NOTES AND NOTABLES

A weekly roundup of opinions and observations by the Daily Press Editorial Board

Helping hands

There are few organizations on the Peninsula that do more to help the community than Link of Hampton Roads — and right now, Link itself is looking for some help.

This is a group that works with local churches and businesses to provide homeless individuals and families with emergency services as well as overnight housing in harsh weather.

The cold weather will be here soon enough, and while Link has churches in Newport News lined up to serve as shelters, it is in need of churches and businesses that can provide volunteers to help in the shelters. The Link staff is using the word “desperate.”

To step up, a church or business “partner” must be able to cover about 20 volunteer shifts between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., one week at a time. Currently Link is looking for one partner group apiece for the weeks of Nov. 14-21, Dec. 19-26 and March 20-27, as well as two “partners” for Jan. 2-9.

Any church, business or organization that wants to partner with Link can contact Lynne Fielding at lynne.fielding@linkhr.org or by phone at 757-254-2424.

We have often said in these pages that a good way to judge a community’s compassion is to examine how the people treat and respond to their most vulnerable neighbors. Helping Link provide for the homeless — including children, the elderly, military veterans, families — is one way to make our own community a better place to live.

Paying respect

Back in May, a construction crew in the Buckroe area of Hampton unearthed two sets of human remains that are believed to trace back to one of our region’s native tribes, potentially more than 1,000 years ago. Much discussion ensued about just how old the remains were, and which tribe they belonged to (geography suggested either the Nansemond or the Nottoway).

After months of research, the state’s Department of Historic Resources concluded that the remains were of members of the Nansemond tribe, and thus awarded them for appropriate re-interment on tribal land.

It is gratifying to see this series of events play out with such a sense of respect and dignity. The excavators, working on a 16.5-acre parcel for new homes, recognized the significance of the remains and dutifully reported them. Much care was taken to remove them, study them and identify them so that the correct tribe could deal appropriately with the bones of their ancestors.

Too often, considerations involving time and money and simple convenience override our better instincts. In this instance, an appropriate reverence was shown.

Concealed weapons

You cannot carry a gun onto a commercial aircraft. You really, really can’t stash a loaded firearm in your carry-on baggage. We know this by now, right? It’s intuitive. If you have to take off your shoes and your belt just to enter the terminal, then they’re going to be pretty strict about loaded guns.

So why does it seem that — especially 17 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed the way we travel — people are getting more clueless about this fact, rather than more aware or more observant?

Last weekend at the Norfolk International Airport, the TSA confiscated a semiautomatic handgun from a passenger’s carry-on bag, along with five bullets. This is the 17th gun confiscated this year at the Norfolk airport’s security checkpoints — a new record for this airport, and it’s only September. Mind you, in states such as Texas and Florida they confiscate hundreds annually, but that’s another story. Here, we’re at an unprecedented 17 and counting.

And it makes us want to ask: What, if anything, are you thinking?

Surely anyone who has traveled by plane in the past two decades knows you can’t bring a gun on board. If a traveler knows this and simply forgets where he or she packed the loaded gun, it does not reflect the sort of attentive nature that we would hope to associate with responsible gun ownership.

All of this is just to say, please, in exercising your Second Amendment rights, use the brain that you were born with. If you are not comfortable traveling without your firearm, follow the procedures to put it in a checked bag. The TSA and the rest of the airline customers thank you.

Roses and thorns

Each week, the Daily Press Editorial Board offers a list of area citizens or institutions deserving of “roses” or “thorns,” when applicable.

This week’s roses go to:

York County emergency dispatcher Sara Mattingly, who took a 911 call about an apparent heart attack and was able to instruct the caller on how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived. And to the caller, Sara Hill, who followed the instructions well enough to save her father’s life.