Tuesday, November 16
Giving voice to the beakless
While the drive-through window remained busy, a pair of young activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals appeared outside the Emmet Street KFC this noon, dangling rubber chickens and holding signs that read “KFC tortures chickens” and “Boycott KFC.” Activist Kat Erdel wore a flat-screen television playing a message from “Golden Girl” Bea Arthur denouncing KFC’s animal abuse. The other activist, Ben Goldsmith, who said Charlottesville is the first stop on an 18-city PETA tour to encourage boycotts of KFC, further alleged that KFC suppliers cram thousands of chickens into small sheds and de-feather living birds by dipping them in scalding water. “We want people to know that KFC has done nothing to stop these cruelties,” he said.
Wednesday, November 17
UVA charter linked to improved economy
Speaking to more than 100 UVA employees and faculty in UVA’s new Special Collections Library, President John T. Casteen III again laid out the University’s case for increased autonomy from the State. The charter campaign, which is joined by William & Mary and Virginia Tech, will go to the General Assembly in January. Casteen was highly critical of the State’s decade-long economic abandonment of UVA and argued that increased autonomy would permit the school to better fund the kind of research that eventually leads to high-tech jobs. Speaking to C-VILLE, Casteen said: “When you have the kind of economic disaster that the Southside is going through now, for instance, if you’re an educator, especially at this place, and you don’t tell people what’s going on, then you have another kind of problem.”
Thursday, November 18
Road lovers will have to wait
Convening at the Omni Hotel for two days of pre-session budget brainstorming, the State Senate’s Finance Committee heard that this year’s budget surplus, projected to be near $1 billion, could be mostly accounted for by the time the legislative session begins January 12. Although Governor Mark R. Warner cites long under-funded VDOT projects as a priority, Senate budget guru John H. Chichester does not support using general funds for transportation, according to The Washington Post. It seems unlikely that in an election year there will be enthusiasm for raising the gas tax either, another proposed means of funding road projects.
Friday, November 19
Another school bus accident
For the second time in one month, an Earlysville Road vehicular mishap sent worried parents rushing from work to an accident scene and some children to the hospital to have minor injuries checked out. Shortly after 4:20 this afternoon, a stopped school bus was rear-ended by Earlysville resident Arthur Pearson, who was driving an SUV. Last month, near the scene of today’s accident, a bus driver ran into a ditch, causing the school bus to overturn. There were no serious injuries reported from either accident.
Saturday, November 20
City’s third killing
Shortly after 2am, Matthew Ray Nelepa was shot by an unknown assailant near the intersection of 7 1/2 and Elm streets in Fifeville. He died later at UVA Medical Center. Police ask anyone with information into the shooting to call Crimestoppers at 977-4000.
City School Board head apologizes
Addressing the Democrats’ monthly breakfast meeting, City School Board Chair Dede Smith recapped the tensions that have beset the division during the past four months. She stressed that federal education sanctions, combined with an urgent sense that closing the city’s achievement gap “is the right thing to do,” had prompted the board and new superintendent Scottie Griffin to move quickly to introduce new learning assessments and a reading program to schools, as well as to hire an outside auditor to evaluate the system. “The community reaction has been tough but good,” Smith said. “I wish we would have had more time. I apologize for that, but we didn’t.”
Sunday, November 21
Miracles abound at UVA
With yesterday’s 30-10 defeat of Georgia Tech—the Cavs’ first win at Bobby Dodd Stadium since 1994—UVA, today ranked No. 16 in the ESPN poll, now stands within punting distance of a prestigious post-season bowl game. And in U-Hall, the men’s basketball team surprised everyone with a 78-60 victory this afternoon over No. 10 Arizona.
Monday, November 22
Iraq takes first city casualty
The family of Marine Cpl. Bradley Thomas Arms, a graduate of the Covenant School, mourns today after the U.S. Marine Corps confirmed he was killed on Friday in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. The 20-year-old reservist, who fell to small arms fire, will be honored at Trinity Presbyterian Church once his body is flown home, said his mother, Betty Arms. Brad, who went on three mission trips with that church, will be further remembered by an eponymous scholarship fund through the Abundant Life Ministry for students at Blue Ridge Commons, his father, Bob Arms said. The family also urges donations to Ambassadors for Christ International. “We know Brad’s heart is in that kind of outreach,” Betty said.
—Written by Cathy Harding from local news sources and staff reports.
Gay rights get a hearing
Council tells state conservatives to check themselves
Back off, Christian Right. That was the message City Councilors heard last week, as they considered a resolution protesting the Commonwealth’s ban on same-sex civil unions. It was the second time in two weeks that people descended on local government meetings, venting frustrations over the growing role of religious conservatives in every level of politics.
On November 9, pro-choice advocates crowded the Albemarle County Board of Zoning Appeals to support a Planned Parenthood clinic on Hydraulic Road. On November 15, Council considered a resolution calling on the General Assembly to repeal H.B. 751, which is known as the “Affirmation of Marriage Act” and became law in July.
Crafted by conservative Catholic Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Manassas), H.B. 751 voids any partnership between members of the same sex that would “bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage.” Opponents of the law say it is unfair and unconstitutional. Charlottesville City Councilor Blake Caravati says he proposed the resolution opposing H.B. 751 after constituents contacted him, asking Council to take a stand against the controversial ban. Council passed the resolution 4 to 1, with Rob Schilling dissenting.
During the public hearing, Anne Coughlin, a UVA law professor, said the constitutionality of the act is questionable, and predicted it would mire the Commonwealth in lawsuits. Others said the law could prevent gay couples from executing wills or making medical decisions for their partners.
“This law puts our family at risk,” said Claire Kaplan, an activist with the gay rights group UVA Pride.
Others condemned the act as government intrusion into private life.
“Every Virginian has the right to decide where their money goes or who can make medical decisions for them,” said Bekah Saxon, a city teacher. “Keep government small.”
A few critics showed up, too. Harold Bare, pastor at the Covenant Church of God, criticized the language of Council’s resolution. One paragraph, for example, said H.B. 751 “does not reflect the needs and attitudes of an enlightened and educated people.”
Bare said Council had attacked “the integrity of all those people who might oppose this resolution.” Seeing Bare’s point, Caravati struck the offending language from the resolution.
In voting against it, Schilling said he worries “this Council overestimates its own importance, and in doing so undermines its own credibility.”
Local Republican officials, who in the past opposed Council resolutions against the USA PATRIOT Act and the Iraq war, did not comment on this ordinance, though they were present at the meeting. Perhaps people like city party chair Bob Hodous recognize that casting their lot with religious conservatives might not play as well in Charlottesville as it does in other parts of Virginia.
Totally crossed out
Also on Monday, Jeff Rossman asked Council to reprimand Schilling for “using his office to suspend the First Amendment rights of our children.”
Earlier this month, Schilling says, he received a phone call from a parent at Venable School, complaining that a political display in the school library included only information about Democrats, and that a picture of the President hanging in the hallway had a line drawn through it.
So Schilling went to Venable, snapped some pictures and sent them to the school board. “Where I’m from, in L.A., gangs use red X’s to indicate they’re going to kill somebody,” says Schilling.
Rossman claims Schilling demanded the picture of Bush be taken down; Schilling says Rossman is wrong about that: “My point was that I wanted the school board to consider the symbolism.”
Bobby Thompson, the City’s assistant superintendent for school administration, says he heard similar complaints about Venable. Upon investigation, Thompson said Venable tried to get Republican material for their library display, but the party didn’t provide any.
Thompson also ordered the crossed-out Bush picture be taken down, that is until he discovered that it was part of a second-grade art collage. “It was a student work, and not disruptive,” Thompson says.
The whole controversy, he says, was “a misunderstanding that got out of control.”—John Borgmeyer
Burden of proof
Sharon Jones’ identity thief still haunts her
The average identity theft victim spends about 600 hours dealing with cascading hassles resulting from the crime. For identity theft victim Sharon Jones, 600 hours is chump change.
Jones, a 41-year-old teacher at Walker Elementary School and resident of the10th and Page neighborhood, first learned that someone was running up bills in her name in January 1999. A customer service rep from Geico Insurance who shared the name Sharon Jones had lifted Jones’ identity from the company’s list of customers. The thief, who lived in Fredericksburg, eventually left Jones with $30,000 in unpaid bills.
Jones spent years fighting the resulting court notices and false charges and trying to fix her damaged credit. Her struggle with the system seemed to be turning around in 2003, when she met with Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, who highlighted her case as part of his aggressive campaign to fight identity theft. C-VILLE Weekly published a cover story about Jones’ plight in February, and, subsequently, Jones appeared in an interview that ran on CNN and other news outlets around the country.
Now that Jones’ case has been in the spotlight, would creditors start leaving her alone? Would her identity thief finally be brought to justice?
Not a chance.
In fact, bills from her identity thief continue to find their way to Jones. She was off work during a recent week to recuperate from knee surgery, and spent much of the time dealing with the newly surfaced credit woes.
Jones’ identity thief blew through the new charges, which total about $3,000, during her glory days in Fredericksburg about four years ago. Jones first caught a whiff of these bills in July, when her application for a car loan got snagged on an overextended credit rating. Jones was able to convince the dealership that the bad credit rating was not her fault because the dealership’s finance manager was a former student of hers. Having to plead that she is not a debtor or a criminal is nothing new for Jones.
“I have to prove myself over and over and over again,” Jones says. “I feel like a gerbil in a little wheel in a cage.”
With the help of an identity-theft savvy state police officer and a lot of luck, the criminal Sharon Jones was actually arrested once, back in September 2000. She was nabbed in Mississippi after using Sharon Jones’ identity at the scene of a car accident. But by the time the case went to a grand jury, the arresting officer had been called up to active duty in the Air Force Reserves and was serving in the Middle East. Jones was never called to testify against her identity thief, and without the police officer on hand, the jury threw out the case.
“There should be some kind of justice,” Jones says, adding that her criminal half is likely still free and “doing what she wants to do.”
Jones has had no better luck in trying to hold Geico accountable for the crime, claiming that an attorney told her that the case wasn’t worth pursuing because her out-of-pocket legal expenses would be too great.
“If I had money, I don’t think I’d be in this kind of predicament,” Jones says.
Spurred by her continuing credit problems, Jones recently contacted the Fredericksburg Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office in an attempt to secure further criminal charges against her identity thief. Though she has had no luck there either, she says she intends to visit the office in-person in coming days to “make them see that I’m a real person and that I want them to do something.”—Paul Fain
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HOW TO: Avoid getting the flu With flu shots hard to come by this year, your risk of contracting the virus is high. Luckily, C-VILLE has some medically sanctioned ideas for avoiding the flu. Your mother has probably pounded the basic precautions into your head since preschool: “Wash your hands with soap!” “Drink plenty of fluids!” and “Cover your mouth when you sneeze!” Mom got it mostly right, except for that last one. Why would you want a handful of microscopic germs and mucus particles? When you feel the urge to sneeze coming on, grab a tissue or at least turn your head away from people nearby and expectorate into your shoulder. The basic notion to keep in mind is that flu prevention needn’t be a drag. A 1989 German study found that people who steamed in a sauna twice a week got sick half as often as those who didn’t. Some alternative health professionals also suggest that practicing relaxation for 30 minutes a day increases the number of flu-fighting interleukins in the bloodstream. And while you’re relaxing, savor a cup of low-fat yogurt with beneficial bacteria that stimulate the immune system.
Need to know how to do something? E-mail your questions to howto@c-ville.com. |
Women’s work
Local feminist journal mixes art and politics
In an interview in the current issue of the biannual women’s journal Iris, author and activist Jewelle Gomez says her interest in playwriting emanates from the possibility for live performance to be “confrontational in a good way.” Finding a common thread between the poetry readings of the feminist movement in the ’70s and ’80s and the collaborative facets of theater, she continues, “I think that is one of the things that feminism is trying to do, to get people to accept being part of a women’s community in which everyone is connected.”
The Iris release party on Wednesday night, November 17, at the Gravity Lounge, celebrating the publication’s 49th edition, might be viewed as a part of that lineage. A change from its traditional venue at The Prism, the larger event is a part of an effort by new editor Gina Welch to broaden the journal’s reach and drew on a renewed sense of urgency engendered by the Republican sweep in November.
The issue’s theme—“Shattering the Myths”—was chosen before the national media crystallized “faith-based” as a descriptor for presidential decision-making processes, and Iris’ articles don’t address campaign issues head-on. But Welch, writing in her editor’s letter, casts the issue’s mission of candid discourse squarely in the fight against the Rove-ian narrative and the “complacency…that sustains myths.”
Introducing three readings from the magazine and performances by New York singer-songwriter Sam Shaber, former Denali frontwoman Maura Davis and on-and-off locally based Lauren Hoffman, Welch said, “This issue comes out as a lot of things are turning against us. Hopefully this will be a coming together of like-minded people.”
The fall/winter 2004 edition—a mixture of poetry, interviews, autobiographical essays, fiction, nonfiction, and book and music reviews—confronts a diffuse set of feminist topics. Pieces interpret contemporary TV and movies for gender politics, give compact disquisitions on female genital mutilation and dieting fads, include a personal account of a sexual assault, and meditate on how gender roles are expressed in personal choices and the roots of those choices in environmental circumstances. A story by Jennifer Moses imagines a married woman doomed by the conflicts between domestic and maternal comforts and her restless passion for a younger man with whom she has had an affair.
Iris was launched by UVA’s Women’s Center about 25 years ago as a pamphlet and converted to bound form in 1983. Two editors ago, under Kim Roberts, the journal underwent another major evolution starting with the Spring 2002 edition when it moved firmly away from a scholarly mien and an emphasis on local figures and issues to “a more universal focus on young, educated, progressive women,” Welch says.
Iris still depends on the University for funding and Welch, a part-time editor, also teaches a gender studies course in which students double as interns for the publication.
About 100 people attended the release party at Gravity, each paying a $7 cover that included a copy of the new issue. The journal currently distributes about 1,000 issues locally (it’s available at New Dominion and Barnes & Noble, among other places) and another 1,000 nationally. The plan is to dramatically ramp up sales and improve Iris’ financial condition while maintaining its commitment to “defending and educating people about young women’s issues,” Welch says, by raising its profile, continuing its shift away from “buttoned-up” academic pieces and deepening its pool of contributors.—Harry Terris
Living the Poverty Diet
Lessons from eating on $2.55 a day
BY MITCH VAN YAHRES
I’ve heard it said that being poor is a full-time job. Last week I got a hint what this means when I participated in a Poverty Diet program sponsored by the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
In 2004 I introduced H.R. 260, which encouraged legislators to go on a two-week poverty diet—to live for a short period of time on what a Food Stamp recipient receives. When my colleagues on the House Rules Committee rejected my resolution, they said that I should provide them information about the program and they could do it on their own. The Interfaith Center took them at their word, created a curriculum and distributed it to congregations and legislators around the state. A few elected officials and several hundred Virginians participated in this experiment in empathy. The three-day diet culminated in six regional rice and beans dinners during which we shared our experiences.
A Food Stamp recipient in Virginia receives approximately $2.55 per day, so I had to give up many items that I take for granted. For example, a one-cup container of yogurt costs 69 cents. Granola bars, one of my favorite snacks, cost approximately 75 cents each. The apples I buy are almost 90 cents apiece. In fact, most fresh fruits and vegetables were too expensive for my new budget. I am on a heart-healthy diet and typically eat a lot of fish, which was also now out of my price range.
The first practical problem was the high price of breakfast. My usual dry cereal costs 50 cents a bowl. Fortunately, oatmeal, one of my favorite cold-weather meals, is cheaper. But it’s still 20 cents per serving. A half-gallon of milk is about $2, so there’s an additional 25 cents per bowl. Breakfast has already cost 45 cents and I haven’t added orange juice and coffee (at least 20 cents!)
The first day I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch—25 cents. Including breakfast, I had only spent 90 cents! But then came dinner. I made a simple canned salmon dish ($1.70 per can) that contained no vegetables. I also baked a potato. All together my dinner cost $2.27, which put me 62 cents over budget. I made myself feel better about the extravagance by committing to leftovers the next day.
On Day Two I had oatmeal for breakfast and, as promised, leftovers for lunch (and a 10 cent slice of bread.) Dinner was a big financial victory. I made a pot of bean soup, which cost $3.45, or 70 cents per serving. At the end of the day I had $1.25 to spare. But, I was in the hole from yesterday, and in order to keep costs down, I had four more servings of soup to eat.
Day Three’s meals were no different from the first two days. Clearly, on a restricted food budget you sacrifice variety.
So what lessons did I learn? First, three days was not long enough to gain significant understanding of such a restricted diet. The nutritional challenges alone are daunting. As I mentioned, I normally eat a heart-healthy diet rich in fresh fruits, vegetables and fish. This would be difficult if not impossible if I had to rely on Food Stamps. It takes a lot of time, effort and creativity to plan cheap nutritious meals. I am reminded again that poverty is a full-time job.
I learned that leftovers and cooking in bulk are essential to surviving on Food Stamps. In fact I realized how much food I throw away without noticing.
I learned that I’m a lucky man. I’m healthy and content. I wonder how this would be different if I had to compromise nutrition and variety in order to make ends meet.
After H.R. 260 was killed in committee The Washington Post ran a story titled “Survivor: General Assembly.” The next day I received several e-mails on the subject. A few were congratulating me on my efforts, but a shocking number criticized me for it. One said, “I see very healthy, lazy ladies in the grocery store all the time…buying nice cuts of roast, steak, name brand foods…. Some of us work for a living and don’t live off the government, the way you Dems would like us to.” Another wrote, “It outrages me that working people’s taxes go to feed, clothe, and house idle people who won’t go out and work for their money.” And a third said, “[Food Stamp recipients] do quite well and are not in need of my sympathy.” It saddened me to think that there is so much hostility and suspicion directed toward the less fortunate.
Reading over those e-mails made me think about the morals debate in the 2004 presidential election. The Bible reminds us that the poor will always be with us. It gives several reasons for poverty, ranging from personal choice to corrupt social institutions. Unfortunately, the current discussion focuses on personal choice and ignores societal reasons for poverty. In other words, it assumes that the poor are undeserving because they brought it on themselves and we shouldn’t help them because they will take advantage of our good will. We ignore the reality that a majority of Food Stamp recipients are elderly, children and individuals working full-time, poorly paying jobs. This is often just an excuse to hide a lack of concern. I worry about that. When did we become such a cold-hearted nation?
In a time of rampant materialism, individualism and selfishness, it’s easy to forget that we are social beings. We would all benefit if we focused on the moral admonitions to love another, help the poor and to be humble instead of emphasizing the more divisive social issues.
It is no accident that this Poverty Diet experience was scheduled in the days prior to Thanksgiving. As we celebrate our blessings let’s remember those we would often prefer to forget. The fact is, they could be us.
Delegate Mitch Van Yahres has represented the 57th District in the Virginia General Assembly since 1981.