Opinion

he county’s students are back in school and an event last week reminds us of how important it is to take extra care on the roads.

    Less than a week into the school year an elementary student was hit crossing the road to get on a bus. On Thursday morning a 17-year-old driver, traveling in the opposite direction of the bus on Route 757 in Goodview, struck the 9-year-old student. There’s too much at stake for us not to take the extra precautions that are needed.

It’s been quite an August. Over the course of the month, I’ve had the privilege of holding 21 town hall meetings throughout the 5th District – more than any other Member of Congress in the country. In total, nearly 5,000 people participated and the average length of each meeting was three hours. The topic of healthcare was definitely the number one concern, although people also brought up education, jobs, the federal deficit, and our nation’s energy policy.

    The death of Senator Edward Kennedy, however not unexpected, has nonetheless left many of us with the familiar feeling that all our best heroes are dead or dying.

    As one friend of mine put it when we were discussing his death last week, it seems that all of our lives we’ve been burying Kennedys. It’s been possible to feel, sometimes, that with each death we’ve lost a lot of our hopes for the country and the world. But that’s not what any of the Kennedy brothers would have wanted.

Virginia is now facing a fourth round of cuts to the state general fund budget in a year. This time the cuts are being estimated at $1.5 billion. It shouldn’t have been that much.

As I continue visiting every county in the 5th District throughout the August recess, I continue to get feedback and questions from constituents about health care reform. Specifically, our neighbors want to know how health insurance reform will help rural America. Our rural areas have almost five percent higher uninsured rate than urban areas, and the current recession means more people are losing access to their employer-based health coverage.

    President Barack Obama has bent over backwards to try and be “bipartisan” about health care reform. From the beginning of his administration, and on every single issue, this president has made what most consider a noble effort to get support for his policies from the other party.

Reason to be proud

    Bedford has reason to be proud! As we watch the disruptive Town Hall meetings across the country, we can point with pride to the recent meeting held at Bedford Elementary School by  our representative in the Fifth District, Tom Perriello.

    Although he had expected to meet with constitutions on a one-to-one basis, he found over three hundred people waiting at the school to be heard.

    It has been wisely written that “volunteers are unpaid not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless.”   This column provides information on volunteer opportunities in our area, most require no special skills.  To submit information for your non-profit group, contact Mary Wiley, Bedford Community Health Foundation, at 586-5292 or info@healthybedford.org.

    Rick Howell should stop listening to Rush Limbaugh. Judging from the tone of his frequent references to Limbaugh in The Liberal Agenda, Limbaugh’s radio program obviously raises Mr. Howell’s blood pressure to dangerous levels. Like me, Mr. Howell is over 50, and it’s really risky for guys our age to get that upset. He’s liable to give himself a heart attack.