University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Thumbers At The Mercy Of Elitists In Empty VW's

starting off again is less than
thirty seconds.

The other reason, and in my
opinion the real one, is that a
lot of students with cars tend
to adopt an elitist attitude, and
figure "why should I stop for
him?". Well, that's just fine,
but I hope when their cars
break down out in the sticks,
they have to walk all the way
home.

The most surprising thing
about thumbing in and around
C'ville is that vehicles which,
according to the laws of the
road, "can't pass you by", do.
Empty VW's and vans mean
nothing.

Hitching and picking up
hitchers is a good way to meet
interesting people. But it seems
most people are too hung up
on themselves to give anyone
else a chance.

New Lunar Landscape

Governor Linwood-Holton's
decision to go ahead with the
building of a prison in the
Green Springs area of Louisa
County will certainly
accentuate, not only the
atmosphere of antagonism
among the people of Louisa
Country but also the
increasingly more critical
controversy between those
who feel that preservation of
land for future generations is a
public responsibility, and those
who believe that if they pay
the entrance fee to a certain
number of acres, they ought to
be able to exploit it as they see
fit.

New and old neighbors alike
are obviously interested in the
future of the community, and
the location of public facilities
such as hospitals, prisons,
airports, etc., are likely to
arouse debate. There are
certain basic principles,
however, that usually guide
responsible public office
holders. Emergency hospitals
are not built in sparsely
populated areas that would be
difficult to reach in case of
emergency, noisy airports
should not be constructed in
the midst of heavily populated
regions, and large prison
complexes are seldom allowed
to destroy scenic areas of
historic landmarks, if it can be
avoided. Although there might
be other areas in the state as
entitled to the designation
historic as Green Springs, it is
the unanimous opinion of
experts in both the state and
federal government that Green
Springs is a unique rural area
well worth preserving.

In contrast to most other
historic areas, Green Springs is
an active farming community
where most of its people have
deep roots. A prison complex
would be the spark plug for the
exploitation of the surrounding
areas, and it would only take a
few years to ruin the
countryside. To suggest, as the
governor of Virginia has done,
that the correctional facility
would "serve as an anchor for
the preservation of
the neighborhood" is indeed
remarkable.

To be sure, one does not
need inside information to
realize that if the prison is
being built in an area where
vermiculite has been found,
there is little possibility to
prevent profit seeking
companies from exploiting the
land. There are many lessons to
be learned from strip mining
operations in other areas, and
it would indeed be tragic if we
sit idle by and let things
happen. One need only look at
the "lunar landscapes" created
by strip miners in Ohio,
Kentucky, Virginia, West
Virginia, and southeastern
United States, particularly the
Black Mesa area in New
Mexico, to realize that the
process usually results in ugly
scars which require many
generations to heal.

The aesthetic aspect,
however, is hardly the most
important reason for keeping
the strip miners out. Numerous
well documented studies have
shown that acid drainage and
erosion affect not only the
stripped areas, but regions far
removed from the active site. I
am well aware that strip mining
for vermiculite may differ in
some respects from the
contour stripping which has
devastated much of
Appalachia-

It is, nevertheless,
important to realize that once
the strip mining begins it is
difficult, if not impossible, to
restrain the miners. When the
strip miners have made their
fast profit and leave, what will
be left for the people of
Louisa? Every example to date
suggests that, even where good
reclamation laws have been
passed, the stripped areas will
never be the same.

An elaborate correctional
facility in the midst of an
historic area together with the
unavoidable exploitation of
surrounding acreage would be a
tragic monument over our
failure to face responsibility
for the future. Without
sympathy from public servants
the conservation agencies will
fight a losing battle against
human greed in spite of strong
support from a large segment
of the general public.

I strongly urge all elected
officials involved to join
federal and state
environmentalists as well as the
majority of the residents in
Green Springs in opposing the
location of the prison in this
truly unique historical area of
America. It would be well to
recall Thomas Jefferson's
prophetic statement: "They
have rights, who dare to
maintain them."

Honor Violation?

I'm afraid this letter will
reveal my naivete of U.Va.
customs, However, in my first
year as a transfer student here,
my Orientation which included
a large dose of the Honor
System, failed to clue me in to
such practices as the one cited
below.

In the Monday Cavalier
Daily, it was announced that
invitations to the Restoration
Ball would be sold at 5:30 on
Wednesday. In my innocence, I
assumed that if I arrived at
5:00 I could make it to the line
in time. Much to my surprise,
upon arrival I found the
invitations already being sold,
and indeed, most were gone.
When queried, a smiling
assistant said, yes, they had
planned to sell the invitations
at 5:30, but due to the crowd,
had started at 4:30. Shocked
out of my ignorance, I realized
that I could have come earlier
had I known that 5:30 actually
meant 4:30.

Since the original time had
been decided on and printed,
the only honest thing to have
done was to have sold the
invitations at that specified
time. I realize that the
Restoration Ball is a money
making endeavor so these
actions were perhaps
pragmatic, but certainly
unethical – but I don't
suppose the Honor Code covers
that.

Apologies

The Restoration Ball
Committee regrets the fact that
there were not enough tickets
for all who wished them.

While we were anticipating
an early line, we were
dumbfounded when people
started arriving in the Rotunda
at 8 a.m. By 4:30, the Rotunda
was crowded and the total
number of people there
equaled the total number of
tickets available, i.e. anyone
arriving any later, be it at 4:45
or 5:30, would not be able to
purchase an invitation after
standing in line for all that
time, if the Rotunda could
have held the line.

Therefore we began selling
at that time, announcing the
above information, and
periodically making "numbers
progress" announcements so
no one would needlessly wait.

Our wish was merely to
facilitate the slow process of
writing out invitations, get
some who had been waiting for
eight hours home one hour
earlier, and prevent others
from forfeiting an afternoon.
Perhaps we committed an error
in judgment in doing so, but
we made sure the first specified
number in line did receive the
invitations they waited so long
for, even extending the cut-off
to eliminate any
mis-calculations.

Again our apologies to
those who didn't get tickets,
didn't understand our logic, or
didn't agree with it. We wish
we could make the Rotunda
larger for one night so
everyone could come.