Letters To The Editor: News Story Omitted The Real Workers

News Story Omitted The Real Workers
Editor, Times-Dispatch: The recent Metro news story, "From Old to Spiffy in Just a Few Hours," by Joe Macenka, reported the installation of new playground equipment in Chimborazo Playground. The article told only part of the story.

The article omission of any mention of the Friends of Chimborazo Playground, the grassroots group that applied for and received the KaBoom! grant, was an affront to the scores of Church Hill residents who volunteered hundreds of hours to make this event a success. The Friends of Chimborazo Playground was awarded the grant on July 7. In two short months it had the responsibility to recruit more than 75 community volunteers; provide breakfast, lunch, drinks, and snacks for more than 300 volunteers; gather scores of tools from wheelbarrows to post-hole diggers; arrange for portable toilets, trash collection, parking, tents, and electricity; develop children's activities on build day; work with KaBoom!, Home Depot, Richmond Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities, and the Richmond Recreation and Parks Foundation on public relations and community awareness; initiate fundraising activities, and develop recycling and "green" plans for the event. The Friends did it all.

The Friends of Chimborazo Playground deserve a lot of credit for the successful installation of the new playground in Church Hill. Macenka's article gave them none.

Joey Logano and the Joe Gibbs Racing Team were a part of the activities on Sept. 10, and their participation was appreciated. However, they were just a small part of the overall effort. Compared to the efforts of KaBoom!, Home Depot, The Friends of Chimborazo Playground, Church Hill volunteers, the police and fire departments, and the more than 30 local churches, businesses, and organizations that provided sweat labor, food, drink and other support, the coverage given to Logano in Macenka's article did not reflect the true nature of the event.

Richard Taranto.
Richmond.

Elected officials should have their performance (and remuneration) evaluated based on the constituents who placed them in office. Factors that should be considered could include: What percentage of one's constituents are registered voters? How many constituents voted in the last local, state, and national elections? How many DUIs were recorded in one's district? How many extramarital affairs was that congressman involved in and how many political favors were brought to light?

The list could go on -- but you get my drift. Trying to evaluate an individual's performance based on the actions of others is not logical. A teacher cannot control whether a student studies a lesson at home or whether a child stays up late to watch TV or play games, or whether a child shows up at school hungry, sleepy, or unkempt.

And no, I'm not a teacher. I'm just a retired soldier.

Gerald J. Berry.
Sutherland.

Today most consumer contracts contain clauses in which consumers give up the right to go to court, accepting mandatory binding arbitration instead. Generally, one must accept the contract or do without the service. It is the only option, not the option after another has failed.

Our credit cards, telecommunications, pretty much everything we buy has a contract containing arbitration. Many businesses tout it as cost-saving because they do not risk going to court. In reality, it removes a consumer's ability to stand up for his or her rights. Because it takes place at the business' chosen location with the business' chosen arbitrator, the consumer often cannot afford to participate. It has proven to provide outcomes that mostly favor business.

Consumers need our elected officials to work for us to outlaw unfair mandatory binding arbitration clauses in boilerplate, non-negotiable consumer contracts.

Irene Leech.
Elliston.

As a teacher of 10 different subjects and for the past 18 years chairman of a social studies department for a Richmond high school, I believe this is what will occur: The principal will assign the advanced placement history class and the honors class to his best teachers. On standardized tests and class tests, their performances will easily be the highest.

Then the teachers of standard classes will achieve secondary results. These students are good and will go to college and some will become highly successful in their chosen fields.

The basic classes will be assigned to teachers who are not as strongly motivated and their checks will be a lesser amount.

The major result of this merit pay experiment will promote teacher jealousy, and some will be so disgruntled they will resign. This is what has occurred before during attempts at merit pay.

I have two degrees from UVa and studied history at Oxford on a scholarship from the English Speaking Union. I am not fishing in the dark of the Chesapeake Bay.

Clarence E. Cowles.
Richmond.