Trey Kay, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Us & Them Encore: The Gun Divide

At a time when an alarming number of mass shootings continue to happen all over America, the Us & Them team was recently honored with a first place award for best documentary from Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters. In this report, we explore the foundations of the Second Amendment and the cultural and historical beliefs and myths that contribute to our very American divide over guns.

Us & Them was recently honored with a first place award for best documentary from Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters.

Our episode called “The Gun Divide” looks at gun ownership in America, and the way our social, political and racial divisions fuel gun purchases. The year 2020 showed a historic rise in gun violence. Guns killed a record 45,000 people, the majority of them by suicide.

Us & Them host Trey Kay explores the foundations of the Second Amendment and the cultural and historical beliefs and myths that contribute to our very American divide over guns.

Gun ownership is at record levels across the country with 40 percent of adults saying they have at least one firearm in their home. But what rights does the Second Amendment give us?

We’re sharing this award-winning episode with you again, from our archives.

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.

Don Radcliffe is a pharmacist at Good Family Pharmacy in Pinch, WV. In February 2015, Radcliff shot and killed a masked armed robber from behind the pharmacy counter during a failed robbery. *Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

You can have prescriptions filled at the Good Family Pharmacy in Pinch, WV. They also sell toiletries, vitamins, cosmetics and, as pharmacist Don Radcliff told Us & Them host Trey Kay, they offer customers something a little extra — the pharmacy also sells firearms. This photo shows two of the three gun safes in the pharmacy’s stock room. A stuffed bobcat keeps guard. *Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Danielle Walker served for five years as a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. She recently made history by becoming the first African American to serve as the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia. She is photographed here with *Us & Them* host Trey Kay. Walker reluctantly bought a firearm after receiving death threats. She says these threats started in 2020 after she attended a Black Lives Matter rally in Kingwood, WV. *Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

In the United States, Black Americans are 10 times more likely to die from gun violence than white Americans. The number goes up for Black children and teens — who are 14 times more likely than white children to die from a gunshot. The small state of West Virginia reveals similar disparities. Data show Black West Virginians are victims of gun homicide at 5 times the rate of white West Virginians. Across the state each year, an average of nearly one person a day is killed by guns. Reverend Matthew Watts has been a pastor at Grace Bible Church on Charleston’s West Side for more than three decades. He also lives in the community, and tries to bring attention to its struggles. *Credit: Grace Bible Church*

Jim McJunkin is a retired pediatrician in Charleston, WV. He now spends much of his time as an unpaid legislative representative for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. That’s a program launched ten years ago after Sandy Hook — the mass shooting of school children in Newtown, CT. The group is an arm of Everytown, a national organization devoted to stopping gun violence. He is pictured here with Deanna McKinney, a mother whose son was shot and killed on the front porch of her home on Charleston’s West Side. *Credit: James McJunkin*

Historian Jennifer Tucker specializes in the history of industrialization, science and law. Tucker recently launched the Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. *Courtesy Photo*

Darrell Miller is a Duke University law professor and co-founder of the Duke Center for Firearms Law. He writes and teaches in the areas of civil rights, constitutional law, civil procedure, state and local government law, and legal history. His scholarship on the Second and Thirteenth Amendments has been published in leading law reviews such as the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Law Review, and the Columbia Law Review, and has been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Courts of Appeals, the United States District Courts, and in congressional testimony and legal briefs. *Credit: Duke Law*

*Us & Them* host Trey Kay practicing his shooting with friends in Bath County, VA. *Credit: Christopher Kay*

Diminishing OB Care In Rural America

For struggling rural hospitals, obstetric and prenatal services tend to be some of the first on the chopping block. Over the past decade, 89 rural hospitals across the country closed their obstetric units. And when medical options shrink — rural families have to make hard decisions about how and where to get care.

Children are the future — it’s a common refrain. However, in isolated, rural communities across America, there are people traveling many miles from their home to deliver babies.

Since 2010, nearly 150 rural hospitals have shut down — a victim of the financial stresses facing U.S. health care. One survey finds that about 40 percent of rural hospitals lose money offering obstetric care, since it costs $18,000 on average to have a baby.

So, when small hospitals look at cost-cutting measures, delivery and obstetrics units are often casualties. Just under 10 percent of rural hospitals have shut down their delivery services.

For this Us & Them episode, host Trey Kay hears from families facing that change, and how it’s affecting prospects for their rural cities and towns.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

Amy and Jacob Staton live in Williamson, West Virginia — population 3,000. They love living in the southwest corner of the state. It’s a quiet community for raising their family. They had their first kid in 2014. Two years later, Amy was pregnant again with twins. That made her healthcare a lot more complicated — before and after birth. She faced a greater chance of emergencies — such as possible problems with the placenta or miscarriage. Twins tend to be born premature.

In all of these scenarios — minutes matter.

And in the handful of years between her first and second pregnancies, Amy’s access to obstetric care changed. Williamson Memorial Hospital — five minutes away from her house — stopped offering OB services. The only hospital in the area with a neonatal ICU is located around forty minutes away from the Staton home.

Amy and Jacob are presently expecting their second set of twins.

Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Dr. Dino Beckett is the CEO of Williamson Health And Wellness Center and a practicing family physician in Williamson, West Virginia. He says when rural hospitals struggle financially, obstetric and prenatal services tend to be some of the first on the chopping block. That’s exactly what happened to Williamson’s hospital in 2014.

“None of us were happy,” Beckett told Us & Them host Trey Kay about the closing of Willamson Memorial Hospital. “Two of my children were born at that hospital. So it was something that we didn’t want to do — but you know, we weren’t the ones calling the shots. And I mean, when you look at it financially, it was just one of the things that — they couldn’t provide other services if they continue to do those and then it would put us at further risk of closure.”

In the following years, 89 rural hospitals across the country closed their obstetric units. And when medical options shrink — families have to make hard decisions about how and where to get care.

Learn more about the Williamson Health and Wellness Center.

Credit: National Rural Health Association

Carrie Cochran-McClain has focused on rural health care for 20 years. She’s the policy chief for the National Rural Health Association. And these days, her work puts a spotlight on the medical reality for places like Williamson, West Virginia.

“One of the things about rural health is that it is a microcosm for what we see in our larger healthcare delivery system,” Cochran-McClain explained to Us & Them host Trey Kay.

It’s not like rural America was once overflowing with high-tech labor and delivery units. Cochran-McClain says diminishing access to rural health care fractures something essential to small communities.

Learn more about the National Rural Health Association.

Changing A State’s Mind About Health

According to recent health rankings, West Virginia tops the charts for the rates of obesity and diabetes. More than a decade ago, Huntington, West Virginia made headlines as “the nation’s fattest city.” Since then, some things have changed.

West Virginia often ends up at the bottom of national health reports — the rates of obesity and diabetes, conditions that can lead to cardiac and kidney disease. The region’s legacy of active, manual mining work has given way to a more sedentary lifestyle that relies on processed food to feed families quickly and cheaply.

More than a decade ago, Huntington, West Virginia made headlines as the “fattest city in the nation.” That spotlight led to some changes with doctors and dieticians focusing more on health and nutrition.

On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at continuing efforts around the Mountain State to teach new dietary habits and train the next generation a healthy approach to cooking and eating. In some counties without close access to full-service grocery stores, new farmer’s markets have sprung up and health clinics offer produce boxes with fresh fruits and vegetables.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

Back in 2010, TV Chef Jamie Oliver brought his “Food Revolution” movement to Huntington, West Virginia. At the time, Huntington made headlines as the “fattest city in the nation.” Oliver started “Jamie’s Kitchen” in Huntington – a restaurant and demonstration kitchen in an effort to help teach locals how to cook healthy meals. Today, the place is now called “Huntington’s Kitchen,” and in 2013 Cabell Huntington Hospital took over management and oversight of the facility. *Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Twin brothers Chris and Matt Lowe were at Huntington’s Kitchen recently for a “Taco Tuesday” cooking class. About a dozen families were learning how to prepare pico de gallo, guacamole, and ground beef for tacos. There were several families using healthy recipes to learn kitchen techniques. *Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Amy Gannon is program director and professor with Marshall University’s Dietetics Department. For two decades, she’s watched the rise in obesity rates, as well as other factors that influence the health of West Virginians. *Credit: Marshall University*

Diet and nutrition are just the start of the things that play a role in our health. There are lots of social and economic factors as well. Dr. Clay Marsh is keenly aware of this. He’s been the chancellor and executive dean of the Health Sciences for West Virginia University since 2015. Marsh says we’ve learned a lot about the factors that drive West Virginia’s health outcomes. *Credit: West Virginia University*

Dr. Dino Beckett is the CEO of Williamson Health and Wellness Center and a practicing family physician in Williamson, West Virginia. Beckett says one of the things the community needed to address was a lack of supermarkets and limited access to fresh foods in the area. Beckett says the region has high rates of diabetes. At the Williamson Health and Wellness Center, they offer health education for residents and they also offer produce boxes filled with fresh fruits and vegetables. *Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Craig Warren who lives in Williamson, spent years eating his way to health problems. Warren was diagnosed with diabetes in his 20s, but says he was “young and stupid” and didn’t comply with what doctors told him. Warren is a single parent to two boys. While his focus was on taking care of his family, his health fell by the wayside. He had a stroke when he was 45. *Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Compassion Fatigue

Homelessness is not just an issue for big cities like San Francisco or New York City. Across America, communities large and small are struggling to provide shelter to people without housing. In Charleston, West Virginia, government and community approaches to help the unhoused have created more debate on an issue that is already divisive.

Homelessness has been on the rise since 2016, and the pandemic only exacerbated an acute shortage of resources to help people living on the streets. Now, many communities are struggling to provide support as some homeless people turn away from emergency shelters and remain in outdoor encampments.

In Charleston, West Virginia, the city’s opioid response program also now focuses on homelessness. “Tent cities” have been a focus at the state legislature as debate continues over how best to help people living on the street.

At the same time, some people say they’re more afraid of people living on the street than in the past. Providing sustained care for homeless people continues to elude and divide even well-meaning and determined communities.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

*Us & Them* host Trey Kay met Randy Lantz while Lantz sheltered on the steps of First Presbyterian Church in Charleston on a cold night in January 2023. Lantz said he’s been homeless since 2016. He said he’s from Atlanta, Georgia and has been in prison three times. Lantz said he found his way “back into the world” after his first two prison terms. But this time, he said, he cannot.

*Credit: Julie Blackwood*

Rev. William Myers became First Presbyterian Church’s new head minister in August 2021. It wasn’t long before he became aware of the church’s transient guests who slept on the building’s front steps. Rev. Myers allowed them to camp there overnight. But he wanted to set limits, knowing children in the church’s preschool program used that entrance every morning and afternoon.

He established some ground rules for those sheltering on the steps. But this did not resolve the concerns of community members in and outside First Presby. In his first days in Charleston, Rev. Myers was quickly immersed in the debate over how best to help people living on the street.

*Credit Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

(Click here to view Rev. Myer’s sermon about caring for homeless people.)

Ashley Switzer was born and raised in Charleston. She is a school teacher. Ashley and her husband have raised five children in West Virginia’s capitol city. Her grandson attends a preschool that’s located near First Presbyterian Church and St. John’s Episcopal Church, which houses Manna Meal, a soup kitchen that’s been serving meals to homeless people for more than four decades.

“There was a group of parents from this school right here who actually called for a meeting with the mayor of our town because of instances with homeless or criminal vagrants on school property, near school property, banging on parents’ car doors, children in the back screaming,” she said, standing outside the preschool playground where her grandson plays. “There have been children playing on this actual playground where homeless people will threaten them. My grandson has witnessed someone walking down this very sidewalk with no pants.”

*Credit: Ashley Switzer*

Barbara DiPietro is the senior director of policy for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. She oversees the group’s federal advocacy and policy analysis. “It’s not compassion in our public policies when we consistently choose not to fund housing, not to raise wages, to allow people to not get health care,” DiPietro said. “Homelessness isn’t an accident. These are conscious public policy choices.”

*Credit: National Institute for Medical Respite Care*

Taryn Wherry is director of the City of Charleston’s CARE program, or Coordinated Addiction Response Effort. The CARE program began under Charleston’s current mayor, Amy Goodwin.

“We take a very hands-on, boots on the ground approach every day,” Wherry said. “We’re in the streets, we’re on the [river] banks or in abandoned properties. We’re talking to people and meeting them where they’re at.”

Wherry said CARE staff know firsthand what it is like to be out on the streets, struggling with drug or alcohol addiction.

“We have individuals who have lived and learned experience in all fields, people who are in long-term recovery who have been in active addiction,” she said.

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

(Click here to hear Mayor Goodwin on meeting the needs of Charleston’s homeless population.)

(Click here to view former Charleston Mayor Danny Jones announcing his order to dismantle a homeless encampment known as “Tent City.”)

Sommer Short is a peer support worker with Covenant House, which is one of the nonprofit service organizations that works with Charleston’s CARE team. When Sommer was 21, she was injured in a car accident and was prescribed opioids. Over the next five years, she transitioned to heroin use. She said she eventually left home and became homeless.

Short is sober now and works to help unhoused people who are living the way she used to live. She said many of the homeless people she meets are living with substance use disorder. She said they feel like “her people.”

“Though I may be in a position where I’m three years sober today, I am comfortable going out there and trying to help someone the same way that someone helped me,” she said.

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

One way Short tries to help is by offering food and “hygiene bags” to homeless people camping in and around Charleston. She keeps the supplies in the trunk of her car.

“In the bag, we have a Ziploc bag, which contains the toilet paper and their socks and some ointment. Then, we have some baby wipes. And inside, we also have a bottle of water, a hairbrush, a comb, a little travel pack for their toothpaste and a brush, a razor, shaving cream,” she said. Short also has food gift cards and Narcan nasal spray, which can be used to reverse a drug overdose.

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

As Short walked toward a homeless encampment, she passed under a highway overpass. Someone had written “HOPE” in yellow spray paint on the concrete wall.

“Hold On Pain Ends,” Short said, describing what the word meant to her. “You always gotta have hope. Pain ends eventually. But you got to work for it as well.”

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Us & Them: Re-Entry

At least 95 percent of people behind bars will be released. Some say a formerly incarcerated person’s successful re-entry into society requires more focus on rebuilding an individual and less on punishment. Criminal justice reform efforts also address a victim-centered approach, but some believe that fundamental change might require addressing past trauma of victims as well as the perpetrators of crimes.

America’s prison system incarcerates millions of people, but at least 95 percent of all state prisoners are released after they serve their sentence. Some struggle to navigate that transition successfully.

On this Us & Them episode, host Trey Kay hears about the challenges of re-entry.

How do we want men and women coming back after prison? How do victim advocates feel about programs designed to help formerly incarcerated people succeed on the outside?

Some suggest an important starting point is to recognize that many of the men and women serving time are victims themselves. Recognizing that trauma may be a powerful step to help people make a new life after they serve their time.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the CRC Foundation, the Daywood Foundation and The Just Trust.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

After 10 years in a Connecticut prison, Daryl McGraw is now a criminal justice reform expert. He has experience in the areas of policy development, contract management and project coordination, as well as collaborating with grassroots peer-advocacy agencies and the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Mr. McGraw is a community organizer, activist and philanthropist. He serves on several boards involving re-entry and criminal justice reform in the state of Connecticut. He consults with law enforcement, universities, policy makers, behavioral health and addiction treatment facilities who are looking to expand their knowledge and expertise in the area of criminal justice reform. McGraw says he re-entered society with a plan for who he wanted to be. He then went on to found Formerly Inc. He says he’s been able to implement some reentry ideas to help other formerly incarcerated people reintegrate. *Credit: C4 Innovations*

Michelle Thompson is Director of Outreach at the Bible Center Church in Charleston, WV. She is participating in a re-entry simulation staged at the West Virginia State Capitol during the 2023 state legislative session. She says that in her job she helps people with all kinds of challenges like getting rental assistance, transportation, and assistance in paying bills. However, this is her first experience in understanding what a formerly incarcerated person experiences when re-entering society. *Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Rahim Buford says he was “caged for 26 years of my life, from age 18 to 44, seven different prisons throughout the state of Tennessee.” He says that people of all ages, faiths, races experience challenges when they re-enter society, and that’s why he started his nonprofit Unheard Voices Outreach. *Courtesy*

Thomas Murphy or “Tom Tom” was incarcerated for 31 years. His story of re-entry has been quite challenging. *Courtesy*

Jeremiah Nelson is with the West Virginia Re-entry Council and the REACH Initiative. REACH stands for “Restore, Empower, Attain Connections with Hope.” They organized the re-entry simulation staged at the West Virginia State Capitol during the 2023 state legislative session. Jeremiah was formerly incarcerated and says for some re-entering society after incarceration, the most important things can be the most basic. Birth certificates, social security cards, IDs and transportation make the difference between surviving in the outside world and landing back inside. In prison, he says a person only makes about a hundred decisions a day. You’re told when and where to do everything. On the outside, life can mean 30,000 decisions a day. *Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Verna Wyatt and Valerie Craig are victims advocates and co-founders of Tennessee Voices for Victims. Wyatt started this work after her sister-in-law, who had been her best friend for 15 years, was raped and murdered. She said her whole world was turned upside down. “I was so angry at people that could do such horrible, despicable things to innocent people that I wanted to prevent that from happening to other people.” *Courtesy*

The Fight For The Youth Vote

Nothing divides Americans like politics. At the same time, young people are showing up to vote. Recent voting trends also show the number of young people engaging in conservative politics is on the rise.

Nothing divides Americans like politics. At the same time, young people are showing up to vote. Turnout in America among 18 to 29 year olds shot up in the 2020 election to 55 percent — a level of participation not seen since the 1970s.

Recent voting trends also show the number of young people engaging in conservative politics is on the rise. In 2020, four in ten young people — from 18 to 29 — voted for former President Donald Trump and Trump won that youth vote in seven states.

In this Us & Them episode, host Trey Kay talks with author Kyle Spencer who’s studied that trend and says it’s not an accident. She’s researched the decades-long conservative organizing strategy to engage and mobilize young people. The money connected to values and beliefs can play an enormous and often invisible role in our democratic society. But while money can fund power, it doesn’t necessarily create a singular conservative or progressive vision.

Kay also speaks with Abby Kiesa from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. Kiesa says the trends around youth voting changed somewhat in Trump’s 2016 victory. But she says, there’s a much bigger problem looming in the background – the failure of our own political system in general to make meaningful headway in getting young people to turn up on election day.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.