The next public meeting will be held at Wesley Chapel July 21 at 7 pm. This history desired will include Chuckatuck, Oakland, Everets Reid’s Ferry, Sandy Bottom/Cotton Farm Lane, Longview, Wills Corner/Cherry Grove Road North, and Milner’s Town. According to Lynn Rose their purpose is to compile photographs and information of our communities’ history and publish a book.
Any questions call Kitty Martin 377 6552 or Dwight Bradshaw 238 3489
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
SAY IT ISN'T SO
First they said government health care would cost $1 trillion. Then they upped overnight to
$1.6-trillion. No one really comprehends these numbers. Washington's spending spree is lulling everyone to sleep. The price tag for last fall's bailouts approached a trillion dollars. And so did this spring's stimulus spending. Now comes health care and eyes glaze over at such numbers because nobody really understands what even one trillion is. It's true that people ignore what they don't understand.
If you took a trillion one-dollar bills and laid them end-to-end, they would reach from the Earth to the sun. (98,000,000 miles) But you can't do that because there isn't that much money; the total of all the cash in the United States is less than $900-billion. The interest on a trillion dollars, at 6%, requires paying $166 million in interest EACH AND EVERY DAY, and that’s just the interest. What's frightening about spending new trillions is that it's happening. It happened in the last year and is happening again right now. And who will be asked to pay it back? Well just you, your children and your grandchildren. Hell, I'm 84; not to worry.
$1.6-trillion. No one really comprehends these numbers. Washington's spending spree is lulling everyone to sleep. The price tag for last fall's bailouts approached a trillion dollars. And so did this spring's stimulus spending. Now comes health care and eyes glaze over at such numbers because nobody really understands what even one trillion is. It's true that people ignore what they don't understand.
If you took a trillion one-dollar bills and laid them end-to-end, they would reach from the Earth to the sun. (98,000,000 miles) But you can't do that because there isn't that much money; the total of all the cash in the United States is less than $900-billion. The interest on a trillion dollars, at 6%, requires paying $166 million in interest EACH AND EVERY DAY, and that’s just the interest. What's frightening about spending new trillions is that it's happening. It happened in the last year and is happening again right now. And who will be asked to pay it back? Well just you, your children and your grandchildren. Hell, I'm 84; not to worry.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
OPINION PIECE IN SNH WORTH A READ
Rather than retype Pamela King”s admonishment of our Mayor Johnson we suggest you read it by clicking, free of cost, on the SNH website and read "Mayor shouldn't beg" in the opinion section.
Mayor shouldn't beg
Mayor shouldn't beg
Friday, June 19, 2009
NEVER GIVE UP THE SHIP
With studies proving that nearly one in five Suffolk students will end up dropping out of high school, the city’s public school administration has high hopes for the steps it has taken this year to increase Suffolk’s graduation rate. School board member, Enoch Copeland said, “I can’t believe we’re this high, we’re only a little bit better than Portsmouth.” Since when did Portsmouth become our measuring stick? According to Assistant Superintendent Kevin Alston, Suffolk had an 18.6 percent overall dropout rate for the class of 2008. Male students in the school system had a 21.6 percent dropout rate, and black students had a 20.8 percent rate. He also said the school system is working to bring this trend to a halt. I wouldn’t call it a trend, more of a fixture, not much has changed in the last several years.
The old school try now is creating a committee to address the dropout rate. The committee will include Superintendent Milton R. Liverman, two assistant superintendents, high school principals, middle and high school coordinators, middle- and high-school parents, representatives from the Suffolk Police Department and Department of Social Services and Judge Robert Brewbaker from the juvenile court system. I can visualize the kids trembling. What is needed is a way to scare hell out of the parents, the real guilty party. Send Police and Social Service representatives to the homes of “bubbles,” the kids showing obvious signs of failure. Worth a try?
The old school try now is creating a committee to address the dropout rate. The committee will include Superintendent Milton R. Liverman, two assistant superintendents, high school principals, middle and high school coordinators, middle- and high-school parents, representatives from the Suffolk Police Department and Department of Social Services and Judge Robert Brewbaker from the juvenile court system. I can visualize the kids trembling. What is needed is a way to scare hell out of the parents, the real guilty party. Send Police and Social Service representatives to the homes of “bubbles,” the kids showing obvious signs of failure. Worth a try?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Can you say conflict of interest?
The city manager sits on the Board of Peanut Fest. She also sits on the newly-created team that listens to the presentations of nonprofits seeking funding from the city. Of the five people on the team, one is also a city director who reports to the city manager and is also on the Board of Peanut Fest. Hmmmm. Two members on the Board of Peanut Fest who also have a HUGE say in whether or not Peanut Fest has funding with citizen dollars. By the way, a conflict of interest is a softer way of saying that something is NOT ETHICAL.
In the bigger picture, let’s remember that our citizen dollars are NOT theirs to give in the first place. By having a process in place to dole out money, our city leaders are not showing an understanding of the Constitution, and if the documents that guide us are to mean anything, they must be observed by everyone who has sworn to uphold them. Consider reading the piece, Not yours to give as a gentle reminder of the role of government in our lives.
Let’s keep asking questions. Why is a non-elected official giving away money? Why does our City Council think it can take money from us and give it to whom they think should have it instead? Why will the city fund Peanut Fest but won’t haul our trash away? Why do we have a new PROCESS in place to take citizen dollars and give them to whomever the city deems should have those dollars? Why can’t citizens just support whichever causes they choose since we certainly are capable of doing so? Why do so many of our city leaders think that nonprofits can’t make a profit? Why don’t our city leaders understand that the role of organizations such as the Rotary Club and Suffolk 60 Care is how things are supposed to work? (It’s a terrific mission of theirs to better the community by raising significant dollars to contribute to community causes.) Why can’t we rally around these groups and allow our city leaders to focus on only the things they should be focused on?
Virginian Pilot Ledger Star – Dave Forster
In funding fights, Peanut Fest has seats at table
Suffolk News Herald - Letter to the Editor by Roger Leonard
How to stop the food fight
In the bigger picture, let’s remember that our citizen dollars are NOT theirs to give in the first place. By having a process in place to dole out money, our city leaders are not showing an understanding of the Constitution, and if the documents that guide us are to mean anything, they must be observed by everyone who has sworn to uphold them. Consider reading the piece, Not yours to give as a gentle reminder of the role of government in our lives.
Let’s keep asking questions. Why is a non-elected official giving away money? Why does our City Council think it can take money from us and give it to whom they think should have it instead? Why will the city fund Peanut Fest but won’t haul our trash away? Why do we have a new PROCESS in place to take citizen dollars and give them to whomever the city deems should have those dollars? Why can’t citizens just support whichever causes they choose since we certainly are capable of doing so? Why do so many of our city leaders think that nonprofits can’t make a profit? Why don’t our city leaders understand that the role of organizations such as the Rotary Club and Suffolk 60 Care is how things are supposed to work? (It’s a terrific mission of theirs to better the community by raising significant dollars to contribute to community causes.) Why can’t we rally around these groups and allow our city leaders to focus on only the things they should be focused on?
Virginian Pilot Ledger Star – Dave Forster
In funding fights, Peanut Fest has seats at table
Suffolk News Herald - Letter to the Editor by Roger Leonard
How to stop the food fight
Sunday, June 7, 2009
WORTH A LOOK
THIS COMMENT JUST CAME IN.
Just in case no one knows there is one more prominant position being forced out of the city of suffolk. Tom Patrick, the director of Information Technology for 26 years was demoted to asst. director last year to "streamline upper management" This year his position is not in the budget at all. Come July 1st a new position of Chief Information Officer which is open to the public will be running the department. While Tom may apply for the position he is not assurred of getting it. Tom now has 27 years of dedicated service to the city and is near qualifying for full retirement. It seems that the city is not going to allow that to happen though as he will not have a job at the end of the month. Quite a shame once again.
June 7, 2009 3:50 PM
Just in case no one knows there is one more prominant position being forced out of the city of suffolk. Tom Patrick, the director of Information Technology for 26 years was demoted to asst. director last year to "streamline upper management" This year his position is not in the budget at all. Come July 1st a new position of Chief Information Officer which is open to the public will be running the department. While Tom may apply for the position he is not assurred of getting it. Tom now has 27 years of dedicated service to the city and is near qualifying for full retirement. It seems that the city is not going to allow that to happen though as he will not have a job at the end of the month. Quite a shame once again.
June 7, 2009 3:50 PM
THE FACTS CONDENSED
Never in a million years would anyone have dreamed what is happening in America. American capitalism is gone without a whimper. Like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of passive, hapless citizens who appear not to have a clue about what is going on around them. The population has been dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather than the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas than the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonald’s burger than for their constitutional rights.
Then their faith in God was questioned until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more than Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. The final collapse has come with the election of Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been record setting, not just in America's short history but also in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the old Russia.
These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, losses, and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress and it has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.
Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. The American president now has the power, the self-given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. So it should be no surprise that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry. Again not a whimper.
The Liberal-controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses. The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.
Then their faith in God was questioned until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more than Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. The final collapse has come with the election of Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been record setting, not just in America's short history but also in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the old Russia.
These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, losses, and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress and it has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.
Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. The American president now has the power, the self-given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. So it should be no surprise that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry. Again not a whimper.
The Liberal-controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses. The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.
THINKING TOO SMALL
The SNH has an idea and call it "Look, Live, Love Suffolk." On June 20 they suggest each citizen buy $20 worth of something at any retail outlet downtown. (Where exactly is that?) I wish I hadn’t been so impetus…just yesterday I took SNH advice and filled 6 five-gallon tanks of gasoline in preparation for hurricane season, you just can’t be without a generator when those winds howl. My spouse did her usual shopping at the big “W” (maybe that's not in downtown) plus she stocked up the old freezer in case, you know, flooding conditions and/or power outages. Unfortunately it added up to well over three hundred dollars. We should have waited. But then there has never been a case of “driving downtown” when we spent less than a hundred if you also count lunch, a stop at Lowes, a few bargains at Belk, and a “poke around” at Big Lots. If SNH wants to accomplish a difference with LLL, make it at least fifty bucks person. Lets see, 82,000 people times $50, now that’s a good number.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Council to go "live" on July 1
If all goes as planned, citizens will have the chance to watch Council meetings online. If you’ve ever had to endure the HARD benches in Council Chambers, you’ll now be able to keep up with what is going on while sitting in a nice comfortable chair in your home or office. Kudos to staff for doing the research and the footwork to bring this service to citizens; this is a piece of an open and transparent government.
The cities of Virginia Beach and Portsmouth have their own systems for providing this service. Chesapeake, Newport News, and Hampton use Granicus – as do other city and county governments throughout the state including Alexandria, Fairfax, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and Chesterfield. We’re in good company.
Granicus
http://www.granicus.com/Streaming-Media-Government.aspx
Suffolk News Herald
http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/2009/jun/05/council-meetings-stream-web
The cities of Virginia Beach and Portsmouth have their own systems for providing this service. Chesapeake, Newport News, and Hampton use Granicus – as do other city and county governments throughout the state including Alexandria, Fairfax, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and Chesterfield. We’re in good company.
Granicus
http://www.granicus.com/Streaming-Media-Government.aspx
Suffolk News Herald
http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/2009/jun/05/council-meetings-stream-web
Friday, June 5, 2009
WTFC A WORKING GREAT IDEA
Four Rotary clubs got together to make a generous gift of $25,000 to the Western Tidewater Free Clinic (WTFC Partnership. Through this project Rotary Club members advocate, promote volunteerism, and actively support the work of the clinic. Western Tidewater Free Clinic’s mission is to provide high-quality, non-emergency health care to residents of Western Tidewater who cannot otherwise afford it. It has been open since June 2007. Currently WTFC is improving the health and giving hope to over 760 patients. To volunteer or learn about the clinic’s work, please call (757) 923-1060 or to make a contribution, send your check to 3000 Godwin Blvd, Suffolk, VA 23434.
WE WILL GIVE IT MORE TIME
We could write a post on several subjects concerning Suffolk citizens but until there are answers all we could do is speculate, which accomplishes nothing. We all know that city leaders do not listen to everyone and we hope they are not listening to only those to whom they are somehow beholden. We know there is great interest in restoring Obici House and history buffs have charged into the battle, perhaps suspecting the City has no interest except ridding itself of the golf course. Then there is the SPSA mess that will not go away, gets larger in scope, and there may not be any solution. Gardy has one. And we hesitate to speak of the incoming Police Chief…how long before he might suffer the “Cave” syndrome and be ushered out the door because he wasn’t a good fit. A Post on our website would surely elicit comments on all these matters but, again, who listens?
Harris Teeter opens an upscale grocery store in the right and wrong place. Would it have been better for Suffolk if it were located downtown or would no parking space and shortage of customers be a problem. Seems like the high-end retail outlets are going up where there are folks making more money. If you see a new courthouse being built in North Suffolk, moving City Hall will not be far behind. One last item…they tore down the Birdsong Recreation so drive-bys could see the SCCA from Main. Keep you eye on that spot and see what happens there.
Harris Teeter opens an upscale grocery store in the right and wrong place. Would it have been better for Suffolk if it were located downtown or would no parking space and shortage of customers be a problem. Seems like the high-end retail outlets are going up where there are folks making more money. If you see a new courthouse being built in North Suffolk, moving City Hall will not be far behind. One last item…they tore down the Birdsong Recreation so drive-bys could see the SCCA from Main. Keep you eye on that spot and see what happens there.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Bob's Corner
I always enjoy Bob's comments and thoughts. I often wish I could be the prolific writer that he is. I continue to be proud to be a part of this public service blog - envisioned and started by Bob.
We've just started Bob's Corner on our website. The first of his articles is posted - and I've already emailed it several people, including my father-in-law, who is about the same age as Bob. Our stories span generations and Bob's first article has reminded me that I want to write some of my stories - maybe not just yet - but at some point. I'm thrilled and honored to have such a wonderful mentor to show the way. I hope you'll dig in to Bob's stories as he writes them and maybe you'll be reminded - as I was - of something important that you might like to do.
Go to Bob's Corner and visit it often!
We've just started Bob's Corner on our website. The first of his articles is posted - and I've already emailed it several people, including my father-in-law, who is about the same age as Bob. Our stories span generations and Bob's first article has reminded me that I want to write some of my stories - maybe not just yet - but at some point. I'm thrilled and honored to have such a wonderful mentor to show the way. I hope you'll dig in to Bob's stories as he writes them and maybe you'll be reminded - as I was - of something important that you might like to do.
Go to Bob's Corner and visit it often!
IT CAN'T BE THAT
Are we Americans as dumb as we often appear or is it that we just don't think? While the Chinese, knowingly and intentionally, export inferior products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in American markets, the media wrings its hands and criticizes the Bush Administration for perceived errors. Seventy percent of Americans believe the trading with the Chinese should be suspended. If you are part of this group don’t wait for the government to suspend trading privileges? DO IT YOURSELF!! Look at every product you buy…if it says 'Made in China ' or 'PRC' Peoples Republic of China put it back. You will be surprised at how dependent you have become on Chinese products, just shake your head and put it back. The store and China will get the message. If you do not care one whit, that's another story.
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