By Publisher Shari Johnson
The link below is to the latest thoughts from Deirdre Purdy sent to me by a Ridgeview follower. While not mentioned by name, Mrs. Purdy does not appreciate the conservative viewpoint of the Ridgeview News (which is fine), and while I do take offense to multiple comments made in this article, I can assure you that I personally pay attention to the National News, and I can certainly branch out into that because it is a passion of mine as well.
But, I choose to focus mainly on local news because it has been ignored long enough. And that is what Mrs. Purdy wants all of us to do. Ignore it. Ignore the fact that this county that has been a Democrat majority for a century has been allowed to run without anyone questioning their questionable practices in our government offices and their ability to control what you know or what they don’t want you to know.
Mrs. Purdy has tried twice to get into a County appointed position, first the recent bipartisan Calhoun County School Board position, and second to the position of Civil Service Board that is to be appointed by the Calhoun County Commission. Another recent venture of hers is to “assist Calhoun County Schools in getting funding to add books to our children’s library.”
Let me just say, that causes my heart great angst to think that her theories of thought would be filling the minds of our children. I pray that the Calhoun County School Board looks very closely at what type of books she’s putting into the hands of our children and insures that they are not polluted with the woke ideologies. While our school is non-partisan, we cannot deceive ourselves to think that politics isn’t involved.
In a recent social media thread she informed Eric Lupardus that she didn’t apply for position of Civil Service Board. Yet neither Commissioners Craig Arthur nor Roger Propst knew anything about the appointment until the agenda appeared. Mrs. Purdy clearly states that she was approached by County Clerk Jeans Simers, who is the one who puts the agenda together, and felt she was totally within her rights to add things to the agenda without speaking to the Commission President, Craig Arthur. Why was it so important that Mrs. Simers asked Deirdre Purdy to be on the Civil Service Board?
Perhaps because we have a young Republican Sheriff who is doing his best to bring the Sheriff’s Department back into a state where it is ran with authority and in the best interest of the County. Our home confinements are now monitored, we have a newly appointed Chief Deputy, an excellent part time Deputy and a Deputy heading to the Police Academy for training.
If Mrs. Purdy would have been appointed to the Civil Service Board are we to believe her outspoken Democratic viewpoints would not have been in play when Sheriff Graham Knight hired future staff?
When Mrs. Purdy wrote, “Calhoun is a poor county in the state’s center in the western foothills of the Appalachians. We have such a small (and diminishing) population that we can easily be flipped from federal congressional district to district, wherever 6,176 people are needed to equalize numbers.” She’s correct. Which is why we need to know who we’re electing and why it is that the State of West Virginia is turning redder by the day.
You need to be aware of deceptive politicians in every party. Purdy mentioned Alex Mooney and Carol Miller. Alex Mooney made several trips to Calhoun County and was present or had representatives present at meetings that I attended. To my knowledge Congresswoman Carol Miller had never set foot (for political purposes) in Calhoun County until a recent photo op with Minnie Hamilton’s new building project. I won’t cut Republicans any more slack than I’m cutting Democrats. I want someone who is representing the people and desire to know what we stand for. And if you don’t care enough to come and visit, sorry, I won’t support or endorse you.
For the most part, my family has always been Democrat. Calhoun has always been a Democrat majority (until now). Calhoun is filled with good Democrats, Independents and Republican people. But I will not say the same about your elected Democratic leadership. There are some unbelievable antics going on in the Courthouse. For now, I’ll comment no further, but stand by for future messages.
Here is the link to the article by Deirdre Purdy.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/11/2216868/-MAGA-speaks-for-West-Virginia
