In memory of friend, activist John Pyles
When I first heard that John Pyles had passed away, my heart was filled with sadness.
I have known John since I was 8 years old. As I got older, I would talk to John from time to time. He was always ready to help no matter what the cause was, and he would help anyone in need. John was a pleasant, kind man with a heart of gold and a big smile.
Many times I would call him and ask him to get us help at our senior center in the Mountaineer Mall. Whatever we needed, he would get it for our center. John was on our board of directors and was very active as our board member and as an advocate for seniors.
He had so many accomplishments for Mon County. John never knew a stranger. When he would greet you with his big smile, it would warm your heart.
John, you are sadly missed by people who you have helped in all the counties in our state and many people all over the world. Thank you, John, for all your help with the Senior Monongalians senior center and everything you have helped me with, both in items we need at our center and in monetary donations.
I know you are in heaven helping God and the angels. God bless you, John, and thank you for your lifetime of service for all of our citizens in West Virginia. Country roads have taken you home.
God blessed me with your friendship.
Carol Ann Miller
Morgantown
WVU the right steward for former Mylan plant
West Virginia University proved its mettle when, weeks ago, announcing its intention to become involved in attempts to preserve a significant Morgantown — and West Virginia — industrial facility: Mylan’s pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. Now, it has stepped up to the plate, and it has a mighty bat to swing.
WVU has a School of Pharmacy, a College of Business and Economics, a Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, programs in policy analysis and public administration and an administration committed to public service. It has experience in community development and expertise in the roles, ways and means of industry, commerce and social and economic development. It is a “learning organization,” capable of investigating and assisting in a broad range and depth of problem solving and public service. WVU is, itself, a large, complex organization; and it has the land-grant institution’s mission and spirit of education, research and service to the people.
This problem has many facets that call for thoughtful and knowledgeable decision analysis and action planning. WVU can marshal resources to assist, but action will require contributions from both the public and private sectors of our community to realize success.
Businessmen and mathematicians often speak of inflection points in curves, careers and organizations, and what happens before and after change turns us from one direction to another. WVU can organize and focus many assets to investigate paths to the future and has stepped up to the plate. It has demonstrated once again that the community and state are its “campus.”
Bill Wyant
Morgantown
Transfer portal, NIL ruining college sports
The NCAA has completely destroyed amateur athletics with the transfer Portal and Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) policies.
A class of 2023 five-star athlete has been offered a name, image and likeness deal worth more than $8 million by the end of his junior year in college, according to Sports Illustrated, with an almost immediate payment of $350,000. Where I have a problem is with the immediate payment entering his senior year of high school. From my perspective, he is no longer an amateur athlete and should not be allowed to compete as such.
The NCAA Board of Directors has lost the whole idea of amateur athletics based on its uneducated and ill-informed decisions. The NCAA board should have had enough intelligence to foresee the ramifications associated with its decisions — or then again, maybe not.
It has become open season on poaching accomplished athletes from other programs. When a school’s athletic program invested two or three years in athletic development, education, room and board, etc., without compensation, only to have the athlete poached, to me, is absolutely incredibly wrong.
There are so many misgivings about these processes, and something needs to be done immediately. What the NCAA has accomplished is to establish a two-athlete system: the haves and the have-nots. Those schools’ athletic programs that have significant financial backing will merely monitor schools like West Virginia for player development and then offer compensation to athletes that’s unaffordable from their current program.
There are so many things wrong with these current policies. However, if school/program A wishes to poach an athlete from school/program B, school/program A really needs to compensate school/program B. There should be certain policies put in place if you’re going to treat the student-athlete like an NFL or NBA player.
Joe Cicchirillo
Morgantown
Nominees to Council on Sports will make us proud
One way to compare the present and previous administrations, might be to compare President Biden’s nominees for the President’s Council on Sports, Nutrition and Fitness with their predecessors named by the former incumbent.
The previous office holders were Mehmet Oz and Hershel Walker. Dr. Oz, the host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” started off as a respected talk-show host, then enriched himself by using his show to tout questionable drugs, including those purported to cure the coronavirus. About a year ago, he said that the panic about the virus was worse than the virus itself.
Walker, too, started out respected, as a winner of college football’s Heisman trophy, then dropped out to pursue a professional football career. He recently asked an interviewer why there are still monkeys, if humans evolved from monkeys. He has been accused of violence against several women, including his wife.
Both are Republican candidates for the Senate, in states in which the men have only recently established residency. The White House asserts they were asked to leave the council because candidates for federal office cannot serve on White House boards. The candidates claimed politics and refused to step down; they were fired.
The new appointees are Jose Andres and Elena Delle Donne. Chef Andres is the founder of World Central Kitchen, an international rescue organization that transports cooks and kitchens to provide healthy food to large numbers of volunteers and sufferers in disasters. This includes Ukraine.
Ms. Delle Donne is a two-time MVP of the WNBA. She was recruited to powerhouse Connecticut before transferring to lowly Delaware, closer to her home, because her sister needed her. She has been a Special Olympics Ambassador and has a degree in special education.
The new nominees will make us proud.
Dady Dadyburjor
Morgantown
W.Va. should invest in 529 accounts for kids
Those in the West Virginia state government are always talking about the “significant” economic growth in the state. But that growth can only go so far unless our younger population accepts the challenge of a post-secondary education.
Speaking before a Senate Committee in March, Higher Education Chancellor Sarah Tucker said that the college-going rate had dropped to 48.2% — the lowest in at least 20 years.
A few years back, I enrolled my grandson in a 529 college savings plan.
My grandson knows the account. He follows its progress quarterly. He knows that the financial resources to go to college will be available. The fund is an incentive for him to perform well in school.
This past summer he applied to, interviewed for and was accepted into a magnet school. The middle school is a feeder school and on the campus of the Beaverton Academy of Science and Engineering, the #1 rated high school in Oregon among 297 high schools. I believe part of the reason he is willing to accept a challenging curriculum is because he sees the options available to him through the 529 plan.
West Virginia will have a surplus of near $1 billion. I suggest that a portion of those funds be used to build on the post-secondary opportunities for students. I suggest the Legislature take $10 million and start a 529 for every first grader in West Virginia — $500 per student. If the state wants to be ambitious, take $60 million and fund students in grades 1-6.
While each student would have an individual account and the funds would be reflected on their statement, the funds would be held within the State Treasurer’s Office until needed. This would prevent people from enrolling in a West Virginia elementary school only to leave soon thereafter with the 529 funds.
If West Virginia can increase post-secondary enrollment by, say, 20%, an additional 4,000 students will be enrolled in West Virginia colleges, community colleges and trade schools each year. Then we will have real opportunities for economic growth.
Denny Poluga
Morgantown
