Wake up to shortage of volunteer firefighters
I am writing to you today about a crisis that can no longer be ignored. West Virginia, as well as many other states, is facing a critical volunteer firefighter shortage. In West Virginia, volunteer fire departments cover roughly 92 percent of the state’s land mass.
While 90.9 percent of the fire departments in West Virginia are manned completely by volunteers. Over the past 13 years, the state’s volunteer firefighter numbers have dropped 30 percent. This is an astronomical and dangerous loss.
Many of the volunteers are older members looking to retire eventually, but there is no one to replace them. We are desperate for help, and I have been contacting legislators about this issue. We can no longer ignore the ones who put others first.
We cannot leave our selfless heroes in the dark any longer. I have received responses from Sens. Michael Romano, D-Harrison; Sen. Sue Cline, R-Wyoming; Sen. Gegeroy Boso, R-Nicholas; Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone; and Delegates Dean Jeffries, R-Kanawha; and Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia.
They all have said they support my cause but lack the votes they need to pass a proposal such as this.
I spoke with Gov. Jim Justice’s secretary and we discussed possibilities of other agencies introducing new legislation.
A petition is going around that demands attention from our leaders. Volunteer firefighters will no longer be ignored and will continue to fight for benefits that they truly deserve.
— Crystal Morris
Tunnelton
How do women’s rights best everyone else’s
An Alabama judge has ruled that unborn baby has rights — including the right to life and that the father has rights, as well. The father of a child sued the abortion clinic because he was given no say in the matter.
Since 1973, the pro-choice feminist mantra has been, “My body my choice!” Recently, pro-abortion people have promoted infanticide –— i.e. let the baby be born (separated from the mother’s body), give the baby “comfort care” until the mother and doctor decide whether to abort the baby.
Let me play you-know-who’s advocate. If the mother has the right after the baby is born to decide whether it lives or not, how long will it be until the biological father sues for the same right? After all, “Not my body: Not my choice!”
What about the unborn baby’s right to life? How does the woman’s right beat the baby’s, the father’s and God’s rights?
— Terry Hagedorn
Smithfield, Pa
Resolve health issues rather than create them
Why are those who thump their chests and cry “Freedom!” always the first to try to strip away people’s rights? The Trump-Pence administration is once again attempting to control women’s bodies by finalizing a domestic gag rule that bans doctors from providing their patients with full information about their health care options, including abortion.
It is vital that doctors’ information to patients is not restricted by the government, but the Trump administration continues to push government interference into all corners of our lives.
This gag rule would also effectively dismantle the Title X program, which provides birth control, cancer screenings and other essential reproductive health care to people with low incomes. In West Virginia, the only Planned Parenthood clinic served over 700 patients who got care through this program in 2018 alone.
This gag rule does nothing to prohibit the wealthy from continuing to access every form of reproductive care, and instead is yet another direct attack on the health of people with low incomes.
The 1976 Hyde Amendment made it illegal for any federal funds to be used for abortion. This gag rule does nothing but deny cancer screenings, prenatal care, pap smears, STD testing and more to people who need it the most. When it goes into effect, the health of the entire nation will suffer, and for what?
So Trump can pretend that his gag rule stopped federal dollars from funding abortion, even though that’s been illegal since 1976.
Trump’s gag rule puts access to care for many West Virginians at risk simply for political gain. Our lawmakers should focus their attention on solving health issues, not creating them.
— Shane Assadzandi
Morgantown
Remove social services and dream a nightmare
Social Security is a form of socialism, whereby the government that provides assistance to people with inadequate or no income. This federal insurance program not only provides benefits to retired persons, but the disabled and others, as well.
Government-provided social services are for the benefit of the community, such as education, medical care and housing. It’s an activity aimed at promoting the welfare of others.
Social work is work carried out by trained personnel with the aim of alleviating the conditions of those in need of help or welfare.
Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all eligible members of a state. The practice or principles of social equality.
If K-12 isn’t socialism, then why with all the new technology shouldn’t kindergarten through two years of junior college not be socialism?
Why is it if the rich don’t have to pay for an entitlement — Social Security and Medicare — it’s not socialism? But if the poor who paid into the system don’t have to pay for food stamps it’s socialism.
Reduce the social services in our democracy by cutting taxes for the rich and taking food stamps from the poor will only create wounds that will not heal peacefully.
We the people started the greatest experiment in civilization— democracy.
Aristocracy originally denoted the government of a state by its best citizens, later by the rich and well-born, hence the sense “nobility” regardless of the form of government.
Democracy, the private sector, capitalism and social equality all go hand in hand. The experiment is still evolving nothing can survive without it.
Take away Social Security, Medicare and care for the disabled and the American Dream turns into a nightmare.
— Steve Kopa
Weirton
