Letters to the Editor for Thursday, December 3, 2009

Pick new councilman in the open
Several meetings ago, Lynchburg City Council talked about transparency and openness. However, during the Nov. 24 meeting, when council was to make a decision on how to choose a replacement to fill Scott Garrett’s seat, any transparency was missing.

To our city’s embarrassment, a lot of bickering went on between some of the council members. Some of them made not-so-nice comments to fellow council members. At the end of the discussion, a 4-3 vote decided that Garrett’s replacement would be made completely in private. No transparency here.

Last fall we were promised openness and transparency from Washington. We now know that is not what’s happening. Thus the town hall meetings and tea parties. The mood of the country is changing now. Just as the public across the country wants transparency, so do the citizens of Lynchburg. It would benefit Council to change the way replacements were made in the past.

If they want to keep it in private, I would ask council why Garrett isn’t the one to choose his replacement.

I urge everyone to call or write council members in their wards and all the at-large seats. Let them know that just as the electorate chooses their council members on election day, so should the electorate be informed about what goes on in this process. Ask them not to make this a decision for personal reasons but one that benefits the entire city by choosing someone qualified to step into the position.

Go to www.lynchburgva.gov to find addresses and telephone numbers.
CAROLE VanBLARICAN
Lynchburg

In the open, guys
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but I am! I agree, 100 percent, with Mark Peake, the man I once considered to be the embodiment of all that is deceitfully wrong with local politics, and the views he expressed in his Nov. 29 letter to the editor.

And I especially commend him for his use of the word “outrageous” to describe City Council’s plan to pick Scott Garrett’s successor secretly.

I hereby demand to know how a person can get his or her name in the ‘hat’ and be given a democratic opportunity to serve on Lynchburg’s City Council. I tolerate secrecy in Washington, D.C., because it is so far away and the police presence there is so intimidating. But Lynchburg is not D.C. ... or is it?
DOUGLAS THOM III
Lynchburg

No Christian terrorist
In his Nov. 30 column, Darrell Laurant writes, “Christianity has produced its share of terrorists, I reminded her — the Timothy McVeighs and the Ku Klux Klansmen, among others.”

It is true that McVeigh requested Last Rites when strapped to the gurney for his lethal injection. However, CNN and the United Kingdom newspaper The Guardian reported independently that throughout his adult life, and certainly during the bombing, McVeigh was an agnostic. McVeigh was many things, but a “Christian terrorist” he was not.
CAREY MARTIN
Forest