Stores needed
Prevent littering
Re “Litter increases during the pandemic have been a ‘nightmare’ for some Hampton Roads cities” (Feb. 25): We need a “war on litter” in this country, a national anti-littering campaign engaging our public education system, media and all other corporations, and government (federal, state and local).
Picking up litter is great — unfortunately, I feel the need to do it on a regular basis in my neighborhood — but we should also concentrate on eliminating the activity that requires the remediation.
Providing trash receptacles in areas with high pedestrian traffic, especially pathways from stores, is a must. You have to give people an alternative to dropping trash on the ground. We should have a program in schools that highlights the problem.
How about we pay middle and high school students to provide a civil service by keeping our communities clean? Let’s get a 5 cent glass bottle and aluminum can deposit that pays people to recycle instead of litter. Ticket those who litter. The government can use the revenue, right? Let’s increase funding to organizations such as Keep Norfolk Beautiful so they can do more of the great work they do.
Other priorities always get the attention and funding though, and littering is a symptom of a greater problem: lack of national pride, in communities across the landscape. It’s not a Black or white issue.
To solve the littering problem will require the fixing of a myriad of social and economic issues that leave millions of Americans feeling uncared for, hopeless, left behind and rejected.
Until we repair many of those issues, I fear the littering problem will persist.
Sharon Barnes, Norfolk
Find workers
Re “Litter increases during the pandemic have been a ‘nightmare’ for some Hampton Roads cities” (Feb. 25): The article regarding increased litter during the pandemic made me sad.
I am a Beach local, and I have seen Virginia Beach proper, the roadways leading to the beach, and our residential areas become almost like communities that I have seen when traveling to island countries, like the Bahamas, and other places called paradise. These places are littered with all types of trash, including plastic bags caught in their beautiful landscape.
I used to think of Virginia Beach as our piece of paradise, but no longer. Many people treat our streets and roadways like their own personal trash cans, throwing their trash out car windows, and littering our shopping centers and neighborhoods.
Pride in our community was going downhill long before the pandemic, but it’s made worse now by unthinking people tossing their masks, tissues, drink cans and all types of other garbage down for others to pick up.
It is nice that so many volunteers are stepping up, but why not call upon people who are in our jails? Put them in some sort of work release program to occupy their time and help the community. And because we have so many homeless people panhandling in our city, perhaps they could be hired temporarily to earn some money and help clean the city.
Sandy Evans, Virginia Beach
Re “Plenty of room for growth in Hampton” (Feb. 21): Boy, I’ll say. How about a real shopping center in the Hampton Phoebus area? I keep reading about new restaurants coming in, bars opening up and apartments being built. Where are all of us without a car supposed to shop for household goods and clothing? Our choices now are CVS, Food Lion, the dollar store and ordering online. Instead of designing a city to lessen traffic, we keep adding people who are forced to drive to shop. It’s time for the quaintness of the Phoebus area to be in the history books and conform to reality.
Diane Aldridge, Hampton Use facts
On Feb. 22, President Joe Biden blithely announced that 500,000 COVID-19 deaths exceed the total number of U.S. deaths suffered in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War. That is incorrect.
The total for those wars was actually approximately 580,000. The total for the first two alone was about 520,000. Anyone with any knowledge of history would immediately recognize this pseudo fact.
Isn’t it great that we have had two presidents in a row whose facts couldn’t be trusted? Former President Donald Trump didn’t care, and Biden isn’t smart enough to know better.
There are lots of troubling things here, aren’t there? Biden will apparently read whatever is put in front of him, his staff didn’t catch it, and much of the American media swallowed it without protest.
It’s disgusting.
Lyle Heldenbrand, Virginia Beach Are you serious?
Re “Leave it alone” (Your Views, Feb 26): The writer does not think that Congress should waste tax dollars to investigate the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Really?
Jan. 6 was a stain on democracy that could have led to the murder or assassination of a sitting vice president as well as members of Congress. This is not the time to play partisan politics by the left or the right.
A full and complete impartial investigation must happen, and the organizers, co-conspirators and attackers must be brought to justice. Americans deserve answers on what happened and action by the government to prevent a recurrence in the future.
David Jarvis, Virginia Beach
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