Opinion

Keep the Memorial going

    The headlines of both the Roanoke Times and The News&Advance read “National D-Day Memorial at risk of closing.”(May29, 2009. ) As a volunteer of the Memorial and a citizen of Bedford County I implore the residents of Central Virginia not to let that happen.

Liberty University decided last week to remove its financial support of the LU College Democrats group, a move that seems in keeping with the pro-life and pro-family principles the college espouses. In fact, the university appears to be bending over backwards to make some accommodation for the group, but, apparently, to little avail.

    Like a dazed dragon you thought you’d slain, former vice president Dick Cheney has arisen from the muck and the ruin of the Bush administration to become the new spokesman for something he really believes in: torture.

    Republicans may have thought they had it bad enough when their only spokesman seemed to be radio fanatic Rush Limbaugh. Now they’re saddled with the angry and smug countenance of a man many of them are horrified to see as the new face of their party.

Republicans and Democrats alike should at least be able to give President Obama credit for stating this truth about the abortion debate to the 2009 Notre Dame graduating class Sunday: “No matter how much we want to fudge it ... the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable.”

Amazingly each year there is a national immigration ‘lottery’ by which approximately 50,000 foreign nationals get green cards to become legal permanent residents of the U.S.  Each successful applicant is chosen at random and given permanent resident status based on pure luck. The visa lottery program threatens national security, results in the unfair administration of our immigration laws, and encourages a cottage industry for fraudulent opportunists. 

Only a few weeks remain now until Virginia Democrats must pick their nominee for governor to face Republican Attorney General Bob McDonnell in the fall.

    The paper’s policy forbids a direct endorsement of any candidate by its correspondents and writers, and I’m happy to abide by that. But I can tell you what many Democrats are weighing as they consider whether to select state senator Creigh Deeds, former delegate Brian Moran, and former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe.

The temperatures are up, the sunscreen is out and the boats are back in full force at Smith Mountain Lake.

    National Safe Boating Week is May 16 – 22, which makes now the right time to remind boaters to be safe on the water. “First and foremost, boaters need to think about life jackets and plan to wear them,” a release from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries states. Why? Because a significant number of boaters who lose their lives by drowning each year would be alive today had they worn their life jackets.

Starting last week and continuing through the end of May, Social Security recipients in the 5th District will see some economic relief as $250 economic recovery payments are sent out. Nearly $37.5 million dollars will be put directly back in the pockets of 5th District residents. The payments, which were provided by the American Recovery Act and Reinvestment Act, started to go out on May 7 with the goal of all the payments being sent out by the end of May.

    I will be in the meeting room at the Moneta Library from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday May 16. 

    I hope you will come to discuss any topic of your choosing.  By that time we will have made what may be our final filing with FERC on the re-licensing of the Smith Mountain Project.  The County is continuing the work on the rewrite if the Zoning Ordinance.