Your vote does matter. Get out to the polls
When was the last time you voted?
“My vote doesn’t matter” is said too often and just isn’t true. It does matter and makes even more of a difference when you vote on the local level.
When you cast a vote in city elections, you are being heard, making choices that elect a mayor and council members, which are some of the people who make up your local government.
Local government has a huge impact on our everyday lives. It determines the city’s annual budget, how much we pay in property taxes, what we can do on our own property, affecting real estate by controlling what can be built and how. I saw the significance of civic responsibility and how important our voices and votes are when I successfully petitioned the City of Westover to allow urban beekeeping.
Cities in West Virginia are rapidly growing and changing, and you, as a citizen, can have a say in the future of our state. If you are interested in registering to vote, information is available at https://ovr.sos.wv.gov.
The City of Westover is holding its municipal election Tuesday, June 14, and I’ve been told past elections have shown extremely low voter turnout. Get involved and let’s make this a record year. Register to vote and cast your vote!
Shawna Cross
Westover
We need compassion and critical thinking
Whether our sense of right and wrong came from a faith background or teachings of how to behave with hospitality, it mostly comes from some version of the Golden Rule: Treat others as you would want to be treated.
I was speaking with a former president of the Islamic Center who supports God’s diversity, saying, “We are all humanity, created by God, and if we reject one of those created by God, we reject God.”
The lesson I value from Christian Scripture is the teaching from Jesus: “What you do to the least of these, you do to Me.” There were no clauses or exceptions that told us to judge worthiness first.
Instead of remembering these moral teachings, we listen to such distortions ratcheting up accusations of those who exhibit compassion for diversity as promoting pedophilia. And after that, we hear that we should protect our kids’ mental health by lying that LGBTQ people don’t exist, and history never mistreated or neglected any group. Being “caring” becomes equivalent to “weakness” in such propaganda and makes no sense.
Critical thinking is needed to combat the manipulation of our hearts for profit or the worst of our 5-year-old instincts that proliferate on social media.
Critical thinking is nothing less than using your gut and common sense to question something that seems outrageous and doing a little research to check the sources. Who profits from ginning up my emotional responses? Who gets my vote by maligning others with distortions that are blatantly untrue?
Unquestioned messages that ask you to go along with dehumanizing, labeling and hurting another group ought to raise a red flag. If it doesn’t, then we have abandoned independent thinking. We give our vote away for imaginary reasons. So, for God’s sake, do some real homework before you vote.
Eve Faulkes
Morgantown
Horrible roads won’t attract tourists to W.Va.
I know the DOH is just now getting started on patching pot holes. Route 19 north from Route 7 west needs more than patching. This is not Blue Horizon Drive — it is Swiss Cheese Highway.
The same potholes they patched last year are back, only a little deeper. The road needs a fresh layer of black top, so maybe the potholes won’t come back. The edges of the road are crumbling. If you are turning off onto Route 100 and there are other cars coming toward town, you have to stop until they go by so you can go around the potholes at the intersection.
Jim Justice says he wants to spend more money on fixing roads. It is a shame the roads are so bad. The state wants tourists to come to West Virginia, but if I was a tourist, I wouldn’t want to drive my car on roads like these.
Ralph Correll
Morgantown
Excellent care received at Sundale Rehabilitation
My wife Jan had surgery at the Cleveland Clinic last month. She needed follow-up rehabilitation in Morgantown after her hospital stay. We decided to move her to Sundale Rehabilitation because of their excellent reputation. We were pleased to be accommodated there.
The nurses, nursing assistants, and housekeeping at Sundale are extraordinary. The facility is impeccably clean. The medical director is among the best in the region. We could not have received better care. The staff and administration were professional, competent, compassionate, have positive attitudes and were always ready to assist. My wife Jan was treated like a queen. The recent renovations are making the institution even more safe, bright, cheery and functional.
The food was quite good. Institutional food is difficult to prepare. Their Sundale kitchen staff is to be commended. There was adequate variety, the fresh fruits and vegetables were nicely prepared and presented, and the desserts were tasty. Our special requests were accommodated.
Health care is difficult in the 21st century. Oversight bureaucracies focus more on record keeping than care of the patient. Sundale has a way of taking care of the governmental bureaucratic intricacies all the while providing superb care on the patient.
Morgantown is fortunate to have such strong leadership, staff and facilities at Sundale.
Bill Reger-Nash
Morgantown
Do not vote to renew the Mountain Line levy
Am I the only person who notices that nearly every Mountain Line bus traveling our roads day and night, seven days a week, is empty? Why are the citizens of Mon County paying an excess levy to support empty buses? Why are our buses traveling south and north of the county? Why is Mountain Line running large buses instead of smaller vans like other cities in our area (Clarksburg and Fairmont)?
I asked County Commissioner Tom Bloom some of these questions several months ago and asked if the public could see some ridership data. As far as I know, that has never been made available.
I’m not against public transit — I swear. However, a waste of public tax dollars has never been so obvious. Large buses riding around town empty are simply irresponsible.
Morgantown is not the only city to see the public turn away from their local public transit system. It’s happening everywhere; it’s been a trend for years. Those without cars who need rides to a destination will simply use Uber or Lyft because of its convenience.
Mountain Line should focus its efforts (with much smaller vans) on those who can’t afford the ride sharing services. The days of everyone riding the bus to town or work are long gone. Cut the after-hours and weekend services and simply focus on where the ridership is high.
Taxpayers should not be asked to support levies just to keep a service running (probably at its highest service level ever) when there simply is no demand. Adjustments are needed and the levy when expired should not be renewed.
Jim Davis
Morgantown
Monster pothole on Beechurst Ave.
No driver in this area would deny that the roads are filled with potholes. The pothole pictured is located under the PRT overpass on Beechurst Ave., just beyond Reynolds Hall when traveling north. It is 36 inches long, 24 inches wide and almost 6 inches deep. Drivers most often swerve to avoid hitting it.
Why can’t someone from the state roads or from the City of Morgantown make at least a temporary fill of the hole?
Scott Burnworth
Westover
