Dear Mr. Dunavant

You are very much on target for a change.

While I'm not one to laud much praise on the antics of Jack Dunavant and his "We The People" movement, he hit a cord with his strike at Sentara for ending the labor and delivery unit at the Halifax Regional Hospital.  

And why did they do that?  

GREED!

MONEY!

PROFITS!  Yes, it's a non-profit hospital, but that doesn't mean not making profits, just how they spend it.

Yup!  Sentara is the money machine of hospitals in Virginia, and also one of the largest health insurers in the state for Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans.

Why end labor and delivery?  Nah!, not because it was losing money due to births.  It just cost too much in risk.  Labor and delivery, and obstetrics are one of the highest risk components in healthcare with the highest cost for liability insurance.

No Mr. Dunavant, taking legal action won't work, it'll just cost a pile of money. And threatening a private company with deep pockets won't work either.  

You suggested that Sentara broke their agreements with Halifax after purchasing the Halifax Regional Hospital, one of 11 hospitals in their vast system.  Here's what was said in 2013 when the merger was announced.  Do we detect any hints from this that services would be cut?  Nope!

Then, Sentara announced the ending of labor and delivery services using profits as a reason.  I think the numbers used by Sentara are suspect, but hard to prove.  Read this.

Regardless of how they came to own the hospital campus, they do and can do with it as they please.  They paid $115 million for it, but I'm not sure where that money went.  Who gets the money when a non-profit is sold?  

Halifax in not alone in losing labor and delivery care.  It's happening all over the country.  That doesn't make it right.  For a County like Halifax, trying to attract and keep businesses, this is a big blow.  Who wants to relocate to an area where the nearest labor and delivery services are 30 minutes or more away.

So, how can Mr. Dunavant make Sentara change their mind about the labor and delivery services?   Well, he likely can't, but he could seek to revoke their non-profit status with the state.  Not likely to work but could be an irritant to Sentara.

It looks like Halifax County is doomed to have less health care, fewer doctors, fewer businesses, fewer jobs, less tax revenue, and less people, PARTLY BECAUSE SENTARA WANTS TO MAKE MORE MONEY TO SPEND SOMEPLACE OTHER THAN HALIFAX COUNTY.

Oh, and there's no way they can build a new and smaller hospital for $70 million.  They're dreaming our misleading the people.  Best guess is it will cost over $100 to complete the project.

And no, they should not give the old building to the County as Ted Daniel's want.  That would be a disaster for the everyone and cost millions just to maintain it.  If you want to do something good for the County and the Town, buy the old hospital/nursing home on N. Main and do something meaningful with that.  We don't need another derelict building and Sentara certainly doesn't want one standing in front of their new shinny hospital.

 

Israel's War

I am a believer in peace.  I have fought in a war and see no good in them.  Fighting wars in the name of religion is anti-religious.  Not a single GOD of any of the religions in the world advocates war.  Only the extreme elements of religions are such advocates.

Wars in the Middle East has been a fact of life for centuries, all in the name of religion.  They are fought by the extreme elements from two or more religions who believe in the same GOD.  Seems a little crazy, but these wars are about imposing one set of values on another group of people, and that's wrong.

This brings me to the current war between Israel and Hamas.

There is no argument that the acts of October 7, 2023 against Israel by Hamas were horrendous and barbaric, but then Hamas is a barbaric and extreme right wing element that seeks to impose it's will against Israel.  It's important to note that this isn't a war between Islam and Jews, it's a war between a radical wing of Hamas against the government of Israel.

While the vile acts of murder and hostage taking should not be condoned by any country, the overwhelming response by Israel against the people of Gaza should also not be condoned.  The Palestinian people have no dog in this fight and want to live in peace in the tiny areas within Israel where they are forced to live by the Israel government.  

HAMAS, which means Islamic Resistance Movement, is the de facto government of Gaza with a militant force of about 40,000.  The Arab population of Gaza is about 2 million with another 3 million Arabs living in the West Bank.

Support of Hamas among Palestinians is very low, only 23%.  Most of the Palestinians want nothing to do with Hamas, who took over in a coup in 2007.  Life is bad enough already, living in a walled area controlled by Israel.  The Palestinians don't want this war.

So here's my quandary.  

Hamas was wrong, but did that give the Israel the right to completely destroy Gaza and the homes and lives of more than 2 million Palestinians?  Israel's right to  protect itself is understood, but when you bomb the 141 sq miles of Gaza to pulp and kill 32,000 innocent civilians, mostly women, children, and the elderly, that is overkill on an enormous scale. That's a 26 to 1 kill ratio.

And the killing goes on.  

Israel has a right to exist, but Israel exists because Britain established "a national home for the Jewish people" in 1917.  That Balfour Declaration also was supposed to protect the rights of the Arab majority.  Of what was Palestine before the 1917 Mandate, 75% is controlled by the Kingdom of Jordan, 23% by the State of Israel, and about 2% by the Palestinian Authority (the West Bank), and 0.3% by Hamas, which is Gaza.

The British Mandate in fact pushed the Arabs out of their own country, with Israel further pushing them into the West Bank and Gaza.  Over the years, Israel has continued to put Jewish settlements in the Arab areas, which is much of the strain driving this and previous Arab-Israeli conflicts.

The only solution is for Israel to establish a Palestinian state, which they refuse to do; and for Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to stop denying Israel's right to exist.  Will that ever happen?  Not anytime soon!

In the meantime, people die, and starve, and cry over lost families, and try to make sense of why all of this has to happen.

Solar Truth

There's a lot of discussion in Halifax County about the plethora of solar power facilities under construction.

Are there too many?

Are there not enough?

How much land should be consumed by solar panels?

All legitimate questions with highly divisive answers. 

And there is a lot of opposition to some of the approved solar power projects, and a dedicated movement, albeit small that want no more to be approved by the county. 

Here's some facts from the Board of Supervisors February 13, 2023 Solar Density Committee meeting.  According to this document, as of February 2023, there were 18 solar projects approved for the County.  These totaled 5,368.30 acres under panels with 9,508.92 total acres in these projects.  The percentage of County land under panels would be 1.0106% an a total allocated land to 1.790%.

With a total of 531,200 acres in the county, the numbers above seem very small.  How can there be a legitimate argument to allow stop further solar facilities.

Since February 2023, there have been a few more approved, but the pressure from some residents have, for the time being, caused the Board of Sups to pause further approvals.

Is solar power safe, green, and sustainable?  The answer to that is a resounding yes on all accounts.

Everyday there is another crackpot that posts something on the internet about the ills and woes of solar and wind energy. Most gather their data from other crackpots that have never checked a single fact in what they're saying.

Leaching deadly chemical?  The simple answer is no they don't contaminate the soil or air.  Here' some details about solar panels.

Those who are appearing at the Board of Supervisors meeting and opposing the approval of solar farms need to change their strategy and focus on the facts.

First, if the solar project has been approved, and construction started, the train has left the station, and no amount of opposition will change it going forward.  Rather opposition will just create ill will with the developers and end in an ugly stalemate.

If a group is going to oppose further projects being approved, then sobeit, but make the argument using science and facts,  The only legitimate reason for stopping further solar projects is to preserve the land that would be used to construct the power facilities.

Stop talking about harmful chemicals and contaminated drinking water.  Stop talking about absorbing light and radiating heat into the atmosphere.  

Just focus on land preservation and limits to the amount of land under panels.  My view is that we have not reached such a limit and 5% would be a fair stopping point for now.

The problem we have in the County, the Commonwealth, and the country as a whole comes down to simple facts, we are burying our heads in the sand hoping that climate change is a hoax when it is not,  Climate change and global warming is a reality that is showing itself every day.  And, we are fighting back against the tide of technology that shows solar, wind and nuclear power to be the only solution to long tern electric power needs.

The U. S. is woefully behind much of the world when it comes to renewable energy sources.  You only need travel to Europe, and look at the wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources to see that we need to catch up.

Think about the future and our grandchildren.  Thankfully we have an Administration that is focused on the importance of stopping the effects of climate change before it's too late.

The Frightening Project 2025

Just recently, a person referenced the extreme right Heritage Foundation in a Facebook post.  I don't know this person but boy did he hit a nerve and sore spot with me.  

In case you've been under a rock or the Trumplican Party spell, the Heritage Foundation is the entity behind the Trump curtain that is pulling the levers to make him dance, and to set the tone for his second term, God forbid, should he win.  

If you want to know who is driving the MAGA world, you can visit this site in the link above to see why you should worry.

The Heritage Foundation is the driving force in creating a 920 page document titled, The Mandate for Leadership, A Conservative Promise - Project 2025

I STRONGLY urge every Conservative Republican to read where the Trumplican Party is planning to take America if Trump wins in November.  It should scare you to death and make you reconsider your support for the Trump agenda.

All independent, progressive, and liberal readers are already petrified with the direction the Heritage Foundation and Trump wants to take America.  Over the next posts on my blog, I will cover some of the most egregious example of how the extreme right will destroy our democracy and make America become a authoritarian theocracy with Trump as the de facto dictator.  Make no mistake, Trump will cause chaos if he loses and be chaos if he wins, and will never leave office again.

Follow my blog and learn things you may not want to know.  I am Mighty Dan.