In Praise of Active Citizenship by Ken Rietz

By all accounts the surge of active, public, visible and vocal support for the County's libraries had a profound and positive effect on Board of Supervisors deliberations on funding for Loudoun's library system.

The results of a straw vote during recent budget deliberations produced, as expected, a cut in the county-wide library budget totalling well over $400,000. The cuts were not, however, so drastic as to require closings, or drastic reductions in library staff or services. They could have been worse . . . much worse.

Special kudos to all the citizens of Middleburg and Sterling who turned out in force to support libraries at first thought in danger of being shut down; to the Middleburg Town Council for both its resolutions, and more important, its decision to show up, in force, at critical public input sessions of the Board of Supervisors; and to all those who wrote, emailed, called, and spoke publicly and privately to their Supervisors.

Let's hope that the same support will save our local schools.

Unintended Consequences From Beyond the Beltway by Ken Rietz

Last November the Old Dominion bought the "Hope and Change" message advanced by Obama. He won Virginia. Will the price Virginians have to pay for some of Obama's proposed changes turn out to be just too high?

Sometimes a National election has unintended consequences for local communities. Take for instance Obama's call for renewable energy zones and corridors. It sounds good but the very first piece of renewable energy legislation will have a DEVASTATING impact on our local communities.

After working diligently and at great expense to keep giant, 15 story Power Towers out of our neighborhoods, Congress may just move them right back again. The powerful Chair of the Senate Energy Committee, Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) wants to use renewable energy legislation to give the Federal Government the same kind of siting authority they have for natural gas. Bingaman has said that, just as with natural gas pipelines, electricity providers "need some broader authority to ensure obstacles are not put in the way." So, PEC's recent, hard won case, before the US Fourth Circuit Court giving transmission line authority back to states is once more in jeopardy.

This is not good news for Fauquier and Loudoun counties. The Department of Energy already has the right of EMINENT DOMAIN in the two National Interest Electricity Transmission Corridors (NIETC). One of those corridors cuts right through Loudoun and Fauquier counties.

Giving the Feds more siting authority for giant Power Towers carrying 350kv lines will be a nightmare. These lines would have NO "renewable energy" consequences for us. Instead, they would be used to transmit electricity from some of the nation's oldest, dirtiest coal-fired plants in Ohio through our communities to the power hungry northeastern states.

We need to de-rail this fast moving train NOW. Contact Senators Webb and Warner as well as Congressman Wolf. Ask them to make sure that the RUSH toward renewable energy zones and corridors does NOT have the unintended consequence of giving the Federal Government the authority to supersede the desires and needs of State and local communities.

It is up to all of us to protect what Robert Duvall calls "OUR HALLOWED GROUND".

Hypocrisy by Tom Pratt

This month's column has some elements of hypocrisy but is focused on the misinformation and fear tactics espoused by politicians, unfortunately including the President, who are unduly influenced by lobbyists hired by the health care insurance companies.

Senator Max Baucus recently likened a single payer health care system to government run departments of motor vehicles, trying to scare Americans into thinking that government run health care would result in long lines similar to those you encounter when you renew your driver's license.

HOW ABSURD! How stupid does he think we are? I have, over the last several months, randomly conducted a poll of people 65 years and over who are recipients of Medicare. Without exception all have reported that Medicare meets most all of their needs with practically no complaints. Some do have supplemental insurance with AARP, which also works well and is affordable.

Medicare does not result in long lines, it does not limit you to certain doctors, all are free to choose any doctor they wish and the paper work is practically non existent. In almost all cases the physician or hospital takes care of all of it. The single payer system works well in most European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, so why should we be an exception? Can we not learn from those countries?

A single payer system would work nearly the same way as Medicare: it is an efficient way of handling health care and all the government would have to do is to include all Americans in the system, and bingo, problem solved.

Nearly 70% of all doctors and nurses support single payer and an increasing number of informed Americans do also, somewhere approaching 50%.

So why is it "off the table"? Because it would put a majority of the health insurance companies out of business and they will not have that. It would also have a huge impact on the drug company's profits as the federal government would then be able to negotiate for the best prices. The drug companies would then not be able to afford all the advertising on television of prescription drugs, which in itself should be illegal (we and New Zealand are the only countries on the planet that allow it).

Healthcare for all citizens of this country should not be a profit making industry, it is a right not a privilege, the very opposite of a driver's license to use Sen. Baucus' analogy.

Call your representative and demand that at least the federal office of budget management needs to compare single payer with all the other proposals that the administration is considering. It is unconscionable that they are not doing that comparison, and again shows how powerful the health & drug lobby is.

When President Obama held his very large conference/meeting on health care he excluded all those who favor single payer, including the leading proponent of single payer, Dr. Quentin Young, who was Martin Luther King's personal physician and whose medical associate was President Obama's personal doctor in Chicago. Dr. Young is also a close friend of the President's. John Conyers was also excluded until thousands of us sent emails to demand his inclusion. Congressman Conyers has sponsored HR676 which would provide health care for all Americans.

President Obama, when campaigning for State Senator, was a proponent for single payer and then early on in his quest for the US Senate he still was for it, but that all changed when he arrived on the national stage. I cannot think that his change of mind was not influenced by the powerful drug and health insurance lobby.

Please go to www.singlepayeraction.org; for more information, Google HR676, read the bill and then call, write or visit your representative to demand single payer be on the table and allow it to have it's own day in court to compete with all the other plans that include the greedy, inefficient and extreme profit oriented health insurance industry.

Why is it acceptable to renegotiate a contract with the United Auto Workers but not with AIG executives?