Letters to the Editor for Friday, July 3, 2009

Writer: Perriello out of touch with district
I have just one thing to say to Rep. Tom Perriello: How dare you sir! You have forgotten that, as a congressman, you are elected to voice the will of those you represent. We citizens of the Fifth District no longer have a voice in Congress. You have fallen to the will of your party and not of your people. If you had been paying any attention, you would realize that you represent other voters outside the “People’s Republic of Charlottesville.”

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In fact you represent one of the more depressed parts of the state. Lynchburg’s unemployment rate increased to 7.7 percent, Danville is at 14.7 percent and Martinsville is at a staggering 21.9 percent. These areas have been devastated by tobacco regulation and the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs. With you voting for the cap and trade energy bill (i.e. carbon tax), what jobs are left in this region will soon be gone.

If you beg to differ, please come speak with us. We all would like to know what you were thinking.

Just sign me “Taxed without representation.”
DANNY JAMES
Lynchburg

Closed rest stops
Thanks to The News & Advance for the timely editorial on the VDOT proposal to close rest stops on Virginia’s interstates — you just don’t go far enough.

VDOT claims it can save $10 million by closing 19 rest stops. That works out to $526,316 in annual savings per location. Wow. How many attendants and grass cutters will be fired to realize those savings?

My guess is none. But how else is this estimate of savings reached? Do we have as many as 10 attendants, grass cutters, and poop picker-uppers at each stop, earning $50,000 plus each per year? And how much will the new signs and barriers cost, offsetting the savings?

Kid me not! VDOT is resorting to the oldest bureaucratic trick in the book: When forced to trim a budget, cut the item that will cause the most inconvenience to the public. The management of VDOT and its overseers — right up to the governor — should be fired for this scam!

What credibility do they have when they whine about not having enough money to maintain our transportation infrastructure? (I ask this as a graduate civil engineer.)

When I next travel on I-81 and feel the call of nature, I look forward to relieving myself on one of the new barriers.
ROBERT BATCHELDER
Lynchburg

Social separatism
On Saturday, June 20, in Lynchburg, a city engaged in a community-wide Dialogue on Race and Racism, a largely white crowd celebrated the history of James River batteaux that contributed significantly to their ancestors’ prosperity, largely at the expense of slave labor.

At the same time, a largely black crowd gathered at the Legacy Museum of African American History to celebrate Juneteenth, the end of slavery in the United States, and to honor the contributions by many black American men and women who fought for American principles of freedom and justice even when those rights were denied them at home.
CARLA W. HEATH
Lynchburg