Your Turn Letters to the Editor

Hey Bill, Hazaaa! I’ve enjoyed your last two opinion pieces in the CT. As an alums of this fine institution, let me tell you that the reason that leftists aren’t replying to you isn’t that they use the CT as extra insulation in their apartments in Oregon Hill. The fact is that the majority of students at VCU are leftist and they don’t read the CT. It isn’t that your paper isn’t insightful and informative; it’s that they (the lefties) are on to bigger and better things, reading The Washington Post, New York Times, etc. Meanwhile, the minority, aka the right-wing, read all university publications and believe that when they write letters to the editor, the letters will be printed and read by all students.

I am glad to see nothing has changed in the last 12 years. When I was an undergrad there were always massive amounts of CTs lying around in their bins days after production. The right-wing types were writing letters bemoaning the Trani Dome (aka Siegel Center) saying we (the university) needed more dorms. The responding letters said that the dorms (Rhoads, Johnson and GRC) were only at 80 percent capacity. Well, it looks like we needed both the Trani Dome and more dorms. Meanwhile, there were no responses from the left. We all know that VCU is a left-wing university, but it has to be the slackest left-wing group I’ve ever known. It seems they (the lefties) are happier doing nothing rather then doing something. For example, there is a monument to the Confederate States of America not more then 50 yards from Johnson Hall in Monroe Park. Why hasn’t that been protested yet?

Yours in VCU,
Pete Murray
Class of ’95

I want to first off thank you for taking a stand against an often overwhelming majority of wannabe-liberal college brats. Too often I am seeing my generation (I’m 25 years old) turning south and taking up where our parents left off in the ’60s. What is with the hipness of being a dirty hippy, anyway?

I’d like for you to tackle the issue of freeganism. As a police officer in a relatively quiet town in the Midwest, one of our biggest issues is people trespassing into the fenced-off areas of businesses, specifically Trader Joe’s, in order to dumpster dive for free food. One of the clowns actually informed me it was his right to protest this way against a fascist economy set up by a fascist president. He really hates Bush. This person goes to school at a reputable college in central Ohio (Go Bucks!), comes from a well-off family, is supposed to be getting a quality education… but in the end he still believes the counterculture of the ’60s is still the “cool” thing to get involved in? There’s a word we often use to describe people who dig around in dumpsters, and it is “bums.”

Also, I was wondering if you had anything to say on the fad of Vespa scooters. I see these trashy mopeds being ridden around by people that have yet to take their “John Kerry” sticker off the back. They’re dirty, loud, annoying… quite frankly, one of these things probably gives off more pollutants into the air than the average sedan does. Two-cycle motors are nasty pieces of crap. Get these things off the streets before some jerk high on peyote wrecks his or her scooter trying to juggle an anti-war poster and a soy milk latte.

Anyway, thanks for really shining in your opinion piece, and I look forward to seeing more of it.

-Robb Layton

Please mark your calendars now for this Sierra Club- Falls of the James event, Feb. 12, at 7:00 p.m. at the Science Museum of Virginia (Discovery Room):

“Meeting the Governor’s Land Conservation Goal” with Sarah Richardson, land conservation coordinator, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

“With every passing day, land is becoming more expensive and scarce. I will set up and meet this preservation goal during my term, not just because it’s the right thing to do. I will do it because, if I don’t, the opportunity to do it will not be there for future governors and future Virginians.” – Gov. Tim Kaine.

In 1999, the General Assembly established the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation to help buy and protect open spaces and parklands, lands of historic or cultural significance, farmlands and forests, and natural areas. During its first few years, its funding was minimal, and few resources were given permanent protection. Shortly after Governor Tim Kaine’s election, he announced an initiative to protect an additional 400,000 acres of land by the year 2010. Ms. Richardson will provide updates on the progress of this initiative, and share her vision of what Virginia must endeavor to preserve, and where and why, and offer suggestions as to new strategies for making the commonwealth greener and cleaner.

-Scott Burger

For more information, call (804) 714- 5444 or visit: http://virginia.sierraclub.org/foj/