Letters To The Editor

County Supervisor Needs To Fix Sandston's Ills
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I have been a resident of Virginia my entire 15 years of living. I've played on the playgrounds of recreation centers, of Sandston Elementary School, and on the streets of Sandston. I've always known there was a problem with the community and something really should have been done before now -- so I'm doing something about it.

I attend Highland Springs High School. Jim Donati, the Varina representative on the Henrico Board of Supervisors, has not done anything for the Sandston community, only improving things that don't need to be improved. It disgusts me, honestly.

When I was in the first grade at Sandston Elementary, my class had to use the rundown gym before the new one was built -- after 75 years. For my middle school years, I attended Moody Middle in the West End. I was with the IB program. I experienced how the West End schools benefit way more. For example: Hermitage High School has an orchestra pit, a shiny podium, and so on. Highland Springs High School has a beat-up stage and seats that are raggedy.

Donati needs to start investing taxpayer money into something more important -- like schools and recreation. The Sandston Memorial Recreation Center needs help. Flyers were handed out after the First Annual Sandston Memorial Day Parade that described what is wrong with the recreation center. I have created a Facebook group: S.O.S. (Support Our Sandston). I listed all the things on the flyer that need to be done to improve the Sandston community. Supervisor Donati, listen to us. Sandston needs help. Put some money into East End schools and our recreation center. We won't stop until you do.

Cathy Quigg.
Sandston.

Was the Republican-controlled House bipartisan in refusing the return of $125 million of our tax money to assist workers hammered by the Republican recession?

Was the House bipartisan in opposing legitimate policies for early voting so more Virginians could participate in this process?

Was it bipartisan of the House to block increased energy efficiency across Virginia, block tax exemptions for the use of solar, and tax credits for renewable energy?

Was it bipartisan of the House to block incentives for new companies that manufacture parts for renewable energy projects from locating their plants in Virginia?

Was it bipartisan of the House to slash over 50 percent of Gov. Tim Kaine's funding of Pre-K education?

All these, and others, easily passed the Senate, but the House refused.

The editors blew smoke about our smoke-free law. That law represents a huge scaling back, by the House, of the governor's plan. The speaker of the House, William Howell, was not moved by the 75 percent of the voters supporting the ban. Howell was rattled by the grassroots organizer working his district. The speaker caved out of pure self-interest.

The situation in the House is as bad as McAuliffe asserts.

The transportation mess was created by the House's unwillingness to face reality. Its tone-deaf "no taxes" mantra has put the commonwealth on the precipice of losing federal highway funds.

Your last shot contends that McAuliffe parachuted into Virginia politics. If he did, it was because he was in a hurry to address big issues and the roads were gridlocked.

Jamie Lindsay.
Spotsylvania.

The belief in evolution of humans from simpler predecessors is based on a resistance to acknowledgment of the obvious truth: Our lives, characteristics, and personalities derive from the creator -- God. The apostle Paul wrote "what may be known about God is plain . . . from what has been made" and that to believe anything different is to "suppress the truth." People resist the idea of kinship with God because they fear unacceptability to God in their current state. Fortunately, God provided for escape from punishment for sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The acceptance of evolution as fact is the source of hopelessness, meaningless, and the "quiet desperation" that Thoreau identified. The construct is a house of cards, thoroughly false, and its secondand third-order effects are destructive.

Ronald Ellyson.
Hampton.

One need only look at Mary Wingfield Scott's two books to get a good picture of what Richmond might have been -- another Charleston, another Savannah.

It's time our elected leaders concentrated their efforts on saving what is left, instead of catering to the developers who make substantial contributions to those with the vote. A.R. Bowles III. Richmond.