Letters to the Editor

July 30 letters to the editor

Payout for Vic Koenning questionable decision

I was very upset about the payout WVU Athletics is giving the defensive coordinator who is leaving [Vic Koenning]. To begin with, his salary was way too high, but to pay him nearly $600,000 over 19 months is preposterous.

If I was to be let go by my employer (especially for doing something wrong), they most certainly would not give me a big going-away gift like they are giving this man. This does not seem like any kind of punishment for what he has done.

Why are they paying him out anything?

Joyce Lambert
Gladesville


Is voting in person more risky than shopping?

With regards to Kathleen Abate’s opinion piece on absentee voting (DP-07-26-20), my overriding questions are this: Is standing in line to vote, with a facemask on and being six feet apart from the person in front of you, of greater health risk than being in the same situation at the checkout line at a grocery store?

Is there science behind the suggestion that by having everyone vote via absentee ballot, the health risk is minimized?

If a voter, or the chair of the Monongalia County Democratic Executive Committee, is concerned about safeguarding our health in the fall, is there equal concern for our health when shopping?

Should we all stop shopping in person and utilize the pickup or delivery service offered?

Finally, if someone, including the chair of the Mon County Democratic Executive Committee, is comfortable with shopping while wearing a facemask, traveling in one direction through the aisles and standing on the designated spot at the checkout lanes, what is it about voting in person that becomes a concern for one’s health?

Ed Denny
Morgantown


No longer a Pirates’ fan after player kneels

This is a copy of an email I sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization as well as the Commissioner of Baseball.

Friday night, I was looking forward to the first regular game of the shortened 2020 season for the Pirates. I have been following the Pirates for about 14 years and rarely miss a televised game. My physical condition precludes my attending in person. I missed the first few minutes of the game and watched for a couple of innings. I noticed on the local station sports news feed that one of the players, Jarrod Dyson, knelt during the National Anthem. It also reported PNC park has a “Black Lives Matter” banner draped
on it.

I stopped watching the NFL back in 2016 when Colin Kaepernick began his disrespect for our country and haven’t missed it. It turns out that I watched two Pirates games in the 2020 season last night — the first and the last. Other MLB games had all players and staff kneeling for pre-anthem ceremonies.
I am sad that the MLB is now blindly following the “woke” mob in the latest radical left cause. I had been watching baseball (particularly the Pirates) for entertainment, not for political indoctrination.

I believe in the first amendment of our Constitution. The Pirates’ organization has the right to believe in and espouse whatever the political narrative du jour happens to be. I have the same right. That’s one of the freedoms we enjoy in America.

I also have the freedom to switch the channel when sports become political. Like the NFL, MLB is no longer going to be watched at our home. I’m sure they won’t miss one fed-up individual. My hope is that I’m joined by many others in finding other more productive ways to use our spare time than to watch multi-millionaires play a child’s game while criticizing the amazing country that made it all possible.

Roger Cole
Bruceton Mills