THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 22, 1997 TAG: 9702240304
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 74 lines
COLLEGE
Downtown TCC
students brave
``Sarajevo'' conditions
I have unbelievable admiration for my students on the Norfolk campus of Tidewater Community College. Most of them begin their school day an hour and half before classes. They ride buses to class.
It is humbling to sit in my home near the Oceanfront and have a student call because he/she has missed the bus and will be 15 minutes late to class. It is an hour and a half before class, and I haven't left home yet. These students obviously have strong motivation to attend college.
When I arrive at the parking garage at Freemason Street, I then have to negotiate a destroyed Monticello Avenue to get to the building where the classes are held. My students have already ridden a bus for an hour or so, and they too have to get around the debris, the earth movers, and the jack hammers that are destroying the street.
It is difficult to find a way to the building with the demolition that is going on. I can usually attract the attention of the driver of the enormous ``caterpiller'' machine who is backing his machine into the part of Monticello Avenue that is left open. It is like traveling to class in Sarajevo.
My hat is off to the students who do all of this and still get to class. They are truly being tested. Their education is important to them; therefore, they overcome obstacles no other community-college students meet.
Flora Haynie
Virginia Beach, Feb. 14, 1997
STATE SONG
Still humming
``Ole Virginny''
A few weeks ago, I read a piece in Time magazine intimating the General Assembly had removed ``Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny'' from official statute. As a native-born son (Norfolk Protestant Hospital Class of 1921), I wonder, during an era of ebonical change, whether this action is not somewhat premature. It seems logical for a state to cease flying the Confederate flag on public buildings if it offends anyone, but to remove such a haunting and revered piece of music is almost sacrilegious to us oldtimers.
I remember, with nostalgia, being in the first class to occupy the new Frances E. Willard grammer school on Cottage Toll Road and proudly singing ``Ole Virginny'' in the classrooms, and braving the streetcars and toughness of East Main Street to do the same at Ruffner Junior High School, where, incidentally, I received three years of excellent education from teachers who were not afraid to use a ruler for purposes other than measuring distance.
Now all I have to worry about is discovering which song has been selected as the official state lyric so I can learn to hum a few bars while time permits. You never know; after 61 years, I might come home to roost one day.
Carl L. Heinrich
Monterey, Calif., Feb. 12, 1997
REGIONALISM
Hey, Beach cousins,
it's Downtown first
I read with great interest the feelings of most of Virginia Beach's City Council regarding their treatment by Norfolk concerning the downtown Norfolk arena. I'm not sure why they feel they were treated like second-class citizens
Norfolkians have found that to ask questions or request information apparently challenges our city's omniscience. Virginia Beach, and probably Suffolk, will have to join the rest of the Hampton Roads communities and the downtown Norfolk organizations and interests that seem to have learned to understand the wisdom of ``Downtown Norfolk First.''
Jim Janata
Norfolk, Feb. 19, 1997