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Last Updated: Jul 10, 2008 - 12:32:05 PM |
Harsher Penalties will Control Criminals
To the Editor:
This is in reference to the letter of May 7 by Phyllis Beazley, titled “On Taxes and the Police.”
Chesterfield County is rapidly growing in numbers of residents, businesses, and neighborhoods, all of which call for an enlarged, capable police department.
However, and it is a nationwide problem, police cannot control or prevent crime until the judicial system resolves to punish offenders via fines and jail or prison sentences. For example, how often do you hear that a rape, robbery, assault, or other crime was committed by a repeat offender or person on parole? In short, addition to hiring and training more police, we need to appoint or vote for judges and magistrates who, while ensuring that justice is served, will mandate sentences that are likely to dissuade repeat criminal sentences.
I receive numerous appeals to support this or that political party or politician, and the issue of defending against terrorism is usually noted. My usual response is that I am more likely to be harmed as a result of “street” or civil crime than by terrorist activities.
Harry Clark
About That Voting Mess
To the Editor:
Okay, I admit it. I had a hand in this. Although there have been liberals that I could have supported because of some of their positions – senators Paul Tsongas and Joseph Lieberman, to name two – my usual inclination is to the conservative side. But in the recent presidential primary, given the opportunity to “cross over,” I marked my ballot for Mr. Obama, the number-one rated liberal in the U.S. Senate (and they didn’t make me do it left-handed).
Now, I am a charitable guy. Had I known of ballot-needy Democrats, I would have donated my official document to one of them and pulled out my “Far Side” notepad to write out my selection. It was not my intention to engage in the “travesty for the most fundamental right in a democracy,” as stated by Jay Myerson, speaking for the Democratic Party of Virginia.
Certainly, the right to vote can be categorized as liberty, or even as the pursuit of happiness. But of the three familiar unalienable rights included in the Declaration of Independence, is not the first one listed life? How is the travesty of denying that right to the living but not born abortion victims being opposed or protested by Myerson or any other members or supporters of the Democratic Party of Virginia?
The truth is, liberals will not miss any opportunity to rail against the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” They are still sore from the 2000 election, in which a quirk in the Constitution allowed Bush to become president, even though Gore won the popular vote. Those pesky quirks can go both ways, though. In ’92, Clinton won with 43% of the popular vote, meaning 57% voted against. Normally, that result would have been classified as a loss of landslide proportions.
David Severin
Who Needs a Beginner’s Course in Real Estate?
To the Editor:
I am writing this while sitting in my deck chair on the deck of my new luxury yacht, the SS Greedy. It pays to be a little widow on social security with a house to sell in Chesterfield County these days. The only six figures that I have encountered lately are the ones in the middle of my social security check. And our letter writer is quite right; I did not sell my home to a policeman or a firefighter or a teacher. It was a lovely truck driver and his wife who works for the county.
I don’t presume to know whether firemen or policemen or teachers can afford affordable housing in their own neighborhoods. I don’t have to. You already said they can’t. I am sure that will come as a big surprise to the three officers who live within several blocks of me.
In her last letter, the writer explained that she felt frustrated and trapped in a too-small house that her family had outgrown. An un-cooperative housing market has kept her there for several years. I wrote back and virtually agreed with her. Who could not sympathize? What I did not agree with, however, was her penchant for literally preaching the gospel of Latimer Hicks to the citizens of the county.
It never seems to have occurred to our self-appointed instructor that we simply did not need nor want a beginner’s course in real estate part 1. If I am overstepping my bounds here and any of you want to sign up for the course, I apologize. Perhaps the revenue from classes might help to buy that house of our writer’s dreams. In the meantime, all you firemen and teachers and policemen, don’t despair; I am personally going to get all the old ladies that I know to throw their SS checks into a big pot and with the $200,000,000 we collect, we will be happy to buy you all the houses and condos you ever hoped for.
One last thing: I congratulate our writer on her well above average income. I am afraid that my social security check does not allow for a large amount of arrogance, so she is on her own looking out for what is happening to the middle class. I am sure they will be eternally grateful.
Greta Shefers
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