I read in a recent issue of the The Marietta Times that Fran DeWine (wife of the current Ohio Attorney General) and LeAnn Johnson (wife of our current Ohio representative, Bill Johnson) were present at a meeting at the Washington County Republican Headquarters.

In this article Mrs. DeWine shared her opinion that the reason people are unemployed in Ohio is because they are not trained in technical fields, such as auto repair. I cannot speak for all areas of Ohio, however in Washington County and the rest of the Ohio Valley, the reason for the lack of jobs, that pay a living wage, is that many of the industrial companies have moved out of the area.

Let me name just some that have left Washington County in Ohio, and some that have left Wood County, W.Va.

Huntsman Chemical (Belpre), AMP Ohio (Ohio 7), American Electric Power Muskingum (Waterford).

Now a few in West Virginia.

Cabot in Belmont County, Ormet, G. E. Dupont, Fenton Art Glass, Ravenswood Aluminum (partly shut down), and John Mansville, Vienna.

These were places that employed people from both sides of the river and they paid a living wage.

I cannot speak for all these companies but I can speak for the one I retired from. When I left Huntsman Chemical the entire plant was operated by computers and the computer operators were running it.

In the past our representatives helped to bring jobs back into the areas they were elected from. That was part of the expectations you had of your representative. One great example of that is Public Debt in Parkersburg, where hundreds of people from both states have worked for years while earning good wages and good benefits. They also had good retirement and health benefits during their retirements. Our current representative (Bill Johnson) has an address on Fifth Street in Marietta, however I have never seen him in his local office on Front Street. I believe he is what was referred to as a “carpetbagger” in the days after the Civil War. He shopped around until he found a “red” area where he felt he could be elected and settled in Marietta. What do I want? He was elected from Washington County and I want him to get busy and do what he should for us instead of just being a big shot.

In the state of Ohio and in Washington County there is a terrible opioid, heroin, meth, and fentanyl problem. Two years ago, A.G. Mike Dewine came to Marietta on two different occasions to talk about this problem and what he could do to address it. I was hopeful because, like many other families in Washington County, a member of my family has an addiction problem so I attended both of these meetings. I left the meetings feeling that something good might happen. Not one thing happened … he came here, promised funds, got hopes up, and did nothing. Last year over 70,000 people died of drug overdose in the United States. That is almost two times the amount of humans killed in Viet Nam. What are people thinking?

As Ohio Attorney General, Mr. DeWine is the top cop in our state. He “could have and should have” (as he promised) did something to help with this problem. Mr. DeWine is now a candidate for the position of Ohio governor. He and his running mate are running against Richard Cordray and Betty Sutton. Cordray and Sutton have been to Marietta several times to listen to our concerns and to assure us that even though we do not have a “huge numbers of voters” here in the southeastern part of Ohio, they still care about our problems. Wouldn’t that be different?

Carol Gaughan

Marietta