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Boucher sells out to big coal interests

Rep. Rick Boucher has sold his soul to big coal. His new masters are now Amherst Corp., Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, Consol Energy, Foundation Coal, Joy Global (mining equipment), the National Mining Association and Westmoreland Coal.

These are the interests that are giving him money to support his coal to liquid fuels initiative in the U.S. Congress.

Coal to liquid fuels is a complicated industrial process that produces a fuel that when burned spews at least as much carbon dioxide into the air as does conventional diesel fuel.

Added to this atmospheric burden is an equal amount of greenhouse gases emitted during the process of converting coal to a liquid.

What Boucher is proposing is that we taxpayers subsidize the coal industry with $10 billion of loan supports and price guarantees to get this dirty industry off the ground, and consequently into the air.

The U.S. has been down a similar road before with the federally funded Synthetic Fuels Corp. that chewed through tens of billions of dollars before it was abandoned as a complete failure in 1985.

What Virginia needs is not a congressman who looks to a 19th century fuel for our 21st century needs.

Council decisions keep getting worse

I am appalled that city council has decided to put a new amphitheater on the Victory Stadium site. What was the purpose of paying a consulting firm to investigate options only to ignore their recommendations? Common sense would say it's ridiculous to build anything in a flood plain.

I, for one, am sick of my tax dollars paying for things that make no sense -- first that horrific museum that sticks out like a sore thumb and now this terrible decision.

Perhaps it's time to clear out city council and start from scratch before more damage is done.

We don't vote because it really doesn't matter

In her June 22 letter to the editor "Bell is proof: One vote could make a difference," Debbie Bell wonders why more people don't vote. There is a very simple answer. It's pointless. No matter who is voted out or voted in, nothing seems to improve.

Bell laments that people leave behind their families, offices and incomes to "make positive changes in people's lives." That good intention may be there initially, but obviously it leaves shortly after arriving in Richmond.

In Virginia, we have hungry children, homeless families, families with little or no health care, gangs moving into every area, roads that are a joke, workplace laws that are so antiquated that hard-working people have little or no protection from money-hungry employers, illegals who can neither read nor speak English driving 20-ton trucks through our towns, and mom-and-pop businesses going under every day while foreign-owned businesses are growing like weeds.

The list goes on, yet our elected representatives spend their time helping the big companies get bigger and their rich campaign contributors get richer and/or pushing their own senile, arid, pet projects.

Why, Mrs. Bell, should we waste our time or our gas to vote? Nothing is going to improve.

Another source to sort religion and science

I would like to thank Tom Taylor for his fine commentary on June 12 on "Evolution, creation and evil."

Anyone who would like more information on these subjects can get a detailed study in a book by Dr. Henry M. Morris. The title of the book is "The Biblical Basis for Modern Science." He has written over 25 books.

Morris was chairman of the civil engineering department at Virginia Tech for 13 years.

Yes, why not adopt Central Park rules?

Nancy Dowdy's June 19 letter to the editor, "The gift of a mountain is best left untouched," could raise another possibility.

She rightly compared our city jewel, Mill Mountan, to New York City's Central Park. She said, "The parallel is unmistakable. Roanoke has a unique piece of real estate at its disposal. Central Park or Gatlinburg? It's a no-brainer."

We could look at it this way.

Roanoke, like New York, could be sure that the mountain is carefully protected and made available to all residents for exercise, enjoyment of beauty and nature, and to enhance our quality of life. A real sanctuary for body and soul.

We could, like New York, enact laws and allow absolutely no commercial development on the premises, except one totally unique and memorable eating establishment. In New York, that is of course their famous Tavern on the Green.

Wouldn't folks come from far and wide to Roanoke to feast and enjoy and make famous a Tavern on the Mountain?

Smith's stubborn ways would follow to Senate

It is encouraging to read that Gov. Tim Kaine will again champion a smoking ban now that Brandon Bell cannot directly advocate the issue in the General Assembly.

The June 17 news article "Anti-smoking advocates regroup" demonstrates that Senate candidate Ralph Smith, along with the equally recalcitrant House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, would only put ideology over the health needs of the many by waiting for small businesses to create a smoking ban.

As second-hand smoke, which makes it twice as likely that our children will develop ear infections, pneumonia and asthma, continues to affect our health, Smith and Griffith remain stubborn.

What voters will find in Sen. Smith would be the same unyielding elected official who declined to compromise with Roanoke City Council.

Michael Breiner, as the father of two children, worries that the General Assembly isn't passing enough commonsense health legislation that would make the environment his children inhabit a safer place.

It is time for Breiner to take the compassion that he has demonstrated in the medical field to the Senate.

I encourage every voter who supported Bell on June 12 to vote for a man with character, not a stranger to reason and compromise.

Thanks to columnist, family cracks the books

Thanks so much for adding Linda Whitlock's column to your Thursday newspaper.

Whitlock's May 24 column "Give kids the gift of reading" both stepped on my toes and spurred me to action.

Thanks to her, my kids have been limited on their plug-ins this summer (TV, video games, computer, etc.). Instead, at her suggestion, we are actually reading -- a lot.

I find Whitlock's columns well-documented and thought-provoking. She clearly puts both energy and intellect into each piece.

Bravo on the addition to The Roanoke Times.

Serve a noxious weed violation on the city

It's awesome that Roanoke is creating greenways. When the one by the Roanoke River at Bennington Street was developed, many local residents were excited to see the beauty of a trail with new trees and beautiful fencing.

In recent weeks, this space has been neglected and the grass is more than 1 to 2 feet tall. With the amount of money spent, how quickly it's been neglected.

Not one of the other greenways looks like this. It should be an embarrassment to those in charge of grounds maintenance.

Another interesting aspect are the signs put up by the city on residential properties stating a "weed violation," yet the grass is nowhere near the height of the weeds along this section of greenway.

By summer's end, it will likely be an even greater eyesore, as the grass will be so high one will be unable to enjoy the river flowing by because it's hidden completely from view.

How about snakes and other critters lurking in the tall grass?

Is it too much to ask to take the jungle out of the city?