Editor, News-Register:

Radical isn’t a dirty word, depending on what you are radical for.

Are you the kind broadcasting a pathology of hate? The venom of war? Or striving for mutual respect and community care?

I’ll say this: only one is worth fighting for.

We aren’t angry enough defending those at the margins. Nor organized enough.

And guess what? It’s costing us our democracy. The only antidote: Grow a spine.

Radical means conviction. That you care unapologetically about an issue. Say it for all to hear.

Wear opinions like a badge of honor. The word comes from Latin radix–root.

To treat the root of a problem, not just the symptoms.

Here in West Virginia we have a radical origin story. Our genesis: we ditched Virginia to form a new anti-slavery state.

Yes, that’s us.

The Mountain State’s greatest advocates were radicals. In the 1900s during the Mine Wars, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones guided striking miners up Paint Creek in Kanawha County. They walked the creek because the roads — like the homes they were evicted from — belonged to the mines. Thousands of homeless miner families nearly froze in tent colonies. They were striking to be treated as humans. For equal pay. Radical stuff like that.

Radical people change paradigms. Get stuff done without delay. They fight. Sacrifice. Mother Jones (and every miner who followed) is a lodestar — of where we’ve been and where we should be headed.

Being radical means building better. Love is a verb.

Here’s the deal: People respect and trust consistency. Blunt convictions. And Republicans are crystal clear about theirs. Democrats: take note. Be plain-spoken and don’t bend.

Nobody cares about a good platform or positive values if those championing them don’t hold the course or make concessions.

Democrats: stop being invertebrates.

Where are our fired-up liberals? Would today’s liberals have stood beside John Brown during his raid at Harper’s Ferry? Loudly championed freeing slaves? Leftists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? They would’ve been front and center. What democracy deserves and requires. Out with milquetoast leaders. Meek, wishy-washy compromisers torpedo the Democratic party.

Like socialists and other radicals, I believe in: social security, public education, public roads and libraries, bridges, police and fire departments, public and national parks. Child labor laws. Maximum hourly work regulations. (The military is also a socialist concept, by the way.) Of course, this only scratches the surfaces of what we need (like universal healthcare) and deserve to have.

So if radical means having a position and being unafraid to say it? Then be radical. Be radical for something positive: kids having hot cereal for breakfast and a free sandwich for lunch. Universal childcare, like New Mexico rolled out November 1st. More colleges like Marshall in Huntington, which started offering free tuition for low income students.

Liberals keep sabotaging the party. Establishment Democrats stall progress. For instance, they only begrudgingly supported New York’s new grassroots, visionary mayor, Zohran Mamdani. They certainly did not make it easy for him. And his brand of populist courage is what we need. We need more fight. Less cowering.

In a 1983 speech to the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, former publisher of The Charleston Gazette, W.E. “Ned”Chilton III called for “sustained outrage.” For us to care fiercely for society. Halt. Listen. Revisit those words.

Fight for what matters: Community. Diversity. Reciprocity. Love.

Get more radical.

Paula Kaufman

Elkins