So often I think of the young Confederate waiting his turn to enter that boiling cauldron of death at 2nd Manassas who was heard to cry at a frightened rabbit heading for the rear, “Go for it fuzzy tail, if it wasn’t for my character I’d be going with you!” Many times we have heard people say, or at least we did in older times, “I’m doing this just for the principle of the thing.” Principle and character are inter-related when character guides the principle.

In the political realm we hear people say, “Oh, it’s against my principles to vote for a Democrat or conversely a Republican.” Those principles I question! If that rationale is used by the voters of West Virginia in the fall election, it calls into question the relationship between character and principle. I submit that if we as voters add just one more member to the majority party now in power, regardless of their campaign appeal, we will be tightening the noose of tyranny more snugly around our necks.

Please, in this election, place character above the type of principle described above.

Denver McMullen

Middlebourne