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.

So What Can't A Woman Do?

Women have made great strides in the world and in America over the past 50 years.

We now have women as U S Army Rangers!

We now have women as in Naval Special Warfare Combat Craft SWCC crew.

We now have women in the U S Army Special Forces!

We now have women that are fighter and bomber pilots in the Air Force, Navy, and Marines!

We now have women in the pipeline to become Navy Seals, and Air Force Combat Controllers!

We have women doctors, lawyers, dentists, politicians, airline pilots, cruise ship captains, and every other civilian and military job that there is.

SO WHAT CAN'T A WOMAN DO?  She's not in control of her own body.  She can't decide if she wants to end an unwanted pregnancy.  A MAN has to do that, and he's not qualified.  

In fact, no MAN, politician or judge, should be allowed to control a woman's choice of what she wants to do with her own body.

Does anyone else think this has gone too far?  

Until the government passes laws that control what a man can do with his reproductive organs, they have no right to control a woman's right to choose what happens to hers.

Men, in a majority vote on the Supreme Court, decided that settled law of more than 50 years could be overturned.  Men placed on the court by a man with no moral compass.  Now we have two sets of standards regarding women's right to choose, depending on what party controls your state government.  The red right states that wants to ban all abortion regardless, and the blue left states that wants to allow the woman the right to choose and believe that decision is between the woman, her physician and her god.  

I subscribe to the latter and find the attitudes of the right highly offensive. 

Now is the time to vote for candidates who support women's rights, equal rights for all.  Send a message to Richmond and Washington in 2024.

  

Requiem for a Little Newspaper Giant!

 It is impossible to state what a devastation loss the closing of the News & Record will be to Halifax County.   To have two newspapers in such a small market is almost unheard of and with the rise of digital media, it saddens but does not shock me to see one close.

While my desire would have been to see the right-wing, poorly written, always bad news, Gazette-Virginian be the one to go, I guess it only stands to reason that the red paper would survive in a red county.

There has never been two small community papers so different in their content and style.  The News & Record always featured the positive news and the facts, while the G-V peddled bad news, often outright lies in it editorial and letters sections, and published arrest columns, and real estate transfer as if it was news.  

Tom McLaughlin is a editorial genius and could have made a mark in journalism anywhere in the country, but chose to come home after college.  He is one of only two professional journalist in Halifax County, the other being Mike Doan.  The G-V has no relevant editorial commentary at all unless you count the personal story telling of Ms. Elliott as editorials.

I subscribed to both papers always.  I read the News & Record for the facts, good news, and editorial quality.  I read the G-V to keep up with the conspiracy theorist crazies like Dan Shaw and Jeff Oaks, letters that most paper wouldn't publish.  

I'm glad that Tom will have a break to recharge and move on to bigger things while continuing the sister paper.  The loss of his powerful voice for the Democrats and liberal thinkers in Halifax County will hurt our cause, but will not stop us from pushing for better representation in Halifax, Richmond, and Washington.

Going To Heaven!

Just recently there was a statement made that only through Jesus Christ can you go to heaven.

While this may be a belief of the Christian faith, what about all the others religions out there?  Certainly many of the roughly 4,000 religions throughout the world don't believe there is a heaven.

In reality, many religions believe in heaven.

• To the Abrahamic faiths, heaven is the afterlife realm where good actions are rewarded for eternity. These faiths include Christianity, Islam, and some schools of Judaism, as well as Zoroastrianism.
• Buddhism: Buddhists believe in reincarnation with heaven the wait point until reincarnation occurs..
• Shinto: Ame (heaven) is a lofty, sacred world, the home of the amatsukami or Heavenly Gods.
• Hinduism: Svarga is the plane between mortals and heaven.
• Jainism: Jainism offers an elaborate cosmology, including heavenly beings/devas.

In some religions, heaven is the final destination for those who have lived a good life. In others, it is a temporary home between rebirths. In still others, heaven is a state of being that people can aspire to experience during this life.

I believe that every person is allowed to believe in their God, whoever it may be, and follow the teaching of their God to their place of sanctuary at the end of their life.  None of them are wrong, just different.  

In the words of the great British comedian Dave Allen, "My your God go with You".

Events in Halifax County, VA Facebook Page!

Apparently this page is someone's idea of a joke.  This Facebook page has nothing to do with Events in Halifax County, VA.  It does have a lot of junk posted on it that borders on the absurd.

There are also scams and lies within it posts, and lots of crazy and stupid stuff from everywhere except Halifax County, VA.  

According to the page, it has 10,400 members and the admin person, Nitty Wilson, works at Q & N Imports in Union City, NJ, and has never posted anything to this page.

Not sure I'd respond to or post anything to the page in case I'm being used for some nefarious purpose.

Elections and The Elected

I'm no political scientist, political expert, nor even a political junkie.  Well, maybe a little bit of a political junkie.  I'm however, an observer that reads the tea leaves in this cup called America, and I saw a future riddled with division and incivility if the GOP won House seats in the midterm elections.

Extremists did gain seats with support from Trump empowered voters.  Money and the influence of money was also the winner.  I had hoped it would again become "We the People", but instead it brought a few new extremist Republicans to join those already clouding Washington.  Instead of new life and new faces in politics, we got more division and more lies, and more loud mouth right-wing extremist that have only one goal, to oppose everything that needs to be done for the country in the name of the "party" instead of the country.

James Madison said, "The essence of government is power, and power, lodged as it must in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."  This quote is on the wall of the Madison building of The Library of Congress.

There are some human hands wielding the power in Halifax, Richmond, and Washington that are abusing that power, in some cases by action and in some cases, by inaction.

Too few voters are involved in politics and in many cases too few people care about the outcome of elections.  Many voters think their votes don't count because politicians don't listen.  Well, it's true that most politicians don't listen, I've spoken to enough of them to know.  But elected officials will listen when their election or reelection is threatened.

In the 2023 elections, the people spoke in Virginia and Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  Now we move forward into the crazy cycle of political noise leading up to the 2024 General Election. 

Thankfully, Virginia voters saw through the smoke and mirrors of the Youngkin movement and gave us a legislature led by Democrats.

My observation is that the trend in this election in Virginia will continue into the 2024 cycle and the GOP has woulded itself so many time in the foot that the Grand Old Party as we knew it will die a slow death at the hands of itself.

This 2023 election like every year, many politicians run unopposed.  This is wrong.  No politician should be so smug, be thought too powerful, that no one will run against them.  It takes a lot of work and a lot of money to run for any office, but until "we the people" stop complaining and either run for office and vote them out, we are doomed to repeat history. 

Local Supervisors will tell you they are not politicians.  Wrong!  If one runs for elected office, they become a politician by default.  They can disavow it all they want, but they make political decisions and impose political power over their constituents, including the ones that didn't vote for them.

We saw in this election, where big money from outside of the state sought to sway voters, that local politics are important.  In fact, all politics are local.  

Truly, many elected officials forget that they represent ALL of the people in their district or state, not just the majority, sometimes razor thin, that put them in office.  We certainly see that here in the 5th Congressional District where the default GOP extremist Congressman represents no one but himself and Trump.

Opening Shots!

As I relaunch my blog originally started over 10 years ago, I wanted to throw open the doors, so to speak, to discussion on any number of topics that are prevalent in our world today.  I'll be talking about a little of everything, from local, state, national, and world issues.  

My objective is to create a dialogue that will be informative, thought provoking, open, and often controversial.  

Changing the minds of people is hard to do and while that's not my goal, if I succeed in helping others to understand another prospective, the I will have done my part to end the lies, divisiveness, and mistrust that is pervasive in the dialogue we hear, read, and see in all forms of media.

I deal in facts. not alternative facts.  I deal in truth, not lies.  I deal in reality, not altered reality. 

If you want to join in and create a meaningful and factual dialogue, have at it.  If you plan to rant and rave, hurl insults, and ignore the rules of my blog, then expect to be ignored or blocked. 

I am Mighty Dan, so let's talk.

Evangelical Hypocrisy!

Somehow, sitting on both side of the fence must be painful.  In 2020, the local paper carried an article from an evangelical minister that condones the actions of Mr. Trump because he appointed conservative judges in the belief they will overturn Roe v Wade, and that building a wall would stop human trafficking.  Forget about all of the abominable things done by Mr. Trump.  Those don't matter to these people and their "flocks".  Mr. Trump lost the election, despite his claims, but his Supreme Court appointees managed to overturn settled law.

I, as a Christian, will never understand this hypocrisy in politics.  Praying for Mr. Trump while supporting his wrong headed policies is not christian.  It is enabled him to virtually destroy the office of the President and now three years after losing, he's still driving the GOP over the cliff.

How can you profess to be a Christian and believe the racist, misogynist rants of a deranged man?

As you might have guessed, I am pro-choice. I believe it is a woman's right to choose what happens to her body.  That doesn't make me a non-Christian.  I believe that Roe v Wade should never have been overturned, moreover I never thought it would until Mr. Trump appointed three ultra-conservative judges to the bench.

I could list all the reason why Mr. Trump is unfit to be President again, but it would take more words than I can afford to spend on someone who doesn't deserve it.

Evangelicals and Conservatives have every right to their opinion, but they must never be allowed to shove those opinions down anyone's throat, and that is what the extreme right is trying to do everyday.  When these people gets all their news and alternative facts from social media and Fox Entertainment, they are not interested in the truth, just the lies.

Changing laws will not stop abortion, just drive it underground as it was in the past, and building a wall will not stop human trafficking, just create more suffering for those being trafficked.

It is time to stop using religion and conservatism as a hammer to solve the world's problems when tolerance, compassion, compromise, understanding, sympathy, and love is the only solution.