WEST VIRGINIA RECORD

Dear Editor,

It is both surprising and disappointing that the editors of The West Virginia Record printed Vic Sprouse's Sept. 18 attack against former Supreme Court of Appeals Justice Margaret Workman.

Mr. Sprouse's rant may have met whatever level of quality he believes is acceptable for his online diary, but its lack of substance, professionalism and accuracy lends little credibility to your publication.

If Mr. Sprouse has some concern with Margaret Workman's principles, there are nearly two decades of judicial opinions written by her from which he could have made a case. I think many of us recognize that Mrs. Workman made solid decisions that were reasonable and fair, and that took into account the values of West Virginians. Perhaps Mr. Sprouse did, in fact, look over Mrs. Workman's opinions from the bench, and after having found only solid reasoning, he decided to proceed, in any event, with his tirade?

Even after Mrs. Workman wrote a letter to your paper to advise you of Mr. Sprouse's factual errors and mischaracterizations, your editors decided again to allow Mr. Sprouse to continue his ridiculous attacks on Mrs. Workman, in his "response to a response."

In his second "column," Mr. Sprouse attempted to dismiss a memory from Mrs. Workman's childhood in West Virginia as just "some silly story." As someone who was born and raised in West Virginia, I found Mr. Sprouse's arrogant and tactless "one more try" at attacking Mrs. Workman to be quite impressively worse than his first.

Mr. Sprouse was not born in West Virginia, he did not grow up here, and I regret that he hardly shares the family values and beliefs of most West Virginians. I would hope that, in the future, he would exercise greater maturity and respect before dismissing our lives as "silly," and I would certainly hope that the editors of the West Virginia Record would exercise greater discretion before printing his baseless and crude "arguments."

J. R. Bias
Madison