Dear Mr. Reed:

This morning, needing something to read at breakfast, I opened the Voice randomly to page 4, and started reading the last two paragraphs. (This is about Orwell’s proles who take gin, compared to many in today’s world who take the offerings of business.)

I wanted to stand, to cheer, to shout the paragraph aloud. It states succinctly, in plain English, what it’s taken me years to slowly realize.

Are you the writer? I want to quote this editorial in my e-mail, on a local Sierra Club list, and in my biology class. I want to congratulate this person! (It would be of interest to know in what decade of life this person is, too.)

How many subscribers does the Voice have? I sure would like to think a lot of people will read this!

Sally Gagne May 29, 2000, Hedgesville, WV & Silver Spring, MD (from e-mail)

Mr. Reed:

I was a reporter in Huntington and Wheeling, and an editor at Weirton Steel, so I’m a bit of a stickler on proper grammar. Please don’t be offended when I point out that in your editorial in the May issue you made a common mistake regarding the word "media." The word is plural. The singular is medium.

That aside, it was an excellent editorial. The media are pretty much controlled by the corporations, which control most of the rest of society, including Congress. In a capitalist system, the corporations have the money, and thus the controlling power. People like you and I, and groups like the Highlands Conservancy, have to do what we can do to counter that corporate abuse. It is not easy.

The "Voice" is a fine publication and the Conservancy is a necessary and effective organ- ization. If we hadn’t sued regarding mountaintop removal, the rape would have continued un- checked. Now we have to hope that Judge Haden will be upheld.

Best wishes for the continued success of the "Voice" and of the Conservancy’s essential work.

Cordially,

Bob Rine, May 27, 2000, Weirton  

(From an e-mail message to the WVHC web site)

The Highland’s coverage of the Blackwater Canyon has been commendable. The booklet about the canyon was very informative and taught me a few things I didn’t know. I am very disappointed, however, that in the article "Roadway Stopped!" the reporter misspelled Pase, as in Pase Point. It is not named on maps. Can the writer spell the Latin name of the Cheat Mountain Salamander? Probably so. I find this error, quite frankly, an insult to my family’s heritage and history on the mountaintop. Jacob Christian Pase was the first settler in Thomas. That is a fact of which I am very proud. Without him, I would have never been blessed with the life of the Land of Canaan. Memorial Day just passed – I think of the three Pase boys that died in WWII before their twenty-first birthdays. Their lives were just like every fallen American soldier. Lincoln’s "last full measure" comes to mind. Again, I am very proud that my kin fought and died for America, their home state and hometown. The first death in the early coal mines of Thomas was also a Pase. Insignificant events in the whole world, but the Pase name is represented in the Blackwater Canyon. I love the Blackwater Canyon, Blackwater River and Blackwater State Park. There my heart is at peace. The river and the woods have fed me at the table and in the soul. The wilds have fed me much more than I can hope to convey to my children. They, too, know the history of their name. They can also spell it. In your further coverage of the Canyon, please use Pase in any reference to the outcropping that bears my family name. I think the ones who came before me are entitled to that respect.

Gary B. Pase May 31, 2000