Congress must help address homelessness
With the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision (Grants Pass v. Johnson) allowing cities to prohibit homelessness without addressing its root causes, the urgency for Congress to come together and implement cooperative solutions is more pressing than ever. We must understand that homelessness is not a lifestyle choice, but a complex interplay of personal, professional and societal factors. It’s crucial to act now.
Criminalizing homelessness without due process and support opportunities will not only exacerbate the issue but also undermine the principles of the legal process. We must address homelessness by supporting and respecting individuals’ rights and dignity, recognizing their worth and potential. Everyone in the street has a history; in many cases, they are more than just a roof over their heads.
Instead of incarcerating individuals, which imposes a significant financial burden on taxpayers, let’s consider investing in programs that help people become productive members of society. In West Virginia alone, the annual cost per inmate for FY 2022 was $38,099. This is a significant cost that could be better used to provide job opportunities, relocation assistance, education and legal, mental health and other social services that may be required to support their incorporation into society.
The recent Supreme Court decision requires prompt action from Congress. I urge Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin, as well as Reps. Carol Miller and Alex Mooney, to take a more deliberative approach to addressing issues arising from the court decision. As elected representatives, they are crucial in shaping policies that affect our communities.
Edith Martinez
RESULTS WV
Morgantown
When it comes to guns, people don’t get it
Another school shooting. This time in Winder, Ga. As I stated in a letter to President Biden, “We don’t have a gun problem, we have a mental health problem. A loaded gun by itself will not kill anyone. It’s the finger on the trigger that’s connected to the brain that commits the carnage. I’m all for the Second Amendment, but certain weapons do not belong in civilian hands. I’ve never met anyone who needed a sub-machine gun to go hunting.”
This boy is only 14. He’s not even shaving yet. Where did he get the weapon? How was it obtained? If he got it from his father, why wasn’t the weapon secured? Was it a ghost weapon? If it was, what adult was looking over his shoulder when he was on the computer? Answer? — No one! Someone once said, “Common sense, isn’t so common.”
These school shootings will continue if common sense doesn’t kick in. Between the responsibility of the government, parents and gun dealers, there should be no school shootings.
Glenn Gallagher
Morgantown
Article about abortion poll is misleading
On Sept. 7, The Dominion Post published Brad McElhinny’s WVMetroNews story under the headline “Poll: Respondents split over state’s abortion law.” This poll and its headline couldn’t have been more misleading.
In polling, the first opportunity to distort the results comes in how question(s) are worded. This poll’s question, which led to that reported “split,” took that opportunity and ran with it. The long, detailed question — too much detail for an average respondent — all but recited elements of West Virginia’s abortion ban, without any context. Moreover, this pollster violated a bedrock principle of polling: one single question about any complex policy will not yield valid results.
To illustrate, recall early polls on the Affordable Care Act. Those polls on the ACA generally found negative public opinion. But when questions focused on individual elements of the ACA, public opinion was positive.
Props to Margaret Chapman Pomponio, executive director of West Virginia Free, who attempted to explain why this poll on West Virginia’s abortion ban is probably not reliable or useful. She explained how many (most?) respondents probably didn’t understand the realities of the law, given that one question.
But her explanations, which could have been the focus of this story, were buried. To name a few: how so-called exceptions written into the law do not work in real life; how the law was written intentionally to be misleading and denies reality, especially for victims of rape; how abortions that are ostensibly legal are denied because health care providers fear legal consequences.
These days, far too much journalism reports stuff, especially polls, uncritically. This article fell squarely in that category. The DP typically does better.
Judy Ball
Morgantown
Council ignored experts to pass camping ban
Recently, the city I call home passed a poorly written, inefficient and ineffective ordinance that criminalizes sleeping anywhere on city property. The councilors did this, not because it will help alleviate a very real crisis (it won’t), not because the multitude of experts they heard from recommended it (they didn’t) and not out of cruelty (I believe that they mean well).
Rather, I think council is being manipulated by powerful forces that keep them from listening to experts. Facebook groups that spew hatred and disinformation have served to distort the very real problems we have. Likewise, wealthy developers and their political partners have already invested millions of taxpayer dollars into solutions that haven’t worked. They are reluctant, even now, to listen to the experts and invest in evidence-based solutions that benefit the entire community. And they are making their opinions known!
Across this country, homelessness is a crisis born out of our inability to care for each other and maintain a society based in love and compassion. I get that many people are uncomfortable with the changes they experience downtown. There are things we can and must do to protect the entire community. But no experts believe that this is the way. Please, let’s come together and take care of each other.
Becky Rodd
Morgantown
GOP used to embrace people with disabilities
In the mid-1990s when I was a young lawyer, three of the four judges who appointed me to the court appointment list were Republican. Even though I was a lawyer with severe cerebral palsy and a speech disability, they gave me the opportunity to practice law. They felt that I proved their conservative theory, because I showed that anyone could overcome their barriers with a little work and determination. Although I disagree with their theory, I was happy that they allowed me to practice law in their courtrooms.
Unfortunately, the modern Republican Party does not have the same outlook towards people with disabilities. During the Democratic Convention, the son of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz became emotional during his father’s speech. He has a form of autism as a disability. Several Republican commentators mocked his behavior in online posts. They said he was not a real male because his emotional behavior did not exemplify typical male behavior. They called him a beta male because males with disabilities can never be alpha males. In other words, they think that males with disabilities can never be leaders.
But I think that these commentators are the ones that can never be real leaders. They hide behind their keyboards, mocking people with disabilities. In fact, in my opinion, if you see somebody with a disability and the first thing you think of is to mock them, then you have a definite moral deficiency.
In the past, Republicans would praise people with disabilities who did well in life and overcame their disabilities, as the judges did when they gave me the opportunity to practice in their courtrooms. It is unfortunate that the Republican Party has gone from the party that would uplift people with disabilities to one that would mock them.
Michael Sharley
Westover
WVU didn’t need to spend $1M on campus carry
I read, with interest, The Dominion Post’s editorial criticizing campus carry legislation. Like the clueless wonders we seem to have running institutions of supposed higher learning these days, the editorial missed the point and is misplacing the blame.
That legislation was never about having people carry weapons on college campuses. It was about them having the right to do so if they choose to do it. Administrators who waste a million dollars per year on divisive and biased propaganda mechanisms like DEI programs should not be expected to take logical actions.
Instead of conducting a campus survey to see how many people would choose to exercise their carry rights, WVU jumped in and spent a million dollars. Just as with other massive blunders it has made, its mismanaged solution missed the mark by a mile.
Paul Garvin
Morgantown
Sports events activate the Division of Highways
The first football game caused some action to be taken along the local highways. The Division of Highways had crews out picking up trash and mowing has commenced along the roads that motorists travel to get to the stadium. The tractors are escorted by a DOH vehicle mowing along W.Va. 705 where there is minimal vegetation to be mowed. If there’s any at all, it is dried up.
It is now September and there has been no mowing along most roads outside of the city limits, and as I stated before it will be difficult to mow due to all the trees, tree branches and other items in the ditches that haven’t been cleaned for several years. All this clutter will inhibit any mowing that will be satisfactory.
Why do sport events have precedence over the taxpayers who travel these roads daily to work? Over school buses and emergency vehicles that travel them year-round? To leave the vegetation 3-4 feet high all summer along driveways and around curves is a safety issue when motorists must pull out into traffic before they can proceed.
An untenable explanation why they mow late is that there is more visibility when the weeds dry up in the ditches. It is true that the weeds eventually dry up, but the roads should be cleared of brush and debris before September. Mowing along the roads makes it a lot safer for motorists and the vista is enhanced.
Cleaning up the roads should be a year-round project by the DOH, not just a few days in the late summer when football season starts. Taxpayers demand it, or they should.
To complain appears to fall on deaf ears. Safety must not be a priority. The new normal, apparently. No accountability?
Ron Lemley
Morgantown
