THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9506300222
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: On the Street
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Premonitions all too often become reality.
Especially when they deal with human behavior and the depths to which it can sink.
Hoping against hope that something won't happen, when deep in your gut you know it will, is frightening and saddening.
To get the feeling this week, all you had to do was read the front page of the newspaper.
First, and saddest of all, was the revelation that a 21-year-old Georgia pre-med student had been abducted from the Virginia Beach resort district and slain and that two Navy SEAL trainees are suspected in the crime.
After a frantic and fruitless weeklong search for her whereabouts, Jennifer Lea Evans' body was found by police in a Newport News park.
Locals, from waitresses to business executives, hoped that somehow the young woman had gone off on a lark and would turn up somewhere else, alive, well and possibly wiser for her adventure.
But it didn't turn out that way.
After the body was found, one young Virginia Beach executive summed up the feeling of many this way: ``What a shame - what a waste. She had such a bright future ahead of her. . . .''
It goes without saying that the young exec and countless other local folks now ache for the young woman's parents and family members and pray that justice will be swift and sure.
Another saddening item on the same newspaper front page revealed that a second premonition had become reality.
It described the latest misadventure of our governor and chief state legislators in dealing with the water problems facing Virginia Beach.
Basically, the honorables have torpedoed a Lake Gaston pipeline settlement that had been 12 1/2 years in the making. Long, tortuous, painful, expensive years.
The governor refused to convene a special session of the General Assembly to approve the settlement. Democratic leaders in the legislature had failed to promise and cross their hearts not to discuss anything but the Gaston issue, he huffed.
No dice, the Democrats replied. The governor can't boss us around, so nyah, nyah!
Both parties arrived at their decision to do nothing, with one eye on the upcoming November elections and the other on their respective constituencies.
Neither side could muster the courage to step up to the plate and make a decision that would help 410,000 Virginia Beach residents and 175,000 Chesapeake residents hook into a plentiful and reliable water supply. To do so would imperil their election chances.
It's like watching a Three Stooges rerun on TV. Their shtick is amusing at first, then becomes tiresome and juvenile. Likewise, the behavior of our so-called leaders in the Lake Gaston episode. All 140 seats in the legislature will be up for grabs in November and every pol in a three-piece suit, snakeskin shoes and $50 haircut will be jockeying for state office like Willie Shoemaker going for the roses in the Kentucky Derby.
What they seem to forget is that the folks back home aren't as dumb as they look. Nor do the homefolks have a collectively bad memory, as is often assumed.
Likely as not, the fumbling, the waffling and the back-biting will be remembered and when voters head for the polls they'll heed the advice of the late John F. Kennedy, who said, ``Don't get mad, get even.''
The reckoning will come. Bet on it. ILLUSTRATION: Photos Jennifer Lea Evans
Lake Gaston pipeline
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE WATER SUPPLY PLAN MURDER ARREST by CNB