Category: Dear Editor

Letters to the editor of local newspapers.

Payroll Tax Cut Imperils Seniors

Older Americans like myself depend on the Social Security checks we receive every month. For the past 85 years, the Social Security program has enabled us to retire with dignity. It’s our insurance policy. We paid into it. We count on it. Even so, the president made an announcement last Saturday that if re-elected, he will seek permanent cuts to the payroll tax that funds Social Security.

Our 7th district Congresswoman, Abigail Spanberger, has consistently worked to keep Social Security and Medicare functioning, pushing back against such threats. She has always focused on working with both Republicans and Democrats to maintain the benefits that employees have earned. We must support her efforts in the upcoming election.

Mary Kranz

This letter was previously published in The Central Virginian and is republished here with the permission of the author.

More Funding Needed for Testing and Contact Tracing

Most of us realize that the only way we are going to get the coronavirus behind us is for each of us to take personal responsibility and not be a spreader. Whether it’s masking up, staying home, avoiding hot spots, or getting tested and isolating if we test positive, it’s up to each of us. Virginia has done better than many states, but numbers and deaths are increasing again. In order to open our businesses and schools, and in order to keep them open, we need to immediately nip this dangerous trend.

As I write this now, on July 19, there are talks going on to decide how the federal government will allocate money for coronavirus relief. The administration is trying to block funding that would help states conduct testing and contact tracing, even over the objections of a number of Republican congressmen. These are the very things we need most to get the pandemic under control.

Abigail Spanberger, 7th district congresswoman, is working hard to make sure there is a bipartisan deal that will enable us to be successful.

“Blocking testing support may obscure just how bad the pandemic is, but it won’t help us save lives, rebuild the economy, or reopen schools safely,” she said. “In Congress, I’ll continue to fight for support of testing and tracing.”

Peter Sugarman Louisa

Originally published in the Central Virginian and published here with the permission of the author.

Congresswoman Focused on Internet

I have an internet-based business and two children in Louisa County Public Schools. Like many in Louisa, I struggle daily with slow internet speeds. I hear a lot of talk locally about what might be done, but there is now progress at the national level.

Rural America still might not have electricity if it had not been for the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. Now we need that for internet for the same reasons. Private business is not going to invest when they can make more money in more densely populated areas. Electricity and internet are just as essential in the way of infrastructure as roads and bridges.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Moving America Forward Act. This act includes the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act, which Abigail Spanberger, our own Congresswoman, helped introduce. This bill includes her priority of expanding high-speed internet in Central Virginia’s rural areas.

Spanberger listens to her constituents. She is focused on our interests and advocates for us. Re-elect her in November.

Sara Macel Louisa
This letter was previously published in the Central Virginian and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

Corruption is Our Real Enemy

When I heard a month or so ago that at least one member of the US legislature had profited hugely by selling stocks using “insider information,” I was shocked. These lawmakers are not working for the benefit the people who elected them. Not only are they enriching themselves, but they are making laws on behalf of the corporations they own stock in. No wonder people don’t trust the government.

Whether you identify as Democrat or Republican, left or right, this kind of corruption is the enemy of every one of us.

A new bill, co-sponsored by our Congresswoman, Abigail Spanberger, would help correct that situation. HR 7200, nicknamed the TRUST in Congress Act, is subtitled “To require Members of Congress and their spouses and dependent children to place certain assets into blind trusts.” What this bill aims to do is to separate the ability to buy and sell assets from the Congressperson’s direct control. Of course each legislator would be able to choose their own trustee, and no one would be required to, for instance, liquidate their holdings. (After all, who would run for offices, if it meant impoverishing themselves?)

Maybe there are issues that are nearer and dearer to our hearts right now, but wouldn’t it at least be nice to know that our government folks are not simply enriching themselves at our expense.

Rebecca Sue Rayburn
Louisa

This letter was published in The Central Virginian  and is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

 

 

 

Nick Freitas is an Incompetent Delegate

For the second year in a row, Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, forgot to file an important, required document with the State Board of Elections on time.

How many of his bills were passed in the Virginia General Assembly’s 2020 session? Zero.

How many bills did he vote against that will now benefit our state House district? A lot, but I will name two.

Tuesday, June 9, was the state deadline for filing his certificate of candidate qualification. I filed my documents on time when I ran for the Democratic nominations for state House District 30 in 2017 and Senate District 24 in 2019.

Nick’s form was delivered on Friday, June 12. It’s not rocket science.

Let’s talk about two of the bills Nick voted against.

Nick voted against House Bill 66, a law that now caps insulin co-payments at $50 per month. Many of our neighbors who have diabetes will now be able to afford this life-saving medication.

Nick voted against House Bill 831, a law that now gives blanket approval to power companies to allow data fiber to be installed on their poles where easements for electric power have already been negotiated. In voting against this bill, Nick sought to increase the cost and limit the expansion of desperately needed broadband access.

Maybe Nick should run for another office, where the document filings are easier.

We need a delegate who actually cares about constituents, meets responsibilities on time and admits mistakes.

ANNETTE HYDE

This letter was previously published in the Culpeper Star-Exponent and is published here with the consent of the author.

What’s that sound?

So why did the Board of Supervisors call for special meeting earlier this week with less than 24 hours notice? Was there some reason it couldn’t have waited until their regular July 6th meeting?

Was it really to “discuss broadband services in Louisa County with Rappahannock Electrical Cooperative?” Since their own minutes, show the county had yet to respond to several letters REC sent to the county asking for a timely response to several questions, which as far as I can tell were never answered.

What happened was not a simple disagreement between the county and service provider, it’s was a situation where “there’s something happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear.” What is clear is that people are rejecting the board’s ideas.

They are tired of a government that is only interested in being the enforcers of crony capitalism. Where the inequality, and lack of opportunity we see today, is all about sustaining the structures of power. A situation not unlike the root causes behind the Black Lives Matters protests. And like BLM, the people of this county have lost faith in a government that doesn’t promote the common good.

The key to any successful social change is to discredit the ideas used to prop up the ruling class with alternative ideas and language. Once the old vocabulary looses it’s currency, the power elite are finished. Opening the way for voters to dismiss their minions and demand a government independent of, and not subservient to corporate power.

Of course people are free to think like Dan Braswell and dismiss these words as “inappropriate” and “delete them” from their minds, or they could say “It’s time we stop, Hey what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.”

Jon Taylor

Originally published in the Central Virginian and published here with the permission of the author.