Community Colleges Merit Coverage, Too
Editor, Times-Dispatch: A recent Metro section front had a great article and photo of the VCU graduation. Inside, additional graduations were mentioned, including those at Virginia Tech, VMI, and Richard Bland College. The Monday Metro front page had articles and pictures of the UVa and VSU graduations, which also continued inside with additional articles and photos of William and Mary and Randolph College graduations.

Editor, Times-Dispatch: I appreciate the news story, “You Can Save Money or You Can Save the Planet,“ about the Surry coal power plant as an attempt to frame the issue for the public. However, the article falls short of accurately explaining the debate because it fails to fully report the potential for cost-effective energy efficiency to meet our energy needs. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) reported in September 2008 that Virginia can meet at least 19 percent, if not more, of its 2025 electricity needs through cost-effective energy efficiency (meaning that it costs less to save electricity than it does to generate electricity). As reported in the ACEEE Virginia report, the cheapest means of providing electricity (three to four cents per kilowatt hour) is to save otherwise wasted electricity through efficiency measures.

Editor, Times-Dispatch: For us old-time vets, Memorial Day means memories of WWII. It truly was a war of the world. Europe and the Pacific come to mind. But the conflict extended into the jungles of Burma, the deserts of North Africa, and other far-flung places. Memorial Day holds memories of the horrific loss of life, the millions displaced from their homes, and the unthinkable: babies and toddlers accompanying their mothers into the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Flossenburg.

My first thought after reading the headline, “Help Is Needed, Say Consultants to City,“ was: “My gosh isn’t anyone thinking rationally about a baseball facility in Richmond?“ We are talking about a minor-league ballpark! I repeat: a minor-league ballpark! This is not Wrigley Field or Camden Yards. At present, only a double-A team has expressed interest in coming to Richmond. Nevertheless, the city is projecting a huge development in Shockoe Bottom. Further, the city now tells us this development will require taxpayer funding.

Editor, Times-Dispatch: I believe the idea of developing a virtual high school in Chesterfield has monumental importance. Given the opportunity, wouldn’t most teenagers opt to use a computer to get a high school degree rather than actually going to a live class? If this truly becomes cemented in stone, there would be many questions: Would the students still be able to participate in sports activities? Would they be able to go to the prom? Would they still be allowed to participate in all of the activities that have such long-lasting meanings to young people?

Editor, Times-Dispatch: Letter-writer James M. Trent, “It Is Time That the Good Guys Rode In,“ recalls the Western movies of his youth in which, to his surprise, a single bad man or small group could apparently take over an entire town, and he wonders why today the majority of common people do not rise up against those who are leading our country in the wrong direction.

Editor, Times-Dispatch: Why should anyone be surprised by the estimates that, given the choice of government-managed health insurance, 103 million Americans would opt into it rather than into privately managed alternatives? Simply put, the goal of a private, for-profit insurance plan is to make money. Health care is the product by which it seeks to make money. On the other hand, the goal of a Medicare-style program is to provide health care.

Editor, Times-Dispatch: There is talk of Congress disallowing health insurance premiums paid by employers as a deduction on corporate tax returns, in order to increase federal corporate tax revenues to pay for expansion of our national health coverage to those not presently covered. Whether this will work as planned, or backfire when employers decide to drop health coverage as a benefit, or backfire when employers increase salaries to now-covered employees and instruct them to pay their own health premiums, we don’t know.

Editor, Times-Dispatch: Thank you, thank you to Walter Williams for his excellent Op/Ed column, “Why Say African-American?“ My husband and I were born, brought up, and educated in Africa. Today we are U.S. citizens. Yet, when we introduce ourselves as African-Americans, most people react in an uncomfortable manner. Why? Because we are members of what Williams refers to as the 10 percent of Africa’s population that is white.

Editor, Times-Dispatch: Let me get this straight: If I buy a house I can’t afford, the taxpayers will help me with the payments. If I run a bank into the ground and get a golden parachute, the taxpayers will take over the company and pay for my parachute. If I run an insurance company into the ground, the taxpayers will pay the billions of dollars I lost. If I run an auto company into the ground and don’t ask the government for a handout, I will have to compete with a company paid for by the taxpayers. Where is the fairness?

Editor, Times-Dispatch: I read Leonard Pitts’ recent Op/Ed column, “How Do Christians Respond?“ with interest. In the third paragraph, Pitts notes that “beginning in 1980, as a mysterious and deadly new disease called AIDS began to rage through the homosexual community . . . the Christian church, with isolated exceptions, watched in silence.“

We are fortunate in Chesterfield to have a police force that is one of the finest in the country. Proof of that is the fact that incidents such as this so seldom occur in a county with a population of more than 300,000. Unfortunately, when these rare incidents do occur, Chesterfield does not have a structure in place to assure the public of a full, fair, and impartial investigation.

Freedom of the press is one of the founding principles of a free society and the press has many responsibilities—from providing information to being a watchdog over the government. The most important responsibility the press has is to provide information in times of crisis. However, lately, all of the media have been throwing around the word “pandemic” as if it were O.J. Simpson in his white bronco driving down an L.A. freeway.

Having been in the college planning business since 1995, I’d like to share a couple of thoughts: The biggest mistake families make is approaching the application and financial aid process separately. One can’t separate the two processes—they affect each other. Merit assistance, based on the qualities of the student, is almost always a part of the application process. So, the college application is not only critical because it determines acceptance, it also determines merit assistance.

I expect that a movie or television show that I don’t watch, and probably haven’t heard of, will have a throw-away line that people will latch onto as a guide: i.e., “Sexting is like for May Day or Valentine’s, it’s so totally the wrong time of the year right now.“ A vaguely remembered biblical reference, misquoted and arbitrarily applied, would help: “Dude, guys sexting guys is an Arbor Day thing, like naked praise dancing. You know, like, when David danced naked before the Ark of the Covenant. It’s in the Bible.“