THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508250208
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
In response to ``Privy to Politics'' by Editorial Page Editor Beth Barber (Beacon, Aug. 13), I suppose 21,108 Virginia Beach citizens who voted for the balanced/district system in a legal referendum on May 3, 1994, were ``grumpy old men.''
Surely the individual who sees the injustice of a system in which one borough with a population of 966 and another with a population of 144,963 have the same representation is not a ``grumpy old man.''
In fact, it is an insult to the intelligence of the voters of Virginia Beach to say this democratic ideal was ``foisted'' upon them. They voted for it in a fair election, and the repudiation of the election will always be a blot upon the repudiat-ors.
The ``balanced'' part of the bal-anced/district system, as approved by the General Assembly, will equalize the population of the city's seven boroughs and must be accomplished by March 1, 1996. The repudiated part, calling for a councilperson to be elected only by the voters of his or her own borough, must be voted upon again by the Virginia Beach electorate in May 1996.
The first vote on this issue was repudiated by the Virginia General Assembly due to the influence of several members of the Virginia Beach delegation. They must not know that Virginia Beach has changed and contains five times the number of people it did when it was founded in 1963.
If the full balanced/district system comes to pass, voters will no longer be asked to vote for everybody - for candidates from other boroughs whom they do not know and who have no responsibility nor accountability to them. They will not be asked to cast six votes which do not count for them. It is not a ``grumpy old man'' idea. It is an idea which the majority of the voters approved.
Maurice B. Jackson
Chairman, Virginia Beach
Citizens for Electoral Reform
There are some good words to be said for Editorial Page Editor Beth Barber. She prints many letters opposed to her own views, including most of mine. And she is a real Virginia Beach patriot in her comments about the Lake Gaston pipe-line.
I was therefore surprised when she referred to the backers of voting reform for Virginia Beach, which include me, as ``grumpy old men.''
Here we had envisioned ourselves as a group of modern-day Paul Reveres - well, make that Patrick Henrys - fighting the hard-lined establishment to give the people more power, and she sees us as crotchety old codgers, with our false teeth chattering and our walking sticks trembling. It's enough to make you say, ``Bah!''
But if we're grumpy, we have reason to be. Yeats said that old men become mad when they learn the bitter history of life. In our case we persuaded a majority to vote to change the voting system, and then saw a bunch of legislative boondogglers rob us of our victory.
Of course the new fight to allow you to pick your own councilperson includes more than us old grumpies. Also in our group are some middling grumpy young men and some delightfully non-grumpy young women.
But if we're grumpy, we surely aren't as bad as our opponents, the defenders of ancient practices. Called by some the ``old guards,'' and something similar by others, they include the aging constitutional officers who get rich on city paperwork, and just about every former mayor or council member going back to World War II. They hardly represent the voices of the future.
Beth Barber herself doesn't always represent youthful gaiety. But I must say that when her columns on voting reform are discussed in our group, there is more laughter than cane-shaking.
Edward F. Bacon
Lynnhaven Colony Where police/military comparisons of hardship begin, and end
In response to Mark Bordner's letter ``Sympathy for the Military, for the police and for higher police pay'' (Beacon, Aug. 20): As the wife and daughter of career Navy aviators I must respond to Mr. Bord-ner's views.
Yes, when I married my husband, I knew he would be away from home most of the time and he has been, missing birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, deaths, children's milestones and accomplishments and just being there for us when we need him. You name it, he has missed it. Just because I knew it when I married him doesn't make it any easier. For lack of a better argument, that seems to be the best a non-military person can come up with.
Second, because of our great military I don't have to worry about a Bosnian missle or any other hitting my house. I just have to worry about those missiles hitting my husband's jet every day for the six months that he is deployed in the Adriatic flying over Bosnia and in the Persian Gulf flying over Iraq, as he has been doing for the past five months. I don't know of any police officer who works six months straight for 18 to 20 hours a day while away from home. I believe their union would forbid it.
Yes, the police are in harm's way every day - as is the military, not just in times of war or unrest, as Mr. Bordner stated. Local military members die more often in the line of duty than the Virginia Beach police. Neither job is easy and they all deserve better pay.
But that's where the comparison ends. Let's stop comparing the police to the military. They don't have the same job or family life. Didn't that police officer know what his pay and perks were going to be when he joined the police force? If they are that dissatisfied with their pay, maybe they should join the military. The grass is always greener on the other side.
Barbara H. Davis
Virginia Beach by CNB