Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 7, 1991                   TAG: 9102070306
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

SENATOR: WHY REVIVE `CARRY ME BACK'?

Sen. Benjamin Lambert, D-Richmond, noted that the state song rarely has been played in public since Gov. Douglas Wilder objected to its lyrics when he was a state senator 20 years ago.

Wilder "just about wiped this song out," Lambert said at a meeting of the Senate General Laws Committee. "Why bring it back now?"

Even though the bill removes the words "darkey" and "old massa" from the song, there is no way to prevent people from singing the old lyrics if the song again is featured at public events, Lambert said.

"I think we're creating a vehicle for the younger generation to perpetuate some of the things we went through," Lambert said.

The bill's sponsor, Del. Howard Copeland, D-Norfolk, said public school students would be taught the new lyrics, but he conceded there was no way to prevent people from singing the old words.

"Most of the words mean a lot to all of us," Copeland said. "Virginia is an old but progressive state that I think we can use this song to symbolize."

The bill, which passed the House 80-15, was sent to a subcommittee.

In other action at the General Assembly, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee approved a House bill that would require instant criminal background checks of buyers of all guns except antiquities.

As introduced by Del. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville, the bill would have applied only to handguns. But it was amended on the House floor in a move by Republicans to head off another bill that would have set a referendum on requiring a three-day waiting period. The waiting-period bill died in the House on Monday.

An effort by Sen. Moody Stallings, D-Virginia Beach, to add a 24-hour waiting period to Reynolds' bill failed on a voice vote.

The committee amended the bill to raise the fee for the records check from $2 to $8. A Stallings bill that cleared the Senate raises the fee to $8 but limits the checks to handguns.

Since the House has been reluctant to raise the fee, the bills are likely to wind up in a conference committee.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY