MORGANTOWN — the state Senate passed three bills on Monday aimed at helping veterans and active military members, and approved a resolution marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
The three military bills all passed unanimously and go to the House.
SB 8 exempts honorably discharged veterans from the fees required to obtain a license to carry a deadly weapon.
SB 114 provides for continued eligibility for developmental disability services to dependents of military service members.
SB 289 creates a Green Alert Plan. It’s modeled after the Amber Alert for children and Silver Alert for seniors. It calls on the secretary of the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety shall establish the Green Alert Plan authorizing the broadcast media, upon notice from the State Police, to broadcast an alert to inform the public of a missing at-risk veteran.
Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, Military Committee chair and lead sponsor, explained that the at-risk veteran or active service member considered under this plan would have a service-related physical or mental health condition. Such veterans and service members often commit suicide.
Weld said about20 veterans across the country commit suicide each day. Veterans make up less than 9% of the national population but count for 19% of all suicides. The Green Alert will improve the odds of finding them when they go missing.
Senators also unanimously approved an education-related bill, SB 303, the Students’ Right to Know Act.
It calls on the state Board of Education, the Higher Education Policy Commission and the Council for Community and Technical College Education to work together to compile and disseminate a variety of facts for students.
Among them: the most in-demand occupations, including entry wage and common degree levels; the average cost of two and four-year colleges, universities, and vocational schools in the state; the federal and state scholarship, merit, and need-based aid programs available; the average student loan default rate; the percentage of college graduates working in an occupation that does not require a college degree; and more.
The information would be distributed to every public high school in the state and made available to the public on the Department of Education’s website.
SR 16 is the Auschwitz resolution. Sen. Bob Beach, D-Monongalia and lead sponsor, talked about it.
The Soviet Army discovered and liberated the camp – where more than 1.1 million people died – on Jan. 27, 1945. But it wasn’t until the following April that the Americans came and documented the atrocities.
As the resolution says, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower famously said, “Get it all on record now. . . get the films. . . get the witnesses. . . because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”
The resolution recognizes the liberation the U.N.’s creation of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Beach said he’s had the privilege to know and work with Edith Levy, of Morgantown, who organized the West Virginia Holocaust Education Commission. When Levy had to step away in 2105 because of health issues, the commission became inactive.
Beach was appointed to the commission in 2001 and said its mission remains important. “The lessons are hard learned.” He referenced the controversial Division Corrections class photo without delving into the details.
“We need to remember. As a species, mankind can be very cruel to each other. … But we can stop it. We can remember.”
He said that a year ago, following the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Congregation killings, the commission wanted to re-form. He sent a letter to the governor to get him to appoint members to the commission, but the governor hasn’t responded or done anything to date. “I don’t know how to take that.”
He also has a bill that will be introduced to expand the membership and get more state agencies involved in the commissions’ mission.
Sen. Mike Romano, D-Harrison, also talked about remembering, and pointed out the horror still goes on: Bosnia, Rwanda, Syria to name a few.
“It’s up to this this country, because we are the shining light on the hill, to stop those kinds of atrocities,” he said, and to remember the cost of watching and waiting and doing nothing.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
