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OPINIONS
Voice of the people
MCTC should be located downtown
Your editorial support for locating MCTC in downtown Huntington could not be more on the mark. It is exactly the kind of secondary investment that the developers of Pullman Square envisioned for the long-term redevelopment of downtown. Just as Pullman Square was made possible with the investment of public dollars, you could not be more right about how important it is to invest the MCTC public dollars in a location that bursts with benefits for MCTC and the city.
The concern about safety downtown has always been mysterious. The more activity there is downtown, the safer it is. As you note, Pullman Square has created a safe zone for folks of all ages to enjoy the entertainment and shopping there well into the early evening and night hours. Locating MCTC nearby can only expand the safe zone, not create the threat of danger that comes with inactive hours and little foot traffic. Just think what it would do for the development of the MU corridor!
It would be such an insightful move for Marshall University and the City of Huntington to work together to accomplish for the MCTC students and faculty and for the future of Huntington.
Vickie Shaffer
Monterville, W.Va.
U.S. lacks personal responsibilty
How many of you with as little as common sense don't know how to get out of debt? Just look at how we do it in our government; They think that the way to get out of debt is to spend more money, money that you don't have.
Now so many people who are in debt up to their neck know that this will never work. However, with the people in charge, who think that all is well, just wait until we have to start paying the piper with taxes, then you will not think all is well.
Our deficit will be more than $2 trillion dollars alone this year, which will be the highest deficit ever recorded by any president since we have had presidents. When will the American people wake up and see that the "all is rosy" is just a bunch of bologna which has already spoiled?
Our country will never again be the country that it once was, as we have walked totally away from God and are going with "if it feels good, do it." There is no personal responsibility anymore, as we have become a country of no work, just send me my check.
Homer Campbell
Ironton, Ohio
Veterans need help from local judges
Imagine yourself a blind veteran or an amputee confined to a hospital bed. Imagine that those injuries came from offering your life to your country, that the only income you have comes from compensation you received for those injuries.
Now imagine yourself being told that 60 percent of that money will go to someone who has never seen combat, and who may have other ways of supporting himself or herself. Ex-spouses often do receive more of the veterans' benefits than the injured veteran themselves.
Most judges make these awards for alimony never having visited the homeless shelters or local VAs, where veterans reside, destitute and depressed due to the loss of up to 60 percent of their disability to an ex-spouse. That spouse, who never served in the military, no longer wants to be associated with your disability, so the spouse files for divorce.
It is local lawmakers' and judges' responsibility to take heed of our veterans and their cry for justice. Divorce is 62 percent higher in combat veterans. Suicide is so high by veterans that even the studies meant to report on those numbers are themselves being investigated. The problem ? Lawmakers on the federal level have passed laws to help veterans, while the state and county court judges whom we rely on to administer the law fairly, DO NOT.
When judges, many who are in fact veterans themselves, overlook the cry of those who allow them the freedom to sit in a U.S. court, it is time for people to cry out. The federal courts have spoken. It's now time we require our local judges to adhere to federal laws as written.
Joseph Fisher
Proctorville, Ohio
