Editor:

Wireless devices and applications provide more than just the ability to play Angry Birds or to Instagram a photo at dinner. One-third of U.S. homes are mobile-only, including mine. After the derecho, people relied on mobile devices to find up-to-date weather information as well as to contact loved ones and assure others they were safe.

As more and more people move away from traditional landline phones to wireless only, increasing demand is placed on our wireless networks.  But U.S. wireless networks are running out of room and more airwaves need to be freed up for commercial use to accommodate the growing demand for all things mobile.

 Policy-makers should encourage investment and innovation in next-generation networks so West Virginians can continue to rely on their mobile devices. New technologies deliver countless benefits to citizens, but only if we have the appropriate policies in place to encourage investment in our networks and continued mobile innovation.

Chris Woodall

Charleston

Dignity called for in local elections

Editor:

I was disappointed to read about the smear campaign undertaken against Joshua Martin, a candidate for state Senate. It seems that, on a national level, Republicans often accuse their Democratic opponents of shortcomings in the very areas they, the Republicans, are weakest. This was the "swiftboating" tactic used when George Bush, who dodged service in Vietnam, ran against war hero John Kerry.

Republicans this year were shown to be insensitive to women's issues, so Martin was attacked as insensitive to women's issues and concerns. Shame on the Republicans.

I know Martin. I have worked closely with him. He is a man whose devotion to his family, both the family that raised him and his wife and child, is fierce and a source of justifiable pride. He understands women's issues.

In a local election, we ought to conduct ourselves with some dignity and respect for opposing sides. We, after all, are neighbors.

Charles S. Dunn

South Charleston

Commentary on GOP reeks of arrogance

Editor:

Perry Mann revealed his contempt for the GOP in his latest commentary, "Republican Party Full of Nut Cases."  He cited an article from The Progressive Populist, a website for capitalist-hating socialists that characterizes its contributing columnists as "plutocrat pluckers."

The political shift away from failed policies of the progressive/socialist movement (a.k.a. Democratic Party), must have caused Mann terrible angst to write such a thoughtless diatribe.  He lowered himself to petty name-calling.

He referred to Republicans as the party of misogynists.  He forgot the great champions of women in the Democratic Party like John Edwards, Bill Clinton and Teddy (hero of Chappaquiddick) Kennedy, who treated women solely as sex objects, while dismissing the fact that under the current administration's policies, women are suffering the highest unemployment rate of modern times.

Further in his tirade he refers to Republicans as gun fanatics who are fascists trying to subvert the governmental right to maintain order.  To the contrary, no totalitarian dictatorship will ever rule over a well-armed citizenry.  

Mann attacked Republicans as fundamentalists with the mind-set of the Taliban. I wonder if he would feel more comfortable defending his humanist beliefs before an Islamic Imam or a Baptist preacher?  

The totally enlightened Mr. Mann had to throw into his editorial that Republicans are dimwitted, uneducated and slothful. General statements of that order reek of arrogance, and are devoid of any civility. How dreary and divisive can one be?

Clairmont L. Smith

Charleston

Slant on news goes both ways

Editor:

To the gentleman from Point Pleasant who is disgusted by the Gazette's "liberal" slant on things: if you are so disgusted by the Gazette, read the Daily Mail and you'll see a definite slant the other way. They too, sometimes slant the news and sometimes it is disgusting to people.

Curtis F. Lanham

Charleston