Handicapped parking, Obama and the changes

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: August 19, 2008

Show respect for the handicapped

To the editor:

I would like to know why some people in Danville believe that even if they do not have a handicapped license decal or tag that they are privileged enough to be able to park in designated handicapped parking spaces.

For two days in a row, I have witnessed people at a grocery store and a bank pull into a handicapped parking space, get out and go in while having no handicap tag or decal in their window. What has happened to having old fashioned respect for the handicapped and leaving those spaces available for those who need them? Many of the people who get out of those cars are very much capable of walking a few extra steps to their location.

How would you like it if you were in a wheelchair or using crutches and had to park a good distance out? I guess your attitude would be a bit different if it was you or your relative who suddenly needed to park there but the spaces were taken up by drivers who didn’t have a right to park there.

What can we, as citizens, do to stop people who are so inconsiderate and think that for some reason they can use those spaces without tags or decals? Let’s start speaking up, Danville, and show these people that it’s really not all about them.

ROBYN WENTZ

To the editor:

It was Thomas Jefferson who said, “The people of every country are the only guardians of their own rights and are the only instruments which can be used for their destruction. It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves.”

The thing I most admire about Sen. Barack Obama is that he asks us to join him and also take the reins of this country into our own hands. He says that we can bring about change in a day when our birthrights and heritage as Americans are not realizing their full potential.

I wrote a few months ago about the scourge of HIV-AIDS and the epidemic of teen pregnancy. Recently, I heard the numbers were even higher than the estimates.

We face serious problems in this country and around the world. It takes more every day to satisfy the most basic obligations of food, utilities, fuel for your automobile — and virtually no action is being taken in Washington on the most pressing issues of the day for average Americans. We are in one senseless war which is daily draining our resources (Iraq) and another in Afghanistan which we will not provide the means to win decisively and eradicate al-Qaida. Russia is becoming aggressive in its attempts to maintain its pre-eminence and leverage as a major supplier of energy for Europe. The United States has backed a “democratic” regime in Georgia and is challenging the actions of the Russians. We are all contributing daily to the forces of climate change and the United States refuses to sign on to the Kyoto treaty — or to come back with an alternative.

We need leadership — at home and abroad — and Sen. Obama can provide that.

I’m much less concerned about his lack of experience than I am about putting into office a man who asks America to make some fundamental changes to alter the direction we are taking as a country. He is intelligent and compassionate, but I don’t think that he has shown himself to be a pushover.

Although I differ with Sen. Obama on the issues of abortion and gay marriage, I’m a firm believer in the principle of that one can influence policy most directly if one is at the table. There are those of us who disagree strongly with certain decisions the Democratic Party has made — specifically those which affect the so-called “social issues.” However, I have watched Sen. Obama and I believe he is a Christian and I believe that ultimately he is subject to persuasion to heed the lessons of the Gospel.

A few weeks ago, I heard a minister say in reference to Sen. Obama’s candidacy, “God is in this.” And I believe it. No man is perfect, but Barack Obama is a man for this time in history.

I ask each of you to do what you can to fulfill your responsibilities as citizens and informed voters.

We have been given some great candidates to vote for in November: Obama, Mark Warner, Tom Perriello. Let’s get involved and make a difference.

CAROLYN LaVISCOUNT

To the editor:

A vote for Barack Obama is bad news for babies. He has received 100 percent ratings from several pro-abortion groups. He and his party believe it is a woman’s right to kill her baby. A plank in his party’s platform states that they “stand firmly against Republican efforts to undermine that right.”

Obama voted against a law that would stop the practice of taking a minor girl to obtain a secret abortion from a state with a parental notification law to one that doesn’t have such a law.  He has two young daughters. I would think he would want to know if his daughter were taken out of state to kill his grandchild.

Should government direct dangerous surgical procedures on children, with possible the permanent physical and physiological damage that might result, without the parent’s knowledge or consent? Apparently, this man believes that government should make this life or death decision. Although some politicians have not decided when a baby becomes a human being, two lives are at stake in this consideration.

As an Illinois state senator, Obama voted against Illinois’ Born Alive Infant Protection Act. He apparently believes that a woman is entitled to an abortion and a dead baby as the result. This law would allow “shelving” babies so that they could be left to die and disposed of with other medical waste.

The pro-death lobby believes that killing living babies is necessary to keep the woman’s “right to choose” without any governmental restrictions.  It seems to me that babies who escaped abortion should at least be safe after birth. These liberals have progressed from promoting partial-birth abortion to after-birth murder. What is next? A law to allow killing useless old people?

Obama is a co-sponsor of the Freedom of Choice Act. National Right to Life Committee’s Legislative Director Douglas Johnson has stated, “the bill should be renamed the ‘Freedom for Partial-Birth Abortionists Act.’” This law would go beyond Roe v. Wade to nullify virtually all federal and state limitations on abortion. This law would create an abortionist rights dream-world, allowing the killing of a baby at any time!

It is our responsibility before God to protect innocent human life. Each individual must make a choice between life and death in determining our leadership in government.

And another thing, what is the opposite of pro-life? There is a choice to be made between life and death, but those who are not pro-life are not pro-choice; they are pro-death.

DANNY RICKETTS

To the editor:

I have been a subscriber to the Danville Register & Bee for many years. Although on many occasions I did not agree with your editorials and your obvious bias toward certain political figures, I was more or less satisfied.

In your recent change in the format of the newspaper — which is now printed in Lynchburg — I think two words sum up my feelings about the change: It stinks.

There are parts of the paper which are unreadable, and the color which has been added certainly leaves much to be desired. In the comics section, you removed the best comics and replaced them with nothing more than drivel. The stock market section, for the most part, is horrendous. Not only is it harder to read, but finding stocks someone may be interested in is harder.

I am sure the changes were not made locally, but by Media General. If this is Media General’s method of improvement, I expect that in the not too distant future they will be doing the same thing Boscov’s recently did.

To sum up, let me say that if there is not significant improvement in the make-up of the newspaper (being able to read it), my subscription will be canceled. I would guess many of your subscribers and advertisers feel the same way.

JIM LaCHEY

Danville