Category: Blue Louisa

News and views contributed or curated by our members.

Keep up push for broadband

To the editor:

Like over half the households in Louisa County, mine is served by Rappahannock Electrical Cooperative (REC). I’m concerned about REC’s commitment to helping citizens get access to affordable high-speed internet.

On Jan. 14 The Central Virginian included an article about a suit filed by a Culpeper landowner to stop REC from using existing easements for the purpose of expanding broadband access. Then, on Feb. 4, the CV reported that REC had shelved plans for broadband access using easements because of the suit.

When I looked at the Virginia law passed in 2020 to allow utilities to use easements for broadband (HB 831), here’s what I found: The measure provides that any utility may use an easement without such utility paying additional compensation to the owner or occupant, provided that no additional utility poles are installed. There is no mention of additional poles related to the Culpeper landowner who brought suit against REC.

I question why Rappahannock shelved their efforts when the law so clearly states they were in the right? REC announced on Feb. 5 the appointment of Mark Ponton to the new position of director of broadband and fiber Services. I hope they are truly serious about tackling this problem for rural households.

Juanita Jo Matkins
Yanceyville

Keep up push for broadband

FY 2022 Budget Request for Outside Agencies

The Louisa budget for July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 is being planned right now, in the winter and spring of 2021. Please look over this chart showing the fiscal year 2021 request, the FY 2022 request and the change. I’m sorry, you’ll have to rotate it.

You’ll find a much more complete document at FY 2022 Outside Agencies Requests. It would be fantastic of every one of us would look this over and share your thoughts about it. I will be sharing mine in blog posts soon. We have time to influence these numbers!

Louisa Budget Request FY2022 – Outside Agencies

Jim

 

President is dangerous, incited insurrection

The definition of insurrection is “acts of violence against the state or its officers.” On Jan. 6, 2021, we had a violent, deadly rebellion and mob scene at our Capitol.

At the rally beforehand, the president called for the mob to walk with him to the Capitol. The mob went, but the president went to a room to watch what the mob did. Really.

The president has been dangerous for the past five years, yet everyone has taken a blind eye to his words and actions. The president has lied, bullied, made racist and sexist statements these last five years. Is he the leader of a criminal enterprise? Or the leader of a free nation?

His followers have chosen; have you?

Nancy Syntax
Bumpass

The Central Virginian

More criticism of the president

Cancer, a virulent killer, knows no limits of time, toxicity or destruction, as it thrives by ravaging. By its very name, cancer defies the value of descriptors, rendering all redundant as it inflicts harm, pain, and depraved infection. It defiles all it touches, requiring thorough, aggressive excision and disposal.

Donald Trump has become a cancer. Tragically, he exceeds the metaphor. Once out of office, he will carry with him our most secure secrets, available to the highest bidder for his gain and for our peril. Trump’s recent invitation to and incitement of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol, and their intercepted communications before and after the insurrection document this truth. Trump is truly a cancer.

Bill Walling
Louisa

The Central Virginian

Capitol Attack Exposed Weaknesses

The breach of the Capitol Building by rioters highlighted a huge weakness in our national security that could now be exploited by professional terrorists. Look how easy it was for a group of people to breach the Capitol without really trying.

Think about what it would have looked like if this attack were carried out by professional terrorists embedded with those rioters who breached the Capitol building. As it was, there were individuals who successfully entered with guns, zip tie-style handcuffs, and Molotov cocktails. Pipe bombs were planted a short distance from the Capitol.

I know more D.C. and state capital protests are being planned in the days leading up to the inauguration. Consider that terrorists or foreign actors may well use those protests and plans to their advantage, especially if more breaches are planned. If you go, can you be sure everyone else in attendance is who you think they are? Can you be sure you won’t let your anger be used in ways you didn’t intend?

Pamela Wilkinson
Mineral

The Central Virginian

McKinney all wet about Lake Pelham (Culpeper)

Joseph McKinney’s letter to the editor (Jan. 3, “Culpeper’s Civil War history more complex than Joe Daniel purports”) claims to teach us about Confederate Maj. John Pelham’s brief history during the Civil War.

But McKinney entirely misses the point of local resident Joe Daniel’s worthy efforts to erase racism from Culpeper’s past and present.

I do not understand why McKinney thinks his military service gives him some special expertise. Anyone can read about Pelham in the historical record. When I was Pelham’s age, I was an Army captain leading a Blackhorse Regiment armored cavalry troop in combat in the Vietnam War; big deal. My perspective is similar to Mr. Daniel’s.

By way of context, like McKinney, I also went to West Point, graduating in 1968. We studied the tactics and strategy of the Civil War extensively because of the military lessons that could be learned.

Born at Walter Reed Hospital when my dad was stationed at the Pentagon during World War II, I grew up in Fairfax County surrounded by the mythos of the post-Civil War “Lost Cause.” I went to J.E.B. Stuart High School. My boyhood heroes were “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart. I had pictures of all of them, including one of John Pelham, on the walls of my home here in Culpeper.

All of that changed after 2017’s Unite the Right white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. All of those pictures came off my walls. I was ashamed. Even if unintentionally, I had helped perpetuate the idea that glorifying the losers of the secessionist cause—who tried to destroy the Union because they didn’t like the results of an election—was somehow a good idea.

Nobody will dispute that Pelham was a heroic artilleryman in the service of J.E.B. Stuart. He was mortally wounded along the Rappahannock River near Remington, and he died in Culpeper. I have canoed the whitewater rapids past the exact spot where Pelham fell. And, yes, I have hiked all over Culpeper’s Fleetwood Hill studying the Battle of Brandy Station.

Do you suppose Pelham’s personal slaves helped carry him off the battlefield? Whatever happened to them?

I wonder how many other Confederate officers, born into wealth and privilege, were accompanied by their slaves throughout the Civil War, accommodating their every whim, their every beck and call, polishing their boots after every battle? There is nothing nuanced and complex about that history.

To most people today, the point of the name of Lake Pelham, and the point of the Confederate monument in front of the Culpeper County Courthouse, is that both glorify Jim Crow.

And you can bet that our black brothers and sisters are very aware that they represent a continuing insult to the prospect of a better America, and a better Culpeper.

McKinney’s history lesson does nothing to further this discussion.

The lake should be renamed. Have a contest for citizens to suggest ideas. And remove the statue.

Mike McClary, Culpeper

Ed note: This was previously published in the Culpeper Star-Exponent. McKinney all wet