Counter response to BLM is sickening
I moved to Preston County 12 years ago to raise my young family in a rural environment that seemed to value neighbor and community. Over the years, I have taken solace from the community during times of difficulty (perhaps most notably when returning home from Liberia in the midst of the Ebola epidemic — highlighted in a previous letter to the editor in the DP).
I am married to Tammy, the director of Food for Preston, so I have the opportunity to see our community members doing good for their neighbors every day. I have been proud to call Preston County home for over a decade and consider this place my true home.
But I am saddened, sickened to see the counter response to the Black Lives Matter demonstration in Kingwood on Sept. 12. Armed white men yelling racial slurs, Nazi insignia — these do not reflect the community values I have come to know and respect from the people of Preston.
You guys know the Goines family; it’s time to act like Prestonians and support them in word and deed. Most of us, including myself, did not attend the event Saturday, but I will not let another such demonstration go by while I sit on the sidelines.
I reject the idea that these counter protests reflect our community values. I certainly hope they do not. If these actions do not represent who we are, now is the time for us to say so. There are precious few Black lives in our community and each and every one matters.
Scott Laney
Hazelton
Postermaster General DeJoy should resign
Deliveries of U.S. mail to my home are increasingly erratic and delayed.
In recent testimony to Congress, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy acknowledged that changes he has made to postal operations have caused problems, but promised to make no further changes until after the election. This is an unsatisfactory response. What is he doing now to improve the current slow service? Is he suggesting that after the election mail delivery will get even worse?
The Dominion Post guest editorial, “Postal Service fiasco offers us some lessons” (DP-08-31-2020) dismissed suggestions that DeJoy is deliberately sabotaging mail delivery in order to undermine postal voting, calling such concerns paranoia. Instead, the editorial asserts the problems are merely a result of incompetence. However, the Bloomberg opinion writers failed to even comment on the significant concerns with DeJoy himself and his appointment.
Recognizing that the U.S. public does not want a partisan postal service, Congress charged the Postal Service Board of Governors, and not the president, with the responsibility of appointing the postmaster general. However, there are credible allegations that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin engineered the appointment of DeJoy.
DeJoy was not included in the candidates identified by the independent firm that was hired to find and vet candidates. He demonstrated limited knowledge of the Postal Service both during his initial job interview and during his recent congressional testimony, for example telling Congress, “I know very little about postage stamps.”
DeJoy is a major Trump donor and was a deputy finance chairman of the 2016 Republican National Committee. Recent news articles have alleged that DeJoy broke campaign finance laws by reimbursing his employees when they gave major donations to Republican candidates. DeJoy has yet to account to the public for his apparently large financial holdings in companies that do business with the postal service, raising fundamental questions of ethics and accountability.
Given all these problems, I call on Postmaster General DeJoy to resign. A completely fresh start with a non-partisan postmaster general is needed to restore confidence in the management of the U.S. Postal Service.
Timothy Warner
Morgantown
In support of Sen. Capito for U.S. Senate
I wasn’t surprised to read The Dominion Post endorsed Paula Jean Swearengin for U.S. Senate. After all, she is promoting a socialist agenda. I was more than disappointed at the tone they took toward our incumbent U.S. senator, Shelley Moore Capito.
Sen. Capito has been a true leader for our state. In the five-plus years she has been in the Senate, she has made a habit of traveling the state, listening to the needs of West Virginians and going to work delivering for us. All you need to do is actually read the news section of The Dominion Post to know this.
In the weeks leading up to it publishing its hit job on our senator, it ran a story about her visit to the airport to see how they were using the grant money she delivered. Later that same day, Sen. Capito toured WVU’s RNI, where she learned about their research with the Oura Ring to detect COVID early. According to the story, she also got an update on the work they do for opioid addiction and Alzheimer’s, which are two areas Sen. Capito has really delivered to enrich the lives of West Virginians suffering from these diseases.
If you look at Sen. Capito’s record, you can only come to one conclusion: She’s always there for us. And on Nov. 3, I’ll be there for her.
Charles T. Krushansky
Westover
WVU COVID cases don’t reflection community
Thank you, Andrew Spellman, for your column about Monongalia County and WVU! (DP-09-05-20) I, as a parent, am MAD! My children did not get to start school in person. My son, who is a senior, lost games, practices and maybe an entire season. Why? Too many WVU students are immature, don’t follow the rules and don’t respect the surrounding community.
My children and their friends and teammates have done everything right for months! This is unfair to them. WVU sports has lost nothing. The current red status for Mon County is WVU student transmission and is not reflective of community transmission.
I want my children safe, but the number is not real for the county. It is true for the WVU bubble. If true community transmission were to occur, then the separate county number would reflect yellow, orange or red. At that point, we react!
Kim Johnson
Morgantown
Payroll tax holiday is not a tax cut; it’s a loan
Ever since Franklin Roosevelt was president, Republicans have been looking for ways to cripple or destroy the Social Security system. For some reason, providing elderly citizens and the disabled with a minimal standard of living offends the sensibilities of the GOP.
The latest assault is the executive order issued recently by Donald Trump to suspend collection of Social Security withholding taxes from now through the end of the year. The move will put a few extra dollars in paychecks each week — conveniently in time for the election.
But this is not a gift — not even a tax cut. It’s a loan: A loan out of the Social Security trust fund, which should be untouchable. Everyone who gets this benefit is on the hook to repay it when taxes are due in 2021. So instead of getting a tax refund next year, you’ll get hit with a bill, just as Joe Biden settles into the White House. The chief actuary of the Social Security system estimates that if this plan is extended past Jan. 1, disabled Americans’ benefits would dry up in six months, and retiree benefits will expire in a couple of years.
There’s not a chance Trump could have gotten this scheme past Congress. Legislators know that voters don’t support weakening the protection that Social Security gives them and their families. They want to strengthen it — just like we did in the West Virginia Legislature by passing a bipartisan measure to eliminate state income taxes on Social Security benefits.
Trump’s cheap stunt may win him a few votes. But I don’t think many of us will be fooled.
Rodney A. Pyles
Delegate, District 51
Morgantown
Why can Mon County private schools open?
I am writing regarding a comment Gov. Jim Justice made during the Sept. 13 press conference. The comment was also included in an article (DP-09-15-20).
Gov. Justice commented on Bible Center School in Kanawha County choosing to violate the order for school in orange counties to be virtual-only and hold in-person classes. “We’re going to cause a lot of heartache to a lot of different people. From the standpoint of running down and saying ‘You’re violating the law,’ you know you are, and it’s a crying, pitiful shame.”
I reside in Morgantown in Monongalia County and we are currently in the red as everyone is very much aware. St. Francis Central Catholic School and other Monongalia County private schools are open and holding in-person classes. Does the School Alert System — the color-coding system for school and school activities — apply to both public and private K-12 schools?
It is concerning that the schools continue to operate given our county’s red distinction. Why are those schools allowed to remain open with in-person learning when our county’s public schools and sports must remain closed?
Amanda Powell
Morgantown
In support of Pyles for House of Delegates
As a WVU alum, I took great pride in the announcement that three recent graduates had been selected as Fulbright Scholars. I took even more pride when I realized that one of the three, Riley Imlay, was a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.
I have worked with the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer group in West Virginia for several years and realize how many former volunteers work at high schools, universities and government agencies around our state. They bring the benefits of their international experience with them.
Many states provide Returned Peace Corps Volunteers with the option of counting their Peace Corps experience toward retirement within their state programs. Virginia has benefited from this law for several years. West Virginia has not.
Del. Rodney Pyles (D-Monongalia) has introduced legislation in the West Virginia House of Delegates that would extend this option to RPCVs working in agencies participating in the West Virginia retirement program. He recognizes the value of keeping RPCVs in the state and using this benefit to recruit them.
For 60 years, West Virginians have volunteered in countries around the world. We in the Peace Corps community appreciate Del. Pyles’ support in bringing more of those volunteers back home.
Scott King
Charleston
