THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512220234
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
This is Christmas Eve.
Actually, it's Christmas Eve morning - time to take stock of what you might like under the tree for loved ones, relatives, friends and neighbors.
We should be more magnanimous. Since this is the season for giving and caring we should extend this Christmas wish list to our community, our state and our nation.
So here it is:
For Virginia Beach - fewer needless and trifling attempts by our Tar Heel neighbors to stop the Lake Gaston water project. We need the water; they need to get a life.
Buried treasure - presumably left by Blackbeard somewhere on Cape Henry beach, with enough pieces of eight to cover the $12.1 million deficit that faces the Virginia Beach School Board.
A permanent school superintendent in Virginia Beach with enough backbone to take the heat when he (or she) fouls up and enough foresight to tinker sparingly with a school system that is doing a good job despite some sorry leadership over the past five or six years.
Common sense to prevail among Virginia Beach voters in May so they can scrap, once and for all, the nonsense about giving up the opportunity to vote for all 11 City Council members in exchange for the ``right'' to vote for five. This includes a district council representative, plus four at-large choices. It just so happens that all 11 members vote to raise everybody's taxes, no matter what borough or district they inhabit.
For the taxpayers in Norfolk - a sure economic development winner that will bring in tons of revenue rather than having tons siphoned from their wallets, a la Nauticus. MacArthur Square and a debt-ridden CFL expansion club ain't looking too promising at this point, folks, despite all the official propaganda.
Applause - well maybe one hand clapping - for Gov. George Allen for backing off some of his slash and burn fiscal policies in the wake of the November elections. State voters left him with a split legislature that tilts toward Democrats. Could be he learned that folks in Virginia don't cotton to my-way-or-the-highway politics.
Assurance that the $1 million earmarked by the Virginia Beach City Council for Shore Drive improvements will prevent more traffic deaths. Since 1977, the wooded and deceptively serene 3.2-mile stretch of road has claimed 59 lives. Common sense tells us that no amount of money can prevent people from drinking and driving or getting their jollies by stomping on the accelerator.
A new slate of legislators at the national level and maybe even a new president - anything to end the partisan bickering over the budget that has closed down the government for the second time in two months. Maybe a new bunch of lawmakers would be gracious enough to place the interests of ordinary folks above their own. Nah, not even Santa could deliver that one.
The return of all NATO peacekeepers to their homes unscathed from Bosnia, especially the 20,000-plus U.S. troops sent over by the president to help maintain calm in a war-torn country.
Practical and inexpensive benefits for the average Joe and Jane from all the mega-media mergers that have taken place recently. Great and wondrous advantages have been promised for telephone, TV and home computer users, but they'd be better off investing in waterfront property on the Sahara. by CNB