Reaping the benefits
Your story, “Where do we go when we die?” was timely and informative [April 19]. Death and dying are topics we mostly try to ignore, hoping they will pass us by.
In Sarah Cox’s section, “Paying the piper,” she failed to mention the most obvious resource for those unwilling to pay the piper—that is, the Funeral Information Society of the Piedmont (FISP).
FISP, the local chapter of the national Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA), is the only nonprofit, non-sectarian organization solely dedicated to protecting the public’s right to choose meaningful, dignified and affordable funeral arrangements.
Our recently published survey of funeral homes and cemeteries provides an objective listing of services and their costs to the public. Without such a survey, consumers must visit each of these establishments and request information on services and prices.
It would be a service to your readers if you would print our address (P.O. Box 152, Charlottesville, 22902) and phone number (923-7679).
Catherine G. Peaslee
President, Funeral Information
Society of the Piedmont
Charlottesville
Going into labor
While I sympathize with Staff Union at UVA’s frustration about certain aspects of the Higher Education Restructuring Act, my good friend Jan Cornell should give credit to Governor Mark Warner for having forced UVA to make the legislation more labor-friendly [“Tracks of their tiers,” The Week, April 19].
The bill that the Governor signed into law is much fairer to non-faculty university employees than the original “charter” proposal. For example, it allows current employees to remain in the state personnel system if, for any reason, they prefer it to whatever personnel system UVA introduces down the road.
While the legislation does allow for “tiering” of the labor force in certain areas, such as in the payment of premiums for life and disability insurance, it also obligates state universities to treat all employees the same as far as medical insurance, retirement plans, workers compensation and grievance procedures are concerned.
These labor-friendly provisions are in the legislation primarily because Governor Warner responded positively to SUUVA’s concerns about the original charter proposal.
Could the Governor have done more? Possibly. But politics is the art of the possible, and the Governor apparently decided that there was only so much he could do to make the bill more labor-friendly without jeopardizing its passage in the Republican-controlled General Assembly.
SUUVA did an outstanding job advocating on behalf of UVA employees during the charter “debate,” and the Higher Education Restructuring Act is a better piece of legislation as a result. But SUUVA’s achievement would have been considerably more modest had Jim Gilmore or Jerry Kilgore been in office. Far from “dissing” SUUVA, Warner responded positively to most if not all of the union’s concerns.
Jeffrey Rossman
Co-founder, Faculty/Staff/Student
Alliance on the Charter Initiative
Charlottesville
Waste of energy
Elena Day, co-founder of the People’s Alliance for Clean Energy (PACE), responded to “We have the power” [Mailbag, March 29], which stated anti-nuclear groups use scare tactics to distract people from greenhouse gas emissions averted by 103 American nuclear plants. Three paragraphs mentioning anti-nuclear’s exaggerated claims of risk, manipulated death statistics and unsubstantiated opinions were unchallenged. Ms. Day’s only comment was although a departed founder of Greenpeace became pro-nuclear, Greenpeace (and PACE) remain steadfastly against new nuclear plants [“Digging into Greenpeace,” Mailbag, April 19].
What remained unsaid is the reason Patrick Moore left the granddaddy of all environmental groups after 15 years. Dr. Moore had this to say about the environmental movement and nuclear energy: “By the mid-1980s, the environmental movement had abandoned science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism… The environmental movement has lost its way, favoring political correctness over factual accuracy, stooping to scare tactics to garner support… Renewable energies, such as wind, geothermal and hydro, are part of the solution. Nuclear energy is the only nongreenhouse gas-emitting power source that can effectively replace fossil fuels and satisfy global demand.”
It seems PACE has lost its way as well. Perhaps PACE thinks Dr. Patrick Moore and James Lovelock are wrong while PACE knows better. Perhaps PACE settled for the partial solution of wind/solar/conservation, predicting the economy won’t need additional baseload power. Perhaps PACE members realize if they leave PACE, the best pro-nuclear name, “People’s Alliance for Clean Energy,” is already lost to the remaining members who blindly oppose the cleanest form of baseload energy on the planet. Perhaps the PACE members left behind would then politely agree to use “People Against Clean Energy” instead.
Delbert Horn
Goochland
Behind the “Eightball”
I’m not sure how long “Lulu Eightball” has been running, because to be honest, my C-VILLE reading has been spotty lately (sorry, it’s just been that kind of spring). But I have caught the last two issues, and have twice laughed out loud at “Lulu Eightball.” It makes a fine addition to the already impressive comic offerings in
C-VILLE. Thanks!
Nick Rubin
nvr9a@virginia.edu
Editor’s note: “Lulu Eightball” can be found on page 48 this week.
For Evans’ sake
I was delighted to see Barbara Rich’s interview with Mike Evans in the April 26 edition of C-VILLE [As Told To]. One of my sons was fortunate enough to have
Mr. Evans as his teacher one year. Charlottesville High School has an annual “Back to School Night” where parents attend all of their child’s classes for about 10 minutes. For any parent who wants to be involved in their child’s education it is a wonderful opportunity to meet all of the teachers, learn about the classes, know the requirements, get teacher contact information, etc. When I “attended” Mr. Evans’ class I was so impressed that I wanted to take his class myself, as did all of the other parents in the room. He also organized a film club that met at lunch until the new construction changed the schedule. In addition to being an intelligent, hardworking, dedicated, capable individual, he is a nice guy. I was glad to see he is getting some recognition.
We are fortunate that we have many teachers like Evans in our school system and it is these teachers that give me hope for the future. There are recent developments that we will get back on track. In Cathy Harding’s article in the same issue [“Griffin bows to pressure,” The Week] I was encouraged to see the comments from Bobby Thompson and Gertrude Ivory on maintaining good relationships with our teachers. I was also happy to learn of Ms. Ivory’s 33 years in the New Orleans school system and her “Journey to Success” program. Mr. Thompson is known to many in Charlottesville for his service as the Principal at CHS. I also read somewhere else that Eric Johnson, Alvin Edwards and others are acknowledging that it may be poverty and not racism that is responsible for the achievement gap and are meeting to find solutions. I share Ms. Ivory’s optimism that we will be able to have all kids achieve.
Downing Smith
Charlottesville
CORRECTIONS
In last week’s FLOW special section, Dr. Lee Litvinas was misrepresented as a heart specialist in the article “The beat goes on.” He is an internist at Martha Jefferson Hospital.
In last week’s cover story, we misreported that “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” airs on PBS at 6pm. WHTJ, the local PBS affiliate, shows the program at 7pm.