Aug. 3, 2022 Editor, The News-Gazette: There is unintended irony in Texas sanitizing slavery by substituting for that word the phrase “involuntary relocation.” Actual slaveowners used the word freely, so what is Texas up to? Both Hitler and Stalin used involuntary relocation to create slave workforces, their efforts resulting millions of deaths. Involuntary relocations of Africans, likewise, resulted in uncounted deaths on those voyages. The phrase exemplifies Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts.”
Aug. 8, 2022 Editor, The News-Gazette: On Aug. 3, Thomas Rideout, president of Generals Redoubt, proposed “a formatted campus debate that examines the legacy of Robert E. Lee.” For good measure, he added he “we would support the same debate format for George Washington.” Mr. Rideout’s probably wellintentioned, but hopelessly misguided “proposal,” was supported by his call for “viewpoint diversity.” Recently, Generals Redoubt received some press as a group that supports “free speech on campus.” Let us look at the facts.
Aug. 4, 2022 Editor, The News-Gazette: As voters in Kansas recently showed with their overwhelming support for maintaining abortion rights in their state constitution (59% to 41%), abortion is not a red or blue issue, it is a health care issue. There have always been abortions and there always will be. The question now is will they be safe and available to all regardless of zip code and income. One in four American women has had an abortion, which means you likely know someone who has had one whether you realize it or not. There are as many reasons for having an abortion as there are women who have them.
Aug. 1, 2022 Editor, The News-Gazette: Just over a year ago, I hung up my Army uniform for the last time and moved with my family to Rockbridge County to join the Rockbridge Area Health Center as medical director. It is fitting that the anniversary of my arrival falls during National Health Center Week.
Aug. 3, 2022 Editor, The News-Gazette: Conservatives spent decades attacking liberal judges for “judicial activism,” supposedly failing to interpret the Constitution without personal bias. Yet when the McConnell-packed Court showed its pro-life bias, Republicans cheered. Trump had promised in 2016 that overturning Roe v. Wade “will happen automatically because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.”
Aug. 1, 2022 Editor, The News-Gazette In response to your reader’s response July 27 in which she stated that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision “took away a right enjoyed by the American people for almost 50 years,” and raised 17 questions, some clearly loaded, I ask, what have Americans “enjoyed” from abortion on a day-today basis for almost 50 years? DOUGLAS N. SMITH Chairman, Rockbridge Area Republican Committee
Earlier in the year, my friend, Vanessa, announced she was marrying the man she had been dating for several years. The invitation arrived in May and I did n’t hesitate to RSVP, even though it was taking place in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, which is quite a ways from here. But Roma agreed to drive and I began to make plans for a nice weekend away with good friends in a state I had never visited before.
Another school year is upon us. Rockbridge area public schools begin classes for the 2022-23 year next week. Classes start in Rockbridge County and Lexington schools on Tuesday while the first day of school in Buena Vista is next Wednesday.
The most far-reaching federal legislation ever to combat climate change appears to be within reach. The sausage-making that went into this landmark legislative agreement wasn’t pretty. The give-and-take that took place during this process, however, shows that Congress is capable of compromise when the stakes are high. With the right motivation, breaking gridlock is indeed possible.
