Dede Smith defended
Recent letters to the C-VILLE Weekly [Mailbag, February 22] and The Daily Progress have seconded Mayor David Brown’s accusation that School Board President Dede Smith has failed to lead on the critical issues that face our schools: first and foremost, the enormous achievement gap between white and minority students. I would argue that it’s precisely the other way around: that Smith has insisted as no other School Board president in recent memory has, that the achievement gap must be addressed now, and that Mayor Brown, Blake Caravati, and other local politicians just might have their political fingers in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. She has made clear since her arrival on the School Board that closing the achievement gap—providing all students with the kind of school district her children and mine have experienced—is her top priority: perhaps the issue is that she is leading where a certain group of parents do not believe it is possible to go.
There are those who say that she, and with her Superintendent Scottie Griffin, have failed to communicate with the community. If communication is the issue, why haven’t those who oppose Smith and Griffin heard—or rather listened—when Dede Smith has, time and again, assured parents that what they value in our schools is also what she values. While I think that there is more they could say on behalf of the district’s hard-working classroom teachers, whom they do, in fact, value and support, I don’t think that communication is at all the issue. First, the campaign against Dr. Griffin started long before this budget battle. Indeed it was in full swing by the first week of school, and it has blamed her for things that were not her doing. The system of basal readers was purchased by the previous superintendent; Dr. Griffin took over a system that was supposed to implement a reading program that it had not been adequately prepared for. The testing and benchmarking are required under No Child Left Behind, and while my opinion of the Bush presidency is no more rosy than that of the next Charlottesville liberal, they will do the good and interesting work of making crystal clear and consequential the problem that faces the district—a problem that has been here for a very long time.
One other reason communication isn’t the issue is that, Lord knows, the School Board and Central Office have been talking and hand-wringing over the achievement gap for more than a decade. The achievement gap didn’t just appear with the SOLs, much less “No Child.” African-American students have had a very different experience than white students in
the same school buildings since those buildings were integrated. The panic felt in some white homes of late—and listening to the rhetoric at Board and City Council meetings indeed suggests a sort of hysteria—may well be matched by the long-term resentment and resignation felt in African-American ones, which might explain something of the tenor of the discussion. Editors and reporters tend to write of parents who are up in arms as though they represented the whole, as though it were everyone. There may be many homes that are quite relieved or
at least marginally hopeful by the commitment Smith and the School Board
have taken.
Howard Singerman
Charlottesville
Get your guns
I want to thank you for the excellent arm and shoulder exercises you printed in your FLOW supplement a few weeks ago [“Army of One,” Flow Chart, January 25]. I’ve been doing weight-bearing exercises for three years. These exercises were slightly different from the ones I’ve been doing, but clearly different enough to make a big difference in the way I feel. I hope you make this a regular feature.
Jane Rafal
Scottsville
Hail Marys
If you have tired of my recipe for French Seventy-Fives [Mailbag, February 8] by now, we have a new concoction for you, the old standby known as Bloody Marys. This used to be offered at the Princeton-Harvard or the Princeton-Yale game, whichever was played at Princeton, supported by a bagpipe group from Trenton. Thompson, the sponsor, had a simple recipe requiring a 30-gallon garbage can, preferably new. Fill it half way with tomato juice, a quarter of the way with vodka, add a couple of bottles of Worcestershire sauce, and if you want to be fancy, toss in a canister of celery salt or seeds. You then dump in the ice, stir, listen to the music whether you like it or not, and enjoy.
William W. Stevenson
Charlottesville
The elephant that forgets
I was glad to see Randolph Byrd’s response to the article about Public Policy Virginia [Mailbag, February 8]. His response suggests that we are on the right track.
I have never disputed that I lost my run for Congress because I was perceived as too liberal. The challenge is to explain better how liberal politics do matter to people in Virginia. If Byrd continues to base his confidence on labeling, rather than substance, Democrats will win elections.
Byrd thinks that working people support his party because they believe that their “wages are well below the average Virginia wage” because some in our communities are on the “public dole.” In fact, since Republicans have been preaching that divisive message for years, Byrd’s marketing acumen is to be respected.
Still, people are going to wake up and realize that Republican family values really only work if one’s family already has the kind of job that offers “parenting time off and ample day care,” with enough income to be able to afford “mini-vans and family-sized SUVs” and enough time to be a “soccer mom.” Republican policies do nothing to broaden these benefits and, in fact, act to narrow their application.
The difference between Republicans like Byrd and Democrats is that both groups value family as the building block of our society, while Democrats understand that no family comes to prosperity alone. It is the strengthening of the common good that allows every family (including gays) the opportunity to thrive.
So, Mr. Republican Analyst, let’s debate that.
Al Weed
Nelson County
Act now on nukes
I was particularly heartened to read John Borgmeyer’s account of the public meeting held on Thursday, February 17, at the Louisa Middle School concerning the issuing of new permits from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for two new nuclear reactors at North Anna [“30 miles to meltdown?,” The Week, February 22]. I think he hits the nail on the head by citing intentions of the Bush Administration to reintroduce nuclear power into the United States, with Virginia as a principal staging ground for this effort.
So with the prospect of front-row seats to a genuine Bush outrage unfolding right in our own state, I offer the following note as an open letter to the NRC and encourage your readers to convey similar invective by e-mail to NorthAnna_ESP@nrc.gov (closing date March 2) to make it crystal clear that the residents of Virginia believe that this is a bad idea and that a genuine national debate on energy and energy alternatives needs to happen before we charge ahead with the nuclear option. This may well represent our only chance for citizen input on this issue. Now is no time to remain silent.
To: NorthAnna_ESP@nrc.gov
Title: NO NEW NUCLEAR PLANS@NorthAnna
I attended the open meeting at the Louisa County Middle School, which was entitled “Public Meeting to Collect Comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement For and Early Site Permit (ESP) at the North Anna ESP Site” on February 17, 2005. The opinion of local residents toward this idea was overwhelmingly negative—so if this meeting means anything whatever, you will not issue an early site permit to Dominion for further nuclear reactors to be located at North Anna.
As a local resident, I was unimpressed that the NRC team had done a decent job in their draft proposal (some of the language was plagiarized from other sources!). I am highly unclear and suspicious of the relationship between Dominion and the NRC of a government clearly committed to revamping the nuclear industry in the United States as a whole—and which is clearly prepared to do anything or tell any lie to get their way (e.g. their certainty that “weapons of mass destruction” existed in Iraq led us into an expensive, illegal, murderous, ruinous war).
Also, clearly dirty politics are at work here from the nuclear industry. What in heavens name were pro-nuclear representatives from Chicago doing in Louisa on February 17? Clearly, the nuclear industry is keen to give the impression of a pro-nuclear grassroots movement that does not exist. The whole thing reeks of corruption and deceit.
The people of Virginia will not be used in this way.
NO MORE NUCLEAR REACTORS AT NORTH ANNA—WE ARE WATCHING YOU CLOSELY!
Rob Pates
Charlottesville
Charged up over nukes
I really enjoyed your article on the two proposed new reactors at the North Anna nuclear plant. The tone of the meeting was overall friendly; it was facilitated well, and there was no bias in the facilitation, and you caught some of the sense of outrage a lot of us felt.
The North American Young Generation in Nuclear has a different set of basic assumptions than the rest of us do. They aren’t wrong, but they do tend to leave nuclear garbage as: “Well, this is waste…leftovers in the process of producing energy and the people who deal with it are professional and very, very careful.” I have a different, and (I think) more realistic, set of basic assumptions about nuclear power.
When I first got interested in nuclear power in the late 1950s, I had three major objections: 1) The nuclear plants were not idiot proofed—the control room layout was so damn user-unfriendly that even geniuses had a hard time figuring out what was going on; 2) the expense…nuclear plants cannot compete in the market if they aren’t heavily subsidized; and 3) dealing with nuclear garbage…in the late ’50s they had not a clue what to do with the garbage.
Today, just under 50 years later, No. 1 has been answered. Control rooms and other systems are a lot more user friendly. But regarding No. 2, nuclear power plants are still not cost effective without massive government subsidies and private insurers still won’t insure them. As for No. 3, the garbage—we still don’t have a clue what to do about the garbage and we have about 70,000 metric tons of waste stored at slightly fewer than 100 sites around high-population areas of the United States. And now add No. 4—security. It’s serious if you or I tried to do anything, but is a joke to people with the planning capability of the terrorists who took out the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon.
So, two of the three concerns I had 50 years ago are still with us, and a new third one has been added.
I am outraged that our government would threaten the future of our children’s children’s children by pushing these lethal poisons on us.
Jim Adams
Louisa
Spencer’s good spin
Thank you so much for Spencer Lathrop’s On the Record column. I’m a regular C-VILLE reader and this has been my favorite addition to your paper over the last few years. Spencer’s 206 was always an oasis of peace and good music; on a hot, hectic day after being stuck in traffic, all it took was a few minutes in Spencer’s store to feel human again, simply by being around his mellow vibe, his little boy playing contentedly in the corner, his sleepy dog lounging on the sofa and excellent tunes playing on the stereo. Spencer unfailingly picked up on his customers’ musical tastes after only a few visits and made great recommendations the next time they stopped by.
After he sold his store, several friends and I commented on how quickly we began missing him. But as soon as he began writing for C-VILLE it felt like you had given him back to us. Not only have I gained a new appreciation for all the musical treasures we have living here in our very own C’ville that I never would have known about if Spencer hadn’t written about them (from punk rockers to classical masters), but every single column has mentioned some artist or album that was intriguing enough to investigate further (which in turn has led to some purchases of great new music).
So thanks again for allowing Spencer to spread the word about local musicians and good music—every week I pick up your paper wanting to read more.
Tracey DeGregory
Scottsville
CORRECTION
In last week’s coverage of the city schools [“Small change”], the number of public schools that have missed Sate accreditation was incorrectly stated. Five schools, not four, have been accredited with warning: Charlottesville High School, Buford Middle School, Walker Upper Elementary School, Burnley-Moran Elementary and Clark Elementary.