The Wheeling Academy of Law and Science carries on the tremendous local legacies of Walter Reuther, Augustus Pollack, Everett Lee, Mother Jones and all advocates for Labor, the Environment, and the Common Good. That’s why we’re supporting Bernie Sanders coming to Wheeling; because like these monumental local legacies, on these issues Sanders is bringing much-needed, healthy balance to both America, and now to Wheeling. Indeed, we are at our best when we are well-balanced. So, to help bring balance to Wheeling, we invite you to join us for free at Bernie Sanders’ speech at the Capitol Theatre this Friday.

First and foremost, we are at our best with balanced, issue-based advocacy. That is, we support anyone, the general public and elected officials, Republicans and Democrats, in advancing our mission; but especially a political Independent, who is not running for office, during a non-election year. Balanced, issue-based advocacy brings out our best, like bringing to town the highest-profile national speaker to be in Wheeling for probably half the decade!

Also critically, we are at our best with balanced political power, especially between our two (or more) political parties. Our democratic system — from Gov. Boreman to Gov. Morrisey — is set up to function, hold itself accountable, and best represent West Virginians with healthy political parties, competitive elections, and power sharing between them. Today, however, one party is drastically over-represented, holding an unprecedented supermajority; while the other(s) struggle to offer the slightest counterbalance. Republicans, who constitute a plurality (40-45%) but not majority of the electorate, hold close to 95% of our elected offices (at municipal, county, state, and federal levels). Democrats and Independents, who together constitute a majority of the electorate (30-35% + 20-25%, respectively), hold as little as 5% of elected offices.

Balancing our political power by supporting political minorities like Independent Bernie Sanders is simply but critically necessary.

What’s more especially during this dynamic time, WALS’ core issues are well-reflected in Bernie Sander’s core message about the accumulation of wealth and power in politics at the expense of the working class.

We can draw from our great Wheeling legacies and recognize that we are at our best when we balance the inevitable accumulation of wealth and power with the essential empowerment of the working class.

We are at our best with balanced negotiations between owners and workers. Augustus Pollack knew and lived this well as is memorialized at Heritage Port to this day. But today too many still oppose collective bargaining, and businesses instead betray both their workers and their hometowns by taking their businesses overseas instead of negotiating with their workers. This while union membership is at an all time low (but revamping!).

Balancing strong organized labor with healthy business is truly our best.

We are at our best when we balance owner profits and worker earnings fairly. From the Industrial era of the Laughlins and Marshes all the way until the modern Ohio Valley heyday, in 1965 CEOs earned on average 20 times their average workers’ pay. Today, however, the average CEO makes 256 times their average workers’ pay. We simply need to balance who profits from American enterprise — not necessarily equally, but fairly.

We are truly at our best when we have a well-balanced upper, lower, and healthy middle class! The middle class quite literally built our Wheeling — the homes, roads, schools, bridges, and business we’re still using today. But today, the ultra-wealthy 1% owns more wealth than the entire middle class.

One man, Elon Musk, is not only the wealthiest person in the history of humanity, but he by himself owns more wealth than every West Virginian, combined! The ultra-wealthy absolutely need to be balanced by a strong middle, working class.

We are at our best when we balance the accumulation of wealth with philanthropy and taking care of the needy. Whether it’s Wheeling’s own Stifels, Schenks, Oglebays, or so many more, or today’s philanthropists like Mackenzie Scott or Bill & Melinda Gates, we know their names as much from their generous giving to the needy as from their financial success. But today, instead of helping the needy, that same cadre of ultra-wealthy billionaires are wielding their unprecedented wealth and power to denigrate, defund, and assault poor and working Americans, and especially West Virginians. From “Progressives” like Bernie Sanders to “Conservatives” like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, they have identified the billionaire’s Big Beautiful Bill cuts to healthcare, food assistance, and environmental protections as “unconscionable.” Especially in the poorest state in the country, the unprecedented accumulation of wealth needs to be balanced with support of the poor and vulnerable, immediately.

During unbalanced times, sound, healthy ideas and policies can seem new, out of place, maybe even radical. But we are privileged here to be able to look to Wheeling’s storied past to inform this critical moment in our present.

Mother Jones, Augustus Pollack, Everett Lee, and Walter Reuther did not leave their marks by following the unbalanced status quo of their day. Instead, they looked at the issues; they looked at what was needed and what was best for people of Wheeling, West Virginia, Appalachia, and the country, both for their time and into their future (our present). And then, like Sen. Sanders is today, they brought that balance. They fought back hard against exploitative robber barons; they conceded what was fair to their workers; they broke unjust discriminatory laws depriving the world of creative genius; and, they organized the working class, the only effective balance to the unjust accumulation of wealth and power.

Continuing the legacies that are Wheeling at our best, the WALS Foundation supports this healthy balance on the issues of Labor, the Environment and the Common Good; the likes of which Bernie Sanders is bringing to Wheeling and across the county.

We’re at our best when we’re well-balanced, and we hope you can support and join us this Friday.

Vincent DeGeorge is president of the Board of the Wheeling Academy of Law and Science.