If there is one thing that Americans can agree on at this moment in our history, it’s that we have an opioid problem. An epidemic that touches every state and county. In fact, we all likely know someone who has become addicted to oxycodone, morphine, fentanyl, or any of the other countless prescription painkillers that […]
I have spent the majority of my adult life working on, consulting with, and learning about truth and reconciliation commissions. These bodies are generally tasked with investigating human rights abuses or other injustices so that a community or nation can learn from the past, establish accountability for what happened in some way, and make recommendations […]
Some of you may have read about a large lawsuit being brought against the manufacturers of opioid prescription drugs by many localities throughout the country. In our neck of the woods, Smyth, Wythe, and Russell counties have joined and their lawyers have attempted to add Pulaski County to their client list. I’ll attempt to explain […]
What if we woke up tomorrow in a completely different small town? Would we feel at home in Summerville, GA, with 4 colleges just a county over? Or in Hartford, KY, among generations of coal miners? I imagine our neighbors in Greensburg, IN, heading off to the Honda plant every day, would be a little […]
One of my hardworking colleagues just found out that her family’s health insurance premiums are about to go from about $250 to $1200 a month. Upon hearing that, I was tempted to sarcastically exclaim, “Thanks Obama” and rethink my limited support for the Affordable Care Act. But then I looked into the reason her premiums […]
Like I said in my last post, I’ve spent several months staring at county health data. Countyhealthrankings.org has become my de facto homepage. And in that time of poring over numbers and statistics, I fell into a stereotypical mindset that I think is pretty common for Virginians. The picture in my mind was of a […]
As a pastor, death has been a normal part of my professional life. Seminaries prepare us to sit with the dying and the bereaved, to craft a funeral service, and to recognize the place of death in our faith lives. One thing seminary doesn’t prepare us for is difference in shape and scale death takes […]
After the departure of Optima insurance, large portions of the 9th District will be the “the only places in the U.S. without at least one insurer” who provides coverage under the ACA. This will affect over 70,000 individuals in this area, including thousands in Pulaski County. This issue, according to the insurers is the uncertainty […]
If your news feed looks anything like ours right now, it is probably full of stories about Russia, the proposed new Pulaski County Middle School, and the Senate’s health care plan, in that order. We’re not going to touch the Russia story at this point, but we do want to take a look at how […]
Congress votes tomorrow on TrumpCare. According to the numbers projected by the Center for American Progress, the average Virginia enrollee will pay $4,000 more annually by 2026. A few points of reference: $4,000 is almost 10% of the median income for Pulaski County. 1,115 Pulaski County residents were enrolled in an ACA plan in 2016 and […]