THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 2, 1994 TAG: 9409020025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Guy Friddell's column (Aug. 24) regarding Money magazine's annual survey of best places to live in the United States is on the mark when he lists all the attractions in the area.
Hampton Roads is a beautiful community. However, nature, museums and attractions aren't all that make the area. The biggest fact he omitted is people! People make Hampton Roads.
Here you can walk into the local grocery store and the clerk and others look you in the eye, speak to you and are generally pleasant in every way. The same can be said for just about every other establishment in the region.
Wait, though, don't forget those other people. Like them or not, they are here also. Who?
The two young men who vandalized a rail switch causing a train derailment that injured 79 people; the ``middleman'' who helped in a murder-for-hire scheme leaving one innocent woman dead; the people who have committed all the homicides in Virginia Beach this year, setting an all-time high for the year - and we still have four months to go - the man who abducted a 21-year-old Norfolk State University student; the people who made the posting of the ``shipmate watch'' necessary to prevent sailors from robbing sailors.
Don't forget that metamorphosis that happens at least twice a day: rush-hour traffic. All those nice folks who get behind the wheel of a car where ``Mr. Hyde'' enters. Cars weaving in traffic. Lack of turn signals, sometimes because the use of them would have caused another car to speed up and prevent the action. Thousands of people whose only thought is to get to work or home.
This thought is so strong they battle humanity in an attempt to meet their objective. Rare is it that someone can merge in traffic without causing all drivers behind them to go en pointe on the brake pedal to prevent hitting them. Preventing one car from merging will not greatly affect your travel time.
I contend that Money magazine did come to Hampton Roads. It came during rush-hour traffic and saw the cut-throat manner we maneuver on the highways in our quest for a destination. This vision overpowered the great beauty nature has blessed us with and shadowed all the fine assets of the area.
The good news: We can change this. All that is required is the restoration of respect and courtesy that we show in our everyday lives to the highways. Who knows, next year Money Magazine may wonder how in the world it missed us the previous year.
BARBARA BABB
Virginia Beach, Aug. 25, 1994 by CNB