Panhandle Progressive

Why West Virginia is Right to Count Timely-Cast Absentee Ballots Received After Election Day

West Virginia is one of thirty-one states that permit absentee ballots mailed on or before election day to be counted if received within a reasonable time after election day. West Virginia’s choice reflects a balance of the need for finality in elections with the particular needs of our citizens. This grace period ensures that the elderly, the disabled, overseas military personnel and others have their votes counted despite the difficulties with mail service. Our state is right to count these ballots, not as a partisan matter but as a matter of fairness and democracy.
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Tending to Our Democracy

Democracy in America has developed slowly but surely since 1789. It is now the principal attribute of our political life. But recently, the fiction that the integrity of our elections is under threat has driven one major political party to adopt measures that weaken democracy. These measures narrow who can vote and how we can cast our vote. Our democracy needs tending and election integrity should not be the tail that wags the dog.
Read more
ICE-Has-Violated-America

ICE Has Violated America

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the hammer of the Trump Administration’s immigration policy. Public opinion is mixed on the policy, but not supportive of ICE methods. Whatever you think of the policy, ICE agents have behaved like the dreaded secret police of totalitarian regimes, and disgraced America in so many ways it is hard to count them.
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An Open Letter to Dante on the Great Man’s Place in Hell

In 14th Century Italy, Dante evaluated the sinners of his time. In his great poem The Inferno, Dante placed them in the appropriate circle of hell. The worst sinners were closer to Satan and their punishments fit their crimes. But the political and other crimes of our Great Man could not have been imagined then. This letter explains all to Dante and asks for his opinion on where the Great Man might be found for the rest of eternity.
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Land Ownership Rights Threatened by the Legislature

Land in America is generally owned in “fee simple,” meaning that the owner possesses every aspect of ownership and every possible use. But recent efforts around the country by extractive industries and their legislative allies are threatening one aspect of this historic type of land ownership. Industry wants to prevent land protection agreements by which the landowner voluntarily chooses not to develop his property. How a landowner chooses to use -- or not use -- his property should be up to him not the Legislature.
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Making Sense of the Religious Exemption Dispute in West Virginia

At least five lawsuits are underway in West Virginia challenging the state mandate requiring vaccination of schoolchildren, which allows no religious exemptions. Protection of religion from government intrusion is a fundamentally serious matter, not a culture war issue. But so is the protection of our children against serious and sometimes fatal diseases. The problem is that Governor Morrissey has tried to create religious exemptions where none exist in the law, and a judge in Raleigh County appears headed in the same direction. Protecting schoolchildren from disease should be at the top of our list, and the vaccine mandate has done an admirable job of that for 120 years. What is happening here?
Read more

Why West Virginia is Right to Count Timely-Cast Absentee Ballots Received After Election Day

West Virginia is one of thirty-one states that permit absentee ballots mailed on or before election day to be counted if received within a reasonable time after election day. West Virginia’s choice reflects a balance of the need for finality in elections with the particular needs of our citizens. This grace period ensures that the elderly, the disabled, overseas military personnel and others have their votes counted despite the difficulties with mail service. Our state is right to count these ballots, not as a partisan matter but as a matter of fairness and democracy.
Read more

Tending to Our Democracy

Democracy in America has developed slowly but surely since 1789. It is now the principal attribute of our political life. But recently, the fiction that the integrity of our elections is under threat has driven one major political party to adopt measures that weaken democracy. These measures narrow who can vote and how we can cast our vote. Our democracy needs tending and election integrity should not be the tail that wags the dog.
Read more
ICE-Has-Violated-America

ICE Has Violated America

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the hammer of the Trump Administration’s immigration policy. Public opinion is mixed on the policy, but not supportive of ICE methods. Whatever you think of the policy, ICE agents have behaved like the dreaded secret police of totalitarian regimes, and disgraced America in so many ways it is hard to count them.
Read more

An Open Letter to Dante on the Great Man’s Place in Hell

In 14th Century Italy, Dante evaluated the sinners of his time. In his great poem The Inferno, Dante placed them in the appropriate circle of hell. The worst sinners were closer to Satan and their punishments fit their crimes. But the political and other crimes of our Great Man could not have been imagined then. This letter explains all to Dante and asks for his opinion on where the Great Man might be found for the rest of eternity.
Read more

Land Ownership Rights Threatened by the Legislature

Land in America is generally owned in “fee simple,” meaning that the owner possesses every aspect of ownership and every possible use. But recent efforts around the country by extractive industries and their legislative allies are threatening one aspect of this historic type of land ownership. Industry wants to prevent land protection agreements by which the landowner voluntarily chooses not to develop his property. How a landowner chooses to use -- or not use -- his property should be up to him not the Legislature.
Read more

Making Sense of the Religious Exemption Dispute in West Virginia

At least five lawsuits are underway in West Virginia challenging the state mandate requiring vaccination of schoolchildren, which allows no religious exemptions. Protection of religion from government intrusion is a fundamentally serious matter, not a culture war issue. But so is the protection of our children against serious and sometimes fatal diseases. The problem is that Governor Morrissey has tried to create religious exemptions where none exist in the law, and a judge in Raleigh County appears headed in the same direction. Protecting schoolchildren from disease should be at the top of our list, and the vaccine mandate has done an admirable job of that for 120 years. What is happening here?
Read more