Letters: Chester Senior Thanks Editor for Regret
Chester Senior Thanks Editor for Regret
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I want to thank Editorial Page Editor Todd Culbertson for the video: "
Times-Dispatch
Editorial Expresses Regret for Massive Resistance."
I am a 78-year-old biracial African-American, born and raised in Petersburg. My wife, Iretha, and I now live in an integrated senior citizen apartment in Chester.
I am forwarding a copy of the video to our president, Barack Obama, who I am sure shares my opinion.
George Campbell Maclin III.
Chester.
They Can't Pay Insurance or Fines
Editor, Times-Dispatch Is the Obama administration serious? How does it think someone who can't afford health care because he or she can't make ends meet can suddenly afford to pay a $3,000 penalty? Van Barden. Richmond.
Conservative Insults Distress Reader
Editor, Times-Dispatch: The letter, "A German Leader Once Changed Things There," from Eula Randall Lacy is an example of a serious problem facing our nation -- the tendency of some conservatives to exaggerate and demonize President Barack Obama with paranoid comparisons. I've had it with that nonsense.
Sure, our current president promised change. But I must have missed the speech in which he promised to wipe out the Jewish race and conquer Europe. I didn't spot those items in his book, Dreams From My Father, either.
The change promised and executed by Hitler focused on a mystique of white purity and a deep conviction that his nation was the only one that mattered. Does that sound like Obama? Hitler was a devious but effective crazy man who killed millions, and neither political party needs to own him.
Obama is an idealistic American politician who is trying to address what he sees as serious challenges to our nation's future. He is not going to declare martial law, cancel the 2010 elections, or round up the Fox TV crew. He could be wrong, and the financial costs of his plans are certainly making many people nervous. But we need to stop looking for hidden agendas and talk about the legislation that the president has put on the table. Viewing him as a genocidal tyrant is an insult to American voters, and this voter resents the insult. Just stop it!
Laurel Snode.
Chester.
Let Uranium Study Address Crucial Issues
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Confusion abounds regarding Virginia's uranium studies. Will the National Academy of Sciences undertake a uranium technical study funded by Virginia Uranium Inc. (VUI)? Del. Terry Kilgore, chairman of the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission, doesn't know. No one knows. We know even less about the socioeconomic study, arguably the more important of the two uranium studies.
A governing board at NAS will decide whether NAS will do the technical study, and whether to approve 100 percent funding from a uranium company. This board has not yet made a decision or even discussed Kilgore's study request. Only the governing board can decide whether accepting 100 percent of the funding from an interested party is consistent with the board's responsibility to safeguard the academy's unique reputation for independent, unbiased scientific research.
Kilgore has held open the possibility that other organizations (in addition to VUI) would help pay for the technical study. Whether he has solicited contributions is unclear. To date no legislator has offered to ask the legislature for money to cover even a portion of the cost. If the study is important to Virginia, why shouldn't state taxpayers contribute?
As proposed, the technical study will address the safety question by providing legislators with available evidence regarding whether uranium mining, milling, and tailings storage are being done safely elsewhere under conditions comparable to those in Virginia. The socioeconomic study, yet to be defined, should provide real-life evidence about how introducing the uranium industry affects the overall health, economic well-being, and quality of life in communities. Perception, as well as science, plays a critical role in whether introducing this industry is a good idea. Legislators would do well to secure funds for a socioeconomic study before committing to a technical study. Katie Whitehead, Chairman, Dan River Basin Assoc. Mining Task Force.
Chatham.
Obama Most Qualified To Address Our Youth
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I cannot understand any parent's objection to having a child listen to a speech by the president encouraging him or her to excel in school -- a speech by someone who was the product of a biracial union, abandoned by his father and raised by a single mother and grandparents. Yet, instead of whining about all the bad breaks in his life, Barack Obama finished high school and college on time, went to graduate school, and got a professional degree. Then he returned to serve his community -- the epitome of the American dream.
He remains physically fit, is always appropriately dressed, and when he speaks, one can understand every word he says. He is a faithful husband and a devoted father to his children. He is polite and respectful to all generations. As the result of hard work and persistence, at a relatively young age he has become president and commander-in-chief of the most powerful nation on Earth. What a role model for our youth!
I did not vote for Barack Obama and if he runs for re-election, I may or may not vote for him then. But I will listen to all the candidates' speeches. For now he is our president and is deserving of our respect. If his speech were to light up a few brain cells in our students and generate some lively discussion around the dinner table, all the better.
Remember, these young folks will be voters in a few years -- and some, our leaders.
Joseph R. Toler.
Richmond.
Reader Reactions
laurel Snode- “I’ve had it with” and just “stop it” is exactly the attitude that has this country in an uproar.
From the condescending David Axelrod to the detached aloof president with the superior, paternal, I know best about everything attitude, citizens are tired of being talked down to.
And of being excluded and misinformed and manipulated.
I think that the original article was in the nature of a cautionary tale.
It is not that most reasonably intelligent citizens imagine that the president is going to take our country in a lock step path with Germany in the 30’s, that notion is only entertained by the fringe element. Obviously on both sides of the debate.
But there are similiarities that a rational student of history can recognize. I lived through the direct aftermath and I can attest to the atmosphere.
And citizens who told each other to shut up and follow the leader were the villians in the piece.
If the Germans had shouted BACK AT their leader instead of shouting WITH him perhaps all that desolation could have been avoided.
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