The old college try
Regarding your DMB trivia quiz [“Dave Digger?,” September 19]: My son did not drop out of high school! Before he’d even completed his junior year at Tandem, he’d auditioned for—and been accepted into—the jazz studies program at VCU. He then took the GED and passed, which got him through admissions. However, approximately six weeks into the school session, he realized he couldn’t attend classes and be in the band. His decision? He dropped out of college! The rest is history. If you want correct answers, you need to be sure your questions are accurate!
Janaki Lessard
Charlottesville
P.S. Do I get a free iPod?
Recent history
The closing paragraph of your most recent George Allen story [“Post-’N-word,’ Allen is on the attack,” Government News, October 2] reads: “It remains to be seen how all of this unpleasantness will ultimately play out at the polls. The voters of Virginia, it can safely be assumed, are getting weary of the nonstop mudslinging and reports of decades-old obscenities. The only real question, at this point, is which candidate is going to get punished for it.”
Allen’s calling a dark-skinned Virginian (whom he assumed was not a Virginian or American citizen) “Macaca” is not decades old! Its recency, coupled with his decades-old racial slurs, smells of rancid racism. You failed to mention his proud display of a noose hanging from a tree in his law office in the early 1990s. Here’s how The Washington Post described his actions in an article last year:
“[I]n the late 1990s, former governor George Allen (R) issued a Confederate History Month proclamation, calling the Civil War ‘a four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights.’ It was observed during April, the month in which the Civil War essentially began with the Confederates’ attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and ended with the Army of Northern Virginia’s surrender at Appomattox. The declaration made no mention of slavery, angering many civil rights groups.
Allen also opposed the 1991 Civil Rights Act in Congress, and as a state delegate he opposed creating a holiday for Martin Luther King and voted against changing the racially offensive state song (though as governor he later signed legislation dropping the song).“
It would seem that George Allen has a long history of racism that continues just as strongly today. I am disappointed that the Virginia news media failed to unveil George Allen’s racism during his far-too-long political career representing Virginia. It appears that it took national, jaw-dropping, what-did-he-say questioning to uncover Allen’s true self to the voters. I, frankly, am disgusted with the national view, and mockery of Virginians, that suggests that only in Virginia could these revelations of George Allen’s racism actually help him win an election. I challenge you and your colleagues to dig deep and present to Virginians the real George Allen, who has only embarrassed and disgusted the very Virginians he was elected to represent.
This is not about punishing candidates—this is about voting for candidates who will represent all the people of Virginia with dignity, integrity and fair-mindedness.
Deb Green
Palmyra
CORRECTION
In a unforgivable sin of omission, last week’s story on the Virginia Film Festival [“Robert Duvall headlines Virginia Film Festival,” UVA News, October 2], referred to Mr. Duvall as an “Academy Award nominee.” Of course, Duvall won the Best Actor Oscar in 1983 for Tender Mercies (and should have won another one for The Apostle, if you ask us). We sincerely regret the oversight.