August 8, 2008
A recipe for a better, greener society
Adam Cohen
Cohen has lived in the region since 1984, is a sculptor, LEED accredited professional and is co-owner of Structures Design Build.
I was shaken out of a 15-year sleep when my 14-year-old asked how long people had been talking about global climate change. I answered that the '70s was the start of the public debate. He then asked a real eye-opener, "You mean people have been talking for 40 years without making any real changes?"
Read more.
Read Friday's letters here.
August 7, 2008
Thoughts on life's dramas
John Long
Long, a Roanoke Times columnist, is director of the Salem Museum and teaches history at Roanoke College.
My meandering mind: some random observations about life I've made recently: I was cutting bushes the other day and it occurred to me that I had not seen a praying mantis in ages. I thought of other animals I used to delight in observing as a kid but seldom see anymore -- colorful garden spiders, box turtles, bats, monarch butterflies, blacksnakes, woodpeckers, etc. Where had they all gone? Then it occurred to me -- they're still here, I'm just too busy to pay attention to fauna anymore. I sighed and went back to trimming flora.
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For zero risk, high energy prices
Winston Porter
Porter, an environmental consultant in Leesburg, is a former assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
If the effort in Congress to deny oil companies access to new areas for offshore drilling is a bad idea -- and it is -- then the consequences of such a political move are even worse: less oil, more volatility in gasoline prices and reduced funding for highway repairs and maintenance. The cost of congressional inaction would fall on motorists -- and ultimately on anyone who suffers from high energy prices.
Read more.
Who else for the team?
Donald Nuechterlein
Nuechterlein, of the Charlottesville area, teaches American foreign policy at the University of Virginia. His most recent book is "Defiant Superpower: The New American Hegemony."
Two issues will dominate the presidential election in November: energy costs and the lagging U.S. economy, and the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Opinion polls show that John McCain is stronger on foreign policy than Barack Obama, but Obama leads McCain on dealing with the economy.
Read more.
Read Thursday's letters here.
August 6, 2008
On the downside of oil's peak
Edwin S. Robinson
Robinson, of Catawba, is an emeritus professor of geophysics in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech.
Why are fuel prices rising? To a large extent the price is set by supply and demand. The following discussion is about supply. I became interested in the sustainability of crude oil supply about 30 years ago, when I began discussing this subject in geology classes I was teaching at Virginia Tech. At that time, analysis of oil production was a well-established field of study.
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Speak out on Smith Mountain Lake's level
Bill Reidenbach
Reidenbach is a resident of Penhook.
If you are happy with the way Smith Mountain Lake's water level is managed, end of story. If you don't know how the water level is managed, shame on you. If you want water level managed differently, speak up. The commonwealth is going to change the water release protocol that manages the lake level for better or worse. The impact will affect the next 30 to 50 years of lake operation. You get a voice Thursday at Gretna High School.
Read more.
Read Wednesday's letters here.
August 5, 2008
Webb made the right call
George W. Grayson
Grayson teaches at the College of William & Mary and served 27 years as a Democrat in the Virginia House of Delegates.
James Webb recently stated that under "no circumstance will I be a candidate for vice president." This Shermanesque vow disappointed Democratic bloggers, for whom the Old Dominion's junior senator was their paladin. They agreed with Princeton professor Gerald Pomper that Webb would offset many of the blatant shortcomings of Sen. Barack Obama; notably, his inexperience in foreign and military affairs.
Read more.
McCain has the right stuff
Ern Reynolds
Reynolds is publisher of the Web site ModerateGOP.com and a resident of Roanoke.
We were treated to such an amusing argument by Long Island, New York, columnist Les Payne in the July 30 Roanoke Times commentary "Is John McCain qualified?" Payne thinks not. He suggests that McCain's finishing fifth from the bottom in his Naval Academy class is damning.
Read more.
Read Tuesday's letters here.
August 4, 2008
A summer spent on repairs
Ray Stubblefield
Stubblefield, who teaches earth science at Franklin County High School, is a Roanoke Times columnist.
What a busy summer. My family went to Europe for two weeks in mid-June, and it's been all down hill since. I've been stuck at the house, slaving away on some much-needed home repairs. But these past two weeks have brought back memories. More than 14 years ago, my whole family was involved in building our house. I had just recently remarried, and we needed a bigger place to live. The old farmhouse we were renting was quaint and charming but way too cramped for our expanded family.
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Why do Republicans fear the war tribunal?
R. Brooks McGhee
McGhee is a farmer, living in Goodview.
You reported that former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres and the politician considered most responsible for the deadly siege of Sarajevo, was arrested in a Serbian police raid, ending his 13 years as the world's most wanted war crimes fugitive, ("Top war crimes suspect arrested after 13 years," July 22 news brief).
Read more.
Read Monday's letters here.
August 3, 2008
Good thing the Founders were flip-floppers
Rodney K. Smith
Smith, of Buena Vista is the president of Southern Virginia University and is a constitutional scholar.
Those carefully watching the presidential race seem fixated on what many people consider to be a fatal character flaw: flip-flopping.
Sen. Barack Obama is the latest victim of this fixation. He is being criticized for changing his position on the war in Iraq to strengthen his political standing. He refers to this change in position as a refinement, arguing that he continues to emphasize the need to find a way to extricate U.S. forces from Iraq while acknowledging that as commander in chief he would take into count the lives of those implicated by any such withdrawal.
Read more.
Read today's letters here.
Read letters from the New River Valley Current here.
August 2, 2008
Cut the meat and pass the corn on the cob
Donna Acquaviva
Acquaviva lives, writes and teaches in Roanoke County. She is a spiritual director, lector and liturgical dancer at Our Lady of Nazareth Catholic Church.
When Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, was a guest on "The View" recently, she made some confessions. According to WVTF and Radio IQ, the two public radio stations in Southwest Virginia, she told deep secrets such as she "doesn't wear panty hose" and she "doesn't like bacon."
"At least," the reporter commented, "she's not a vegetarian." I don't know what that would have done for Michelle Obama's image, but it would have been a big boost to vegetarians everywhere. It can get so lonely out there.
Read more.
Read today's letters here.
August 1, 2008
Another gunman robs our freedoms
Christine Brownlie
Brownlie is the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Blacksburg.
Re: "Police say Tenn. church targeted for liberal views," July 29 news story:
Sunday I was sitting with members of my congregation, enjoying the rare (for me) opportunity to participate in worship. Most Sundays I'm the one standing at the pulpit, leading the congregation through a familiar and comforting order of service. I left with a feeling of closeness to my congregation. I was filled with gratitude that we have this time to gather every Sunday and consider the ideas, concerns and hopes that are on our minds and in our hearts. Freedom of religion. Freedom of assembly. Freedom from fear. How blessed we are as Americans.
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State fairs evolve from farms to slots
Peter Mires
Mires teaches geography at the University of Delaware and is a member of the American Geographical Society's Writers Circle.
My old professor, geographer Fred Kniffen (1900-1993), loved the state fair. Who doesn't? The cacophonous midway, corndogs and funnel cake, and big-name entertainment have considerable appeal. But Kniffen saw the state fair as a celebration of an American tradition: agriculture.
Read more.
Read today's letters here.
July 31, 2008
Wise plant adds to life cycle Pete Sarjeant Sarjeant is retired from Westvaco and moved recently to Bedford. The Southern Environmental Law Center (whomever this may be) is appealing and trying to obstruct the state board's permits for the Dominion VA Power plant in Wise County by citing a failure to meet Clean Air Act requirements, namely providing for means to capture the carbon dioxide pollution. Read more. With banks, it's a matter of trust Peter Morici Morici is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission. Once again, we have good news and bad from Wall Street. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has announced Citigroup and three other banks will begin issuing covered bonds in an effort to rejuvenate commercial bank mortgage lending and the housing market. Read more. Making do on less Linda Whitlock Whitlock, a Roanoke Times columnist, is an adjunct English professor who lives in Salem. When one of my uncles developed emphysema after smoking for most of his life, he didn't sue the cigarette manufacturers. He didn't blame them either. Whatever the tobacco companies had or hadn't done, my uncle knew he was the one responsible for his smoking and for the disease that would ultimately kill him. Read more. Read today's letters here.
July 29, 2008
Restore voting rights Brandon Patterson Patterson is the director of Resource Development at Virginia CARES Inc. in Roanoke. This fall, more than 3 million Virginians will vote in the November general elections. Empowered by the democratic process, these voters will chart the future of our communities, our state and our nation with their choices. At the same time, 300,000 of their friends, neighbors and family members who have had their right to vote taken from them will be unable to participate. Only a few will have the chance to take back their rights, and only if they act quickly. Read more. Caving to big labor Trevor Roe Roe, of Ferrum, is a retired corporate human resources director for Trinity Packaging Corp. in Rocky Mount. Alabama, Tennessee and Michigan were under recent consideration as prospective locations for a new manufacturing facility to be built by VW ("Volkswagen mulls Southern plant," Business section, July 8). Since that article ran, Tennessee was announced as the site of the new plant, and Alabama would have been the second choice, because both are "right-to-work" states and Michigan isn't. Southern workers are much less likely to unionize than are workers in Michigan, a state with the highest unemployment rate. Read more. Read today's letters here.
July 27, 2008
Energy's high cost may force shift to rail
Dan Radmacher
Radmacher is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
During the two weeks I spent in Japan back in 1997, I rode farther on passenger trains than in the entire rest of my life in America. The trip to Japan, an exchange sponsored by the Japanese Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, took me all over the island nation, from Tokyo to Kyoto to Hiroshima. Much of the travel was on shinkansen, Japan's high-speed trains.
Read more.
Keeping e-mail private
Christian Trejbal
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
I never thought I would have to figure out how to keep President Bush from reading my e-mail, but now I do. Congress recently empowered Bush's spies to read my digital correspondence. Phone calls and e-mails are at risk because congressional Democrats pathetically caved to administration demands on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Much of the debate over the bill centered on retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that helped the administration break the law.
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Remember, too, the racist Helms
Robert Denham
Denham, a retired teacher from Roanoke College and Emory and Henry College, lives in Emory.
Ed Feulner's "Jesse Helms: Champion of freedom" (July 8 commentary) raises the question, "Freedom for whom?" Certainly not for African-Americans, veterans, the dispossessed of the world, gays and lesbians, farmers, the elderly, children, students, ordinary workers, immigrants, ethnic minorities, trade unionists and artists.
Read more.
Read Sunday's letters here.
New River Forum Commentary
Sonic doesn't fit at First & Main
Joel A. Nachlas
Nachlas, of Blacksburg, has served on the faculty of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech for 34 years. He also coaches the university’s men’s club lacrosse team.
The Blacksburg Town Council should be commended for its sensible decision to decline the request by Sonic Drive-In for a special use permit. I am grateful for the council's careful consideration of the many implications of the request and for their decision. I recognize that there are some people who do not agree with the decision, so I would like to share some of my views on the question.
Read more.
Read New River Forum letters here.
July 26, 2008
Stand up to those who bully the disabled
Teresa Lavinder
Lavinder, of Vinton, is a former employee of a local disability service agency. She is a native of Roanoke.
Where is our conscience? It continues to be socially OK to discriminate and bully a particular protected class: people with disabilities.
In Roanoke, we have an Architectural Review Board that has approved a chain-link fence for a possible dog park. I'm not against the park, just the board's hypocrisy that led to an Old Southwest resident being criminally convicted and fined because she dared to make her doorway and porch accessible to her seriously ill mother. We seem to care more about our pets than our citizens.
Read more.
Read today's letters here.
July 25, 2008
Gay-bashers trot out tired arguments
Steven Kranowski
Kranowski is a bookkeeper for a construction company in Blacksburg.
It seems the gay-bashers have been running rampant on The Roanoke Times' letters and opinion pages lately. Jim Ludington started off the whole mess with the hateful, hurtful and unenlightened tirade he inflicted on these pages back on June 29 ("Gay marriage threatens our culture," commentary), which encouraged some of his fellow homophobes to write some equally mean-spirited and ignorant letters in his support.
Read more.
Read Friday's letters here.
July 24, 2008
My business is not thy business
John Long
Long, a Roanoke Times columnist, is director of the Salem Museum and teaches history at Roanoke College.
I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not the last of the Mind-Your-Own-Business generation. OK, maybe I'm not the last, but we seem to be getting a lot more scarce. MYOBers, if I can invent the acronym, used to be pretty common. Folks stuck to their own affairs. They didn't meddle in other people's concerns, and certainly didn't want anyone else meddling in theirs. Many things were unspoken, and it was better that way. People knew how to politely avert their eyes when something embarrassing happened to someone else. They certainly didn't whip out a camera and post it on YouTube.
Read more.
The country needs its Bubbas
Joe Painter
Painter, of Blacksburg, is a lawyer.
Barnie Day's elitism is sickening ("Bubba's time has come," July 13 commentary). He pokes fun at the mythic "Bubba," someone who no one can really define, but it is pejorative. He sees the Bubbas of this world as subclass citizens. He lists the "do's" and "don'ts" of Bubba. He casts Bubba as someone out of the mainstream in American life. He portrays Bubba as a bigot. Day forgets that Bubba does not see race as a problem.
Read more.
Read Thursday's letters here.
July 22, 2008
Area deserves passenger rail service
Jerome N. Margolis
Margolis, of Boones Mill, is a composer, a retired music teacher and substitute teacher for Rocky Mount.
There is no passenger rail service from Roanoke. The closest is in Lynchburg, almost one hour away, and Clifton Forge, 90 minutes away. I wonder why this is so and why the state has not seen fit to use the extensive network of railway lines, yards, stations and repair shops in and closely adjacent to the city. Roanoke and surrounding Roanoke County have a combined population of about 200,000. The metro area has sought to improve its tourism and business opportunities for years. As one of the major locales of Southwest Virginia, it has an airport -- one with fares that are high in comparison to those in North Carolina. Otherwise, those who wish to travel to cities in Virginia and to Washington, Baltimore, New York and other major cities on the Eastern seaboard have no recourse but to use their automobiles. This, during a historic period in which our dependence upon oil is a universal concern and when the price of gasoline makes it prohibitive for most of us to travel.
Read more.
Read Tuesday's letters here.
July 21, 2008
From enemies to allies
Ray Stubblefield
Stubblefield, who teaches earth science at Franklin County High School, is a Roanoke Times columnist.
The German countryside looked well tended, even at 30,000 feet. The skies were mostly clear with white, puffy, cumulus clouds casting shadows on the peaceful landscape below. I was visiting my son. He's in the army, stationed in Heidelberg. But my mind turned to a different time, when the skies over Germany were anything but peaceful. I thought of World War II and how there were plenty of Americans flying over Germany then, but they weren't in a United Airlines jetliner, coming for vacation or business, but B-17 Flying Fortresses or B-24 Liberators, coming to rain death and destruction down on the Third Reich.
Read more.
Restore the right of felons to vote
Edward Hailes Jr.
Hailes is a senior attorney at Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization in Washington, D.C.
No single existing voting-rights inequity seems a starker injustice than the plight of people with felony convictions. These people, of course, aren't just murderers and muggers. Three out of every five felony convictions don't lead to jail time, and there's no clear line you have to cross to earn one. Taking away the right to vote for life is analogous, some commentators have suggested, to the medieval practice of "civil death," where severe violations of society's social code led to complete loss of citizenship rights.
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When, and how, to spread democracy?
Donald Nuechterlein
Nuechterlein, a political scientist and resident of the Charlottesville area, teaches American foreign policy at the University of Virginia.
When President Bush visited Jefferson's home at Monticello on July 4 to welcome 72 new U.S. citizens sworn in that day, he cited the third president's words about Americans' responsibility to spread their ideas of freedom and democracy to other parts of the world. Those thoughts were in keeping with Bush's and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's emphasis on promoting democratic government and human rights in countries where they are denied.
Read more.
Read Monday's letters here.
July 20, 2008
Inside the museum
Robert Schultz
Schultz is the John P. Fishwick professor of English at Roanoke College.
If you think you know what the inside of Roanoke's new Taubman Museum of Art will be like, based on its striking exterior, you're in for a surprise. The interior is more than 95 percent finished, on schedule for this fall's Nov. 8 opening, and when I toured the building with a small group recently I was struck by the contrast between the building's muscular steel, zinc, glass and stone exterior and what I found inside. Read here.
Invest taxes today for a payoff tomorrow
Bob Peckman
Peckman is a retired engineer/physicist from ITT and a local jazz musician.
Dan Radmacher's "Cooling down the anti-tax rhetoric piece" was like lemon sorbet after the steady diet we have been having of lower taxes and less government (July 13 column). He pointed out that taxes have not really increased at all.
Read here.
Media mistrust based on experience
Walt Hutchens
Hutchens, of Lexington, is retired and breeds whippet dogs as a hobby.
Editorial page editor Dan Radmacher complains that many people close their minds to anything appearing in the media ("Don't discount all news sources," June 29 column). He misses the point: Our distrust comes from our experience.
Most of us are experts on something. And most of us have seen such soft-headed coverage of the area we know about that we don't trust any of what we see or read. Read here.
Peppers Ferry development still in the works
By Mark Kinser
Kevin Litten's story ("Developer: Plans for town house site off," July 11) regarding the proposed Forest Hills multifamily development on Peppers Ferry Road was full of errors and misinformation.
As the primary developer, I was misquoted throughout the article. I believe the story was misleading and disrespectful to all parties involved, including the residents who are in the process of relocating. Read here.
No monkeying around
Angel D. Braun
Braun moved to Virginia in 2004 from North Carolina. She lives in Gore, in Frederick County, and dedicates all the free time a housewife has at the local animal shelter.
Families are "adopting" baby monkeys as children to fill the void of childless homes, whether they are unable to conceive a child or are now experiencing an empty nest. Read here.
Immigrants fill labor shortage
Gresilda A. Tilley-Lubbs
Tilley-Lubbs is an assistant professor of second language education and is the director of Second Language Education in the School of Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Virginia Tech. She lives in Roanoke.
As a U.S. citizen who has been deeply involved in the Spanish-speaking community for the past nine years, I would like to offer my support of the immigrants who are living in the Roanoke and New River valleys. Read here.
July 18, 2008
Do nothing at Virginia's peril
John S. Edwards
Edwards represents the 21st Senatorial District of Virginia. He lives in Roanoke.
The recent failure of the General Assembly to pass any transportation plan for Virginia should be a source of great disappointment to Virginians. The governor, to his credit, called the legislature into special session after the Virginia Supreme Court ruled the regional authorities were unconstitutional and after repeal of the ill-considered abuser fees in the 2007 plan. He proposed a transportation package, called upon legislators to propose their own plans, and showed a willingness to work together for the common good to resolve this crisis.
Read more.
Leaders don't raise taxes
Don A. Assaid
Assaid is chairman of the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors, serving his second term.
Leave it to the "never saw a tax it didn't like" editorial staff of The Roanoke Times to point fingers at the House Republicans and its leadership, accusing them of being "obstructionists" ("Pointing fingers on transportation," July 14 editorial). Thank God that they are. I appreciate real leadership that tries to force the government to live within its means and stands firm against another round of tax increases, no matter how great the transportation need.
Read more.
Read Friday's letters here.
July 17, 2008
Little reason to complain
Linda Whitlock
Whitlock, a Roanoke Times columnist, is an adjunct English professor who lives in Salem.
A few weeks ago, I pulled into a Sheetz and filled up my car in the (hitherto unknown to me) 15-minute window between the time the gas price is changed on the sign and the time it's changed at the pump. Since the price had taken a substantial leap upward, that bit of serendipity made my day. Pathetic, you'd probably be thinking if this were two or three years ago. Today, you're probably saying, "Yes!" and hoping for a similar serendipitous moment. We're all, it seems, being stung by the high cost of gas and the high food prices that accompany it.
Read more.
Give federal gas taxes back to the states
Ronald Fraser
Fraser, of West Falls, N.Y., writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Project, a Washington-based civil liberties organization.
Between 1956 and 1991, Virginia motorists willingly paid "temporary" increases in the federal gasoline tax, knowing the money was being used to build the 42,000-mile interstate highway system. In 1991, Congress declared the highway system completed -- but the tax lived on and on, growing bigger and bigger. No longer needed to build the interstate, the current 18.4 cents per gallon federal gas tax -- double what it was in 1990 -- now funds a highway-trust-fund shell game that shifts about $941 million a year, and control over highways, from Virginia to Washington.
Read more.
Read Thursday's letters here.
July 16, 2008
Hope for Roanoke's schools
Elaine C. Landry
Landry, of Roanoke, is a retired reading specialist.
Shanna Flowers' recent column about Total Action Against Poverty's interest in addressing the crisis among young black males ("Group guides kids to school," July 8) highlights the essential problem facing Roanoke's African-American communities: Too few young black males set realistic goals that will foster family life and produce solid incomes.
Read more.
Read Wednesday's letters here.
July 14, 2008
Flip-flops are good, when for the right reasons
Steve Huff
Huff, who lives in Patrick County and practices family medicine, is a columnist for The Roanoke Times.
Economist John Maynard Keynes once rebuffed: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" Somersault, U-turn, flip-flop, back flip: Pejoratives for changing one's political mind can be traced to the 1800s. Modern examples include George H.W. Bush's ultimatum, "Read my lips: No new taxes," which was followed, of course, by a tax increase. John Kerry earned a pair of gold-plated flip-flops with his 2004 statement, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion [for war funding] before I voted against it."
Read more.
Know your green energy options
Mark McClain
McClain, of Salem, is director and treasurer of the Roanoke Valley Cool Cities Coalition.
On July 2, Appalachian Power announced plans to offer a renewable energy option to Virginia customers starting Sept. 1. Under this proposal, utility customers could voluntarily pay an additional 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour to purchase electricity that is made without emission of greenhouse gas and other harmful pollution. Let's look under the hood of this proposal to see how good a deal it is for the environment and citizens.
Read more.
Argument flawed in dissecting Heller
Stephen Williams
Williams, a rising sophomore at Patrick Henry College, lives in Roanoke.
I first read the July 6 Horizon section article "A case of conservative activism" without paying any attention to the credentials of the author, reaching the end of the piece with a half-hearted chuckle at its large rhetoric and empty logic. Only then did I realize that its writer is dean of the School of Law at the University of California, Irvine.
Read more.
Read Monday's letters here.
July 13, 2008
Cooling down the anti-tax rhetoric
Dan Radmacher
Radmacher is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
Some of those opposed to raising taxes to fund Virginia's growing transportation needs like to paint state government as awash in cash. As one commenter on a blog put it recently, "You seem to be assuming that some additional revenue is needed. It isn't. The state budget has risen over 70 percent in six years." It is true that the size of the state budget has increased dramatically in recent years, but most of it can be explained by inflation and economic and population growth.
Read more.
Protect your head in a moped crash
Christian Trejbal
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
Almost a year ago, Blacksburg town attorney Larry Spencer wrecked his 1983 Yamaha motorcycle. He broke his leg in the accident, but it could have been worse. At least he did not break his face. "I ended up being pitched into some gravel, and I landed with my head down," he described. "I was wearing a full-face helmet, and it took the full force of that. It was badly scratched up."
Read more.
Beauty that stirs ugliness
Angela Watkins
Watkins, of Natural Bridge Station, has worked as a reference librarian and book reviewer.
Anthony Abeson's complaint about "hotted up" beauty and its use over talent in casting decisions in today's television programs and movies ("Star search is not about acting talent," June 22 Horizon commentary), and the ugly remarks regarding the Miss Virginia pageant ("Pageant contenders are hardly role models," June 25 letter), show that adorned beauty really gets some people upset. But, beauty being what it is, even the unadorned kind can make someone see both red and green.
Read more.
Bubba's time has come
Barnie Day
Day, a former member of the House of Delegates, lives in Meadows of Dan.
Bubba doesn't write checks, or use ATMs. Bubba's ol' lady keeps up with the money. Bubba prefers folding, front pocket whip-out. Bubba doesn't send e-mails. He owns a cellphone, but he only uses it during deer season. He doesn't own a Blackberry. Bubba likes blackberry cobbler.
Read more.
Read Sunday's letters here.
New River Forum commentary
The high costs of Blacksburg's elitism
Crandall Shifflett
Shifflett is a history professor at Virginia Tech, residing in Blacksburg.
Growing up in the 1950s in rural Virginia, five miles outside the little town of Orange, I witnessed and experienced firsthand the high costs of elitism. Owners and operators of local businesses, many of whom sat on the town council, together with some lawyers and doctors, acted to keep out any businesses that would enter the town and potentially compete with them.
Read more.
Read New River Forum letters here.
July 12, 2008
In hard times, let's remember who we are
Mike Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick, of Boones Mill, is a recently retired high school English teacher and school administrator. He was a middle school principal for 12 years and an elementary principal for three years. He has spent more than 35 years in education.
This past Fourth of July weekend presented a wonderful opportunity. The Fitzpatrick Family of Newburgh, N.Y., was holding a family reunion near the town where my ancestors settled. Sorely tempted to attend, but daunted by traveling expenses, I checked out airline prices: round trip from Roanoke to Newburgh, about $1,200, a little dear. But our small car gets about 35 miles to the gallon, and the route was simple: Interstate 81 north from Roanoke, then Interstate 84 east from Scranton to Newburgh. At least I wouldn't have to ask for directions.
Read more.
Read Saturday's letters here.
July 11, 2008
I'm Miss Virginia -- no other labels, please
Tara Wheeler
Wheeler, of Roanoke, is Miss Virginia 2008. She wrote this in response to a June 25 letter to the editor, "Pageant contenders are hardly role models."
Hello, Roanoke! As your new Miss Virginia, I love my new home in the beautiful Roanoke Valley. As I am getting acquainted with you, it is only fair that, as a new neighbor in town, I let you know a little about me. But be warned: Even though I may wear a tiara, no stereotype defines me -- and I like it that way. I would not be me if I fit someone else's definition of how I should be.
Read more.
Read Friday's letters here.
July 10, 2008
Two lives well lived
John Long
Long, a Roanoke Times columnist, is director of the Salem Museum and teaches history at Roanoke College.
I don't enjoy going to funerals (does anyone?), so two in one week was an ordeal. But I was there each time to pay tribute to a remarkable lady, one I was lucky to know, if only peripherally. Neither of these great ladies will make it into history books, but neither will be forgotten by those who loved them.
Read more.
Social agencies are where they are needed
Wilson Hoffman
Hoffman, of Roanoke, is a retired director of manufacturing.
I was left in a state of shock after I read Jan Keister's recent commentary, "Social agencies may move to follow those in need" (July 3) in the editorial section of The Roanoke Times. I found the writer's statements concerning RAM House and The Samaritan Inn to be distorted and offensive.
Read more.
Free Colombia -- today
Richard J. Kilroy Jr.
Lt. Col. Kilroy Jr., U.S. Army-retired, was assigned to the U.S. Southern Command in Panama from 1994 to 1998. He teaches international studies at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington.
Good news continues to come out of Colombia, which is winning the war on terrorism. The Colombian military freed 15 hostages, including three Americans and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who had been held captive by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for six years. This is the latest setback for the FARC, which is losing its war against the Colombian people. Earlier this year, they lost their foreign minister, Raul Reyes, and finance chief, Ivan Rios. Former FARC leader Manuel Marulanda died earlier this year, leaving the organization bleeding from the top and bottom, as more than 2,000 members deserted rank this year alone. Intelligence estimates place the FARC at 9,000, down from 17,000 a few years ago.
Read more.
Read Thursday's letters here.
July 9, 2008
Confirm Conrad to the 4th Circuit
Carl Tobias
Tobias is a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.
In early May, President Bush nominated U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Bush should have nominated Conrad in June 2007 when Virginia Sens. John Warner, a Republican, and Jim Webb, a Democrat, first suggested the jurist. The senators must now cooperate with their colleagues to guarantee that the 110th Senate expeditiously confirms Conrad because the 4th Circuit has four vacancies on the 15-member court.
Read more.
Read Wednesday's letters here.
July 8, 2008
Minding Southern manners
Jennifer Mulligan
Mulligan is a professor at Virginia Western Community College where she teaches paralegal studies, business law and a pottery class. She has visited more than 60 countries, regularly coordinates faculty and student exchanges, and has participated in faculty exchanges in Northern Ireland and South Korea.
I would like to respond to the letter from Prudence W. Denton about the Southern hospitality, or lack thereof, extended to Mayor Kim Gi-Yeol and his delegation during their recent visit to Roanoke ("A little lacking in Southern hospitality," June 25 letter). I believe that Southern hospitality does not depend on the food being served, but the manner in which it is served. Let's examine the Southern hospitality extended to Mayor Kim and his delegation of 11 visitors from our Sister City of Wonju, South Korea.
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Read Tuesday's letters here.
July 7, 2008
The trip of a lifetime
Ray Stubblefield
Stubblefield, who teaches earth science at Franklin County High School, is a Roanoke Times columnist.
All of us have dreams, dreams of things we would like to do, dreams of places we would like to see before we die. Back in the '60s my dad was in the Navy, and my family got to live on the French Riviera in the little town of Villefranche sur Mer. And this summer I got to fulfill a lifelong dream and return. I wrote about Villefranche last March.
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The cunning effect of incompetence
Dennis Welch
Welch lives, teaches and writes in Blacksburg.
Demonstratively incompetent in foreign policy and domestic concerns, the Bush administration epitomizes the point of Paul Light's column "Can't-do government" (June 29 Horizon). Such incompetence is never admitted, is rarely corrected, but is used tacitly as a strategy to undermine fundamental institutions of our society.
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Read Thursday's letters here.
July 6, 2008
Alley Cat Angels are on the right track
By Victoria Brownell
Brownell, of Troutville, is a volunteer for several animal rescue groups in the Roanoke Valley. She was a board member of the Guilford County, N.C., shelter.
I encourage those who read Jane Raymond's letter regarding feral cat clinics ("Don't release feral cats back onto the streets," June 30) to reference Alleycat.org for comprehensive information on Trap-Neuter-Release. It will shed light on the mission of Alley Cat Angels and promote an understanding of what the clinic is attempting to accomplish.
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Read today's letters here.
Read today's NRV Current letters here.
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