Clean up your mess

Editor, Smithfield Times;

Has anyone noticed the proliferation of plastic bottles, styrofoam cups, paper wrappers, and just general trash that has been deposited by Smithfield motorists along Nike Park Road?

I just don’t understand what possesses our citizens to liter one of the most beautiful pristine roads in our town. Come on people, who do you think is going to pick up after you … your mother?

All sarcasm aside, what happened to “Smithfield Pride?” We don’t refrain from throwing our trash on roadways just to keep our community beautiful, we do this so that we can do beautiful things in our community.

For inspiration, check out “Keep America Beautiful” at:  https://kab.org/

Regards,

Michael Gilman

Smithfield

 

Schools will swamp seniors

Editor, The Smithfield Times;

Concerning Isle of Wight plans to renovate or build two schools, a reminder —  the next two decades, led by baby boomers, will become the “age of the senior.”  Already, Isle of Wight seniors (55 and older) outnumber all other younger Isle of Wight adults.  Unprecedented!  It never has been this way before, and the difference will only increase.  Seniors on Social Security, which does not keep up with real cost of living, will bear the brunt of this school cost.  Also, six years from now Medicare’s reserve fund will go broke. With present and looming problems, middle and low income seniors are not comfortable with the high cost of two schools. Many seniors fear their cash assets are dwindling too fast, and they (53 percent)will be unable to maintain a household over their remaining years much less support two schools. This is serious!

Again, present demography is not the world of the past.  We need to wake up.  The Isle of Wight tax base will fall substantially on this senior majority, many who are already uneasy about their future.  Even, the loss of a spouse could leave seniors, who are so many, seriously compromised financially.  (Widow(er)s’ Social Security is $1,350/ month on average.)  And the failure of the Medicare reserve fund could leave most Isle of Wight seniors at the poverty level.

 The powers that be should not build two schools but should be utilizing the 500 empty spaces in the Windsor attendance zone.  If they have to build a school, build just one 794 size school for $24 million like Chesterfield’s, 31 percent of the cost of Isle of Wight’s original $78 million proposal.  Once the folly of the two school decision is made, it will be too late, to the detriment and grief of many good people, who will not be able to fend for themselves financially.  Too many county households are going from an average income to a low Social Security income, averaging down average income.

It is a mistake to build two schools. 

Thomas Finderson

Carrollton

 

Tack on more gun lovers

Editor, Smithfield Times;

The “vexit” of some Virginia border counties leaving the Commonwealth to hook up with West “By God!” Virginia is an intriguing solution to our problem of one-party leftist rule.

So I propose the opposite.

Let’s invite West Virginia to reenter Virginia. We’ll call it “Ventrance.” After all, they deserted us in 1863 in an emotional fit of pique to avoid having to endure the Yankee invasion. Just because they were anti-slavery and we wanted to keep ours is no excuse. After all, “The Cause” remains so today according to my SCV friends.

After all, we were one happy (at least for whites!) family for some 250 years.

Now we find ourselves in a similar situation. Northern Virginia leftists are forcing “progressivism” on the other 85 percent of us real Virginians. But we can increase our strength by including the votes of all those counties of West Virginia. They have proven their steadfastness in this new “unpleasantness.” We must bring the rest of our fellow conservative Virginians back into the fold to return our Commonwealth to its’ rightful and traditional geographical and political order.

Oh, and to complete the picture, let’s restore the historic 1790 10-mile-square District of Columbia. Recall the original concept included part of Virginia south of the Potomac. This would put most of those Democrat come-heres in Washington where they would be happier. Of course, it would mean losing the Pentagon and Arlington as tourist attractions but we all must compromise mustn’t we?

And we would not have to redo the Stars and Stripes either. Virginia’s single star would remain, of course, but we could finally let the District of Columbians have their statehood that they so desperately want. And, it would round things out to an even 50 again. Don’t even need to change the flag. Or, if the new “State of D.C.” offends, we could just let Puerto Rico in. Either way, my Democrat friends should be happy.

Doesn’t “Ventrance” promise to be a win-win solution for us all?

Albert P. Burckard Jr.

Carrollton