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In his April 14 commentary, "Virginia failed its taxpayers with intermodal decision," Michael Hemphill missed the entire point of the issue of whether Norfolk Southern Corp., aided and abetted by the state, will force an intermodal freight station on the citizens of Montgomery County against our will.

He wrote, "Montgomery County officials have fought the good fight and represented the county's residents well."

No, they have not fought the good fight, nor have they represented the county's residents well. The board of supervisors sent four resolutions to the governor and legislature, and never received so much as a reply. Issuing resolutions to higher powers is not governing -- it's begging -- and the resolutions achieved nothing.

On Feb. 12, 2007, citizens of eastern Montgomery County presented to supervisors an ordinance that would prevent Norfolk Southern from wielding eminent domain and trampling the will of citizens and supervisors. The supervisors have refused to even consider it.

Shortly after Citizens for the Preservation of Our Countryside presented the ordinance to supervisors, attorneys with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which drafted the ordinance, two Elliston residents and I met with Supervisors Steve Spradlin and Gary Creed, County Administrator Clay Goodman and County Attorney Marty McMahon.

We discussed the ordinance for an hour and a half. Spradlin, Creed and Goodman asked good questions, which were answered to their satisfaction by the legal defense fund's attorneys. McMahon refused to participate in the discussion.

Goodman took notes so that he could present a recap of the meeting to the supervisors, but he later told me he was not able to present his report. The result is that the supervisors lack the legal information to make an informed decision on the ordinance that would prevent this corporate assault on Montgomery County.

The county attorney works for the board of supervisors. His job -- his only job -- is to advise them, not to dictate their actions. In not insisting that Goodman present his report on our meeting, the supervisors failed in their responsibility to the citizens.

Hemphill wrote, "If Montgomery County chooses to sue to stop the project because it thinks it can win, then I offer my unqualified support."

A lawsuit would be a waste of our tax dollars. It would fail.

Hemphill wrote, "If at some point Montgomery County officials determine they've done all they can legally do, then mitigation may be more effective than litigation."

Mitigating -- simply making harms less harmful -- is not governing. For elected officials, governing is acting on behalf of and with the consent of the governed.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights states, "That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them."

The Montgomery County Anti-Corporate Takings and Securing Local Self-Governance Ordinance would protect every municipality in the county from corporate assaults such as the Norfolk Southern intermodal horror in Elliston and the Wal-Mart in Blacksburg.

It's time for supervisors to use the power we, the people, have bestowed upon them and act on our behalf and according to our will.

It's time for the supervisors to advertise the ordinance, hold a public hearing and vote to enact it.

Shireen Parsons, of Christiansburg, is Virginia community organizer for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.