Opinions

April 3, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: The weather is warming up and the spring flowers are out. If you’re anything like me, your thoughts are turning to gardening! Have you considered planting a tree? In addition to adding interest, flowers, and shade to your yard, trees can help remove excess water, feed pollinators, and shelter birds.

March 30, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: How can we continue to remain silent after the last school shooting? Three 9-year-olds just died in their school room near Nashville, the state next door to Virginia. Every one of the murderer’s seven weapons were legally purchased.

It seems like a lifetime ago now, but it’s only been three years.

Florida Governor, and presidential candidate-in-waiting, Ron De-Santis has declared all-out war on “wokeism.” Last year he declared, “I think what you see now with the rise of this ‘woke’ ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and to delegitimize our institutions.” He added, “I view the wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism.”

‘Caring, Helpful’ Deputies Praised

March 27, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: The Bible speaks of a one world government and this has confounded biblical scholars. Three super powers would have to sit down at a round table and two of them would relinquish their power to the third super power.

March 26, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: Congratulations are due to the Chamber Music Society of Lexington for its premiere performance last Friday evening at Grace Episcopal Church.

Editor’s note: Last week, Sunshine Week was marked across the country in the continuing effort to promote open government. This week, we thought we’d share with you a piece from the America’s Newspapers organization, of which The News-Gazette is a member, about an important aspect of maintaining open government.

In March 2020, we really had no clue what was about to befall us.

How well do you adjust to the change from standard time to daylight saving time? We talked around the office Monday mor ning, and, no su r p r i se, there was no consensus on whether to keep daylight time part of the year, go to daylight time year-round, or have standard time yearround. Even the Congress disagreed – the Senate passed a bill last year to have yearround daylight time, but the House never considered the bill.

For more than 50 years, the Rockbridge Area Relief Association has provided a comprehensive safety net for local residents in need. For those who have found themselves in a financial pinch, be it from an accident, illness or any other unfortunate circumstance that could cause a family to need help in securing basic necessities like shelter, nourishment or utilities, RARO has been there to offer assistance.

Editor’s note: After we received Phillip Welsh’s letter on Jordans Point Park, we reached out to Lexington City Manager Jim Halasz and received the following response.

March 12, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: I hope all citizens of Lexington, or citizens from anywhere for that matter, who appreciated the beauty and simplicity of Jordans Point Park, will go take a walk around it now to view the destruction and environmental degradation wrought by the public works department. What the department’s intention was is indecipherable, and I don’t know who is ultimately responsible, but I have spoken with several people familiar with the situation and this is what I have learned: Apparently, a few weeks ago, public works was hot to make “improvements” at the park. The city arborist, Celia Raney, provided them with a work plan which included a surgical removal of only invasive species and “widow maker” limbs, and a prohibition on the cutting of any trees more than 4 inches in diameter. Public works chose to do the work while Ms. Raney was indisposed and out of town, and they completely ignored her work plan. They cut down numerous large, native trees. They clear-cut and dozed off the steep bank beside the boat ramp, and completely destroyed and leveled a thousand square feet of perfectly healthy, well-vegetated riparian buffer down in the flood plain, ostensibly to put in a picnic table.

March 13, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: First, a little history. Early last year, both houses of Congress controlled by the Democratic Party marching in lockstep behind a Democratic president, earmarked $40 billion to help Ukraine push back Russian soldiers still living under a collectivist dictatorship crafted by the Bolshevik-Soviets about a hundred years ago.

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Rockbridge County’s real estate tax rate may be lowered this year by 13 cents – from 74 to 61 cents per $100 value – which would put it at the lowest rate it’s been in many years. That doesn’t mean county residents will be rejoicing. Many, in fact, are up in arms over what they think is a back-handed way to raise their taxes – reassessments.