COMMENTARY: Gov. Justice leaves hundreds out to dry in dangerous heat; arrives fifty minutes late to WV Day
Governor Justice is well-known for his tardiness, but to be nearly an hour late as ceremony attendees wait in the direct sun during an excessive heat warning is inexcusable.
WHEELING, W. Va. – As the Mountain State marked West Virginia Day on June 20, festivities stretched from Weirton to Welch and Harpers Ferry to Huntington. In our City of Wheeling—the state’s first capital—a special ceremony at Independence Hall was planned to unveil the first ever statue dedicated to our first ever governor, Gov. Arthur Boreman. Of the list of state dignitaries expected to attend was our current governor, Gov. Jim Justice.
Sounds fun, right? Well, with a chronically late governor and excessive heat one should not be surprised by what happened next.
First, our governor’s well-known tendency for tardiness: Justice has a terrible time showing up on time. If he has a press briefing at 12:00 p.m. you’re lucky if it starts only thirty minutes late. So, when Justice was fifty minutes late to Wheeling causing the ceremony to be delayed none should have been surprised.
And, to be fair, none were surprised. Several members of the crowd even joked about how typical this was of the governor. Another pondered if the good governor had stopped for Wendy’s on his way—a restaurant the governor apparently has a predilection for.
That’s where the second problem comes in. Justice wasn’t late to an event taking place in the cool of spring, or one inside an air-conditioned building—he was late to an event where a majority of the crowd sat in the direct sunlight on one of the hottest days during an historic heat wave. Temperatures hit 92 degrees, with a real feel likely at or above 100 degrees.
The crowd itself consisted of a majority of older people, some in period-costume, and dozens of children. The very old and very young are most at risk during excessive heat. At one point, thirty minutes after festivities were to begin, most of the crowd fled their chairs for refuge in the shade of Independence Hall. Others, like the reenactors and ‘Thirty-Five Little Misses’—there to sing the Star-Spangled Banner—hurried inside Independence Hall for air-conditioned relief.
Finally, some forty minutes after the event was scheduled to start, festivities began as word came that the governor’s arrival was imminent. Most, however, chose to stay in the shade of Independence Hall where, regrettably, the speakers could not be heard due to a weak sound system and the loud drone of massive AC units fighting against the extreme heat.
Despite that, the event itself was beautiful, well-planned, and well-attended. It was not the planner’s fault that the governor’s schedule shenanigans would delay the event by so much.
West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman recited a poem depicting Gov. Boreman’s life, the revered from Boreman’s original church gave an invocation, the sculptor, Jamie Lester, spoke, and a cannon was fired to mark the occasion! Side note: if you’ve never heard a cannon before it is very, very loud.
Justice arrived around fifty minutes late, showing up around 4:50 p.m. Instead of joining the crowd, though, he sat in his car until the minute before he was due to speak.
As Justice began his speech, he said he’d be “short, sweet, and right to the point.” And, in all fairness, he was; but the speech more closely resembled a campaign event rather than a statue dedication, with superlatives levied at the people of Wheeling and West Virginia.
Justice began by saying his English bulldog, Babydog, could not attend due to the heat, but that she “passes on her best and loves you with all her soul.” He went on to say the city has been “so good to [him]” and that he “love[s] [Wheeling] with all my heart.”
In the brief moment where he acknowledged the reason he was there, Justice pointed to the covered statue of Gov. Boreman saying the “neat part” for him was that it is “eight-foot tall and it weighs 2,000lbs. It’s bigger than me! So that is going to be a governor bigger than me!”
Justice went on to say of West Virginia that we are the “best-of-the-best” because the state is “low-crime, faith-based—all the good stuff. You’re craftsmen—all the great stuff you already are.” Continuing, he noted that the state is “bound in natural resources beyond belief, we’ve got four of the most incredible seasons on the planet, and you we have.”
In all, his remarks were not bad. At times, they were incredibly West Virginian in nature. The problem, though, is with Gov. Justice’s consistent tardiness leaving his constituents out to dry. There’s a metaphor there, but this reporter will leave it to the professionals to find it.