The second meeting of the Upshur County Libertarian Party drew five persons and a reporter at the Buckeye Diner here Thursday night, Sept. 24.

The party plans another meeting next Saturday, Oct. 10, at Catfish Village near Ore City.

Three of the persons who attended the Sept. 24 gathering weren't among the eight (not counting reporters) who attended the party's organizational meeting in August.

Vance Lowry, treasurer of the party in Upshur County and a former Republican candidate for county tax assessor-collector, told the Sept. 24 meeting that "I just can't bring myself to pull that Republican lever anymore" because "George (W.) Bush ruined the Republican brand, you know. He never vetoed a spending bill."

County Chairman Allen Weatherford,a onetime GOP candidate for county commissioner, argued that Americans continue switching control of the government "back and forth" between the Republicans and Democrats, and "we're not getting anywhere."

Lowry complained the two major parties don't stand for anything. Weatherford meantime charged that both tax citizens "to death" while telling them how to live their lives.

A man attending the meeting said he thought there were probably millions who are Libertarians, but don't know it. He said he had read the party's platform and found it stood for "limited, small government—(and) stick(ing) to the Constitution."

Lowry said the party has a "conflict" over abortion, and takes no position on regulating it, but he and Weatherford expressed their personal views against prohibiting the practice.

Lowry said outlawing abortion would "force it underground" and provide a "black market for it." Weatherford meantime maintained such a law wouldn't be enforceable without being "100 percent dictatorial."