 |
 |
|
|
THE TOP STORY: Ugly Hill politics INSIDE ... Focused on November By Chris Graham/AFP Bath County Sen. Creigh Deeds appears to have the inside track to the 2005 Virginia Democratic Party attorney-general nomination. But Deeds isn't interested in hearing how he is going to supposedly have it easy between now and the June 14 party primaries being held by Democrats and Republicans to solidify their respective nominees on the November state ballot. IN FOCUS: County, SARS close to mending fences  By Chris Graham/AFP The Staunton Augusta Rescue Squad and Augusta County appear to have worked out their differences on the squad's new emergency-services funding scheme. "The county attorney has been in contact with the attorney for the rescue squad to see if there was some way we could come to a compromise that would be satisfactory to both sides. There's been a great deal of give-and-take on the issue ..." NOTES FROM THE PRESS: Virginia politics notebook By Chris Graham/AFP Rockingham County School Board chairman Matt Lohr's candidacy for the Republican Party nomination in the 26th House District "has everybody in Rockingham County and the city of Harrisonburg talking," Harrisonburg Republican Sen. Mark Obenshain said. EYE ON VIRGINIA: Hanger circulating petitions for GOP primary ballot By Chris Graham/AFP Mount Solon Republican Sen. Emmett Hanger has taken another step toward launching his campaign for the Republican Party nomination to run for lieutenant governor. Hanger confirmed on Monday that the reports that have been making the rounds since late last week that he has begun circulating petitions to gain access to the June 14 party-primary ballot are true. EYE ON THE VALLEY: Final countdown on bicycle survey  By Chris Graham/AFP More than a thousand Shenandoah Valley residents have responded to date to the on-line survey on bicycling being conducted by the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission. The survey, being done in conjunction with a communitywide study of cycling in the commission's five-county, five-city region, has yielded some surprising results to date ... EYE ON THE VALLEY: Crimora Park plans moving along By Chris Graham/AFP Augusta County parks and recreation officials are hoping to step up efforts to develop a public park in the northeastern corner of the county in the next few months. "Once we get the site plan approved, we can move forward with building the outdoor bathroom and installing the solid turf grass at the site. Those are the next phases in the project as far as we're concerned ..." ROCKINGHAM BEAT: From the WSVA newsroom ... By Karl Magenhofer Valley tourism flat Controversial monument visits Valley OBITUARIES: March 08, 2005 Robert Clinton Thacker, 64 STOP THE PRESSES: My football buddy By Chris Graham/AFP One day, I vow, I will figure out how to beat my father-in-law in that blasted football game. "Well, now, most of the games were close," my new video-game buddy tries to insist to me when we get together for these sessions, as he did the other night. For those keeping score at home, though, I lost six straight games this most recent time out, the closest of which was 24-7.
Membership Advertiser Links ACC Nation
News
Links
|
Self censorship
Guest View Armond Simmons Special to The Augusta Free Press
In a letter to the editor of The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion Ledger published on Feb. 25 - "When Does the Price of War Become Too High to Endure?" - Charles Roithmayr bared heart-felt terror and fear as he agonizes over Emmy winner Bill Couturie's HBO documentary "Last Letters Home." He laments of the documentary, "The last words soldiers wrote are read with choked emotion." "In the documentary, we hear young warriors confronting their fears, contemplating death, thinking of home and family. ... Do Americans expect service families to continue sacrificing their loved ones to a war machine that constantly needs feeding?" Well, Charles needs to understand that during World War II, documentaries in the vein of Bill Couturie's HBO documentary "Last Letters Home", were voluntarily domestically censored as one of the shared sacrifices of war for discerning American journalists. These journalists understood that such documentaries and defeatist responses to such aided and abetted the enemy, emboldening it to fight one more day, placing a troop in enemy crosshairs one more day - and causing one more letter home to become one more "last letter home". However, Charles is not to worry. As John Stuart Mill wrote in 1865, "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
Armond Simmons resides in Pell City, Ala.
The views expressed by op-ed writers do not necessarily reflect those of management of The Augusta Free Press.
What do you think? Share your thoughts on this story at letters@augustafreepress.com.
(Published 03-08-05/Opinion) Click here to email a copy of this story to a friend |
| ||
|
