By Frances Stebbins
Frances Stebbins has been covering events in Western Virginia, especially those relating to faith communities, since 1953. She lives in Salem.
We begin the new year, 2023, with reflection on two topics which seem especially related to the season of winter when our Western Virginia mountains guard us with the blue-gray reflection of the sky.
They are the Fortieth Anniversary of the founding of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy with its Richmond headquarters. That’s the official name for what’s essentially a lobby to ensure that the Virginia General Assembly makes laws that bring about fairness and good will for all the commonwealth’s people.
As sure as Virginia’s lawmakers come together, often each winter, “The Old Farmer’s Almanac “ appears in stores for purchase. Before I sent one to my son-in-law for a Christmas gift, I examined it with care.
Dating from 1792, the paper-back book is packed with information relevant to the winter, for it was once compiled as a help to farmers preparing for the coming spring planting.
More about the Almanac later, but first that Fortieth Anniversary. I renewed my acquaintance with the lobbying group when I received a letter in November requesting a year-end contribution. It came from Kim Bobo, the current Executive Director of the interfaith lobbying group, who took the opportunity to explain what VICPP does and the role it plays in bringing the ideals of justice to those who do not always get it.
She noted that on January 18, the faith communities’ supporters will observe what they call “ a flagship event.” Known as A Day for All People, it’s a visit in person this year to the General Assembly.
The news release stated that the VICPP supporters will meet with their legislators and make known their views on some issues related to human justice . Those who live in the Tidewater and Northern Virginia areas can even get a bus to take them. There will be another visit especially for teens on February 3.
In her information letter, Bobo outlined some issues with which the faith lobbyists have sought legislators’ action.
- Congregational liaisons who keep members of their home faith communities informed of what their legislators are doing about such things as gun violence.
- This year the lobbying supporters will try to bring about changes at the Lawrenceville Correctional Center where the Virginia Department of Corrections has contracted with a for-profit agency to care for inmates’ needs. An investigation has revealed that making money has become more important than adequate food and emergency medical care for inmates.
- Limiting excessive use of solitary confinement in Virginia’s prisons and jails.
- Requiring “unconscious bias training” for medical professionals which they must acquire in order to gain or keep their licenses. Bobo’s letter noted that several states have taken such action though a bill introduced in last year’s legislative session was held for more study.
- Money for affordable housing and child care assistance. VICPP supporters want any such help to be targeted to low-income folk, not as a tax cut that can benefit the already financially secure.
- Tenant protections which passed at a recent General Assembly with bipartisan support but were vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin. The goal this year is to address the Governor’s concerns and try to get the bills implemented into law.
- Paid sick days ,which Bobo states are standard in every industrialized nation except the United States. She suggests that Virginia’s Senators might approve such a measure this year, though approval in the House of Delegates will likely take longer.
- Supporters of VICPP also will be concerned with profiteering in prisons, expanding college classes in prisons and addressing hate crimes.
Now to the Almanac. It’s indeed a remarkable source of knowledge. American patriot Benjamin Franklin is noted for an almanac, and I had seen smaller ones around since my childhood. There’s even a bigger one known as “The World Almanac and Book of Facts” but I seem to have discarded it when I was giving books to the American Association of University Women’s sale several years ago.
The volume I bought for $7.99 is copyrighted by Yankee Publishing, Inc. in Dublin, New Hampshire; the firm is employee-owned. The factual material shares pages with advertising for such products as Prevagen, a pharmaceutical intended to help elderly folk like me sharpen their memories.
Its title page bears a quaint reproduction of a print of a draped person resting against a tree trunk. Accompanying the picture is a verse by an unknown author:
The moments fly—a minute’s gone;
The minutes fly—an hour is run;
The day is fled—the night is here
Thus flies a week, a month, a year!
As I perused the Almanac, I found on its pages this variety of topics:
Moon Phases, Events in the month of July including Leopard Frogs, Propitious Planting Day, The Zodiac Man {my birth month being July with The Heart the important sign} Spiders, Chile Pepper recipes, a memorial column to Tim Clark, a former editor of the Almanac who died at 71 last year and finally “How Accurate Was Our Forecast in 2022?
A good buy for winter days.
