Urges Suspension of Towing Policy on Memorial Day
Editor,
Every year the City of Falls Church’s annual Memorial Day Festival and parade brings crowds of people. Many are not city residents and do not know about the shopping centers’ strict parking restrictions and quick towing enforcement for anyone who parks and steps off the center’s grounds for a millisecond. Happy memories are replaced with frustration when folks return to find their car has been towed.
I think merchants will win friends and future business by removing these parking restrictions on May 28. They could cover existing No Parking signs with removable temporary ones that say something like “Welcome to Temporary Free Parking May 28 courtesy of The Merchants.” Why not give it a try?
Pat O’Neill
Falls Church
F.C. Businesses Should Serve on City Committees
Editor,
A new idea hit me the other day which could make our City Administration more effective and more united.
My time in Falls Church started in 1930 at 134 N. Fairfax Street. My first business license in the City is dated 1955.
It seems I read somewhere that local businesses contribute about 50% of the tax revenues that allow the City to function.
I am convinced that most local business persons are as interested in the well being of our city as are our residents.
Why not give these business persons the privilege of serving on City committees along with our residents?
There is a wealth of unused talent out there being ignored.
Does Falls Church City have the intestinal fortitude to take advantage of this opportunity?
Robert Grille
Falls Church
Counters View Founding Fathers Weren’t Religious
Editor,
Our editor trots out the old shibboleth that our founding fathers were not religious or Christian — but maybe just a bit deist — is an easy one to counter. Some quotations, and many many more can be offered:
Patrick Henry – “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Notes on the State of Virginia, Query, XVIII, p. 237
George Washington – “While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” The Writings of Washington, pp. 243-343.
John Adams – “Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality and industry; to justice, kindness and charity towards his fellow men; to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God…. What a Utopia, what a paradise would this region be.” Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9
John Hancock – “Resistance to tyranny becomes becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual…. Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.” History of the USA, Vol. II, p. 229.
And as to the French Revolution, their slaughter of thousands of Catholic priests and nuns — and many were tortured before they were beheaded. Well, there is the pattern of charity and open mindedness for the anti-religious of the 18th Century. Did the Enlightenment offer some good, yes, but do not forget what else the French Revolution brought with it.
David Phelps
Falls Church
(Editor replies- They were obviously moral, and leveraged religion to that end.)
Concerned ‘ALEC’ Is a Corporate Policy
Editor,
Delegate Kaye Kory noted in her April 18 Richmond Report the dozens of constituents who have contacted her to express their concern over the influence of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the Virginia General Assembly. While Del. Kory seems disinclined to take her constituents’ complaints seriously, there is plenty of reason to be concerned about ALEC.
Quite simply, ALEC is a corporate bill factory. Corporations pay tens of thousands of dollars to influence model legislation designed to increase their bottom lines. State legislators, in turn, introduce those bills at home, giving the veneer of a grassroots solution to industry-backed legislation. The most infamous examples may be the proliferation of “Stand Your Ground” and voter suppression bills across the country, but that is by no means the limit of ALEC’s agenda.
A ProgressVA examination of Virginia legislation between 2007 and 2011 found over 50 bills introduced in the General Assembly drawn from ALEC model legislation. The Commonwealth has spent over $230,000 of taxpayer money to send legislators off to meet with corporate lobbyists behind closed doors at ALEC retreats.
Confronted with their record and agenda, 29 legislators and 14 corporations across the country have cut ties with ALEC. Virginians deserve to know whether our representatives are working for constituents or corporate lobbyists. It’s a question I hope Del. Kory takes seriously.
Anna Scholl
Executive Director, ProgressVA
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