Reliable energy
When my grandfather, Luther Church, founded Getem Manufacturing Co. Inc. in Norfolk in 1922, the city’s population was just more than 100,000 people. Since then, the region’s population has swelled to more than 1.7 million people across Hampton Roads. My family is proud of our history in Hampton Roads, and we understand that our communities are continuing to grow and prosper. With new industry, increased population and economic growth, we need energy infrastructure that can support our region. The Virginia Reliability Project will do just that.
The Virginia Reliability Project will lay the foundation for new investments in our communities and quality of life by modernizing our natural gas system and ensuring we have affordable reliable energy to support our current and future needs. The key to this project is that it replaces and updates an existing pipeline that has been in use here for roughly 70 years. As a family owned business with more than 100 years in Hampton Roads, we know that our workforce cannot afford to let this opportunity pass us by.
— Charlie Church, Norfolk systemic racism does not exist in new policy” (March 17): The article reported that the Isle of Wight County School Board adopted a policy to “establish a framework for teaching about controversial issues.” The policy declares that it is parents or guardians who are responsible for guiding their children’s views on such issues. Two topics, racism and discrimination, are addressed in the policy. But the aspirational goal of teaching controversial or divisive concepts without imposing a belief or judgment about the topic in the minds of the students is betrayed by the very guiding principles stated in the policy, including “there is no systemic racism or bigotry perpetuated by the United States or any governmental entity,” and that “no one is inherently a victim or oppressed due to their race ... , skin color ... . ”
From the beginning, society and laws in the United States were designed to create wealth and privilege for Americans of western European descent. For more than 200 years slavery excluded Africans from the benefits of society, followed by more than 100 years of legal segregation, voter suppression, inferior schools, redlining, discriminatory lending practices and other barriers to home ownership and wealth accumulation. The effect of these practices, laws and policies are still entrenched in our society, producing and perpetuating unfair discriminatory treatment for people of color. This is systemic racism. Teaching banalities stating otherwise does not make it so, and policies like the one adopted in Isle of Wight County is itself a prime example of systemic racism.
— Ray King, Norfolk