Hope Dr. Marple beats BOE's political players

Editor:

I hope Jorea Marple wins her lawsuit for dismissal as state school superintendent. Her firing appears to me to be a "good ol' boys" action. I feel they fired her so they could hire someone who would play their game and try to convince the public that all was aboveboard and legal.

Dr. Marple earned a reputation of following all rules and abiding by the law, in addition to being a first-rate superintendent. I feel it was strictly a "game of politics" to remove her, and I pray that she buries them in court. I send a bushel of kudos to Priscilla Haden and Jenny Phillips for resigning from the Board of Education, since I feel the board is beneath them.

I pray that a jury will nail them to the wall. I have no doubt that the board feels safe and secure or they wouldn't have blatantly fired her for a trumped-up reason and hired a good ol' boy to replace her. But I also feel that Rudy DiTrapano will have no problem proving that Ms. Marple was unfairly and unjustly terminated. Jorea Marple is in my prayers.

Jacquelyn Knight

Elkview

Do coal, gas rights trump property rights?

Editor:

All I hear about is the war on coal. What about the war against the rest of us by the coal and gas industries? The war on the property owners and farmers and taxpayers? The tourists and tourism? Why have the coal and gas industries got preferred rights over the rest of us?

We, the property owners and taxpayers and farmers, work hard manual labor to pay for our properties so the big-business politicians which we vote into office can take what is ours and give it and rights of way through it to the coal and gas industries. And the coal companies destroy our state's natural scenic beauty. Who will ever want to come to West Virginia to see a pile of rubble and ruins much less live here?

Who has declared war on whom? Why is it the coal miners and gas well workers and big business and big-business politicians have rights to their ways of life and the rest of us do not? What is the war against, and who is it that has preferred rights? Why don't we use our land to produce food to feed the world and produce fuel from farm by products of cattle waste and such as biodeisel? And we can give these business tycoons and politicians work clothes and put them to work for us doing some real work. What is common sense?

Leonard McIe

French Creek

Is fight about debt because of racism?

Editor:

I've been thinking about the current money squabbles in Washington and have come to a rather disturbing conclusion. Raising the debt ceiling has been done about 50 times in the last 50 or 60 years. All of a sudden there is a problem.

Of course, all the other presidents were white. This leads me to wonder if maybe, although it is a painful conclusion, the color of our current president's skin is an unspoken problem. There was never any big fight over money being spent before. Why is there a big fight now? Just wondering.

Curtis F. Lanham

Charleston

Oil company profits are crippling families

Editor:

Was the fiscal cliff really just a smokescreen to hide the fact that Big Oil is crippling American families and businesses? After all, if a big fuss is made over the fiscal cliff, nobody's paying attention to anything else.

In 2011, ExxonMobil's profit was $41 billion, Shell's was $31 billion, Chevron's was $27 billion and BP's was $26 billion. Despite generating $546 billion in profits between 2005 and 2010, these four companies reduced their work force by 11,200 employees. Is this what they call job creation?

The oil industry is set to receive $43.6 billion in tax subsidies in the next 10 years. ExxonMobil pays an effective tax rate of 17.6 percent, which is 3 percent less than the average American family pays. So just how do they keep getting all these handouts from the American taxpayer?

Big Oil lobbyists got them a $30 return for every dollar spent on lobbying in D.C. More than $1.6 million was spent on campaign contributions in 2011 from the top four oil companies. More than 90 percent of these contributions when to Republican candidates or GOP committees.

Why can't Congress do something for the people who voted them into office. Oh wait - what was I thinking? - they have been brought and paid for by Big Oil.

James Hackett

Red House