Courtesy of Wade Gilley
Wade Gilley’s great grandparents pictured in 1927 (or so) with their children in Hilltown, Carroll County.

By Wade Gilley

Being a native Virginian with strong roots in Southwest Virginia, I read Jim Glanville’s Roanoke Times article a few months ago with great interest (“Western Virginia shaped America,” Sept. 13, 2012 commentary). He is right in saying that the western wedge of Virginia was a place that people traveled through to settle the nation, but many stopped and planted roots.

Looking back over the decades, I find Southwest Virginia to be a very dynamic place. For example, I grew up near Fries, which was founded at the turn of the 19th century by Col. Francis Fries, an American innovator who also founded Wachovia Bank and another planned city — Mayodan, N.C. He also built a railroad to connect Mayodan with Roanoke, the Roanoke and Southern Railway, which became the Norfolk and Western rail system in 1892.

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Gilley, a graduate of Virginia Tech, served as Virginia’s secretary of education under Gov. John Dalton and is the author of more than 20 books.

By ESTHER J. CEPEDA

I love Mexico Barbie’s Chihuahua.

There, I’ve said it. Let the Latino community slam me for lacking cultural sensitivity if it will, but I’m sticking to my pistolas on this one.

The furor over Mexico Barbie came to a head last week when a $30 doll that had been released in June 2012 became the subject of news stories and chatter on social media networks for perpetuating offensive stereotypes.

Accusations of cultural insensitivity included outrage because Mexico Barbie comes with a passport and therefore implies that the inanimate piece of plastic is not living in the United States illegally. Journalist Laura Martinez was widely quoted: “Play with your Barbie Mexicana and don’t even think of calling her indocumentada.”

Chuckle-worthy, yes, but there are two significant issues at play here:

First is that when Hispanics freak out over something as innocuous as a toy that was treated with every bit the same amount of cultural sensitivity as the rest of the dolls in a collection — all of Mattel’s “Dolls of the World” sport traditional costumes, tote an animal or other symbol of their country, and come with stickers and a passport — we look irrational and humorless.

The second is that being seen as overly sensitive is the least of our problems — Latinos in the United States have deadly serious issues with our image.

According to a spring 2012 online survey for the Latino Donor Collaborative, a Hispanic image advocacy organization, the research and communications firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies found that most non-Latino Americans have highly skewed perceptions of U.S. Hispanics.

Three-quarters of the non-Latinos surveyed overestimated the proportion of the Hispanic population who reside here illegally. A third believed that over half of all Latinos are in the U.S. illegally (the real percentage is about 18, according to the Pew Hispanic Center). More than 80 percent of non-Latino respondents associated Latinos with not having learned to speak English and nearly 80 percent associated Hispanics with crime and gang violence.

Traditional offline research has found much the same. Last fall the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the polling firm Latino Decisions found that more than 30 percent of non-Hispanics believe a majority of Hispanics are here illegally.

This same study found that 51 percent of non-Latinos think “welfare recipient” describes Latinos “very” or “somewhat” well, 50 percent think of Hispanics as “less educated” and 44 percent believe Hispanics “refuse to learn English.” (According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 65 percent of all U.S. Hispanics age 5 and older either speak only English at home or speak English very well.)

Living under those circumstances, it’s difficult not to be annoyed at those who would stir outrage over a doll. It’s not a big deal that a company is hoping to make profits by selling impressionable young children on the idea that Mexicans have both brightly colored clothing and official passports that entitle them to travel the world freely.

Can Hispanics in the U.S. just please focus on the truly important issues before us — our reputations, low education-attainment levels and poor health for starters? Must we waste time worrying about the accessories of a doll representing another country?

And while we’re at it, let’s get over ourselves a little. Could it really be such an affront to the dignity of Mexicanos all over the world to imply that the Chihuahua is their country’s national dog?

Seriously: Mexicans love Chihuahuas. I didn’t say all Mexicans, but more of them than any other ethnic group I can think of. I’ve had countless in my family and the two sitting on my couch were highly offended to hear that this petty Mexican Barbie kerfuffle has brought into question the place of honor that the proud Chihuahua holds in the hearts of the Mexican people.

And I hate to be the one to break it to all the evolved, pan-American “New Generation Latinos” out there, but millions of other Hispanics whose families hail from all over Latin America love Chihuahuas, too.

Mexicans tend to also love tacos and mariachi music. Such a broad generalization may be highly offensive to some, but the reality of life is that while no rule of thumb accounts for all instances, some stereotypes are true. We can either embrace them and share our affinities with others or be the humorless clod who won’t be invited on the next Chipotle lunch run.

Cepeda is a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.

By R. McNeil Foster

It was Mother’s Day 2009 when I witnessed the abuse of an elderly woman at a local restaurant. She looked to be in her late 80s or early 90s and needed help walking. Her daughter, son-in-law and their three teenaged children were taking her out for the annual guilt-relieving dinner.

The old lady started a conversation with one young grandson. When she called him by the wrong name, her daughter became highly agitated and began verbally chastising her mother for not remembering the boy’s right name. The woman was making quite a public scene and obviously scaring the old lady.

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Foster lives in Blue Ridge.

By Rhonda Seltz

I was quite shocked when I discovered that 138 Republicans, including Reps. Morgan Griffith and Bob Goodlatte, did not vote to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. They have cited concerns with the stipulation that allows Native American tribal government to prosecute non-tribal members accused of violence against native women.

I am still perplexed by that explanation, as this new provision actually ensures that anyone who sexually assaults a Native American woman on reservation land is prosecuted. If an American commits a crime in another country, he is prosecuted by that country’s government. Tribal government should have the same option, especially given the fact that rates of violence against Native American women are much higher than those of non-native women.

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Seltz is a community activist who lives in Riner.

by Keisha Graziadei

“[Should] Christians, if they are voters or members of parliament, try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in … laws? … My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognize that the majority of people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives.” — C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity”

By function of democracy, many Christians (namely social conservatives) are left in an undesirable position regarding the legalization of gay marriage in the U.S. Either we vote for the thing that requires other people to be unfairly held to a moral standard they don’t believe in, or we must vote for the thing that seems vehemently contrary to what we believe God teaches. How are we supposed to choose and still hold true to our faith?

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Graziadei lives in Roanoke, works in the city’s communications department and is a member of Genesis Community Church.

Wikimedia Commons

Esther Cepeda

Let’s talk about the last thing in the world the mother of a 13-year-old boy ever wants to think about: her young son’s sex life.

If you’re lucky, your 13-year-old doesn’t have a sex life yet. And if you’re smart, you’ve taken that opportunity to get him immunized for the human papilloma virus.

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Cepeda is a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.

Does Virginia’s sex offender registry need reform?

Don’t believe every scary statistic

By Mary Devoy

Inflammatory propaganda — like repeatedly using the word “predator” along with skewed statistics, usually by those seeking re-election, higher office, organizational donations and grants or securing criminal justice jobs — is, sadly, the norm.

Last week, this status quo was perpetuated in the opposing viewpoint, and instead of proposing solutions, clarification is required.

A patently false claim was made of 43 percent recidivism for registered sex offenders. This demonstrates either ignorance or a blatant attempt to obfuscate fact.

Forty-three percent is the national overall recidivism rate of all offenders for various offenses, including administrative and technical probation violations — possibly the inability to retain employment or to pay court fines or child support. It could be drug-, alcohol- or even traffic-related, but is not specific to registered offenders or sexual offenses.

Facts:

n Virginia’s recidivism rate for all convicts within three years of release is 28.3 percent; a fraction would be registered sex offenders, and then another fraction of that would be for a new sexual offense.

n The national recidivism rate for all registered sex offenders committing a new sexual offense within three years is 2.5 to 5.3 percent, second lowest of all crimes.

n Ninety percent of sexual assaults are perpetrated by a family member or acquaintance, neither by a stranger nor someone on the registry.

But these facts aren’t scary enough; they don’t support a dire need for a public list of shame, a lifetime of restrictions and the millions of dollars spent to maintain and inflate it annually.

A popular phrase among lawmakers is “the devil is in the details.” This certainly applies to last week’s counterpoint statement.

An artistically arranged omission of fact or twist of percentages to intentionally force a point is otherwise a lie. Do your homework, question lawmakers, confirm their numbers. This doesn’t make you soft on crime; it’s called social — maybe even moral — responsibility.

Bureau of Justice Services

http://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=17

http://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=270

http://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1582

PewCenter

http://www.pewstates.org/research/reports/state-of-recidivism-85899377338?p=1

http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/sentencing_and_corrections/State_Recidivism_Revolving_Door_America_Prisons%20.pdf

VA DOC Research and Forecast Unit: Recidivism at a Glance Brochure July 2012:

http://www.vadoc.state.va.us/about/facts/research/recidivism/recidivism-at-a-glance-2007-2011.pdf

DeVoy, of Mechanicsville, has been a volunteer advocate for data-driven reform of Virginia’s sex offender registry and laws since 2008.

Sex crimes are among the most heinous

By Bill Stanley

Mary Devoy would have us believe that the sex offender registry doesn’t work because the list of offenders consists of primarily 18-year-olds who had consensual relations with their 16-year-old girlfriends; this is simply not the case, and is the rare exception, not the rule.

The offenses for which a person is required to register are serious, and such requirement is triggered only when the sex offender is convicted beyond a reasonable doubt after trial by a judge or jury. Rape, abduction with the intent to defile, forcible sodomy, object sexual penetration, aggravated sexual battery, taking indecent liberties with a minor when in a supervisory or custodial relationship, possession, production or distribution of child pornography — these are not lower-tier crimes; rather, they are some of the most heinous crimes that can be committed against another human being.

The registry reasonably informs the police and public of where those who chose to hurt others in this sexually deviant way are located when they are returned to our communities. Here, a balance must be struck between keeping our communities safe, with the hope that offenders become successful members of society after they have paid their debt.

For Devoy to say that Virginia’s registry has “dehumanized a whole class of society,” turning sex offenders into “public spectacles, monsters” completely misses the point. For it is not the registry that creates the offenders’ predicament, it’s the horrendous sex crime that they committed that makes it that way.

The old adage “don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time” rings true here as well — if you don’t want to be on a public registry of sex offenders here in the commonwealth of Virginia, don’t commit a sex offense crime against another human being.

Stanley, of Franklin County, is state senator for the 20th District and Republican majority whip. He has sponsored legislation in the General Assembly to ensure Virginia’s compliance with the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

Social conservatives have made it hard for same-sex couples to gain recognition in Virginia, but change will come.

In 2006, foes of same-sex marriage campaigned successfully for Virginia’s marriage amendment as if the dogs of hell were snarling at the heels of a social institution, ready to bring it down.

Nothing of the kind was true, of course. Even those social conservatives who view marriages between gay men or lesbians as a threat, somehow, to heterosexual marriage had no reason to worry that change was imminent in the Old Dominion.

Just two years earlier, state lawmakers had passed a law that bans not just same-sex marriage and civil unions in this state, but recognition of those performed in states where they are legal. A year later, legislators started the two-year process to put a state constitutional amendment before Virginia voters. It passed by a wide margin, 57 percent to 43.

That success seemed to be designed to build a legal fortification against the eventual, inevitable recognition that same-sex couples deserve the same rights and should bear the same responsibilities as heterosexual couples. Opponents had rushed to make it as difficult as possible for change to come to Virginia.

Foes of marriage equality proved to be right in just one way: The popular will is shifting rapidly.

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By James Cosby

The Boy Scouts of America sent a survey to former Scouts and in particular to Eagle Scouts, of which I am thankful and proud to be one, albeit a 74-year-old one.

As I understand the current proposal, it is to permit gay boys to be Scouts and homosexual men and women to be Scout leaders in troops that choose to permit them, while permitting sponsoring organizations (churches, mostly) to deny such admission into their own sponsored troops on religious or moral grounds.

The gay revolution is the most significant swing in American opinion about social mores I have experienced since the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Cosby is a retired federal trial attorney living in Roanoke.

89Hoo shares the experiences of a friend who was placed on the sex offender registry.

Any reform to the sex offender registry process has to start here. A friend of mine was placed on the registry due to a false accusation by his soon-to-be-ex-wife, a petulant and false accusation borne out of her attempt to gain an upper hand in the divorce proceedings. The judge dismissed the charge without prejudice, by my friend’s name is STILL on the registry, on the basis of an accusation (NOT a conviction, or even an indictment); the process of getting the record changed has been a real ordeal for him (this was several years ago).

The knee-jerk – I’ll concede well-meaning – reaction of accepting the mere accusation without benefit of proof denies the damaged party (the falsely accused) due process and is counter to American jurisprudence.

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