STICKING THEIR NECKS OUT

It takes courage to open a new business in these economic times, especially if the product sold is one that folks without ample money can afford. Yet small business is what folks are expected to do, bet on the future, create more jobs. OutRageous, another cute name for a gift shop, dares the elements in light of the fact that Dilly Dally and the Gardner Store gift shops recently closed for both business and personal reasons. I used to think there were so many gift shops in Suffolk you could trip over them. But there are those that believe the customer needs more choices. The Prentis House now lives as Lenettes Floral Designs. I once owned a business like that in the wrong location and sold it back at a loss. But these new folks have high hopes and we wish them the best. The mayor was there to cut ribbons, probably praying the owners will be successful in spite of the economy. 

AN INTERESTING SUFFOLK POLITICAL PLOT

One student of Suffolk politics sees a plan for managing the results of the 2012 elections. It is based on the results of the November elections where popular Mike Duman narrowly edged out Caroline Martin for Council. Her backers were disappointed, especially after raising far more money than the other candidates combined. This was not expected. The money invested in her campaign raised eyebrows and the question, why was that Council position so very important to her supporters? It’s a step into a position of power in Suffolk, that’s why, according to the theory advanced. If you can imagine it, the theory states that the Mayor would be more comfortable as the Council member she was and is part of the group that want Martin as mayor. The theory calculates the voters are ready for change, based on the recent state and federal results. New Councilman Barclay seeks a higher position in Va. Politics and will step down. Linda Johnson would then easily recapture her former Council seat making room for Martin to run. She could win if the voters hadn’t figured out what was going on. The theorist figures Parr, Duman, and Linda Johnson would support Martin and the SCCA crowd would be in power.    

SENSIBLE CONTRACT FOR 2011 CONGRESS

1.  Term Limits - Lifetime service 12 years.

2.  No Tenure / No Pension - A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay       when out of office.

3.  Congress (past, present, & future) participates in Social Security - All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately.  All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase its own retirement plan, just as all Americans do

5. Congress will no longer vote itself a pay raise, pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11

The American people did not make contracts with Congressmen. A self serving Congress made all these plush contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
 

ANOTHER VISITOR JUST OUTSIDE LIVINGROOM

An eight pointer, fifteen feet from our dining room,  he just dropped by to eat azalea blooms. I don't imagine downtowners have this problem. Our best day counting deer in the yard at the same time was fourteen. No record but Fish and Game Department better come up with something or provide a bounty like they did with wolves and coyote.  Rural living has its pluses and minuses. We see cormorants geese, ducks, vultures, eagles, woodchuck,  turtles, heron, ibis, silver fox, possum, skunk, birds and hawks of all sorts. Almost makes our property taxes worthwhile. 

THE PRESIDENT 'S STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH

IS THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

Is Mark Warner the “Man of the Century, can he lead us to the promised-land with his bill to save trillions over a few decades? He and Chambliss are teaming up to hit Congress with a Tsunami of ways to cut government spending and may actually believe they will listen to their fairy tale. Saving trillions would require closing several huge Departments like Education, Agriculture, I.R.S, but you can’t just fire thousands of bureaucrats now that Obama has finally awakened to the need for jobs throughout the country. Forget eliminating “earmarks, ” no rep or senator will give up the spending that keeps him elected. Replacing roads and bridges is a necessity and could save the nation billions but it requires billions for labor and materials. If gasoline taxes were raised by as much as a dollar there would be a rush on motorcycles, electric cars, comfortable walking shoes, and would put car commuters into inconvenient pools or break them. Mark Warner believes in bold strokes; you can be sure it will be hard on wallets and purses, and the great variety of generous entitlements will take a hit. The BILL will cause a stir in in the land because at this point it sounds good..

NEW RACE TRACK

Gov. Bob McDonnell saith a new 460 will be better, safer and lower freight costs. Plus improve the military’s strategic connectivity, improve travel safety, and provide a safer, less flood-prone evacuation route. The road builders, 460 Partners, LLC, Cintra Infrastructures, S.A., and MultiModal Solutions, LLC — say the job can be done between $1.49 billion and $2.72 billion. Some  spread.
But where between for a 55-mile, four-lane, divided, limited-access highway between Suffolk and Petersburg nearly alongside old 460 but bypassing towns that will lose some business. Tolls for the whole trip range from $3.85 for motorcycles, $75 for tandem trailers, and two-axle vehicles $5.94 to $11. But you can risk your life at a legal 75 miles per hour, 40 minutes here to Petersburg.

IS THERE AN ANSWER

Here is a place where $600 suit wearing bankers with nice cars can explain the positive side of foreclosure. We understand the part about people either buying above their means or losing their job and  no longer able to pay for food and medicine let alone the mortgage or even the interest and property taxes. We understand banks don't exactly love carrying an inventory of houses. And we realize that an empty home deteriorates at a much faster rate than one owned by caring people. We all fear the word homelessness or having to impose by moving in with relatives. So what does a bank gain by forcing people out on the streets who can hardly handle the costs of moving anywhere or storing what they own?

There are banks everywhere and they never stop expanding, new buildings purchased with the difference between the interest charged to borrowers and interest paid to savers.  We may be naive but perhaps one of the hundreds of local bankers can tell us how they gain from foreclosures, assuming they do. The low interest they pay on checking accounts is the reason many folks would just as soon keep their cash in a steel box hidden in a stump in the yard.

IN CASE YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ONE

One of  a family of four magnificent Bald Eagles that nest nearby, parents and a two year old brood. Only in less than perfect weather do they perch in high dead pines by our home on Lake Western Branch. Yes, they are quite friendly, My lawn tractor and I mow right under them and they seem not disturbed. On rare occasions both adults sit side by side about fifty feet up. I've come close but never been able to take a picture of both.

BFF CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

BE  FIGHT  FREE  may have originated right here in Suffolk but from wherever it came the idea makes complete sense because it can quickly ostracize those that refuse to participate. The usual ignorant school bully would be targeted, avoided and scorned. Potential serious troublemakers would be spotlighted immediately and carefully observed by authorities. Kids can fool parents but not kids. The concept is marvelous, kids are joiners and loyal to a commitment. Girls by nature should take the lead and stick with it as it can and must work. Authorities and mom and dad have lectured on the benefits of being good citizens for decades. Imagine how it could be if kids took over the responsibility of being fight free. If they are successful the world could also be FRIGHT free.The Be Fight Free rally is the beginning of a trial balloon at each Suffolk high school. I’d only suggest they start much earlier in a child’s school life.

ARE THESE SENTENCES FROM THE MOUTH OF MR. FORBES

Let's consider what we witnessed during Mr. Hu’s visit: We saw the leadership of the greatest democracy this world has ever known roll out the red carpet and raise their glasses to toast the leader of the largest communist nation in the world. And what were they toasting? They were toasting the fact that we have traded our computer technology advantages to the Chinese so they can build missiles, weapon systems, and business models to rival our own, in exchange for tainted pet food, dry wall and childs toys. They were toasting the reality that we have given our cash to China in exchange for a future of indebtedness that will anchor our grandchildren for decades. They were toasting the fact that we now have a trade deficit of $252 billion, while China has a surplus of $252 billion, which has resulted in us financing their entire defense expenditures. IF FORBES SAID THIS, BRAVO.   He also said he was not angry with the Chinese, just disappointed in  our country's  leadership.

PC OKAYS $724 BIG ONES

That’s easy and exciting and only a good estimate. Obama’s disastrous two years make it impossible to know what’s ahead for the dollar or taxes, or an individual’s worth. Based on planners faith perhaps is OK but the plan should be written in Pencil. And that’s just the Capital Plan, there’s still operational money and most all of this must be wrested from wallets and purses. There is no doubt the listed planned items are good ideas and necessary to growth but it is merely an exercise, as was the Fairgrounds experiment and expanding Highway 58. If the nation’s burden of debt is not paid (taxed) down to lender’s satisfaction we could all be looking for space to raise bananas. Well, not me, too old, but those whom will pick up the nations reins will face an economy like that after World War II. Like I said, we are not yet committed, it’s only a vision and city rules call for it. Just remember the SCCA was once a planner’s dream, and the unrecoverable cost of seeking tourists.

BROWN AND WHITNEY LOSE ONE

I was just trying to take the positive road,” said Mr. Brown who represents Cypress Borough where FourFarms would be located. Attorney Whitney Saunders lost the battle despite several opportunities to plead his case because Suffolk Citizens for Responsible Growth would not sit still for more road traffic congestion and had the obvious support of the Planning Commission. Brown wanted to table the motion to end the debate and many voting citizens might remember the next time Brown’s name shows on the ballot. Those petitions signed by 600 citizens might indicate Brown didn’t know his constituents. The attorney, Whitney Saunders, suggested there should be more time to study the outstanding design of the project. I’d say it had been studied to a sure death.

http://suffolkresponsiblegrowth.com/

IT STILL TICKS ME OFF

Take a guess…how many French, Dutch, Italians, Belgians, and Brits are buried on American soil…after defending us against our enemies in wars we did not start? Zero.

But just in Europe there are 104,366 dead, brave Americans buried under soil we liberated. We haven’t asked for sympathy, nor have we ever asked for praise. But for damn sure we have absolutely no need to apologize. Yet we have a President who apologized to Europe and the Middle East suggesting that our country is "arrogant"! The  President's                                                      name is Zero

HIDE YOUR GUNS

HIDE  YOUR  GUNS

They will be on the warpath again, always finding a reason why some nut with a gun is reason enough to ignore the majority and eliminate guns. The National Rifle Association is preparing its boilerplate advertising materials for anti-gun control TV adds, again. The subject comes up on an irregular basis but the opposition to guns seldom miss an opportunity to defraud sensitive people into thinking no guns is the answer. Most every veteran of any war or skirmish disagrees, every hunter, any gun hobbyist, will be impossible to sell. But that leaves a whopping number of liberals and sympathizers that don’t think at all and could be compromised by a gifted orator who already fooled them twice. They put him in office and bought his Health Care mess.

A quick tip from an old soldier, clean and oil them as though they were going to be stored in a pyramid for a hundred years. That could happen so keep at least one handy, the French Army may invade us.

NOTHING LEFT TO CHANCE

From the heart speech  for victim Giffords.

SERIOUS MESSAGE IN HERE SOMEPLACE

A fleeing Taliban, desperate for water, was plodding through the Afghan desert when

he saw an oasis in the distance. Hoping to find water, he hurried to it and found only a little old Jewish man at a small stand selling neckties. “I’m sorry, I have no water but would you like to buy a tie? They are only five dollars.”  The angry Taliban shouted,                                                                                                        

"Idiot! I do not need an over-priced tie. I need water! I should kill you, but I must find water first! 

                              

"OK," said the old Jewish man, "It does not matter that you won’t buy a tie and that you hate me. I will show you I am bigger than you. If you continue over that hill to the east for about two miles you will find a lovely restaurant and it has all the ice-cold water you need. Shalom.

Cursing, the Taliban staggered over the sand dune. Several hours later he crawled back, nearly dead and said, ”Your  brother won’t let me in without a tie.”

                                          

FAST ACTION SAVES LIVES

I witnessed it today, Sunday, when a heavy limb from an oak tree came crashing down on my daughter, cutting her head and knocking her senseless. Her husband called 911 and did mouth to mouth until she awakened and opened her eyes. She was bleeding, in obvious pain and unconscious. Within minutes two ambulances were on the scene, one from the new complex on Kings Fork. It took them only seconds to call for Nightingale then went about prepping her for the ride, start an IV, be sure she was warm, strapped in safely for the ride, and what ever else these trained professionals do. Our subdivision was treated to a helicopter coming down on Mike Duman’s lawn, an operation in itself. Out stepped two nurses who took over, and off they flew to Sentara emergency facilities. Coincidentally, Norfolk Sentara  employs daughter Leslie in the area of quality control. She will be absent for a few days. 

We are relieved and proud to see that part of our local medical team is so proficient. We are waiting for Xray and MRI assessments.   

DO DELEGATES SHOP

They best be careful, those that favor eliminating plastic bags. I use them for the globs I pick from the cat liter box every day. What would a delegate recommend I use? Or for the garbage, should I just toss it loosely into the wastebasket…after a few days in the sun that might infuriate the trash gentlemen and cause them to sail the garbage can lids farther than they often do. Delegates could also lose votes next time around. We suggest only female delegates vote on such a proposition, eliminating plastic bags would be a national sea change, like eliminating purses. When you see a weakening lady with a cart piled high, a nose full of three kids begging for candy and headed for checkout, don’t tell her she must bring her own bags.  Don’t get us wrong, we favor those bags being allowed but with no more than a shelf life of six months and dated like milk cartons. At that point they must shrivel to the size of a cigarette butt containing chemicals that plants need.  

OK DEBRANSKI, SHOW US YOUR STUFF

The $5,300,000 budget cuts have been set as a priority for discussion at the School Board retreat set for Feb. 2 in the Black Box Theater at King’s Fork High School.   Debranski beat out Skeeter for Chairman of the school board just in time for a face-off with fate and the Governor who knows what must be done, what can be done, and should be done. Like most businesses in the country costs go up and results go down. We have seen the top administrator retire, a sharp young man replace him, a new School Board Chairman, and over five million less money. How many changes does it require to change direction of Truancy, discipline, and student comportment?

WHAT HAPPENED

Only three came to the city budget meeting looking for money and apparently no one from the SCCA. Was it a case of shame or has a deal already been made to escape public view? No one showed for the second meeting. Is this a new approach, just write us a letter and we will decide what we can do? C'mon Anne Seward, tell us. John Wass was correct to complain about lack of access to Suffolk waters. Norfolk does a much better job on its lakes in Suffolk. Mr. Wass also slipped in this sentence for the SCCA, “We need to keep the funding there, it takes time to get something like that going.” It took a long time to get JefCom going but time came to pull the plug.

Two reps from “ForKids Suffolk House, homeless shelter, had a good reason to be there and braved the stormy weather to plead their case. They pointed out that each sheltered child was promoted to the next grade level; that is an important accomplishment. They received no local funding last year. You figure why would the city build the King’s Fork Safety Center, an impressive complex, if they can’t fund the operation of it? One last question, if we just hired a new city water manager, what happened to the old one?

GETTING EVEN

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their day exciting. Well, for example, the other day my wife and I went into town shopping. We were in a store five minutes. When we came out, there was a cop writing a parking ticket on a car with an Obama bumper sticker.  We went over and said, "Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?" He ignored us and finished writing the ticket so I called him a fat bully. He glared at me and started writing one for worn tires. Then my wife called him a sorehead. He calmly finished the second ticket, put it on the windshield with the first and wrote out a third. We figured that was

enough and went to our car parked across the street. We try to have a little fun each day, important at our age.

AIRPORT SCREENERS SAVING LIVES

Department of Homeland Security Airport Passenger Screening
TSA Report – 2010 Daily Average Results  ______________________________________
 
Terrorist Plots Discovered        0
Transvestites                          133
Hernias                                1,485
Enlarged Prostates             8,249
Breast Implants              159,351

And you think airport searches are frivolous. 

EASY COMPANY COMMANDER DIES

Prayers and condolences to this true American hero’s family.

PHILADELPHIA – Even as Parkinson’s disease began taking its toll on Dick Winters, who led his “Band of Brothers” through some of World War II’s fiercest European battles, the unassuming hero refused, as always, to let his men down.

Friends accompanied him to public events, subtly clearing a path through the adoring crowds for the living legend, whose Easy Company’s achievements were documented by a book and HBO miniseries. His gait had grown unsteady, and he did not want to be seen stumbling.

Winters “didn’t want the members of Easy Company to know,” William Jackson said Monday of his longtime friend, who died last week at age 92. “Right up to the end, he was the company commander.”

An intensely private and humble man, Winters had asked that news of his death be withheld until after his funeral, Jackson said. Winters lived in Hershey, Pa., but died in an assisted-living center in neighboring Palmyra.

The men Winters led through harrowing circumstances and under fire from the German army never let the toll of time dull their own admiration for their commander.

“When he said `Let’s go,’ he was right in the front,” William Guarnere, 88, and dubbed “Wild Bill” by his comrades, said Sunday night from his south Philadelphia home. “He was never in the back. A leader personified.”

WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT

Although the curtain went up revealing SCCA finances the reps will be in line tonight at Council chambers with palms upward pleading for one more chance, or suggesting losing money is perfectly normal. The  $22,000,000 for restoring the building may be forgivable but is the $450,000 annual boost? Ask first how many and who benefits. It only took them eleven months to lose $815,000 last year.  With THIRTY charity orgs in Suffolk needing money, and far more deserving for what they do, I wonder how SCCA supporters prep their minds to plead for rare dollars, or how they feel being in the same room with those who really benefit society.  

Executive director Paul Lasakow said the center probably would end the year "in a modest cash-loss position," but that the trend line was "up and near the break-even point."  Oh sure, but they will ask for $450,000 again.

STREETCARS AND TAXIS COMING BACK

It’s a pleasure to think back to a year living in Bremen, Germany after the war. Although the large city was heavily bombed you could get nearly everywhere on a streetcar. If you knew the connections it was jump on jump off or change cars even back in 1945. Take a streetcar to the airport or train station, see the world and never own a car. If you did there was the Autobahn on which you could zoom to any of several other countries in a day.

 

Today, in Hampton Roads we are considering a passenger train from Norfolk to Richmond, necessary due to automobiles jamming roads and wasting now precious gasoline. Let’s not mention poor planning and funding, or the fact that politicians would fear elections if they added to the gasoline tax. Sure, the driving public would have raised a fuss but what are they doing now?

It is true that high-speed trains no longer are if frequent stops are added but it makes little sense for Suffolkians to take a train to downtown Norfolk for a train ride to Richmond. Let Norfolk riders get up early, beat the tunnel traffic and head west to the stop at Bowers Hill. Windsor and Suffolk riders can be at Bowers Hill in 30 minutes and all riders play poker all the way to Richmond in order to recover price of the fare.

HOW DID WE GET SO SCREWED UP

If we lie to Congress it’s a felony, if they lie to us it’s politics. If we dislike a black person we’re racists and if a black dislikes whites, its their first Amendment rights; the government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and do almost nothing for the victims; in public Schools you can teach that homosexuality is OK, but you better not use the word God in the process; you can kill an unborn child, but is wrong to kill a mass murderer; we don’t burn books in America, now we rewrite them; we got rid of socialists and communists by renaming them progressives; we are unable to close our borders with Mexico, but have no problem protecting the 38 parallel in Korea; if you protest against President Obama’s policies you’re a terrorist, but if you burned an American flag or George Bush effigy it was your First Amendment right.

You can have pornography on your TV or Internet but you better not put a nativity scene in a public park during Christmas; we have eliminated all criminals in America, they are now called sick people; we can use a human fetus for medical research but it is wrong to use an animal. We take money from those who work hard for it, and give it to those who don’t want to work.

HALF A LOAF??

Our blabbermouth President had to steal the General’s limelight again by announcing the current agreement about JefCon, that’s right, con. They spent 373 million to get what was imperative for military success and then backed down when Obama realized the amount of debt he created overnight. About half of the 3700 employees in Suffolk/Norfolk will be conned if they get walking papers, those of lesser importance and skills. It looks like Warner is skilled in horse-trading but him pointing out that DOD’s 60 million piddling cost of the broken leases is of no consequence to the DOD.

But is there another shoe to drop? Will we still lose an economic boom when they free the hawsers and tugs push a carrier out into the current as the band plays nautical music and sailors wave goodbye Norfolk, hello Florida? Half a loaf of carrier isn’t seaworthy so it is all or nothing in that case. The loss of a carrier and half of Jefcon could even put a dent in Hampton Roads Regional plans, let alone sales tax losses. Landlords will face a quandary when buyers or renters pack up, but bridge and tunnel traffic remains the same. 

Our mayor will sit down with General Odierno but I’m afraid that will only serve to put the sod back on the fresh grave.    

MAD AS HELL

Monday on the news it was reported that the staffers (spoiled children)  of Congress family members are EXEMPT from having to pay back student loans. There is a proposed Amendment to the Constitution that seeks to take away the special privileges Congress keeps voting itself. Read on: Governors of 35 states have filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.

This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on.  For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop. If each person that receives this will forward it on to 20 people, in three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States."

GOOD NEWS, ANOTHER INDICATOR DOWN

The crime rate in Suffolk is down about nine percent and the credit goes to what or whom? The NAACP realized their responsibility a few months ago. The new NAACP officers are younger and surely will follow through. We have added new police officers under the guidance of an experienced new tough police chief. Older cops are capitalizing on what they know about the population hopeful the courts will back their efforts to correct a longstanding problem. The local gangs know the focus is on them, that Suffolk has had enough of petty crimes and intend to keep the cleanup ball rolling. All the above are hopefully contributing to a lowered crime rate. On the other hand, and we hope not, it just might be the unusual cold weather lowering outdoor activity. Time and sensible record keeping will tell. 

NOT MUCH CHANGED DOWNTOWN

For the first time in three years I attended a political function, this one the installation of new and used Council members. Mike Duman was the only fresh face in the Council proving that status quo in Suffolk is acceptable. I did meet an able rep of the group opposed to FourFarms, I believe her name is Morgan and she moved smoothly among the decision makers. My feeling is that few, if any, will go against the Planning Commission eight to zero vote, or her faultless argument. I enjoyed meeting and visiting with the Suffolk leaders like Jeff Gardy who pulled off a second victory in his borough and should receive a trophy. I renewed friendship with the Commonwealth guys, a good bunch, personable with great staying power. I met the handsome young and sharp next in line City Manager and attractive Lady George whom I thought was two different women with coincidental names. Of course my buddy Andy Damiani, Mr. Suffolk was there. We both need canes now, two war vets, Mutt and Jeff with wobbly knees making it difficult to carry a plate of ham biscuits, napkin, plastic cup of punch, small fork, cane and no place to sit. I managed to spill a shrimp with hot sauce on my sweater and watch it bounce off to a young woman’s slacks. I met our new Police Chief and he appears formidable but friendly and I decided never to get under his skin. There were others, mostly retired city employees like Jim Vacalis who helped me with planning problems thirty years ago. I thank Mayor Linda Johnson who provided dialogue during Suffolk’s ”Holiday” parade. She often used the words, “Merry Christmas.” a term fast fading from the American language. One last item, I learned that Market Street was once Spring Street, known for the many underground streams and springs in that area, perhaps the reason City Hall is falling apart.

WE WISH OBAMA WOULD SAY THE SAME

        Prime Minister Julia Gillard -  Australia – said “Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. Separately, Gillard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying she supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques. Quote:

    

    “'IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It.

    I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians. This country has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language!'

    

    'Most Australians (but not me) believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture. We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.'

    

    'This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, 'THE  RIGHT TO LEAVE. If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.'

ANOTHER COMMENT BECOMES A POST

A major problem with the SCCA is that it grossly fails in its "culture" mission for Suffolk. Look in any Sunday paper, and the reader will find hundreds of show, concerts, programs, plays, etc. throughout Tidewater EXCEPT in Suffolk. Rather than become part of the "culture" scene and including many of programs shared throughout Tidewater, the somewhat limited intellect of the SCCA top two or three has caused Suffolk to be 100% excluded from the annual Virginia Art Festival shows favored every year by young children up to senior citizens.

Instead, The SCCA attemps to hide its almost 100% lack of acceptance in the Suffolk community by (1) blaming the local "hicks" who don't know what is best for themselves, (2) dropping most popular programs and relying on local talent productions and church shows that have failed to be popular at the SCCA and are best continued in the community through churches and schools, whose track record in this arena (including local Little Theater productions) make the SCCA look pathetic and quite properly should demand to know why the SCCA staff continues to seek a $450,000 annual subsidy from the City over and above the many incomes (annual memberships, rents, classes, sponsorships, major donations, restaurant profits, gift shop) that are also mysteriously included in a bottomless hole and never really accounted for, especially if its true as your other comments have recently said that many tickets sales and much sponsorship publicity is given away to hype up the dwindling lack of interest. Anyone with a computer can check the ticket sales and spot the obvious "blocking out" of sections to try to hype up the appearance.

The problem here is the failure of an arrogant few to be supported by our citizens who are being forced to be accused of "anti-culture" lifestyles when they actually just simply resenr the secrecy, mismanagement, and arrogance of a few hand-picked board members and highly paid staff with little accountability other than as as "gofers" for misplaced elitism.

The SCCA can be saved at about a small percentage of the subsidy it now demands (and then brags to call its budget "almost even") by just getting a big old broom (some would say "mop").

What is there to lose by correcting this albatross. We presently have no symphony, no opera. no modern dance, no full ballet, no plays, second rate bands that our young people don't want even though they spend millions on concerts in nearby communities every year, a restaurant that has flopped and yet is arrogantly defended by the SCCA to avoid the animosity created in the community by making this "restaurant" (and some say one florist and one wine vendor) exclusively required for use by any groups seeking to rent the SCCA.

Suffolk doesn't hate "culture" but it does hate what a few divas and primadonnas are doing to conceal poor judgment here and to nitpick the activities of now its second executive director.

We need the "culture" of all of the program areas noted above, but a bowling alley or a movie theater should hardly be treated as a threat to anyone's perverse definition of "culture" that we should be required to like to the exclusion of what is popular and prevalent in virtually every local Tidewater area than ours.

Anonymous January 2, 2011 3:43 PM

VOLUNTARY VERSUS INVOLUNTARY

It is interesting that more people show up at the annual city budget meeting with pleas for SCCA funding than do persons involved with SNH Toys For Tots, and guess who gets the most every time. You do your own comparison of citizens who can afford to patronize the Culture Center and those kids, also citizens, that don’t find much under a Christmas tree if they have one. In one instance the dollars given are a voluntary act, the donor decides how much to give to unfortunate kids. The SCCA contribution is determined by SCCA request and a city council decision as to how much of already collected tax dollars to take. It is difficult to determine the income of SCCA users but easy to calculate incomes of those who are given toys paid for by volunteers. Toys for Tots set a goal and hope the necessary contributions arrive on time. SCCA can depend on those 8 members of Council determining what is best for us 83,000. The toy estimate of $45,000 was short by $14,000 but 5160 kids were apparently satisfied. Cultural recipients are decidedly less, based on ticket sales. I understand that one can avail them of culture every day while certain kids are very pleased by what happens at least one day a year.