October 30, 2007Hurt Park is a lesson in success for regionYou've read a lot lately about the failures of public education, in The Roanoke Times and elsewhere. For that reason, it's great to read a success story now and then. Staff writer David's Harrison's story about Hurt Park Elementary in Sunday's paper was the perfect example. Let's make sure that what happens at Hurt Park definitely doesn't stay at Hurt Park. Continue reading "Hurt Park is a lesson in success for region" » October 28, 2007The numbers are in........and they don't look good for Richmond mayor Doug Wilder. I wrote a column last week about the political antics of the former governor. From our perch here in Southwest Virginia, we look at Wilder, chuckle and say, "Same ol' Doug." But patience is growing thin among the voters who have to contend with Hizzoner every day. A report in Sunday's Richmond Times-Dispatch said that only 35 percent of Richmond residents polled last week would re-elect Wilder. That's quite a drop considering that the man swept into office three years ago with nearly 80 percent of the vote. What's the saying? Be careful what you wish for.
Why, he wanted to know in an e-mail on Wednesday, were the Californians forced from their homes by furious flames “evacuees”? He reminded me how the Katrina victims had been “refugees,” a tag usually thrust upon foreigners forced from their homeland. In other words, the Katrina victims had been foreigners in their own country. Then Friday evening, my friend Dale called from Louisiana, agitated by the glaringly unequal responses to the two disasters. He noted how relief was bountiful and speedy in San Diego, but Katrina victims were trapped in filth and without food for nearly a week in the Superdome and died in wheelchairs, before help came to them. It took the president a while to get to New Orleans, but he lost no time in getting to California The timely response by all parties --- local, state and federal --- to the wildfire victims is commendable and maybe indicative that California is better equipped to deal with natural disaster than Louisiana. Still, the continuing tragedy is that the same urgency wasn't shown two years ago after Hurricane Katrina. Drivers take need for speed way too farThis isn't about a retreat in Salem or political shenanigans in Richmond or, for that matter, breast-feeding in Massachusetts. It's about something that frequently grates on many people here in the Roanoke Valley: speeding. I'm no advocate of vigilante justice. But who among us hasn't muttered under his breath as we watch an unidentified Speed Racer do 50 down our 25 mph-posted block, "Where's the cops when you need 'em?" Who doesn't occasionally wish they had their own radar gun and ticket pad? Continue reading "Drivers take need for speed way too far" » October 26, 2007Coming SundayFed up with speeding drivers who confuse your street with the Martinsville Speedway? You're not alone. Stay tuned. I don't know about you, but I really could do without all the war-mongering about Iran. We haven't yet cleaned up the mess we started in Iraq. How can we even think about Iran? Oh I forgot, thinking hasn't exactly been on display in the minds of the war hawks. Genarlow is free. In case you don't know, Genarlow Wilson is the young man in Georgia who has been in prison for more than two years serving an 11-year sentence for having consensual oral sex with a teen girl. Genarlow, 21, was convicted of aggravated child molestation following a 2003 New Year's Eve party in a hotel room. He was 17, a good student and athlete, when he was videotaped with a 15-year-old girl. Certainly, I can't condone the actions of Genarlow and his sexual benefactor and the obviously raucous party at which they engaged in their act. But neither can I condone the actions of the prosecutor who sought at every turn to keep Genarlow in prison, even after the law under which he was convicted was changed making his crime a misdemeanor. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled today that Genarlow's continued imprisonment amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. May Genarlow begin to put back the pieces of his life and may lessons be learned all around in this one. October 25, 2007Wilder still provides drama for VirginiansAh, Doug Wilder -- we can't live with him; we can't live without him. Whether in the governor's mansion in the early 1990s or in Richmond City Hall now as mayor, Virginians have come to expect drama from Wilder. A Richmond School Board member recently told The New York Times that her experience with Wilder was "one unrelenting psychodrama of nonstop negativity." The nation's first black elected governor is in the news this week because Richmond City Council won the right to sue him. Aren't these guys supposed to be on the same team? Continue reading "Wilder still provides drama for Virginians" » October 23, 2007Parents must have responsible discussionsFour years ago, Rebecca Liu of Roanoke took her then 9-year-old daughter to Planned Parenthood. The visit wasn't for contraception but to help her young daughter better understand menstruation. For Liu, talking openly and frankly to her daughter, now a 13-year-old middle schooler, about the girl's maturing body and all that comes with it is her parental responsibility. That's why Liu believes a decision at a Portland, Maine, middle school to make birth control pills and patches available to girls as young as 11 is "a ridiculous notion." Condoms have been available at the school's health center since 2000. Continue reading "Parents must have responsible discussions" » October 21, 2007Salem council bypasses taxpayersThere's one word for Salem city officials who slipped a taxpayer-funded retreat past taxpayers: Busted. You have to give City Manager Forest Jones and city council members points, though, for ingenuity in the way they executed their confab. The council recessed a meeting last month and resumed it four days later at a golf, spa and ski resort in West Virginia October 16, 2007Soup drive runs overThank you, Roanoke and New River valleys. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Two weeks ago, I urged area residents to donate soup to help feed 600 elderly men and women. Your generosity far exceeded the expectations for the Local Office on Aging's one-time project. The modest goal was to collect 3,000 cans of soup and 600 boxes of crackers. But on Monday, the official end of the "Soup for Seniors" project, the agency had collected 22,400 cans of soup and 2,700 boxes of crackers -- not to mention $15,292 in cash donations, including a $4,300 gift from the Foundation for Roanoke Valley's Marion S. and Willie Z. Camp Fund for Elder Care. October 14, 2007Pointing fingers fall flat in BristolFirst, let me thank Roanoke City Public Schools for not sending out a letter blaming black and disabled students for holding back the school system. Their colleagues in Bristol took that tactless route. The one-page letter sent out last week by administrators at Bristol's Virginia Middle School and attached to students' report cards didn't exactly endear school officials to the community. Of course not. The letter was bad form. October 13, 2007Ladies, relax!...it's (I'm) not that seriousWomen take breast-feeding seriously. So seriously they failed to see I was poking fun at myself, not breast-feeding, in the introduction of my column. My use of the word "gross" was a writing tactic. I was my own foil to draw readers' attention to what otherwise could have been a very staid column about a case in Massachusetts. My depiction of my reaction to breast-feeding was supposed to be juvenile, hence the word "gross." As in a 13-year-old's reaction, "Oh that is SO gross!" Not Hannibal Lecter gross. (Maybe as a wordsmith, I see a clear distinction. After all, kids think a zit is gross.) That said, I am uncomfortable in the presence of a woman breast-feeding her child. If you want to hit me on that, hit me on that. But I'm being honest. I believe it is a natural, but private act. Many things we do are natural, but we'd just as soon others not be privvy to them. I'm sure I've probably been in the presence of women breast-feeding, and I didn't know because they were modest and covered themselves. But when I'm aware, I'm uncomfortable. The benefits of breast-feeding are countless, which I note in the third paragraph of the column. Additionally, the two women I interviewed unknowingly spoke for me. I understood and knew everything they said was true. The point of the column, which seemed to escape most, was that the doctor is not the ideal advocate for the cause. Of course, she needed extra time to pump. But she also seems to be someone who wants special treatment after special treatment after special treatment. (There are some details that didn't make it into the column that suggests she is all about "me," making her life decisions, and then expecting others to accomodate her choices.) It is my belief that the overwhelming majority of breast-feeding mothers are not self-centered. They simply want sanitary and comfortable accomodations. They deserve that. s October 11, 2007Legitimate request? Or is she milking it?When it comes to breast-feeding, I'm in league with a quiet sect of men -- and women: It grosses me out. Not the idea of mothers bonding with their babies and providing them nutrition and other natural goodies for healthy, growing bodies. But the act of them doing so, anywhere in my visual range. I am not a mother, I've never nursed, and I've never jumped out of bed for a 3 a.m. feeding. Continue reading "Legitimate request? Or is she milking it?" » October 9, 2007Verdict was what brother expectedOn one side of the courtroom, family, friends and the system circled the wagons in the case of Timothy Workman, the man on trial for shooting Keith Bailey five years ago in a Roanoke parking lot. Workman's wife, other relatives and supporters occupied row after row. A representative from the U.S. Attorney's Office observed the proceedings, presumably not to take sides but to look out for the federal government's interests. A long-haired, undercover guy from Workman's former employer, the Drug Enforcement Administration, also showed up. October 7, 2007A vivid plea not to drink and driveAs the lights came up in the darkened auditorium at Patrick Henry High School, junior Angelina Crews sat stunned as she caught a glimpse of Sarah Panzau standing on stage. Toned and tanned, Panzau sported a black tank top, sneakers and baby blue shorts with a racing stripe down each side. She's an attractive, engaging, spunky 25-year-old -- once you get past the flap of a left arm, amputated above the elbow. Or the patch of skin along the left side of her neck that looks like it's been raked with a cheese grater. Or the left side of her back that looks like it's been pieced together like a quilt. Or the scars that snake down the former All-American athlete's muscular legs. Panzau's body is her message. It is, she stressed to the Patrick Henry juniors and seniors Friday morning, the reality of what happens when you drink. And then slide behind the wheel of a car. "I want you to take a long, hard look," Panzau said, perched on the cushion of one of the auditorium's chairs. "My future is in this body. "I could sit up here behind a podium and rattle off statistics ... and you would forget every statistic and fact when you walked out that door. I want you to understand there are lifelong consequences to what we choose." October 4, 2007Black men don't get to insult womenDon Imus didn't get a pass. Isiah Thomas shouldn't, either. Thomas, coach of the once-storied New York Knicks, joins Imus as the latest non-rapper to direct degrading names at black women. I don't have to remind you what Imus called members of the predominantly black Rutgers women's basketball team. This week, a New York jury sided with a fired Knicks black female executive who sued Madison Square Garden and Thomas for sexual harassment. Among her accusations was that Thomas routinely addressed her as the b-word and the h-word, "the alphabet of misogyny," as one New York writer aptly put it. Where're Jesse and Al now? (I guess it's easier to rev up the base when the bogeyman insulting black women is an old white guy instead of a prominent black NBA Hall of Famer with a charismatic smile.) October 2, 2007The gift of a mealDuring their 50-year marriage, Mary Lou Smith and her husband, Ollie, didn't have a lot. But what they had, they worked for. Ollie Smith drove a dump truck for more than 30 years until disability forced him to retire in 1984. Mary Lou stayed home with the couple's five children. After the children got older, Mary Lou worked on and off as a waitress. That modest life changed in March when Ollie, bedridden for 10 years, passed away. Mary Lou never had much. Now the 65-year-old widow has even less. "I got to pay gas, lights, water," said Mary Lou, whose mother, Dorothy Casiano, 80, lives with her in a small, wood-frame house in Northwest Roanoke. "I'm lucky if I got a few pennies left over." To help stretch her monthly survivor's Social Security check of $783, Mary Lou has signed up for the Local Office on Aging's one-time Soup for Seniors project. The agency wants to collect 3,000 cans of soup and 600 boxes of crackers by Oct. 15 to distribute this fall to needy elderly men and women. The project began Sept. 1. By Monday afternoon, the agency had received less than 700 cans of soup and 175 boxes of crackers. This community can do better than that. |
About this blog In her signature plainspoken style, Michigan native Shanna Flowers peels away the layers and gets to the heart of the issues. No pretense. Just straightforward perspective. Shanna writes about local people whose circumstances reflect decisions made as near as City Hall or as far away as the halls of Congress. Other times, she weighs in on a topic because it is incredibly ridiculous. Or heartening. Or fascinating. Read Shanna's column three days a week, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, at roanoke.com
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