Sunday, October 28, 2007
Convince Boucher to protect mountains
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Convince Boucher to protect mountains
The tops of our mountains are being blown off in Southwest Virginia by coal companies, with the debris clogging and covering the streams. We just cannot let this practice continue.
Please ask Rep. Rick Boucher to support the Clean Water Protection Act, H.R. 2169, and protect our beautiful mountains rather than supporting fossil fuel production and destroying our mountains and streams in the process.
Our mountains cannot be replaced. Alternatives to coal must be supported and utilized.
Letter generates much hate mail
I am the wife of Colin Brown and an American by birth. Since his letter ("Things are better across the pond," Oct. 12) was published, we have received hate mail and phone calls asking us to leave Roanoke and the United States. So much for tolerance and free speech.
The headline was chosen by The Roanoke Times, not by Colin. However, we were told by one lady that we should have told the newspaper not to run the title. But we didn't see the heading until it was published.
The sentence "The USA is sick" is being misconstrued. Colin meant that we have become a nation of drug takers, in a lot of cases propelled by the commercials on TV. Ten years ago drug companies weren't allowed to advertise on TV. Now we learn about erectile dysfunction while we're having our breakfast or dinner.
To Kent Cartner, author of the letter "If it's better elsewhere, why not stay?" (Oct. 20), I hope you never say something that someone disagrees with. You better have your bags packed and ready to go.
At this rate, Roanoke is going to become an empty, lonely town.
Wiley Drive is too important to close
I was disappointed by the planning commission's recent decision to allow the removal of Wiley Drive and the clear-cutting of many of the 100-year-old shade trees in Wasena Park.
When the commissioners were informed of several recreation-related issues resulting from the elimination of Wiley Drive and approximately 60 to 90 parking spaces located along that road, the city's Recreation Department indicated that maybe the city should consider preparing a master recreation plan for Wasena Park.
With only weeks before this project is scheduled to begin, there are serious questions on impacts and whether any alternatives exist that would meet the objectives of the flood-control project while protecting one of the few public places in the valley where visitors can enjoy shady, convenient and peaceful access to the Roanoke River.
Unfortunately, the bulldozers don't come equipped with erasers and you can't replant a 100-year-old shade tree once you cut it down.
The commission simply approved the Wiley Drive closure without offering to explore the potential impacts or possible alternatives that could serve to reduce the adverse impacts of this project on the park and the park users.
See KeepTheRoad.blogspot.com for more info.
Can't expect privacy with phone records
Your editors want us to believe ("Wireless companies bow to investigators," editorial, Oct. 20) that the Bush administration violates our right to privacy by soliciting phone records from Verizon, et al. That's misguided and misleading.
Business records belong to the business, not the customer.
By dialing the phone, we voluntarily expose our contact patterns to a "witness," our phone company. The contact record is kept for billing and other business purposes.
It is unreasonable to believe the Bush administration has nothing better to do than to examine the calling patterns of 300 million Americans out of simple nosiness.
After 9/11, Congress told us the program, properly used, is a necessary tool to help keep us all as safe as possible. What's changed?
Even before 9/11, dialed number information of persons under federal investigation was producible by subpoena from phone companies in court (without search warrants). Since companies aren't being searched for evidence of their own misconduct, why should we allow them to conceal evidence of another's crimes?
Terrorism is a mix of criminal and political activity and is a unique problem because political activity, the essence of a republic, is valuable, unless it's a "clear and present danger."
Government can bug my phone any time
I see that the ultraliberal editorial page editor Dan Radmacher continues to pick over any subject that he feels could discredit our country's president.
The editorial "Wireless companies bow to investigators" (Oct. 20) tries to give the impression that someone from the Bush administration is using an "emergency situation" to listen to phone calls (wireless or otherwise) and force companies to provide recordings to the administration.
My opinion is that Radmacher wishes you to think that the administration is listening to you talk to your momma, girlfriend or hooker or broker an illegal business deal. If he has any evidence of such a call being listened to, I would ask him to provide said conversation.
I have nothing to hide and invite the government to put a bug on my phone any time.
Hey people, we are talking about phone calls to and from potential terrorists.
Personally, I do not believe our government is concerned with who you may have gone out with last night. But any chance to blast President Bush is to Radmacher's liking. God help us.
Election season: Must be time for distortions
It is election time again, that remarkable run-up to elections when the misuse of the English language and video clips twists meanings and reality in a "willing suspension of disbelief," to quote the shameful words spoken by Hillary Clinton recently.
Stories and lies about the candidates and their opponents flourish and people are asked to vote their best judgment based on that misinformation.
One example is the campaign for state senator where the good doctor Mike Breiner, a plastic surgeon who treated a local celebrity, can now cure all the problems in our state. Former Mayor Ralph Smith is going to take your health care away from you, according to another ad. Really? I think not.
It seems to me that we need more good doctors and fewer politicians with false promises.
We should be conserving water
Area officials and Cody Lowe, who wrote the article "Water levels in Roanoke Valley not at a crisis point yet" (Oct. 16), need to read The Roanoke Times and/or watch The Weather Channel.
Many residents of the Roanoke Valley and indeed throughout the Southeastern states are trying to encourage water conservation, but articles such as Lowe's attempt to reassure us that we have nothing to worry about.
If reading the newspaper or watching The Weather Channel doesn't convince you, I suggest a trip to Carvins Cove (12 feet down) or the Roanoke River (mostly rocks and grass and very little water).
Many other articles advise ways for each of us to conserve as much as we can: not watering an established lawn, or limited household use or car wash use.
I hope Kevin Myatt is correct in his column "Much-needed rainfall appears headed our way" (Oct. 17). In the meantime, we had better save what little we have for a rainy day.
