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Published: October 10, 2009
Retail Alliance: Set the record straight
Recent articles in The News & Advance have detailed the Retail Alliance’s efforts to organize a chapter in the Lynchburg community. Each item has included derogatory statements voiced by representatives of the local Retail Merchants Association. A Sept. 29 letter to the editor presents two unfortunate and misguided notions: Lynchburg can accommodate just one retail business group, and the existing one is sufficient.
I would like to set the record straight on both counts. Retail Alliance only comes to communities where the organization is both needed and wanted. In the case of Lynchburg, local merchants became aware of the tremendous success we have achieved working for businesses in the Smith Mountain Lake area and suggested that the same experience would be welcome in Lynchburg.
They indicated that while some generic business products were available from local groups, the Retail Merchants Association was concentrating on scholarships.
We are disappointed that the Retail Merchants Association declined to partner with our organization to bring retail-specific products and programs to Lynchburg merchants.
It does not, however, diminish our resolve to provide small independent Lynchburg retailers with the opportunity to join an organization that can provide them a comprehensive set of resources to help them compete with large retail chains.
Retail Alliance offers local educational seminars and networking, HR consulting, a resource library, co-op advertising and a portfolio of discounted critical retail business services not currently available in the Lynchburg area.
Through our network of community-based councils we are able to help retailers address local issues, and create local campaigns to drive sales.
It is unfortunate that our effort to help local merchants is viewed as competition. On the contrary, by working together to strengthen retailers, the community will benefit.
That said, our invitation to partner with the Lynchburg organizations remains open. We have no interest in further battling our detractors or challenging false claims. Can Lynchburg support two such organizations? That’s for retailers who examine all options to decide.
SUSAN MILHOAN
President and CEO
Retail Alliance
Newport News
For Valentine
I am writing as a Liberty University student to express my support for Shannon Valentines re-election to the Virginia House of Delegates.
Valentine has a distinguished record of legislative accomplishment, including a solid record on issues that are important to my own faith.
In addition, Valentine is a dedicated leader. I have had the opportunity to meet with her personally on several occasions, and I believe that she is a committed, faithful, and intelligent individual who cares deeply about the people of Lynchburg, as well as students at Liberty.
Some of my fellow Liberty students will be tempted to take the easy route to voting; looking for candidates who have the correct letter at the end of their name. I hope my peers look beyond that designation. It’s time to do the research and choose the person who will best represent the interests of you as a student as well as the town that you are calling home.
I believe that person is Del. Shannon Valentine.
JAN DERVISH
Lynchburg
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Reader Reactions
Indy,
No worries. Fred is goign to perform some pagan rituals over on 5th street and ask Satan himself to help out!
A cosmic battle right here in the burg!
Indy,
One certainly would hope so.
Unfortunately, one side is highly organized and controlled, the other is not.
Time will tell.
Hey Fred, if there are 3800 on campus students from LU, voting in the election (according to this a.m.‘s paper), and they registered aprox. 8000 for the presidential race, many of whom live in the counties, don’t you think a city of 65,000 could block LU froming taking over city council?
The following comments are NOT offensive, vulgar and hateful and therefore should please Randolph:
“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way—all of them who have tried to secularize America—I point the finger in their face and say, “You helped this happen.“
So sweet, so gentle, so Christian!
Thank you, Fred. Your post is there, and observed by all. It has none of the attributes I suspect may have caused previous posts to be deleted. I would be surprised if this is deleted, but if it is, my apologies to you.
Randolph,
When you say “I believe the censorship results from usually offensive, sometimes vulgar, and always hateful references.“ you could not be more wrong.
You probably don’t know that JJ reads this forum assiduously (so I was advised by someone usually reliable I meet regularly in an underground garage!). Some months back JJ noticed remarks concerning him (?) he deemed threatening. He notified the LUPD who then alerted the LPD. The poster was arrested and now serves jail time, if I am not mistaken.
Cosmo made some remarks that so infuriated JJ that he made his displeasure known. Cosmo and ALL his posts were vaporized immediately and he has been like the Wandering Jew ever since. All advertising from LU/TRBC vanished for several months. LU athletes were told not to speak to N&A reporters.
Everybody knows the precarious financial condition of newspapers. The N&A just cannot antagonize one of its biggest advertisers and I sympathize with their plight.
A few days ago, two nearly identical posts I had made about an article in the Liberty Champion went down the “Memory Hole”. Have you read that article?
In it, JJ complained bitterly of what he perceived was the unfairness with which he felt the City treated LU. His statement implied that after he takes over City Council, thanks to his students, LU would become a “world class university”. That is what I reported.
He added that [then] his students would be proud to display their diplomas. I just recounted that when Richard Dawkins held a Q&A session after his lecture at Randolph Macon, attended en masse by LU students, he made fun of LU’s claim that the Earth is 6,000 years old (obviously laughable) and recommended that those LU students go to a “real” university (that bestows diplomas they can be proud of).
My comments were not offensive, vulgar, or hateful, but factual. But that’s precisely the point: there are people who do not want facts to be known, they feel threatened by them and they will do all it takes to have them eradicated.
On the other hand, I have also been reprinting remarks made by JS and Pat Robertson that any objective observer would find offensive, vulgar and hateful. But perhaps not you?
Do you remember this one, for example:
“If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being.“
So sweet, so gentle, so Christian!
I am e-mailing this post to you in case it gets vaporized before you have a chance to read it.
Fred, old man, it is tediously apparent that you believe that denigrating references to Liberty University and the Falwell family are censored. I personally do not believe it. I believe the censorship results from usually offensive, sometimes vulgar, and always hateful references. Please stop with this dumb stuff of cutely censoring your own remarks. Let me handle this for you.
I am truly humbled to see the lyricism I am generating.
“Scoop” Malone here, reporting from the Fifth Street Roundabout.
Today’s top story: Atheist flight from the City to the counties, in the wake of LU’s announcement that it will encourage its student body to participate in council elections.
Let’s get an “Athiest on the street” opinion about this.
Scoop: “Sir! Sir! Quit circling the roundabout over and over in your panic, and talk to me! What’s your name?“
Fred (out of breath): “ ... Fred ... “
Scoop: “What do you think about this announcement from LU?“
Fred: “Mon Dieu! Sacre bleu!“
Scoop: “Huh. Thought he was an atheist. Oh well, back to you in the studio.“
Indy,
The Founding Fathers, in their wildest dreams, could not have imagined that Americans would, one day, become so (censored), (censored), (censored), (censored), and, of course, (censored).
Do you see, in Lynchburg, people willing to stand up against the (censored) and their (censored)(censored)? I don’t. All I see are apathetic (authorized?) and/or scared (authorized?) people who are so (censored) they cannot even handle a traffic circle!
The Founding Fathers would, no doubt, be appalled.
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