Saturday, November 24, 2007
Guns on campus increase insecurity
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Guns on campus increase insecurity
Bradford Wiles, in his commentary "Gun bans defy common sense" (Nov. 19), appears to envision a safe and secure college or university campus as one where students are armed.
I beg to differ. Far from making a campus secure, classrooms and dormitories filled with gun-toting students would experience heightened insecurity and lack of safety, with the possibility of many gun accidents and even impulsive acts of violence.
Such a paranoid Wild West atmosphere would by definition be antithetical to the development of true communities of peaceful reflection and learning.
When it comes to taxes, look to California
The article "Reassessments shock Franklin Co. residents" (Nov. 17) regarding real estate tax increases and the subsequent impact on citizens is becoming all too frequent in Virginia. Our elected officials continue the reassessment debacle every few years. When each little podunk governmental entity has the power to levy taxes, abuse of public funds and out-of-control spending is the result.
California threw out the reassessment fiasco 25 to 30 years ago because elderly people were being forced out of their homes due to out-of-control tax increases. The citizens of California finally had their fill and passed Proposition 13, which controlled taxes on real estate.
Basically, it froze taxes on all real estate forever, or until the real estate was sold. There were no new reassessments. The tax rate statewide was set at 1 percent and it is still 1 percent statewide.
The example of William Broaddus' tax situation is a prime example of out-of-control taxes and a system that is broken. A 2,000 percent increase in 33 years is, I would be willing to bet, a considerably larger increase than his income during the same period.
Will Roanokers ever think ideas through?
In response to the recent controversy over the art museum:
Some very obvious things need to be pointed out. First, the museum is near completion, so the saying "You can't unwind that clock" pertains.
Second, the concept and design were brilliant but placement wasn't. Unlike the characters portrayed in the recent cartoon, you are unable to stand across the street and take in the entire beauty of the building.
And third, not everyone in the valley is an art enthusiast and will never visit or will visit once. Deleting the IMAX theater and the foot traffic it would have attracted was a fatal mistake.
To see such poor planning over and over like this is inexcusable. As no one listened then, no one listens now. Examples of poor planning are the newer Roanoke airport, Valley View and Explore Park. Building the airport farther out, with plenty of room to expand the runways, would have accommodated larger planes and therefore offered lower rates with more choices to fly.
When will the people in charge of these projects begin to use common sense? We have great ideas, like the amphitheater, but we do not think them through to a tangible and workable completion.
Just who are these respected scientists?
Diane Christopulos' commentary "Even ExxonMobil acknowledges warming risk" (Nov. 13) and Tom Teepen's column "Warming is real; only a fool would ignore it" (Oct. 28) follow the same method of dealing with those who hold views contrary to theirs on global warming.
Their position is that a vast consensus of scientists consider the debate finished on whether climate change is manmade. They never mention who the scientists are that mold the consensus. Instead, they attack the credibility of anyone seeking to renew the debate they declared over before it was ever held.
Teepen did it berating the White House. Christopulos explicitly attacked the reputation of Dr. Fred Singer. A Princeton Ph.D in physics, he is professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project. He has authored many books, the latest of which is "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years," a literary hair shirt for nonscientists like Christopulos and Teepen.
Christopulos says that in taking their money, Singer works for corporations such as ExxonMobil and others. She needs to know that scholars, particularly researchers, accept grants from many sources for their work, without being obligated to report favorably on the grantor.
