Nearly 5,000 attend church’s retelling of Dickens’ classic

As the senior minister of the Fairmount Christian Church, I wanted to thank you and the staff of The Mechanicsville Local for your inclusion of “Scrooge – the Musical” in your “Local Pick” column earlier this month. Such positive coverage helped encourage almost 5,000 people to attend this lively retelling of Dickens’ classic story, “A Christmas Carol.” 

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank the Mechanicsville community – and communities beyond – for their enthusiastic response to the tale of redemption that the story of Ebenezer Scrooge offers. 

Scrooge’s tale points all of us to the need for redemption – a second chance at life.

What a joy it was for the Fairmount family to point so many of our fellow Central Virginians to the real giver of redemption – Jesus Christ – whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.

Lastly, let me thank the wonderful Fairmount Family. With more than 100 volunteers spread over 11 performances and many more volunteers in pre and post-production, it was a tremendous effort by our entire congregation. 

At the beginning of Dickens’ tale, the ghost of Jacob Marley tells his old business partner, Scrooge, “At this time of the . . . year, I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode!” 

With so many things pulling our eyes downward these days, it was our privilege to offer this free Christmas production to help keep our eyes focused in the right direction.

Fairmount Christian Church takes very seriously our mission to “love God and love people.”

“Scrooge” was a heartfelt gift to all those who live in our community – because we love you! 

Our hope is that all readers of The Mechanicsville Local know that there is a second chance through Christ.

Thank you again – and Happy New Year and many blessings in 2012!

Rick Raines
Senior minister
Fairmount Christian Church
Mechanicsville

Respect earned, not given

In response to Mr. Melton’s letter to me:

Yes, I am at times condescending. And I will continue to be. Condescension is what theists have shown those that don’t share their weakness for many centuries – what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Likewise, fairness and politeness has rarely been shown to us. Assuming that fairness or politeness is deserved is ridiculous, an assumption based on the silly notion that the religious deserve respectful treatment merely because they believe. But respect is earned, not given; ignoring reality, defending hypocrisy, promoting lies, and encouraging others to do the same does not earn respect in my book. Nor will I “shut up and go away.” If there was nothing to be argued but some people’s self-imposed ignorance and misguided faith, I wouldn’t bother. But there is much more at stake — for these people keep trying to politically impose their narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy on those of us who don’t share it. If I shut up and go away, they win – and I will not allow that while I have breath.

As for Mr. Hansen’s comments: I’m not aware of any “literary conduct rules,” and if I broke such rules, [editor] Melody [Kinser] would edit as necessary or not print the letter at all (both of which she has done.) My previous letter addresses your other issues as they did the previous writer’s.

Steve Sneed
Mechanicsville

U.S. unraveling at the seams

If you feel like the America you love is unraveling at the seams, you are correct. Our Constitution is under vicious attack and is being systematically marginalized. If liberal legal thinkers have their way, the Constitution will “evolve” to the point of being completely unrecognizable.

A socialistic mandate is being enacted throughout our government. Political correctness has replaced the cherished values of our founding principles. We are being pushed toward becoming a European-style democracy with an all-powerful central government.

Right now, our beloved nation is at a crossroads.

This is a call to active citizenship. We are called to influence civil government through prayer and action so that we can “lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and reverence” (1 Timothy 2:2).

We must advance. We cannot remain “status quo,” and by no means can we lose ground.

As we enter 2012, we need to stop the anti-American policies we have witnessed over the past three years and restore the Constitution and adherence to the first principles that made America great.

The Declaration of Independence says …“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I am deeply thankful for the Founding Fathers who crafted these documents and for the millions who have fought and died for our liberties and freedom over the years. I will not allow a handful of people to rewrite the past in order to reduce our nation to being a small part of some ill-conceived global society.

That is why the awakening of patriotic citizens across the nation will transform our nation’s political landscape. We must stand together now – and throughout 2012 – or we could lose our liberties for all time!

Leslie Zodun
Mechanicsville

Poll: best days behind us

Had a person fallen asleep in 1960 — when there was prayer in the public schools, which set a nice tone for the day, Christian historical events were in the public school history textbooks, television started in the morning with religious shows on the only three networks, and stores were closed on Sunday — and then awakened today, this is what they’d have found strikingly different in the United States:

l Doubled divorce rate.

l Tripled teen suicide.

l Quadrupled rate of reported violent crimes.

l Quintupled prison population.

l Sextupled percent of babies born to unmarried parents.

l Sevenfold increase in cohabitations (a predictor of future divorce).

l Soaring rate of depression to 10 times the pre-World War II level, by some estimates.

Seems to explain why the vast majority of people polled think that America’s best days are behind us. What went wrong?

Elmer Brown
Mechanicsville

‘Tap brakes’ on national debt

Somebody better “tap the brakes.”

Over the past three years almost $6 trillion has been added to the national debt.

The national debt now exceeds $15 trillion.

One trillion is a 1 followed by 12 zeros.

One trillion seconds equals 31,546 years, which means that it would take 473,190 years to click off 15 trillion seconds. 

This is dangerously irresponsible.

LaToya Brown
Mechanicsville

Connections to Virginia Tech

In their responses to my recent letter to The Mechanicsville Local criticizing Virginia Tech officials for their serial lapses of campus safety, both Michael Woods and Bob O’Neil state that I have no knowledge of Blacksburg or Virginia Tech and that I would not have made the statements I did had I ever visited either.

Their advice is as unnecessary as their assumption is false. I was a graduate student at Virginia Tech for two years. I received an M.A. there in 2004. I was a resident of Blacksburg for the entire time. I even taught in the very same Norris Hall classroom — at the very same day and time — where Seung-Hui Cho’s rampage climaxed three years later.

Indeed, had Cho snapped in his freshman instead of his senior year, it is all-too-conceivable that I would have been numbered among the dead in Norris Hall. So neither man is in any position to lecture me on the subject of Virginia Tech — whether in regard to its environs or to the failings of its administration.

This is not the forum to recount the ways in which the university’s mishandling of Cho’s initial double homicide allowed that isolated event to spiral into a 55-casualty massacre. The families of those victims still litigating the case against Virginia Tech make that point far more eloquently than I can.

But as to Woods and O’Neil’s defense of the latest indefensible lapse, I note again that a car known to have been stolen by an armed fugitive was discovered some hours before this latest murder at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Yet the discovery prompted no notification by the university.

The Transportation Institute is not an abandoned building. Nor is it staffed entirely by robots. Nor is it hermetically sealed from the main campus. It is a part of the university. That the vast majority of Tech students and staff never visit it matters only if one is willing to disregard — as Woods and O’Neil apparently are — the safety of those who do.

Both men would be well advised to read the name of the facility again before suggesting that Virginia Tech officials could not possibly be expected to have issued any sort of warning to students, faculty or staff that a portion of Virginia Tech — however remote from the main campus — was an active crime scene involving a felon with a gun. Surely the body count at Virginia Tech has risen high enough in the past five years for the university to begin erring on the side of over-reaction.

Further, Woods and O’Neil’s insistence that the Virginia Tech administration takes every reasonable precaution to protect its students and employees is a proposition with which the U.S. Department of Education begs to differ. Hence its imposition of the highest fines ever handed down for the university’s prior failings — responsibility for which Tech officials were still attempting to evade in a hearing held not 24 hours before the murder of Officer Crouse.

Ever since the 2007 shootings, university president Charles W. Steger has waged a campaign to equate criticism of his performance with criticism of Virginia Tech itself, building a barricade around his office made of Hokie Pride and the blood of Cho’s victims.

The kneejerk defense offered by Woods and O’Neil proves only that that is one task at which Dr. Steger has proved competent.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch stands by its reporting of the university’s prior knowledge of the threat posed by Officer Crouse’s killer. I stand by my condemnation of the university’s inaction.

Joseph Pierro
Mechanicsville

Open letter to constituents

I am honored to have the privilege of serving and working on behalf of the citizens of the 97th House District. Working together, we have accomplished many things for our community and our Commonwealth. As we begin the 2012 legislative session, I hope you will take a few moments to share with me your thoughts on some of the issues facing the General Assembly. Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the legislative questionnaire. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I may be of assistance to you or your family.

My annual legislative survey questions reference important public policy issues which may be considered by the General Assembly during the 2012 Legislative Session.

You may access the online survey via my website at http://www.chrispeace.com. 

If you do not have access to a computer or would prefer a hard copy of the survey, please call 804-698-1097 and my office will mail you a copy along with a reply envelope for you to easily return the completed survey. 

Your opinion is very important to me, so please take a few moments to let me know where you stand on these important issues.

If you are undecided on an issue, feel free to leave it blank.

Should you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me at the Capitol Office at 804-698-1097, via e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) , on Facebook at Christopher K. Peace or on Twitter @DelCPeace.

Thank you again for the honor of serving as your representative from the 97th District. 

Del. Christopher K. Peace
97th House District