Over the past few years, some people have severed their digital lifeline with friends and family because of political differences. With the click of a single button the social media connection is gone. Click – buh-bye! The decision can mean you’re out of touch and cut off from that person’s life. But two childhood friends from Gallipolis, OH — who vote very differently — have committed to doing just the opposite.
Many Americans are getting good at ignoring friends and relatives who disagree with them. Roughly four in ten registered voters say they don’t have a close friend who supports the opposing party’s candidate, according to a Pew Research study.
Think how often you’re tempted to unfriend someone on social media. However, some lifelong friendships seem to beat those odds and the people in them say it enhances their understanding of the world.
On this Us & Them episode, host Trey Kay hears two childhood friends from Ohio explain how their connection reminds them how much they have in common. They do that, despite agreeing to disagree on some pretty important things along the way. They do it, in the name of their friendship.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.
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Brian Griffin and Us & Them host Trey Kay have been friends since their days at Ohio University back in the early 1980s. These days Griffin is the Executive Secretary-Treasurer for the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingLynn Angell has lived in Gallipolis, OH all of her life. She is a CPA and the owner of Angell Accounting, where she works barefooted as she prepares more than 3,000 tax returns each year. When she’s not crunching numbers, she raises sheep at her farm just outside of town. She also serves on the Gallia County Board of Education and is an executive member of the Republican Central Committee. Angell has known Brian Griffin since their high school days. They don’t see eye-to-eye on politics or the direction of the nation, but they are committed to their friendship and respectfully hearing each other out.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Brian Griffin as senior in Gallia Academy High School’s Class of 1978.
Credit: Gallia Academy High School Yearbook
Lynn Smith Angell as senior in Gallia Academy High School’s Class of 1978.
America stopped institutionalizing people with mental illness decades ago. But now, many are caught up in a system not meant for them. On this episode of Us & Them, we’ll hear what it’s like to live with mental illness behind bars in the Mountain State.
Overcrowding and understaffing have pushed West Virginia’s prisons and jails to what many believe is a crisis point.
On this episode of Us & Them, we hear what incarceration is like for someone in a mental health crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people with mental illnesses are caught up in a criminal justice system that was never intended to treat them.
In a recent special session, West Virginia lawmakers earmarked $30 million to address staffing shortages and provide pay raises and retention bonuses to correctional staff. There is also $100 million for deferred facility maintenance. However, a new lawsuit against the state on behalf of West Virginia inmates, demands more than three times that amount is needed.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Just Trust, the West Virginia Humanities Council, the CRC Foundation and the Daywood Foundation.
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Bishop Mark Brennan and Jeff Allen (director of West Virginia Council of Churches) listen to Beverly Sharp (founder of the REACH Initiative in West Virginia) speak at a West Virginia Council of Churches press conference on the subject of the criminal justice system in West Virginia.
Credit: Kyle VassLara Lawson is from the town of Milton in Cabell County, W.Va. She has her master’s degree in sociology and is passionate about social justice issues. She has also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and manages that condition. She told Us & Them host Trey Kay about an experience she had during a manic period of her illness when she was placed in Western Regional Jail and deprived of mental health medication. While Lawson says she was not suicidal — she recalls being put in the suicide watch cell for observation.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingUs & Them host Trey Kay met with investigative reporter Mary Beth Pfeiffer at her home in the Hudson Valley of New York to talk about her book Crazy In America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill. Pfeiffer’s book shows how people suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, clinical depression, and other serious psychological illnesses are regularly incarcerated because medical care is not available. Once behind bars, she reports that people with mental illness are frequently punished for behavior that is psychotic, not criminal. Pfeiffer’s reporting examines a society that incarcerates its weakest and most vulnerable citizens — causing some to emerge sicker and more damaged.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingAshley Omps testified at the West Virginia State Capitol before the Senate Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority. She told this group of powerful strangers about the worst experience in her life — a time when she was incarcerated in Eastern Regional Jail after an intense, traumatic event and said she was denied mental health treatment. Omps said it was uncomfortable to share her personal story, but it made a difference. West Virginia law has changed, because people like Ashley took their stories to the capitol.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears from residents who face daunting challenges. Some say government agencies are doing their best at ongoing cleanup, while others say delays and inconsistent information leave them uncertain about their safety and unclear about whether they can go home.
In the aftermath of a disaster, people search for assistance and answers.
Since a rural Ohio train derailment sent toxic material into the air, soil and water earlier this year, people in East Palestine have needed help. Some look to the government for that support, while others aren’t sure who to trust.
In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears from residents who face daunting challenges. Some say government agencies are doing their best at ongoing cleanup, while others say delays and inconsistent information leave them uncertain about their safety and unclear about whether they can go home.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.
An East Palestine, Ohio resident watches a black plume rise over his town, in February 2023, after a controlled detonation of derailed Norfolk Southern tank cars filled with vinyl chloride.
Credit: NPRUntil the Norfolk Southern derailment, Jami Wallace was an East Palestine resident. She lived just over a mile from the accident site. Now, she’s moved with her family to East Liverpool — about 30 minutes away. She has a law degree and a background in Political Science and Public Administration. Now, as president of a response group for her community — the Unity Council — she finds herself a de facto spokesperson for a town still in crisis.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingA yard sign near the center of East Palestine.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingMacklain Hersman works in IT and says he lives within the official disaster area. He has history in East Palestine. In fact, his house has been in the family for three generations.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingMark Durno, an EPA response coordinator, takes questions from concerned East Palestine residents.
Courtesy Stephanie ElverdEPA Community Involvement Coordinator Diane Russell discusses the air monitoring data that the EPA has collected for the East Palestine area.
Courtesy Stephanie Elverd“East Palestine is quite a conservative area, but what I saw whenever things happened was I saw people who were on the right, who were on the left, who were somewhere in the middle, and some people who didn’t care at all, come together to demand answers and demand justice. Personally, I was proud of that, and that’s part of the reason why I’m here…that beauty in coming together, that solidarity, is what everyone should have all the time.” — Timothea Deeter, East Palestine resident
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The woman who sparked the 1974 Kanawha County Textbook Controversy has died. 82-year-old Alice Whitehurst Moore passed away at her home in Tennessee over the weekend.
The woman who sparked the 1974 Kanawha County Textbook Controversy has died. 82-year-old Alice Whitehurst Moore passed away at her home in Tennessee over the weekend.
Moore was on the Kanawha County Board of Education and sparked a national debate with her objection to a new set of language arts books designed to reflect America’s increasingly multicultural society. Moore helped mobilize a protest that targeted schools and businesses throughout the county.
National attention came when boycotts paralyzed businesses in Kanawha and eight surrounding counties. Moore never advocated violence, however some protesters resorted to such tactics.
The controversy extended well beyond the Kanawha Valley. It provided the newly formed Heritage Foundation with a cause to rally an emerging Christian conservative movement.
It’s with deep sadness that I report the passing of a dear friend and someone who helped define the Us & Them podcast in its earliest days. Alice Whitehurst Moore passed away on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. Her daughter Chrissie Moore-Henthorne says her mother died at her home in Acton, Tennessee surrounded by her family. She was 82 years old.
I first became aware of Alice when she served on the Kanawha County Board of Education in West Virginia in the 1970s. In 1974, when I was in 7th grade in that school district, Alice sparked a national debate and conversation on multiculturalism when she objected to the adoption of a new set of language arts classroom textbooks for the district.
The books were recommended by a group of English teachers to reflect America’s increasingly multicultural society. Alice reviewed many of the proposed books and found a significant number of the passages and themes to be objectionable. She met with concerned parents in church basements and community centers and mobilized a book protest.
The effort drew national attention because it called for boycotts that paralyzed businesses for Kanawha and eight surrounding counties. Although Alice never advocated violence, some protesters resorted to violent tactics. School buildings were hit by dynamite and Molotov cocktails, sniper bullets hit some school buses, journalists were beaten and protesting miners shut down some of the region’s coal mines.
Alice Moore’s campaign flyer.
Courtesy
Textbook supporters said new curriculum materials would introduce students to fresh ideas about multiculturalism. Opponents said the books undermined traditional American values. The controversy extended well beyond the Kanawha Valley and became a rallying point for the then newly formed Heritage Foundation and its Christian conservative movement.
As a student, I was aware of how the protests made my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia the spotlight of news. Decades later, I chronicled the story of the Kanawha County Textbook Controversy in an award-winning audio documentary The Great Textbook War.
Shown is a woman at a protest in the 1970s who was inspired by Alice Moore.
Courtesy
I met Alice while making that report, and we developed a deep friendship that led to the creation of the Us & Them podcast. Our very first episode was called “Trey & Alice” and it provides some insight into the loving and sometimes contentious relationship that Alice and I had through the years.
Alice left West Virginia in the early 1980s and returned to her hometown of Acton, Tennessee. She lived there until her passing. She was the wife of a Church of Christ preacher and the mother of five, the grandmother of seven and the great-grandmother of four.
I want to share my deepest condolences to Alice’s family and gratitude to her for supporting the work of speaking across the differences that divide us.
A caricature of Alice Moore drawn by the Charleston Gazette’s Taylor Jones.
There are new laws in more than 20 states — including West Virginia — that ban transgender girls and women from competing on girls and women’s teams. Transgender athletes say they want to play a sport they love. Some who support the new bans, say the laws are not anti-trans. Instead, they say the goal is to protect girls and women from competing against the biological advantages they believe transgender girls and women have.
At least 20 states have laws banning transgender girls and women from competing on girls and women’s sports teams.
In this encore episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at the battle over gender and sports. Kay talks with transgender athletes who say they want to be who they truly are as they compete on the playing field.
We hear from a state lawmaker who says the new laws are not anti-trans, but rather designed to protect girls and women from unfair competition playing against transgender athletes.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows a transgender girl in West Virginia to compete on her middle school girls team for now, while a state lawsuit continues.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and the CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.
Taylor Edelmann was a transgender athlete when he was a student at SUNY Purchase. He played from 2009 to 2013. At first, Taylor competed on the women’s volleyball team. Then, he transitioned to the men’s squad.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingNewspaper clipping of Taylor Edelmann has a high school volleyball standout.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingTaylor Edelmann speaks with Us & Them host Trey Kay in the home where he grew up.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingPatricia Rucker is a state senator for West Virginia’s 16th District. She co-sponsored a bill in 2021 that is now law in West Virginia. It bans transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams. Specifically, it limits girls sports to individuals “whose biological sex determined at birth is female.” The law applies to public school and collegiate athletes.
Credit: Will Price/WV Legislative PhotographyTerry Schilling is president of American Principles Project. He says they work to pass laws that “protect and strengthen families, and protect the innocence of children.” Schilling says American Principles Project has a SuperPAC that runs campaign ads for and against candidates based on their record for “protecting or hurting families.” Schilling believes there is a transgender agenda — which he calls “transgenderism” — and he believes that it’s hurting American families.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingErica Smith and her Sweet Briar College field hockey and lacrosse teammate Ashley Maggiora are going through their summer workout.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingErica Smith and Ashley Maggiora take a break after practicing lacrosse passing.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Travel is one way to learn — Us & Them host Trey Kay followed a tour group traveling through southern U.S. states to learn some very Black and white lessons.
Us & Them host Trey Kay joined a small group to travel through America’s southern states learning about the country’s racial past and the impact of the civil rights movement today. This immersive journey took them across several states to places that have come to define periods in America’s racial history — from Charleston, South Carolina’s slave trade market to Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
The group visited sites that put this country’s racist history on display, and Kay was along to hear them reflect on our nation and themselves.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.
James Person, one of the original Freedom Riders, in Atlanta, GA, with Us & Them host Trey Kay.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingProf. Todd Allen speaking to a tour group at King Center in Atlanta, GA.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingUs & Them host Trey Kay at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingFinal resting place for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Atlanta, GA.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingBetsy Disharoon in her art studio in the suburbs of Boston, MA.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingMcLeod Plantation is a former slave plantation located on James Island, near Charleston, SC.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingJohn Gardiner stands in front of small cabins, which once house enslaved people, and speaks about the history of the McLeod Plantation and the slave trade in Charleston, SC.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingAziz Abu Sarah, founder of Mejdi Tours, rides on a bus heading to Charleston, SC and tells travelers about his experience as a Palestinian growing up in Jerusalem.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public BroadcastingMejdi Tours’ Civil Rights Journey stops at the site of the future International African American Museum in Charleston, SC.
Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
