and me. All of them spoke excellent English, which they learn in grade school.

My job was to line up 5 days of educational, cultural, and recreational activities for them, but I found that I enjoyed our visits as much as they did.

For example, at VTTI, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, we got a tour of the Smart Road, including that awesome bridge over Wilson Creek in Ellett Valley. We heard about all the research funding they’re bringing in. We visited the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke, where they’re understanding the fundamental processes of human diseases and health, and applying that understanding to better prevention, diagnostics, and therapeutics. While in Roanoke, we called on Mary Miller, former member of our club, who now directs the Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program (RAMP), a start-up accelerator for emerging companies. We also visited the Virginia Museum of Transportation to show off their collection of locomotives, including the iconic N&W 611. (Note: Taiwan has a bullet train connecting their two largest cities, Taipei and Kaohsiung that shortens a 5 hour drive to a 1.5 hour train ride.)

Back in Blacksburg, we arranged tours of the Virginia Tech athletic facilities, including the Coliseum, Lane Stadium, and the new football practice building. In Lane, we saw the press box, some of the fanciest private rooms and the broadcast rooms, and even got on the roof. We got a tour of the new drone cage on campus, and learned that it is less for drone design and more for drone usage. One researcher was attempting to determine whether a livestock farmer could see individual ear tags on his cows or sheep by drone. We got a great tour at VCOM, the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where doctors are trained to serve rural populations. We toured historic Smithfield Plantation, and learned about early European settlements of the area. And we went to the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center where we had presentations from the folks that work on cyber security and a company that does fund raising for non-profit organizations.

For fun, we visited Duncan Imports and Classic Cars in Christiansburg and saw their amazing collection of nearly 1000 vehicles. And we hiked the popular trail to the Cascades in Giles County.

Two things impressed me about our vocational hosts. First, there is cutting edge research in a variety of sciences in this area. Second, we were shown tremendous patience and generosity by the guides on our tours.

It seems part of the Taiwanese culture to be logic and science driven, whereas they mentioned what they found here was more of an emphasis on stories and human interests. I encouraged them to think about their presentations when they return home, to make them less about an accounting of things they did and more about the subtleties of culture. For example, on a hike to a mountaintop before they arrived in our area, they encountered a couple who had just proposed marriage, something that would never be done outdoors in Taiwan. “Your audiences will cling to your every word,” I suggested, “if you tell them stories about the people you met and how they interacted with you, each other and their environment.”

As a veteran of these GSE experiences, I have learned how quickly lifelong friendships are made. The world can seem an angry, dangerous place, filled with suspicion and mistrust. But when you spend time in the homes of strangers, they don’t stay strangers long. I truly believe that meeting foreigners, spending time with them, and sharing lives with them, will one day save the world.

* * Where did the money go?

It’s near dark; the weather is awful, spitting rain and cold. I’m sitting in my immobile car on Interstate 81 near Ironto, going nowhere, wondering where the money went.

State politicians have been talking about piecing together solutions to the worsening problem of I-81, how to improve it and make it safer and more reliable. It is the transportation ribbon and economic lifeline for our region. Too many of our neighbors are being injured or killed on it, worst case, or merely inconvenienced like me. I wonder what’s blocking traffic and whether there’s been another fatality, another life lost on this scenic but deadly road.

Being in the bifocal set, I remember the days in the ‘60s before it existed, with the trip to the “big city” of Roanoke taking motorists from Christiansburg down the mountain on US11/460 towards Shawsville, big coal trains chugging alongside, along the Elliston straight-away, passing menacing trucks in lanes barely wider than their trailers, past Dixie Caverns, into Salem.

When I-81 opened up, everything changed. This marvel of engineering seemed like a dream come true! No narrow bridges. Fully divided travel lanes. Wide paved shoulders. No traffic lights and sparse traffic. Wow!

Sure, there were societal problems in those days, with political upheaval and civil rights struggles. But we were a growing, developing, forward-thinking country. We built the Interstate highway system, fought a foreign war, and put a man on the moon at the same time. The Interstates revolutionized how we travel and even how we develop and inhabit the land. I welled up with pride when American astronauts planted our flag on the moon. Innovations from government sponsored research in the space program continue to benefit us today. How did we do that?

Now we can’t even afford to maintain the Interstates, much less expand or modernize. France, Germany, Italy, China, and Japan have 200+ MPH trains; our fastest top out at 125 MPH and occasionally derail.

I move 100 feet forward, then stop again. I cut the engine. Fidget with my cell phone.

I figure the big difference is that in those days, we asked our wealthiest citizens to pay their fair share. In fact, the highest marginal tax rate on rich people was between 70% and 90% from the beginning of WWII until Ronald Reagan came into office. In other words, from around 1935 until 1980, the taxed portion of annual income over $1,000,000 was $700,000 to $900,000. In effect, the federal government said to folks, “Most of what you make under $1 million, you can keep, but beyond that, most will be taxed from you.” Today’s tax code is far more generous to corporations and the wealthy than to anyone or anything else.

Reagan reasoned that if rich people kept more of their money, it would trickle down to the rest of us. It didn’t. It hasn’t. It won’t. The earning potential of the majority of Americans stagnated and the money at the top sat in investment portfolios and largely went nowhere.

Now, with various tax avoidance schemes, many millionaires pay little if anything. Billionaire Warren Buffett says he pays a lower overall tax rate than his secretary.

My libertarian friend spouts the threadbare meme that “all taxation is theft.” But all societies tax citizens for government services, including highways. Schemes like a “flat tax” that some insist are the only fair solutions, are unworkable and impractical. Someone who makes $20,000 can’t pay 10% of it in taxes, whereas someone who makes $20,000,000 can and should pay far more than 10%, because they have been greater beneficiaries of what the economic system provides. Progressive taxation is the only practicable solution.

One-quarter of American workers earn less than $10/hr. While the wealthiest 10% of our countrymen recovered nicely after the 2008 financial crisis, low wage workers didn’t. Millions of low wage workers have no health insurance, sick days, pension plans, or political clout. Corporate CEOs make 300, 500, or 1000 times or higher more than their average workers. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos makes the annual salary of his lowest worker every 11 seconds, 24/7. Think about that.

I’ll leave the question about whether it is more moral to let him keep that money while millions of Americans tiptoe above financial disaster or more moral to tax most of it. I will say that if that money was taxed, then spent in infrastructure, we’d not only have better roads, but the people paid to build those roads would spend that money back into the economy, a rising tide raising all boats. High taxes on wealthy people are good for the economy, not a burden on it.

Regardless of your thoughts on the morality of taxation, unequal societies are unsustainable societies. The masses in our country are poorer, sicker, and more marginalized than at any time in our lifetimes. They are taking out that misery and anger by electing politicians who promise, but invariably fail to produce, any better for them.

I move forward a couple hundred more feet and then stop again. Rain pelts on my windshield. And I wonder if we’ll ever start investing in our country again.