Dear Editor:
I’d like to thank Scott Barkley and the inmates at Denmar Correctional Center for retrieving about thirty-five tires (some with rims) that someone rolled down a hill on Denmar Road. It was not an easy job to get them up along the road where Chris Cartwright with the Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan (REAP) was kind enough to remove and properly dispose of them.
This was part of the WV Make It Shine program, a statewide cleanup held during the first two weeks of April each year. During that time, and throughout the year under the Adopt-A-Highway program, volunteers clean up the trash that others — for whatever reason — litter our roads and highways with. Whether litter bugs are unconscious of what they are doing, lazy, anti-social or just dullards, the result is the same: others have to spend their time and effort cleaning up after them. Neither tourists nor their neighbors want to look at their garbage while driving around beautiful Pocahontas County.
When litter bugs throw something “out” their window it is “IN” for everybody else.
There was a time when antique bottles, crocks and other collectibles could be found in old dumps. This is no longer that time. The mass produced aluminum, plastic and glass in our modern day, throw-away society is nothing but a growing problem — even if properly disposed of in a landfill. We don’t need or want it scattered along our roads.
Alan Balogh
Hillsboro
Dear Editor;
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state, sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.” — From “I Have a Dream” delivered at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963 by Martin Luther King.
I wonder what the Reverend would think of the current Diversity, Equity and Inclusion scam that seeks to divide people by their race or sexual orientation. Would he be in favor of separate graduations or dorms based on race, the demoralization of our military by moving away from merit? Would he be in favor of rewarding individuals based on anything other than ability and character and the lowering of standards in many school systems to achieve equity instead of helping poorly performing students to do better? What would he think of so-called gender affirming care resulting in irreversible sex change operations on children? What would he think about allowing men to compete in women’s sports? What would he think about the infatuation with pronouns? What would he think of allowing repeat violent offenders to freely walk our streets and reoffend or shop lift without significant consequences? What would he think of drag queens reading to elementary school students or pornographic material in school libraries? What would he think of kids being allowed to believe they are animals or parents choosing to be their kids’ friends and not providing the guidance they need to succeed in life. What would he think of the homeless industrial complex that spends vast amounts of money to let the homeless continue their self-harming drug abuse instead of getting them the mental health care they need? What would he think of open borders with the vast influx of over 10 million individuals who do not qualify under the asylum rules driving down the income of Americans at the bottom of the wage ladder and in some cases committing violent criminal acts. What would he think of the 50-year war on poverty at a cost of 22 trillion dollars that has resulted in more dependency and many poor families not having a father in the home. What would he think of taking money from working Americans who never went to college to pay off the student loans of those that did openly ignoring the Supreme Court’s ruling on this matter. What would he think of the harm of paying able bodied citizens to stay home and not work? What would he think of the damage social media is causing to children?
It is time for the adults in the room to step forward and stop putting up with this insanity and say NO. If you are an adult, I believe you have the right to do anything you want that makes you happy to include loving anyone you want that does not hurt others, unfortunately much of what is taking place does hurt others and destroys the fabric of our society so don’t expect us to help validate your choices if they are reflective of mental illness, your fetish or a desire to feel special without doing anything of value. We, the silent majority. have had enough of this stupidity. The answer is NO, a compassionate and caring NO.
Joe Kaffl
Hillsboro