Published: January 24, 2008 08:46 pm         

Our Readers Speak - Friday, Jan. 25, 2008

Motorist forever grateful to store employees



I recently, stupidly, ran out of gas. Fortunately, I was in front of an Exxon station. Unfortunately, I was on the opposite side of the road and could not get across the traffic by the time my car had stalled.

I was so surprised when I walked into the Pit Row Exxon Station in Daniels to find that the two ladies working had already begun to figure out how they could help me. The station did not carry gas cans, but they found me a plastic jug from the back. They found a funnel and allowed me to fill the jug and put the gas in my car before I paid. Only because I was a nervous wreck and they could tell I didn’t realize I had my purse on my shoulder. Of course, after I managed to get enough gas in the car to cross the street I filled up and paid for all the gas.

I know that it was irresponsible of me to have run out of gas, but I hope that everyone realizes how special and kind those two ladies are. Not once did they laugh at me and before I entered the store to ask for help they had begun to devise a plan to help me. In today’s world we don’t see that kind of human compassion every day.

I know that it isn’t a big deal to run out of gas and my life wasn’t in danger, but it feels good to know that there are people who will jump in to help another no matter what the circumstance is.

Please publish this letter so that those two wonderful ladies know how much I appreciated their help and what wonderful people they are. I would forever be grateful. Thank you.



Kimberly Leeber

Daniels



If coal is so good, why is W.Va. still poor?



Would Congressman Rahall take us on tour to show us the infrastructure from mountaintop removal strip mining sites he is promoting? Then show us every inch of every site of this so-called reclamation that the industry and their minions claim is “better than it was before,” better than God created.

According to permit records, the regulations requiring this infrastructure have mostly been ignored since the surface mining laws that Rahall praised were passed. Rahall recently heard testimony in Congress that these laws are not being enforced, the citizens and their life support systems in extraction areas are suffering. Most sane people realize that water is more important than coal.

At the current rate of development, coal companies have blasted enough mountains in southern West Virginia to last 4,000 years. Less than 5 percent of destroyed mountains have any development at all. If Rahall likes flat land so much he should move to Kansas, because God made West Virginia the Mountain State.

Rahall says he is for any domestic produced energy but he has consistently blocked renewable energy development and green jobs in this state and country, while supporting the destruction of mountains, forests and allowing the poisoning of our streams and our citizens.

Renewable energy can bring an economic boom for everyone. We need green jobs from solar and wind factories for our children here in West Virginia. If coal is so good for our economy, why is the coal producing counties the poorest counties in West Virginia, which is the poorest state in the nation? I’ve looked for the prosperity of coal for 30 years and I can’t find it.

The technology to clean up coal’s filth has many unanswered safety and reality questions and has a huge price tag for taxpayers.

Why don’t the coal industry and Rahall invest their own money in the liquid coal scam, instead of giving our tax dollars away to corporate welfare for rich coal barons?

Coal is a finite resource and when it’s soon gone, it’s gone. The wind and sun are forever.



Sylvia Bradford

Naoma