Letters to the Editor for Sunday, February 5, 2012

Closing CVTC a dangerous step to take

I commend The News & Advance on the Jan. 29 editorial regarding the eventual closure of the Central Virginia Training Center.

My question is, “Have the governor and members of the U.S. Department of Justice visited all areas of this facility?” Meeting personnel in an office is different from standing beside the bed or wheelchair of a child with a diagnosis that makes it impossible for the parents to care for their loved one at home.

Fifty-eight years ago as a psychology student of Lynchburg College, our class visited the school (then called The Colony) and saw the heart-breaking sights — scaphocephaly children (elongated head), brachycephaly (very wide head) and children so thin they could not possibly walk … all incapacitated and totally helpless. There was one Siamese, one body from waist down and two bodies from waist up, destined to die. There were others too deformed and disfigured to describe. Mentally retarded children and adults and hydrocephaly people (water on the brain) who could conceivably live in some kind of controlled community home, but the type of children for whom parents are unable to give care and could not possibly exist outside a very protected and controlled facility such as CVTC.

It is all about money and budgets when it should be about these rare disabilities and how best they can be accommodated for the short time they have to live.

CVTC has been in operation for many years, caring for people who cannot exist in a normal environment. The staff who give loving care to the residents are to be commended. It is not a happy environment in which to labor. The faith community and all Virginians need to join with parents to keep this facility in operation for the care and protection of people who have no other place to die. Closing the facility is close to government-initiated euthanasia.

E.P. WEEKS

Lynchburg

Editor’s note: Weeks is a bishop emeritus in the Charismatic Episcopal Church.

Garrett and jobs

Del. Scott Garrett has been refusing to answer a constituent’s simple, clear question: How many jobs does he project to create with his legislation? In past months, Garrett held several town hall meetings, and in each one, said the most important concern on his constituents’ minds was “jobs, jobs, and jobs.”

Let’s see how many jobs we might expect from Garrett’s legislative proposals:

» HB 505: Increases the amount of the credit an individual may claim for long-term care insurance premiums from 15 percent to 30 percent of the amount of the premiums paid — 0 jobs.

» HB 506: Defines “surgery” — 0 jobs.

» HB 507: Increases the period of time during which a physician may make a finding that an infant is a substance exposed infant from seven to 30 days — 0 jobs.

» HB 508: Synthetic cannabinoids — 0 jobs.

» HB 509: Recordation tax — 0 jobs.

» HB 552: Replaces the terms “mental retardation” and “mental deficiency” with the term “intellectual disability” — 0 jobs.

» HB 1194: Farm wineries and vineyards tax credit — some jobs, perhaps?

» HJ 81: Commending JF soccer team — 0 jobs.

Where are the jobs? Even a handful would be a positive thing, but I see none in this package of bills.

Garrett’s constituents are ill-served by his holding town hall meetings and belaboring the point that jobs are his foremost concern, but yet proposing legislation that has no promise of any jobs for constituents.

ED MCCANN JR.

Lynchburg

Unfair column

Jonah Goldberg’s Jan. 30 column/diatribe, “Obama’s vision for Spartan America,” has been a misconception of facts to a point of disgust.

President Obama’s praise of the military had been long overdue. Military cohesion and credibility represented a simple example of what America could accomplish when all are working together for the common good.

Nowhere in Obama’s State of the Union was there inference to the creation of a martial or police governance. Obama’s “Promise of American Life” may be the blueprint taken from the World War II era with high employment rate and all-American common goal.

It’s amusing to find a person twisting free information to suit his own agenda.

ALBERT E. GRANGER

Lynchburg