THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601190241
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letters
LENGTH: Long : 175 lines
Willett Hall should be fumigated!
The George Carlin performance there on Friday, Jan. 12, which I made the naive choice to attend, left me feeling contaminated. Never have I left a performance of any kind with such a feeling of total disgust.
I am 77 years old and I have ``been there and seen that'' and I do not feel that I am a so-called ``prude.'' I can enjoy a risque story or situation, but absolute filth is something else.
The repeated use of the Lord's name in vain and the repetitious use of the ``f'' word and other expletives was the worst I have been subjected to in any public forum. The old Gaiety Theater in Norfolk was a Sunday school class in comparison.
If the same had occurred on some street corner, I have no doubt that the police would have been called. What further disturbed me was the apparent approval by a large segment of the younger members of the audience. If this is what our society looks to for entertainment, then we must be a sick society.
I can't believe that the freedom to put on such public displays of filth was one of the freedoms I risked my life for on the battlefields of World War II.
I also think the management of Willett Hall should have a better control on future performances and deny such as this or at least warn publicly the ticket buyers of the show's content.
George F. Borjes
Chesapeake
Jan. 16, 1996 Gehman will be missed
I was distressed to learn that Lauren Gehman has been terminated as city horticulturist. For the good of Portsmouth, I sincerely hope that the Review Committee will reverse the decision.
We know that Portsmouth needs a better city image. Lauren has been doing this for us visually in the plantings on city property. Memories that flood my mind are the island in the first block of High Street and the beds around Portside. They have been breathtaking. Remember?
She shares her knowledge through informative speeches for organizations and in published articles. This enables us as citizens to improve our property with plantings that work best in the climate of Tidewater Virginia.
In another small city many of tens of years ago, I observed that the feelings of well-being and prosperity were achieved by nicely landscaped and properly maintained property. This is what I want for Portsmouth and with Lauren Gehman's guidance I think that the citizens and the city can do it.
When Portsmouth has something good going for it, why destroy it? Please ``mend the fences'' and let Ms. Gehman get back to work quickly!
Alice P. Ash
Sterling Point Drive
Jan. 17, 1996 Views on trash
During our recent snow, a notice ran making citizens aware the city would offer trash pickup on Saturday to make up for the day lost to the weather. I am not sure if the city offers twice-a-week trash pickup throughout the city but in my neighborhood we do have pickup twice a week.
Why would the city offer Saturday pickup to a city offering more than one pickup a week? Would you not get your trash picked up on the second scheduled day if they were unable to pick it up earlier in the week?
Come on, the city was not incapacitated but for a day. I had my trash out on the second scheduled day (which was Friday) and it was picked up. Why then did I see a trash truck come down my alley with three men in it on Saturday to make up the pickup they missed on Tuesday?
And while we are on the subject of trash, why does our city have us pay taxes and turn around and charge us for trash pickup? I have lived in two other cities in Hampton Roads and not once did I have an additional charge to carry away my trash. The taxes I paid took care of that. I just would rather go to once-a-week pickup and not be charged that additional $20. Also, scheduled bulk pickup is a joke. It invites people to lay out dangerous material (the day after bulk pickup) to set on the curb for two more weeks. I drive by heaping piles of debris, daily, in my neighborhood. Once again, other cities require residents to call the city when they are in need of bulk pickup. Let us get rid of twice a week pickup and scheduled bulk pickup and use these employees cleaning up the real trash around this city.
This city should find more ways now to improve this city that does nothing to encourage young taxpaying families to move to this city. There is so much waste for a city with a declining tax base that it cannot afford to wait until 2005.
Is there any city official out there who reads the letters to the editor? Let's get some improvements done now, not after we all move out of the city.
Melissa Hutchins
Maryland Avenue
Jan. 17, 1996 3 officials castigated
The three most cost-liable office-holders in this state are Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore; the director of the Department of Corrections, Ronald Angelone, and Gov. George F. Allen. The citizens of Virginia approbated these men to improve the quality of life for Virginians.
However, all that these men have done was to carelessly spend tax dollars to promote their diabolical idealism, cast a shadow on justice and deprive the citizens of this state from the right to better themselves.
The political antics of Gov. Allen have discouraged the Disney Corp. and several other large businesses from residing in Virginia and disheartened tourists and potential citizens, leaving them with the impression that Virginia has a bad quality of life to offer its citizens. The working class people are constantly disregarded and mistreated. The elderly and retired persons are left without their just compensation for the many years of work in this commonwealth. The governor has abolished parole, but our children are still dying on the streets, working people are still being robbed and held hostage in their own neighborhoods. Our children are wounded and dying in school. How has the governor improved Virginians' quality of life?
An appointee of the governor, Ronald Angelone, director of the Department of Corrections, has instituted policies that clearly reflect the inhumane idealism of his supervisor, George Allen. Angelone has made prison life a series of debasing phases that enhance the source of criminal activity. Dysfunctional family settings, lack of quality education and the lack of adequate training in survival skills are the causes of criminal behavior.
However, the director has not provided correction in these areas for inmates. What he has done is to warehouse human beings and put them in debasing settings that do not teach citizenship, responsibilities, nor does it teach inmates how to function in a family setting or society. Most recently, the director has taken away the inmates' privilege to own personal property, thus, further stripping them of self-worth, dignity and responsibility.
Contrary to beliefs, offenders do not commit crimes so that they can come to prison. Prison has always been a very dreaded place to live in. If we are to tolerate Angelone's inhumane policies, let's change his title from director of the Department of Corrections, to the director of the Department of Punishments.
There is yet another money consuming office-holder among our executive cabinet: Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore. How safe has he made our state? Kilgore advocates Gov. Allen and director Angelone's idealism and policies. He has unprotestingly sanctioned the outrageous spending into the prison system and the inhumane treatment of prisoners. Most of the current 2,200-plus inmates in Virginia's penal system will be on the streets again, someday. They will return to society bitter, dehumanized and totally dysfunctional. How safe would our secretary of Public Safety have made our society then? It is not the incarcerated offenders who are a dangerous threat to Virginia's citizens. It is the future offenders. It is the crime that will happen that threatens our neighborhoods and as of yet, no positive results have come for the ``get tough on crime'' policies.
We have to demand results from our executive officials; not a smoke screen. If our fellow citizens and incarcerated sons and daughters are not educated and given good survival skills, crime will ever increase. To get tough on crime does not mean to debase people, but to destroy the criminal mind-set. Let's fight to destroy crime, poverty, wasteful spending, degradation of our citizens with unwarranted oppression and political rhetoric and really improve the quality of life for all Virginians.
Waymond L. Jenkins Jr.
Greensville Correctional Center
Jarratt, Va.
Jan. 4, 1996 Thanks, Legionnaires
I would like to commend the members of the American Legion Post 190 for the outstanding work they are doing in our community and for their fellow comrades.
On Christmas Day, I had the opportunity to travel with Post 190 to the VA Hospital in Hampton. Legionnaires and auxiliary women passed out gift bags and visited their sick or disabled comrades.
Post 190 also helped in purchasing school T-shirts for kids at Shea Terrace Elementary School.
The liaison from Shea Terrace, Valerie DeCosta, is very excited about the Legionnaires coming into the school as mentors.
To Carl Lewis, youth coordinator for Post 190, commander William Johnson, vice commander William Dozier, past commanders David Freeman and Harold W. Chambers, who is also a member of the Police Minority Association, Legionnaires and Auxiliary, my hat goes off to them for the help they're giving our kids.
To Legionnaire Gordon, thanks for being a mentor to our young Afro-American males. The world needs more caring people like the members of Post 190.
Deborah Sweatt
Yorktown Avenue
Jan. 16, 1996 by CNB