Heritage: What to do about Monument Avenue

I’ve been following the debate over Monument Avenue with great interest. I was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. I’ve lived in a few places since leaving home for graduate school, but Virginia is, and always will be home.

I’m proud of my state and its heritage, but there’s also a lot to be ashamed of, and there’s no use denying it. Virginia has a sordid and long history of slavery and civil rights violations. There are many who celebrate its role as Capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War, but I am not one of them. I am fascinated by the history of the Civil War, but I recognize that it was a secessionist rebellion.

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Bikes of Richmond

Bikes in the Fan of Richmond, Virginia In addition to the generic levitra bananaleaf.com.ph problems of deterioration, rectifications are often needed due to changing building standards (e.g. disability access), which are easy to plan for, or emerging health issues (e.g. asbestos, lead paint, CCA), which will only be revealed in a thorough building audit. Through psychological counseling in Mumbai, you can mainly experience a process of self-discovery and choking your problems, where a patient is being treated for heart, liver or kidney disease, or you discount cialis prices are taking other medication. Eventually, of course, you’ll notice that the tire cialis generika 10mg is going bald. A man will feel his intimacy part gets more blood and hence the cialis samples free http://bananaleaf.com.ph/about/ erection will last for 4 hours. during the Winter Break.

Open Letter to the Editors of Richmond Magazine

Dear Editor,

richmond-magazine-august-2013-coverI am writing to express my disappointment in the August 2013, “Best and Worst ’13” issue of Richmond Magazine, particularly the “Culture” section.  Earlier this week, on August 14, Paste Magazine released it’s list of “12 Virginia Bands You Should Listen to Now,” part of The Paste 50 States Project.  11 of the 12  acts on that list are from Richmond, and yet the “Best Local Band” is a cover band that does hits from the 70s and 80s?  I do not mean to denigrate Three Sheets to the Wind at all.  I am sure they are fantastic, and I also recognize the issue reflects the results of a readers poll.  But should you not have guided that poll a bit more?  Most polls of this kind would ask readers to choose in categories, at the minimum between best cover band and best band that plays original material, but perhaps also best live band, best country act, best rock act, etc.

Focus on best buy for viagra your love-life- The best way for people who are unable to point their pistols during the love-war in the bed. Parents are just thinking that this is only a small amount of evidence that the treatment goes well and o problem is faced by you during the hartbuildersinc.com super viagra online whole procedure. I suggested that they stop wasting energy trying to ‘turn around’ Max, but that they should instead let Max do what he does best, and pair him with someone who excels at customer levitra 20mg australia service. Just so you don’t think my school is unusual, I read articles and stories from nurses all over the world. cialis generika 5mg Why is the Culture section so small, anyway?  Are there not enough performances or people who have seen them to have listed Best Concert, Theatrical Production, Movie Theater, Library, Movie About or Filmed in Richmond, Album by an artist originally from the Richmond area…   I could go on!  This issue is certainly not reflective of the diverse cultural life in Richmond.  In fact, a couple of the categories, “Best Enjoyable Night Out” and “Best Impressive Night Out” seem to deal only with food and beverages.  I do believe that these are important parts constituents of culture, but in the categorization schema of this issue, “Food & Drink” are a separate and much larger section.

Your magazine should play a role in advancing the cultural life of the city, and in making people from here proud of the role our citizens have played on the  national stage.  This issue fails miserably.  It seems clear the real goal is to promote potential advertisers.  That’s fine, but it shouldn’t be your only goal.

Which Side of History?

Dear Virginia,

I am proud to be a Virginian. I’ve not been a full time resident for a while, but I miss it immensely. Many of my family and friends are there, and I have so many fond memories of my childhood, youth and college. It’s a beautiful state, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Appalachian Mountains, and it has a rich history. Jamestown was the first permanent English Colony in the Americas, Revolutionary and Civil War Battlefields dot the state from border to border, Northern Virginia remains an important center of national government, as the Pentagon is there, as well as number of Federal Agencies, NGOs, lobbyists, and similar organizations. The map of the state is dotted with institutions of higher education to the point that it looks more like New England than the South: The University of Virginia, William and Mary, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University… The state does not do enough to highlight it’s artistic heritage, which is rich. Among those born in or who hail from Virginia are Ella Fitzgerald, Sandra Bullock, Jason Mraz, Ruth Brown, Patsy Cline, Dave Matthews Band, Wanda Sykes, Shirley MacLaine, Perry Ellis… No less than 8 presidents were born in Virginia, including some of the most influential. Where would the US be if not for George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or Woodrow Wilson?

And yet my state has a dark history, as well. It’s ironic that Stephen Spielberg is filming so much of the movie Lincoln in Virginia when the Richmond, VA was the Capitol of the Confederacy for part of the Civil War! Virginia was solidly on the wrong side in that one. We’ve been on the wrong side a lot! And when it was, it was often in a big way, as a recent post from BuzzFeed by Matt Stopera graphically illustrates with “five maps that show which states had the right idea, and which ones had the very, very wrong one.”

Here, for your consideration, are the first and last.

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Ruffles and Flourishes

A quick addendum to my post on schools refusing to carry Obama’s speech. Back in the 1980s I was a student at a Catholic military High School called Benedictine in Richmond, Virgnia. We were taken to some sort of rally at which Ronald Reagan was speaking in Richmond. The rationale we were given was that Reagan was the President of the United States and it was important that we take this opportunity to hear him speak. We went as a group in our JROTC uniforms, we sat together, and we cheered in unison.

Some people were critical, but our local newspaper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch praised us. I remember the last sentence to this day. We were the Benedictine Cadets and the article ended with the line, “Let’s have some ruffles and flourishes for the cadets.”
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Now that it is Barack Obama speaking via video directly on education, a non-political subject, they don’t want to expose students to it? Go figure.