Letters

Like This? Click to Recommend It

Sir:

Continuing with "belief systems":

In order to maintain a belief structure, one must constantly maintain a source of validation. This comes in the form of mainstream views, political affiliation and religious dogma, none of which requires meaningful self-improvement.

Belief structures are problematic since the majority of modern belief structures are not of one's own creating but that of corporate interests. The corporate influences on belief structures are conditioned into us at the youngest of ages and continue relentlessly during all the developing years. Therefore it's difficult to find truly "free thinkers" as the masses are kept in a herd mentality. Anything outside those bounds is taboo or socially unacceptable.

Few ever dismantle their belief structure because to do so is uncomfortable. The mainstay of belief structures is comfort, and that's what corporations offer, though not sustainably and not according to universal law.

The mind runs deeper than our conscious lets on. It knows when certain facts threaten our beliefs. Thus it goes on the defensive or into outright denial. What corporations and belief structures cannot guarantee is that they are spiritually honest in the long term.

Topics avoided by the mainstream media -- hence, corporate interests -- require thinking and research, two things belief assists in avoiding. Essentially, your belief structure disallows you to truly think for yourself. It also requires daily validations, as opposed to spiritual knowing.

The "official" explanation regarding 9/11, when truly pondered, is physically impossible. But it's comfortable believing the government's there to protect you. Research shows government has no qualms about killing its own citizens. Your beliefs therefore permit the very things you cannot believe, by your very refusal to examine them. Disregarding facts in exchange for comfortable beliefs is exactly how Nazi Germany arose, and it's how America is currently being undermined from within. To not research this is to not act. To not act is to forfeit your freedom to evil.

If the crimes committed by the Bush administration go unpunished, it is from your own inaction. This allows the crimes to continue, no matter what party may be in power.

Believe it, or not.

Roy Andrew Stokes
687 Woodville Road
Maurertown
Nov. 5, 2009

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

Earlier this month, I wrote the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) to challenge unneeded and expensive regulations requiring professional testing for home septic systems.

Specifically, I questioned new VDH regulations requiring so-called prophylactic testing for home systems handling less than 1,000 gallons a day. While all of us share the goal of safe drinking and ground water, these regulations appear to be an administrative overreach -- especially given that the cost of up to $1,000 doesn't appear to advance that laudable objective.

The regulations presume the need for the expensive professional testing even when regular maintenance fails to show any need for it and even though use of these Alternative Onsite Sewage Systems (AOSS) has been approved by VDH, based on their demonstrated effectiveness.

The approach encompassed in the new rules runs counter to our tradition of relying on citizen action unless the need for government intervention is conclusively proven. That's not the case here.

Virginia homeowners are having enough trouble making ends meet without new and burdensome regulations that do not further the goal of improving public health.

I will continue to stand up for my constituents by pushing VDH to demonstrate the need for these new rules and, preferably, to withdraw them.

Interested persons should contact Allen Knapp, director, Division of Onsite Sewage, Water Supplies, VHD, 109 Governor St., 5th Floor, Richmond 23210. His e-mail is: allen.knapp@vdh.virginia.gov.

DEL. Bob Marshall
13th Legislative District
P.O. Box 421
Manassas

Oct. 21, 2009

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

My husband, daughter and I were asked to volunteer at Signal Knob School to peel apples for the Strasburg Chapter of the FFA.

We gathered our apple peeler and paring knives and headed for the agriculture building. By the way, it is an impressive facility.

We were really surprised at what we observed. The students were like worker bees. They were hauling apples, coring, peeling, washing and mashing apples in a flurry of activity.

We found our place at a table and we began peeling. We would no sooner fill our bowl and a student would snatch it up and deliver the apple slices to be washed,

It was so refreshing to see young people on a Friday night having so much fun working. We enjoyed being a part of something so positive. The students we worked with were polite, friendly, energetic and focused about their apple butter project. They appeared to enjoy the cleaning up process, too.

Jaclyn Roller, adviser to the ag department, has made a positive impact on these young people. She is a delightful young woman and she helps to prepare them for their future endeavors.

The students were excited that a team would be at Belle Grove at 4 a.m. the next morning to build fires and start the apple butter boiling. What stamina.

We are proud that Carl has chosen to be a member of FFA, just as his father, Brian, did years ago. Also, we are proud of our ag program at Signal Knob.

And we hope that we will be invited back next year to help peel apples.

MARY ANN WILLIAMS
9760 Middle Road
Strasburg

Nov. 9, 2009

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

After reading about global warming belief waning in the U.S. (Oct. 23 issue), I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. To laugh because old Earth is just going to keep on getting hotter and the ice is going to keep on melting whether we believe it or not. To cry because of the abysmal ignorance that both allows and encourages such disbelief and lets us blissfully ignore the disaster that is barreling down on us.

You doubt? Better read Hemingway's "Snows of Kilimanjaro" soon. In six or seven years there won't be any snow left on Mt. Kilimanjaro and the book will be meaningless. The natives who have depended on the runoff from the snow for subsistence for thousands of years will, like millions of others, become refugees.

Better visit Glacier National Park soon. By 2030 the 27 remaining glaciers will be completely gone. One of the park rangers has suggested renaming it "Puddle National Park." Within two to three years the Arctic Ocean will be open to shipping in the summer and arctic species extinctions will accelerate. None of this is happening without global warming.

If we meet the world's present goals (not commitments) to cut carbon emissions, the best models predict a 6 degree F increase in temperature by 2100 and about a two-meter rise in sea level. The island nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu, which are already in trouble, as well as the Marshall Islands, will disappear. Florida will become a series of small islands. Much of Washington, D.C., and New York will be under water. These are the small problems.

There will be tens to hundreds of millions of refugees from Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, China and other countries with highly populated coastal plains. Unless their engineers can hold out another two meters of the North Sea, the Netherlands will be history. But these aren't our problems -- yet.

Disbelief in global warming is an option, but it won't prevent it. Ask people in Bangladesh and other countries who are already refugees because of severe flooding from excess runoff from melting Asian glaciers. They believe.

Al VanDeGriek
P.O. Box 67
Basye

Oct. 29, 2009