Levies support Mon County’s excellence
Mr. Paul Hevner of Morgantown argues that the excess levies in Monongalia County and Morgantown are “unfair” and that he does not feel he should have to pay taxes for services he “does not use.”
Do Mon County children benefit from the excellence in education we have here because of access to music, sports, quality teachers and adequately maintained school buildings? Is it possible the historic support of school bonds in Mon County made those programs possible?
Has the value of property maintained or increased in value because Mon County has the ability to attract professionals to work in our hospitals, university and retail establishments because of our standard of excellence in education?
Was the fact that Mon County students are provided with laptops to access school materials and remote learning an essential part of surviving the past 18 months?
If you can answer yes to any one of the above questions, then you understand the importance of maintaining our excess levy bonds.
Forty years of the Federal philosophy of reducing corporate taxes, arguing that big government is a hindrance, starving states and municipalities of funds to maintain infrastructure of public buildings and roads as well as social safety nets, have proven detrimental to not just our state, but also our country.
Access to before- and after-school programs are absolutely necessary in this economy where both parents must work to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Fine arts and sports programs develop skills for our children’s futures. Subsidizing teacher salaries attracts quality teachers and detracts from the brain drain to other states that West Virginia suffers due to inadequate wages for college educated citizens.
If you want the federal government to fund these necessities so we aren’t forced to pass excess levies to improve and maintain our community, then write to your congress representative and tell them to fund infrastructure. Eisenhower’s investments in highways and Johnson’s Great Society did not succeed by starving infrastructure and education and by allowing corporate greed to prevail over basic social safety nets.
Cynthia Nelson
Morgantown
Thank you Mon County residents for voting ‘yes’
Thank you, Monongalia County, for passing the levy. Those who have worked hard to continue to bring us good programs supported by funds from the levy deserve our thanks.
George Lilley
Morgantown
Rep. McKinley is out of touch with constituents
The latest email from Rep. David McKinley to his constituents begins with the headline, “McKinley Opposes Partisan $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill.”
He characterizes the bill as a “radical transformation of our country,” resulting in “higher prices and fewer jobs.”
Hogwash.
The bill will reduce prices for prescription drugs and health care in general, subsidize pay for child care, elder care and hospice care workers, and create jobs in clean energy industries.
McKinley is correct when he says that one of the goals of the Biden plan is to eventually eliminate coal and natural gas from our energy mix. This country must shift from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy to prevent ecological calamity.
McKinley is wrong when he says there is no hurry to change our ways. We must cut our carbon emissions in half by 2030 and to zero by 2050 or the consequences will be extremely grim for our children and grandchildren. We are far behind schedule already.
The change will cost roughly 14,000 West Virginia coal miners their jobs. But that won’t happen all at once, and the Biden plan calls for generous programs to compensate, retrain and re-employ displaced workers in the fossil fuel industries, rather than simply abandoning them as the coal companies have repeatedly done.
Instead of trying to thwart the Biden plan, McKinley should be cutting deals to bring as much of that money to West Virginia as he can. Many, many West Virginians would benefit from the proposals in the Biden plan.
Mr. McKinley says he opposes the plan because it would engender a tax increase, but unless you earn more than $400,000 per year, that is not true. West Virginia needs legislators in Washington who look out for all of us, not just the big campaign donors.
Larry Banta
Morgantown
Manchin, AOC and climate solutions
Lately the national media has reported about New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (often called “AOC”) criticizing West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin for his approach to creating legislation that will address the climate crisis.
AOC reportedly complained that Manchin and his staff are regularly “huddling” with representatives of fossil fuel interests. But if AOC had tens of thousands of people in her district who support their families by working in the fossil fuel industry, one can be pretty sure that she, too, would be doing some serious “huddling.”
The simple fact is that Manchin is doing his job. My respectful suggestion to AOC: do yours. Instead of snarky criticism, why not work together for effective, inclusive climate solutions that leave no one behind?
Climate-concerned West Virginians (I am one) have been meeting with Manchin and his staff for years (does that qualify as “huddling?”) to talk about climate science and policy. Manchin clearly understands and agrees with the science behind the climate crisis, and the urgent need for strong climate solutions legislation now — because we are literally running out of time.
Manchin has worked hard for solutions that will accelerate the worldwide transition to a low-carbon-emission energy economy; and that also address the human cost (and opportunities) of that transition, so that we leave no one behind.
These solutions include using the tax code and basic research dollars to drive investment in carbon removal (CO2 drawdown from the air and oceans), CO2 conversion and use (carbon-to-value), hydrogen, industrial decarbonization, and carbon capture and sequestration.
Importantly, pending legislation supported by Manchin requires clean energy investment in communities that have historically depended on fossil fuels. All of this will be good for West Virginia jobs. The United States and West Virginia can become a leader in sharing new technologies with the world.
For the future of humankind on this planet, Manchin, AOC, and the entire U.S. Congress need to pass strong, inclusive federal climate solutions legislation this year. Let’s get it done!
Tom Rodd
Moatsville
Bliss: The little-known writer of popular hymns
In early September, our family had the opportunity to visit the monument dedicated to the ministry of hymn writer Philip P. Bliss.
I had been wanting to travel to the little town of Rome, Pa., in north-central Pennsylvania to see the monument that was built when thousands of Sunday school children gave their pennies for its construction. I had been wanting to see this monument for 25 years. Though Bliss wrote so many of the old-time hymns in our hymnal, the Sunday school children chose to honor him as the author of “Hold The Fort.” My family members and I stood at this monument and sang that hymn.
The next day in church, I used my accordion to lead the congregation in singing that blessed hymn once again. My wife and I have led our church youth group for 31 years and “Hold The Fort” was often the favorite hymn of the young people. Every week, they would ask to sing it, and we would sing all four verses in a robust manner.
Years ago, our family visited the ruins of the Civil War-era “Star Fort” at Allatoona Pass in Georgia, where the story originated that was the basis of Bliss’ great hymn.
I have also flown over the trestle area in Ashtabula, Ohio, in a small propeller plane and walked across the new trestle where Bliss and his wife died in a trainwreck. I saw the monument that bears the words “P. P. Bliss & wife” which was erected over the remains of “the unrecognizable dead of the trainwreck in Ashtabula.”
I hope that many of your readers will take note of Bliss’ name above various old-time hymns that they still sing in our churches.
Dan Manka
Fairmont
Can’t blame China for all environmental problems
The Theatre of the Absurd was a post-World War II reflection on human life as meaningless, in part philosophy and in part a response to the trauma of the two World Wars.
The world graduated into a fear of atomic and nuclear war, but the great powers of the world were able to figure out how not to pull the trigger, in part due to the patently absurd doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD).
But there is not just one form of absurdity. Hoppy Kercheval addresses current concerns on climate change by arguing that Sen. Joe Manchin is not singularly responsible for environmental deterioration because he is holding up the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package in the Senate (DP-09-25-21). He then makes the rhetorical flourish that if anyone is responsible for the state of the climate, it is Chinese President Xi Jinping.
This sounds good at first, given the power over vast parts of the world economy that he has. But Xi Jinping faces the same problems we do. Energy is necessary for life, and influencing energy use requires careful development and application of policy, as well as popular movements and personal action.
There is a saying that if everyone is responsible, no one is responsible. The converse is true as well. And that’s the real tragedy, that by blaming someone else, we can avoid the hard work of personal action or participation in popular movements for change.
Steven Knudsen
Morgantown
