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Letters to the Editor

Society searching for solution to addiction

I’m writing in support of the recent article regarding substance use in our community. First, I think it’s important to acknowledge that the opioid crisis is a real crisis. It’s so much more than a bunch of people addicted to drugs. The impact it has on entire families, children, school systems, the penal system, employers, the medical field and social services is devastating and costly. The most frustrating part of the epidemic is how elusive a good solution has been for both prevention and treatment. My personal experience has been limited, but raw. I lost a 23-year-old ...

Reader: Both parties must work together

I am not a political person. As far as my political philosophy is concerned, I consider myself to be a moderate; a little to the left on some issues and a little to the right on other issues. I think most people in the country are of like mind. The Republican and Democrat parties have been taken over by extremists. Steve Adams opined in his article of Sept. 25 that the Republicans are trying to “out conservative” each other. Matt Gaetz led a successful ouster of McCarthy as Speaker of the House just because he dared to work with Democrats in getting a stop-gap measure passed to ...

Reader wants CTC expansions restored

Fall is in the air, and the Mountain State Forest Festival is just around the corner. I remember taking my kids to the festival and the excitement it fostered in them. One feature of the festival that I respect is the unlimited ride wristband at the carnival, which allows all kids, regardless of family income, to ride all the rides for one low discounted price. I am not sure how it started, but I believe it reflects the best intentions of parents and community leaders, that no child should be excluded from this great celebration. I feel much the same way about the federal Child Tax ...

Voters need actual facts, not distractions

It’s apparent that many West Virginia residents are caught up in the “culture wars,” primarily because of what they read and see on all types of media and often to the exclusion of policies and legislation that actually make a difference in our everyday lives. Here are some facts about what the Biden administration has accomplished through the bi-partisan infrastructure bill that will have a lasting positive impact on our state. West Virginia will receive more than $800 million for roads, bridges, public transportation, and airports. West Virginia will receive $83 million ...

Reader looking into modern political lies

In my younger years I read that “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” The problem today is that there is little agreement on what the lies mean when lies attributed to one party are being used by the other party to achieve the same goal. Millions of people have seen a video featuring an adorable pair of young siblings. The camera captures their faces smudged with what looks like a dark green substance. A woman identified as their grandmother holding out a bottle of green stuff repeatedly asks if either of them ate what was in the bottle. The green stuff is something called ...

Do you see a surplus in your communities?

Gov. Justice often boasts about passing flat state budgets. This year marked the fifth consecutive flat budget our governor and legislative leaders have enacted. This gimmick has been central to Gov. Justice’s bragging about budget surpluses month after month in order to build support for the sweeping tax cuts passed earlier this year that overwhelmingly benefited the state’s wealthiest households. While most of us saw little if anything in our paychecks from those tax cuts, we see the consequences of the flat budgets that came with them throughout our communities every ...