Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 1, 1994 TAG: 9404020002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Local business suffers. In Iowa, total sales of all retail stores within 25 miles of Wal-Marts dropped 25 percent within three to four years.
Economic drain. In Iowa, a Wal-Mart grossed $13 million annually. Increases in total area sales were $4 million. The community lost $9 million.
Decrease in jobs, municipal revenues. In Massachusetts, a Wal-Mart added 140 jobs and eliminated 230 higher-paying jobs.
Wal-Mart still wants Roanoke to sweeten the deal. I suggest sweetening in the other direction:
Wal-Mart, offer Roanoke 10,000 acres of prime real estate to be used for nature trails, bike paths and fishing sites.
Well-paying jobs lost? Make the land in a continuous belt around the city, to limit further expensive sprawl and to channel resources into our troubled inner-city.
Minus $9 million? Construct a network of paths and bikeways, reaching within walking distance of every resident.
Twenty-five percent retail-sales drop? Add frequent shuttles between major business and shopping areas.
Maybe, after that, we'll talk. A public hearing will be held April 11.
PAULA C. WILLIS ROANOKE
Chuck the work on the chuckholes
THE PEOPLE, city and county know this past winter has left us all with a myriad of small, medium and large potholes.
The city and county can save much money and many man-hours by leaving our potholes as is. Why? Because when they're finished, the pothole places are rougher and cause more auto damage than before they paved them. (I always thought paved meant smooth.)
JOE LOCKHART ROANOKE
Hilarious 'history' of the state song
I FIND a chuckle or two each day in this newspaper, in spite of gloom and death one finds in most. But the sweetest guffaws come from items that are inadvertently funny.
The Heritage Preservation Association of Richmond sponsored an ad on March 6 regarding the state song. Part of the ad posed the following plaintive question: ``Don't they know that the state song was written in the 1870s by a black Virginian about a former slave who loved and missed his former Masters? This song is part of Virginia's history and heritage!'' This ponderous self-righteousness is funny in itself, but the bungled statements make it really hilarious.
Here are facts found in the ``Groves New Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' and confirmed by several other authoritative sources.
The composer, James Bland, was black, born in Flushing, N.Y., in 1854, and son of a Howard University-educated lawyer. Twelve years later, his father was appointed to a government post in Washington, D.C., where James completed his public education and enrolled in the Howard Law School. It was here that he met ex-slaves who were employed at the university. From them he learned Southern black music traditions.
He mastered the banjo and became a much sought-after entertainer in Washington. He quit the university and made an excellent living, mostly in minstrel music. ``Carry me back to Old Virginny'' was one of many songs written for a white, black-face minstrel show. He also wrote songs for a black minstrel troupe with which he toured America and Europe. It's estimated he wrote about 600 songs.
After several years of performance tours in Europe, he returned to America to find that Vaudeville had replaced minstrel shows and he could find no niche here. He died penniless and alone in Philadelphia in 1911.
There's no evidence Bland ever set foot on Virginia soil. He probably didn't due to the Jim Crow laws, and the song had nothing to do with any ex-slave longing for his ``Massa.'' I enjoy a good laugh, so, HPA, keep them ads comin'.
I know of no law requiring Virginia to have a state song. If we should have one, let it be for all Virginians.
FRANK WILLIAMS ROANOKE
In Roanoke, boos for the home team
WHILE unable to attend the Roanoke Express hockey games on March 4 and March 5, I was shocked to read the news articles by staff writer Randy King in the Roanoke Times & World-News regarding the games (March 5, ``Wheels fall off Express in 9-3 loss to Raleigh'' and March 6, ``Back-to-back beatings''). It seems there was a large display of poor sportsmanship on the part of the Roanoke Express fans.
Usually fans show unsportsmanlike conduct toward the opposing team, but this was directed at the Express. A team cannot win every game, and I was embarrassed to think that Roanoke fans would boo their very own team and coach.
This is your team, Roanoke. And if you aren't going to support it in good and bad times, then my only suggestion would be to stay home.
KATHY P. CHITWOOD ROANOKE
by CNB