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Animal cruelty on display

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: Weirton has several colonies of community cats — cats that live outdoors, have been neutered or spayed and are cared for by volunteers or store employees. Some of these colonies have been in the same places for a decade or more. Recently, during the cold snaps, someone who apparently likes to cause suffering to animals collected all of the bins and boxes that the cats live in by Gabe’s and the downtown car wash and threw them away, even though those bins and boxes were not their property. Worse yet, this person left the cats to die in freezing weather. One cat ...

Anger without answers

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: Barry Bardone is at it again, offering another letter built on dishonest claims and exaggerated rhetoric rather than facts or good-faith argument (“Time to stop the insanity,” Feb. 1.) Bardone’s letter follows a familiar formula: Substitute outrage for evidence, smear an entire political party and declare victory. It reads less like a serious contribution to public debate and more like a greatest-hits compilation of talk-radio grievances, strung together without sourcing, context or concern for accuracy. Passion is not a substitute for proof. Contrary to his ...

Guest column/Life on the region’s frontier could often be difficult

Local Columns

It’s going to snow — a lot … Our ancestors did not have the advantage of modern weather warning systems to prepare for things like bitter, raw, sub-zero temperatures, blizzards and ice storms. The Upper Ohio Valley was settled during some of the coldest winters of the Little Ice Age. The wintry weather that could be remembered might have been blended from the stories told in front of a hearth with a roaring fire and a black bake kettle and a bean pot, from a forebear of my mother’s side of the family. It was a time when youngsters were put to sleep in their feather beds to ...

If you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them

Local Columns

There are some days when the world feels unbearably heavy, days when the headlines seem to blur together and the noise of everyday life makes it hard to hear anything at all. And then, in those rare, quiet moments, the ones where we finally sit still long enough to feel something … a single sentence can change everything — change our perspective on how we see the world. For me, it was the Dalai Lama’s gentle reminder, “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” Such simple words, and such a simple ...

Guest column/Beware of naive educators who promote socialism

Local Columns

First of all, you must understand that the vast majority of educators at all levels do not have a clue as to what it is like working in the real world. Once they acquire tenure, K-12 teachers and higher education professionals have a job for life unless they do something really stupid. In the real world of business, one can be fired at a moment’s notice. I’m reminded of a teaching colleague (yes, I was an educator) who took a year’s leave-of-absence. He told us, “Now I’m going out to work in the real world.” It was sort of a put down and quite condescending to the rest ...

West program lets memory live

Editorials

Lee West is remembered as well-liked 15-year-old who had a bright future ahead of him, a young man who was willing to share his enthusiasm for life and all of its potential with everyone in the community. An honors student and a multi-sport athlete at Steubenville High School, his life was cut short in a fatal house fire on Jan. 31, 2012. West carried with him a fondness for everyone who helped him, and that spirit has been carried forward by his mother, Cookie West, who has joined with family members and friends to hold the Lee Alexander West Memorial and Awards Service. This ...