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Last Updated: Jul 10, 2008 - 12:32:05 PM |
Relic Hunters Destroy Important Information
To the Editor:
I am writing concerning the June 4 article in Chesterfield’s Village News online by Nick DeRatto. This article discusses the integrity of “relic hunters” who always seek permission prior to digging on private property and the criminal behavior of those who do not seek permission. I am confounded by the idea that just because something is not illegal, it is right.
I believe that indiscriminate, unscientific removal of evidences of historic activities is an offense to history. Without physical evidence of past activities, history can be distorted, spun, and adjusted to suit the needs of the persons doing the recording. Look at what was learned at Little Big Horn after scientific evidence collection occurred. Consider the myths that are currently being dispelled about occupation of the Americas due to ongoing archaeological investigations. Archaeological excavations, as slow and expensive as they may be, are still the only means of scientific examination and recordation of the ruminants of past activities.
Why are private property rights so important as to allow the desecration and destruction of historic evidence simply to fulfill the selfish need of a few. These “relics” eventually wind up in collections of self- important individuals so that they may boast about owning more “stuff” than others, or even worse, being sold to other collectors. Both activities result in the artifacts being dispersed from their original location, thereby destroying any contextual information.
I regret that your publication fails to recognize the importance of the ruminants of history while lauding the destructive behavior of “legal” relic collectors. Hypocrisy and ignorance both enter into this equation somewhere, but I am not sure where to point a finger.
C. Niel Manson
Taxes and Affordable Housing
To the Editor:
You gotta love our Board of Supervisors! In their infinite wisdom, they lower the real estate tax rate to offset the outrageous real estate assessments of the past three or four years, which of course could only be expected given the outrageous cost of homes in Chesterfield, and which of course loss of said tax income will directly affect our county schools – and then they turn around and raise the proffers! They’re absolutely brilliant. I thought we had thrown out the cronies and brought in a new group of enlightened folks, but much to my dismay, it’s politics as usual. Does it ever occur to them to encourage business and commercial growth in the county instead of pricing folks out of owning homes of their own?
I applaud George Emerson’s comments at the last board meeting in his efforts to stop the increase, but let’s face it, George, it’s developers like you that have directly contributed to the current outrageous price of homes – take Meadowville Landing, for example. Don’t you think a development like that impacts the price of local homes around it? Who buys these homes anyway – I don’t anyone that could even come close to affording a home in Meadowville Landing – $250,000 for a less than an acre lot – come on!! Every new development that goes up in Chesterfield advertises “affordable luxurious” homes – isn’t that a contradiction in terms? Does every new development have to be “luxurious”? I see where there’s one being built over near Community High (the old Carver Junior High for those of us who have grown up in Chester). What’s that going to do to the property values of all the little country homes that have traditionally existed over there?
Thank you, Chris Wiegard, for backing me up against you-know-who. I was starting to wonder if I was the only person who found her comments to be sarcastic and self-entertaining. And how ironic that our BOS, after voting to raise proffers, said it would form a committee to look at affordable housing issues. Haven’t we heard this before? It’s the you-know-whos that sit on our BOS, and frankly, I don’t believe for one minute that they give a good gosh darn about affordable housing. It boils down to the haves and the have nots, and the haves are the ones that run the show and to heck with the little guy. They’re no different than Marie Antoinette – “they have no bread? Let them eat cake!”
Julia Latimer Hicks
Happy to be Reading New Columnist
To the Editor:
A hearty “Hallelujah” and “Amen” on the inclusion of what looks to be a regular column by Dr. Robert Owens. Finally, Village News readers will be treated to a thoughtful, sobering, and well-written piece detailing our country’s current situation through a common sense, black-and-white lens.
Sandy Brasili
Proffer Increase Support
To the Editor:
I support the proposed increase in proffers! The developers have created the problems in overcrowding schools in the last ten years; now they need to pay for the solutions. They have made plenty of money in the past. The current housing situation is not an excuse. Are you going to allow all the financial burdens to continue to fall on the citizens in the form of taxes?
Phil Lohr
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