With all there is to fix, candidates pick on a child

May 9—Thumbs down to any and all political candidates in West Virginia — especially those running for governor — who have gone out of their way to push anti-transgender politics because they believe there are political points to be scored.

A federal appeals court ruled on April 16 that the state cannot enforce its anti-transgender sports ban against a 13-year-old girl, dealing a blow to one of nearly two dozen such laws enacted by GOP-led states in recent years.

For those running for the highest public office in the state you'd think it is the central policy issue around which all else revolves, the one thing that means the most to an overwhelming number of people in this fine state.

But this is a state with obvious manifestations of abject poverty around every corner.

This is a state where in one county — Raleigh — 93 percent of all students are rated as "needy."

This is a state where higher grocery prices and ongoing inflation are sending more seniors on fixed incomes, young families and even college students to food banks and food pantries so they can find something to eat.

This is a state that ranks near the bottom of all states in educational achievement and a college "going to" rate.

This is a state that has a workforce participation rate that trails all others except "Thank God for Mississippi."

This is a state that has over 6,000 children in its systemically failing foster care system.

This is a state where university administrators at West Virginia University had to cut over $45 million from its budget as legislators only watched from afar.

This is a state that has more pressing concerns than whether some 13-year-old transgender girl is going to take a scholarship away from another kid.

If any one of those gubernatorial candidates had the leadership qualities this state needs, he would stand up and advise our youth that there are other ways to earn a scholarship — like picking up and reading a book on a regular basis.

Don't hold your breath.

----Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) should punish Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and strip her of committee assignments, exiling her to the back bench of the Republican caucus for her failed attempt to take the gavel out of his hand.

On Wednesday of this week, Greene moved to force a vote on ousting Johnson, a move that was doomed amid opposition from Democrats and conservative Republicans.

Not that we approve of Johnson's politics, his résumé or much of anything else about the holier-than-thou religious conservative, but there is much to attend to in Congress and, well, let's get on with it. These insipid political parlor games do nothing for the good of the people or the country but manage — as intended — to grab the fawning attention from an obliging media.

After Greene triggered the vote on her motion to vacate the speaker from his office, labeling Johnson's leadership as "pathetic, weak and unacceptable," the House voted 359-43 to keep Johnson in his job.

We hope Greene's failed little temper tantrum quiets the outsized voices on the extreme right of the House, including Rep. Alex Mooney, who told us everything we need to know about his judgment by siding with the Looney Tunes representative from Georgia.

Thumbs down, Reps. Mooney and Greene.

By J. Damon Cain, editor of The Register-Herald

----Thumbs up to naming a Mercer County bridge in honor of George M. Hall, who risked his life 162 years ago to save courthouse records detailing much of the region's history.

A bridge on Willowbrook Road has signs which let motorists know that it is now the George M. Hall Memorial Bridge.

Hall was a slave at the time of his courageous act.

He saved the Mercer County Courthouse's records on May 1, 1862, when much of Princeton was burned during the Civil War.

In 1843, Hall was born into slavery in Dublin, Va.

He was around 19 years old when he entered the burning courthouse and saved the records in the county clerk's office, according to a resolution passed in June 2018 by the Mercer County Commission.

----Thumbs up to West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine students who volunteered during the second annual National D.O. Day of Service, a project of the American Association of College of Osteopathic Medicine's Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents.

The event gives aspiring osteopathic physicians a chance to benefit local organizations and increase public awareness of osteopathic medicine.

By Mary Catherine Brooks

of The Wyoming County Report

for The Register-Herald