Lottery should pull in plenty for schools

What is it with politicians who want to raise taxes that they have to bring in education?

Is it because we will most likely crumble under the fuzzy feeling we are supposed to get when we talk about our children?

I would ask Gov. Bob McDonnell where the money generated by the lottery has gone.

We should have schools in Virginia that look like palaces and teachers taken from pools of the Einstein Institute.

And what is it with taxing automobiles? Good Lord. We pay taxes to buy 'em, own 'em, drive 'em, gas 'em, inspect 'em and on the roads. It's approaching silliness on resorting to taxing those who drive.

We pay almost half in taxes on a lottery win. What is the state doing with it?

KEITH CARVER
VINTON


Photo ID's a solution in search of a problem

The GOP General Assembly has been very busy this session trying to rig future elections its way.

The latest attempt, which has passed and well may be signed by the governor, is to require a photo ID to vote.

A wallet full of other identification won't suffice. Even the Virginia voter ID cards the state just sent out won't be valid.

Election officials will provide a lengthy bureaucratic alternative.

Many Virginians without a driver's license, the photo ID most people carry, will be disenfranchised. Who will they be? Young people who don't own a car yet, people too old to drive safely, people who can't afford to buy and maintain a car, people in cities who use mass transit, people who have a disability, the elderly in facilities, etc.

The devious GOP correctly figures most of these people would vote Democratic.

Their phony justification, to skirt constitutional and voting rights issues, is to claim photo ID will prevent voter impersonation.

I have been reading The Roanoke Times more than 30 years, and I can't recall reading about even one prosecution for voter impersonation.

BRYAN WALKER
ROANOKE

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