Dear Editor:
 This past weekend, I had the opportunity to visit your lovely county – my family was meeting up for a much anticipated ski trip.  My husband and I flew into Charleston, rented a car, and began our drive to the Elk River Inn in Slaty Fork.  Our route was determined by my iPhone, and we were sent down the Williams River Road and onto the Scenic Highway.  Unfortunately, we were unaware that the roads in the National Forest were closed for the winter because they weren’t plowed.  Not surprisingly, our car got stuck in the snow on Forest Road 86, and my husband ended up walking for help while I panicked because I had no cell service and no satellite service for the car’s emergency system.  I walked out myself after 16 hours had passed without any help responding. 
My husband found help at the home of one of your citizens after about 16 hours of hiking, and I was picked up by a search party about four hours after that.  In total, we were missing for around 20 hours. 
 I wanted the opportunity to say thank you to all of the people who came to our aid this past weekend.  Thank you to the State Troopers who coordinated efforts with the Forest Service to search for us.  Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Mullens for inviting my husband in to use your phone after a 16 hour hike in the snow.  Thank you to Sean and Ashley and Tawny and her family for volunteering to look for a complete stranger and for picking me up on the side of the highway.  Thank you to everyone at the Quick Stop in Edray for letting us set up camp with you for hours while we waited for our car to be towed.  Thank you to Gil and Mary at the Elk River Inn for letting our families monopolize your phone lines for two days straight.  And, thank you to Gil at Gil’s Towing for taking the bulk of your Saturday to drag our car out of the Forest.  We were strangers to every person that helped us, and yet not one person hesitated to do everything they could to make sure we were safe.  I have to say, even though I was absolutely terrified for the day we were missing, my trip to West Virginia this past weekend restored my sometimes flagging faith in humanity. 
I prayed for God to send me help, and he sent me quite an army!  I so appreciate each and every person who came to our aid, and I’m blessed and proud to have met each of you.
 Thank you so much for the opportunity to express my appreciation on behalf of myself and my family.  We are home safely now, but I’m sure it won’t be our last trip. I look forward to being back next winter with my family.  This time we’ll make sure to stick to major roads where the snowplow is a regular sight!
Sincerely,
Heather S. Courtney
Shreveport, Louisiana

Dear Editor:
I liked the article, “Are you willing?” in last week’s paper concerning drug recovery plans.
The issue is not “do we have a drug problem.” It is apathy. At least 95 percent of the hundreds of people I have talked to in our county about drug abuse said “you can’t do anything about the drug problem. You can’t change it. You just as well quit trying.”
Then they begin to find fault with the groups that are trying to do something.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
We all make mistakes because we are human.
If we fight all the time with each other, we will fail. If we stand together, with God’s help, we can succeed.
I am challenging us to go to any lengths to defeat the scourge drugs are having on all of us. Embrace the same passion in fighting against drug abuse as we have in other issues.
People can suffer from environmental issues – people are suffering from drug abuse.
People can die from water pollution – people are dying from drug abuse.
If a plan doesn’t work – change the plan, but don’t give up.
We should not look on each other as enemies if we do not agree on every issue.
We have people who have lost loved ones – wives, husbands, parents, children and friends – to the ravages of drug abuse.
Preserving history is great, but “let’s make history” that we can be proud of, and not be recorded as quitters.
If we work together we can build a stronghold against drug abuse.
We need to support the people who are in the battle for salvaging lives. Then make ourselves available to help however we can.
I am proud of the ladies of “Journey for New Hope” and all the others who have risen above the crowd and refuse to be controlled by drugs.
My desire is to build a fire down deep in your soul, so you can’t “do nothing” and you can’t stand still. You must move.
“Is there not a cause?”
Sincerely
Lloyd Arbogast
Buckeye

Open letter to Senator Joe Manchin
Mr. Manchin,
You are dead wrong about West Virginians’ notion of our Second Amendment. It ain’t just about huntin’!
It is about defense of family, home, business, schools and country against any and all aggressors - from foreign terrorists to rabid raccoons to home-grown nuts to tyrannical government-gone-wrong (which happens, now and again, in the history of our fallen race). And military-style weapons are exactly what citizens need unfettered (uniinfringed) access to, if our individual and collective ability to defend what we love is to be credible.
If you truly care about the safety of our children, and if you truly understand the Constitution you swore to uphold, you will sponsor and support a Senate version of HR 35 , to allow school personnel to exercise their Second Amendment rights in our schools, so that our children will not be condemned to victimhood-by-law in defense-free killing zones.