Howell praises Supreme Court decision upholding Second Amendment rights

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Gary Howell

Friday, June 27, 2008 304-790-9292

Howell praises Supreme Court decision upholding Second Amendment rights

KEYSER, WV — Gary Howell, candidate for the State Senate from the 14^th District, today praised the United States Supreme Court for overturning the Washington D.C. ban on handgun ownership and reaffirming the protections afforded by the Second Amendment.

“The decision by the Court is good news for all of us who care about the right to keep and bear arms,” said Howell. “In West Virginia, we especially value the protections of the Second Amendment, so this ruling is particularly good news in the Mountain State.”

Howell warned, though, that the narrow 5-4 decision signals that those who value the rights guaranteed by the Constitution must remain vigilant.

“It is obviously imperative that citizens continue to elect candidates to office who will protect all of our rights, from the president to the local level,” said Howell.

Howell is a longtime member of the NRA who owns and operates Howell Automotive in Keyser.

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Where Homeschooled Children Can Go From Here

The Mineral County Board of Education passed into legitimate law the action taken last school year to remove from the rolls of homeschoolers those that spend more than 50% of their time in traditional school classes. This action provoked a hostile reaction at the time because it had no basis in the law. Now some homeschooling parents will have to make the adjustment.

Increasing numbers of parents every year opt to remove their children from the traditional school environment. At one time schools reflected the values and standards of each individual community. Now they mirror the goals and dreams of far away bureaucrats and academics. Under their leadership, public schools veer crazily from social experiment to social engineering.

Consolidation has damaged the schools severely. In the past the schools were based in the community and so were the teachers. Teachers were neighbors to the students they taught and had stronger connections to the community. Now the ties that once bound teachers to students and parents have frayed considerably. No one knows each other. This makes it easier for teachers to not hold themselves to high standards. It also makes it easier for parents to mistrust and dislike the school system.

These and other factors drive students out of the traditional school environment. So where can their parents go to get them the best education possible? The answer lies in the free market. Homeschooling parents can band together, pool money, and pay a retiree or a graduate student to teach a subject (such as math) that parents might find difficult to explain. They can establish their own mini schools that reflect the values they want to teach.

The freedom to choose should always remain the basis of a democratic society. When parents create more options for their children, this invigorates their own children's education. Hopefully it will force the public system to respond more effectively to community concerns.

An Idea For Our Schools

Last weekend, the West Virginia Republican Party's convention heard a tremendous speech from the former Minister of Labour for New Zealand. He explained how aggressive reforms geared towards expanding the free market helped to galvanize almost every sector of a formerly depressed economy.

He explained that his office tried common sense solutions. They had twenty-four programs addressing skills and employment. Only four of them actually produced results. To the minister, the solution was clear, eliminate the twenty that did not work and use some of the savings to help the productive ones. The Anglican Church leadership levied intense criticism until it found that many thousands more people gained employment after the reforms.

Common sense also found its way into education. Reforms swept away various bureaucratic boards that governed the school system. Were they replaced by gubernatorial appointees? No. Instead parents of children actually in the school campaigned to serve on a Board of Trustees that had real power to use funds available. Of course teacher unions feared tremendously the idea that parents might actually run the school. However more money made it into the classroom to benefit the children and performance indicators skyrocketed.

Perhaps the best advice this gentleman gave was to take chances, even if one risked losing the next election. A political party must make a difference while in power, or what good does it do to hold power. The next time Republicans gain ascendency nationally, on the state, or the local level, we must remember our values and put them into place. In New Zealand the liberal party eventually regained power, but found that the free market ideas worked too well to remove.

The Governor Needs an Economics Class

Recently when pressed by a reporter on whether or not to put off an increase in the state gas tax until next year, Governor Manchin stated that state Republican leaders should ask their oil company "buddies" to hold off on their collection of profits.

This demonstrates a typical lack of understanding of the economic system. In times of shortage, prices must go up or we run out of a resource. Since the Democrats will not allow us to drill our own oil, we must rely upon uncertain supplies. Recently terrorists attacked oil facilities in Nigeria, causing a temporary drop in world supplies. This will not help prices at all. Since the Democrats will not ease regulatory burdens on refinery construction and will not help with the burden of fighting myriad frivolous lawsuits, we have not constructed a new refinery in thirty years. We must rely on refineries elsewhere built with inefficient (and more pollution producing) technology. We could be the largest producer of oil on the planet and control our own destiny. Liberals fear our nation enjoying such self-sufficiency and power.

Perhaps the governor does understand this, but wants to make nice with his new buddy Barrack Obama. He can't be seen showing up his new friend who has also shown blatant ignorance on this issue. If we had only listened to George W. Bush four years ago, we would not be in this mess now.

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Michael Steele's message to the state GOP convention, much like Shelley Moore Capito's in recent months, was refreshing. How often does one hear a politician saying that their party made mistakes? Steele, current chairman of GOPAC, talked at length about accountability and teh need to get back to basics. The ideals of the Contract With America, according to Steele, were forgotten by too many in Congress. That was why we lost. Certainly you cannot say that about every Republican congressman. Capito and many others never forgot the people.

Did we ever hear the Democrats saying such things while they were "out?" No, they simply assumed that the voters had been craftily tricked or that they lacked intelligence. The difference is that conservatives have more faith in the voters. If we lost their trust, we did something wrong and we need to earn it back. That is statesmanship fit for the greatest democratic republic in history, as opposed to the occasional arrogance demonstrated by the other side.

Right to Work Added to State GOP Platform

After many failed attempts over the years, the West Virginia Republican Party chose to add a Right to Work plank to its platform during last weekend's convention.

It did not pass without debate and it certainly will not have universal support from Republican candidates this fall. Political realities dictate that candidates in certain districts cannot support it without figuratively slitting their throat. Unions still hold tremendous influence in some areas. This usually hurts, but sometimes helps Republicans. How many union voters will support a pro-Kyoto candidate in this state?

Unions in the past provided a vital role when the decks of government and business were stacked against workers. We have come a long way from those bad old days. Government regulations provide many of the protections unions once demanded. Also the new highly skilled workers in many cases have skills that companies need.

Right to work will help union members because it creates competition. Right now workers can be coerced into joining the organization and paying dues. Under such a system, what incentive does a union have to respond effectively to its members? Right to work ensures that union members get the full benefit of membership because each worker can simply walk away or not join in the first place.

States that embraced right to work tend to have economies that have exploded past West Virginia in the past few decades. It is time that our state joined the ranks of the prosperous.

There Must Be Someone to Blame, Right?

For almost a week now many news watchers around the country have been riveted to the story from Gloucester, Massachusetts about seventeen teenage girls executing a pregnancy pact. They range in ages from fourteen to sixteen and all promised that they would have children at the same time and raise them together. One so desperately wanted to conceive that she utilized the services of a twenty-four year old homeless man.

You can predict the response. Some blame the difficult economic times, others blame the school system. On Fox News last night an analyst actually suggested that the sex education they received was not sufficient enough (seems to me that they figured it out just fine.) Of course the parents will all face the righteous indignation of society. The Roman Catholic Church and its stance against contraception has received blame as well. Catholic parents opposed the dispensation of contraception at school without parental consent (horror of horrors!)

This had nothing to do with the Catholic Church and their anti-birth control beliefs. These girls were TRYING to get pregnant. All the contraception in the world could not save them from themselves. Certainly the school sends a certain message when it has nurseries in it to help school age mothers, then again it is important that they do receive an education to have a chance of escaping a life on the welfare rolls.

This had everything to do with bad judgment and immaturity. Like it or not, the human body achieves physical maturity before mental maturity. Did these girls know what they were getting into? Probably not. That being said, they made the choice and now they must do the best they can to raise their children properly. It is not the fault of the school, the community, or the Roman Catholic Church. Their parents may bear some responsibility, but the fact is that they made the choice.

Life is about making choices and facing responsibilities. How can schools be blamed for what students elect to do on their spare time. Those that blame schools must have expectations that the schools should be empowered to know and direct a child's entire existence. That is a road no one wants to tread.

There's no one to blame. And it is not a tragedy unless one of these girls gets convinced to murder the life growing inside of them for the sake of convenience. They have a hard row to hoe, but that is the life they chose. Making them live up to their responsibilities is a better object lesson for other kids than assigning blame or giving the girls an easy way out.

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Congratulations to the West Virginia State Republican Party and its chair Dr. Doug McKinney for a fine convention last Saturday. We also thank those in the West Virginia State Republican Executive Committee and other valuable state party members who worked so hard to make it work so well. The speakers were outstanding and gave our candidates practical intellectual ammunition to use against the Ruling Party and their anti-business ideology.