Return our roads with taxes to local control
So much has been said, written, discussed and debated about the deplorable condition of our state highways that you might think there’s nothing more anyone can add.
And then, wham, you hit a bone-jarring, foot-deep pothole on a heavily traveled main highway, and you find plenty of new words to contribute. Some of those words can’t be printed in a family newspaper.
My high-mileage car groaned in agony, I swear, as a collision with a hole sent a shockwave through all the knobs and dials on the dashboard. Almost everyone I know has bent a tire rim in the same situation while driving these days. It not only damages your car, it is dangerous to you and others on the road.
Local legislators and county officials have pleaded, almost desperately at times, for some relief from the state leaders in Charleston. Currently, the local folks have no authority. Zero.
So far the response from state leaders has been mostly talk and not much action, in spite of some areas saying a state of emergency exists because of the roads.
Some folks point to the Pennsylvania or Maryland state lines, correctly noting that the highways are in much better condition. There’s a reason.
The responsibility for maintaining most of those highways falls on local citizens, not from a state capital three to four hours away.
It might never happen, and the chances are slim to none, but the state Legislature needs to return the tax money and local control to the folks who drive these highways every day. They would get them fixed.
West Virginia’s state road system not only needs major repairs, it needs a major reorganization. Concentrating all of the power and control in Charleston is a bad plan from 100 years ago. Reform the system. Give the local officials control over their roads.
Mike Ellis
Morgantown
Supremacists behind
attacks on synagogues
Rabbi Marvin Hier and Rabbi Abraham Cooper made some good points in their op-ed piece Wednesday. It is disturbing that Jews who once felt safe in the United States now live in fear, as do many others who have been targeted while at worship.
The authors lost me when they pointed to Louis Farrakhan and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., as examples of anti-Semitism in public life.
It wasn’t the followers of those two who murdered people in churches in Texas and South Carolina. It wasn’t Muslim extremists who killed at the synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway, Calif. It was “white supremacists,” people who feel that only Caucasians who belong to certain Christian groups have the right to call themselves “Americans.”
The current administration, demonizing immigrants generally, and banning Muslims from certain countries from entering the United States, has allowed hatred of others to fester. Hatred appears on talk radio on mainstream stations every day.
While the president denounced the shootings in Poway as a “hate crime,” he did not mention “white supremacy” “anti-Semitism” or “assault weapons.” The gun lobby and the white supremacists are part of his core of supporters.
In Pittsburgh, the Muslim community stepped up to help the people affected by the shootings. And here in Morgantown, many in the Muslim community attended the vigil at Woodburn Circle for those killed at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, just as many in the Jewish community came to the vigil for the Muslims killed at the mosques in Christchurch (New Zealand).
Our communities are united in the fight against domestic terrorism. It was irresponsible to call out Farrakhan and Omar in an article about lack of safety in the Jewish community. Whatever one thinks of them, the violence is coming from a different place.
Barry Lee Wendell
Morgantown
Men and women need
to observe boundaries
Years ago my grandfather told a joke. Grandma thought it was funny and so did the lady he told it to. I guess as men get older, they have to prove something.
A friend liked to wrap his arms around my wife and touch her chest. Then there was her coworker who made gestures while she was on her job.
Talking to an attorney was a no-win situation for our family and with the community. Maybe we would win a lawsuit — but lose our family’s reputation and community’s respect. Our best solution — avoid the encounters with the harassers.
Sexual harassment and abuse comes in many forms and can hurt for years. Protect your children. Guys don’t want someone touching their daughter, sister, mother, wife and yes, your son.
Ladies, why would you go to a man’s hotel room? Most of the time men don’t think about their behavior. And why would anyone touch a child? There are good reasons why the age of consent is 18.
Men should aim to make women their friends, not one-night stands. There is a lot of emotional baggage attached to every intimate encounter. You will find making ladies your friend was a wise choice.
Ladies, don’t forget in a divorce you have the power to take children away from us, or the respect of men with false allegations Or in the example of the Duke University lacrosse team (2006), change the lives of many young men because of a lie.
Don’t turn things around in the workplace to make yourself look good. Women have a lot of momentum going now to stop abuse and harassment in the Me Too movement.
Dan Carnegie
Morgantown
