It makes sense that there might be low morale in VDOT offices around the state. If you’re among the people in danger of being downsized, the reason for your low morale is pretty obvious. Not as obvious, but just as demoralizing, is seeing the person who has been sitting in the cubicle next to you pack up and leave, or picking up the phone to talk with somebody in another VDOT office on an issue and finding out that they’ve been let go.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has been in the political crosshairs for most of the last 10 years as Democrats and Republicans fight over what the state needs to do to address its myriad transportation challenges.

VDOT needs to get leaner and meaner, has been the hue and cry from the Republicans in Richmond. We’re past cutting fat, we’re into the muscle and bone, respond the Democrats.

Meanwhile, engineers and maintenance supervisors and front-line employees across the Commonwealth are bearing the brunt of things.

“Certainly it’s a challenge for all of us at VDOT right now. It’s been a tough couple of years for us with our financial challenges. I don’t know a better word for it, though that doesn’t necessarily cover the extent of it. The reorganization and layoffs really has taken a toll on folks. It has,” VDOT spokesman Jeff Caldwell told me recently.

The transportation department has gone from more than 10,000 employees toward a goal of having a staff of 7,500 by July 1, 2010. I asked Caldwell what VDOT might be doing to help employees through the transition in a formal way, for example, by offering counseling services. The inspiration on that question comes from a friend, Cynthia Long, who works in grief counseling, and has expanded her counseling options into areas that you might not traditionally associate with needing help with grief. Job loss is one of her specialties. I can imagine for her a sidebar session on dealing with organizational change.

Caldwell’s first response to my question on counseling was probably expected. “Do you mean career counseling?” he asked me. When I went into more detail on what I was looking for, he did indicate to me that there was a strategy in place for dealing with at least the uncertainty that mass job cuts can bring to an organization.

“It’s a challenge we’ve tried to overcome by providing every piece of information that we can to employees,” Caldwell said, laying out the approach from VDOT that focused on getting information directly to employees in the form of video conferencing and regular e-mail updates to keep employees abreast of the latest on the cuts.

The idea, it seems, was to try to prevent the rumor mill from getting cranked up to the point where there was as much bad information circulating around as there was good, if not there being a lot more of the bad than the good.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of challenges facing these folks that are impacting morale. Certainly the reorganization and layoffs are at the top of the list. But there’s struggles that we’ve had that we’ve tried to communicate with folks from a global perspective where employee raises have been delayed or removed ftom the state budget on several occasions,” Caldwell said. “We tried more than anything else to keep the lines of communication open. We’re trying to make sure that everybody knows exactly what’s going on.”

You ask me, and I think they could all stand for some of that grief counseling that I mentioned above.

“VDOT employees are very dedicated to what they do. The amount of energy that people put in, and the amount of years that people put in, is just amazing. This is a place where people still put in 30, 40, 50 years,’ Caldwell said. “So when they have to face these times where we’re really changing the shape of the organization, and where it impacts people that they’ve known for years or have sat right next to them, it’s a challenge, there’s no doubt about that.”

We could also stand for the Republicans and Democrats getting past their partisan differences and trying to actually get something done, too. That’d be a huge morale boost.

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Mel Curry tries to “hit the fur off that ball.” Robbie Thomas is more an angles and drop shot guy.

“My shoulders are wearing out, but I’m not going to give up any of this,” said Thomas, after a recent exhibition match against Curry, a former United States Tennis Association champion, on the tennis courts at Augusta Health in Fishersville.

A PE teacher and tennis coach in Stafford County, Thomas has been “pushing this chair for 29 years,” referring to the wheelchair that has been his way of getting around since the drunk-driving accident in high school that put his life on a different course.

Curry, for her part, walks using a prosthetic limb, but her chair has helped keep tennis in her life after having to undergo surgery to amputate her left leg from just above the knee in 2003.

“I really do believe that this is the path my life was supposed to take,” said Curry, who took up wheelchair tennis in 2005 after reading a newspaper article about the sport back home in Fredericksburg. A year later, she was winning tournaments with her ferocious serves and groundstrokes.

“The competitive aspect is one part of the blessing. The bigger thing to me is to be able to work with the USTA and to teach clinics and lessons to other persons with disabilities, to teach them the game I love so much, to get them enthused and excited about playing the game. That’s the biggest blessing to me,” said Curry, who plans to make regular treks to the Valley to help get the new wheelchair tennis program at Augusta Health moving forward.

“This program fits the Augusta Health model of community, wellness, everything we do here,” said Chad Reed, the tennis coordinator at Augusta Health and a tennis pro. “It’s a tougher sell if it’s just a tennis center, and it’s just for-profit. If it’s just about making dollars, it can be a hard fit. But here, it fits our model well. It’s right in our wheelhouse of what we do.”

Reed has been coaching wheelchair tennis for several years, picking up the sport as a coach when a local resident who wanted to train to play competitive wheelchair tennis asked him if he could come up with a training program.

“I sort of figured it out from there,” said Reed, who has since earned a training certification in wheelchair tennis, and is now coaching a group of beginner and competitive players who are training at Augusta Health.

Wheelchair tennis looks and plays a lot like tennis for able-bodies, the key difference being that players can play shots out of the air, off one bounce or off two bounces. From a training perspective, Reed said the stress is on mobility.

“Wheelchair players don’t have lateral movement. If I was teaching you, I’d tell you to move laterally. We have to teach them to move in what is called a hub pattern, which is where their strength and conditioning comes into play, because they need to be really strong to move in that hub pattern,” Reed said.

It turns out that training to play tennis has a health benefit for people in wheelchairs. The strength and endurance needed to play the game also translate well into daily living situations.

There’s also the emotional benefit to play that crosses the boundaries of able-bodied and disabled. “This is the only sport where we get to compete on an even playing field with able-bodies,” said Thomas, who played in a mixed-doubles match against Curry with two able-bodies after the singles match to demonstrate how tennis can bridge the sports divide between able-bodies and the disabled.

Curry ups the ante in a weekly doubles match in Fredericksburg in which she is the only participant in a chair. “It helps them to integrate me into the game. So that they know about the two-bounce rule, and so they can know that they don’t have to cover the court, because I’m there,” Curry said.

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K. Rashid Nuri: Making the case for urban agriculture
In his State of the Union address, President Obama enumerated ongoing problems requiring his attention: health care, the economy, job creation, environmental issues and lack of renewable fuels. In doing so, he suggested that increasing agricultural exports would help solve some of these problems.

While export agriculture might indeed help some corporations, it is unlikely to resolve issues directly affecting the public. One thing that would, however, is urban agriculture. While not a panacea, urban agriculture can allay many of the concerns mentioned by the president, and it can do so in several critical ways. 

Our country is now undeniably urban. According to recent demographics, 81 percent of us now live in cities or suburbs. And with so few of us living on farms or in rural areas, our familiarity with the production and source of our food is limited. As an urban organic farmer, I find it amazing that so many chefs, produce managers, restaurateurs and Americans in general remain blithely unaware of the sources of their food. Many have no idea what food looks like coming out of the soil, let alone have an awareness of seasonal fluctuations in fruit and vegetable production.

Implications of this lack of knowledge and involvement in our own food production are immense, affecting all aspects of our life.

Since the dust bowl era of the 1930s and the end of World War II, there has been an effort by government and corporate America to industrialize American agriculture. There has been an emphasis on efficiency and quantity rather than on growing quality food and protecting natural resources. Agriculture is estimated to represent approximately 20 percent to 25 percent of the U.S. annual energy budget, and as much as 40 percent of that energy goes towards production of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Chemical-based growth stimulants produce large quantities of food at the expense of the minerals, vitamins and trace elements that create flavor and nutrition. Evidence of the poor quality of our food can be seen in rising rates of obesity, vitamin deficiencies and food-borne illnesses.

Sadly, the major victim of industrial agriculture is the American public. We are subjected to more chemicals in food, more additives in food products and massive advertising campaigns for these products, and until recently were offered few healthy alternatives.

We Americans are in the early stages of reclaiming our food sovereignty. This is evidenced by the fast-growing organic sector in agriculture, the advent of urban agriculture initiatives and the increased numbers of farmers markets found in urban areas everywhere.

All across the nation, urban farmers are growing crops on vacant lots, in abandoned fields, in greenhouses, on balconies, by schools, in prison yards, in nursing homes and in countless other creative and engaging places. These urban growing fields can be privately owned, formed as cooperatives, as neighborhood organizations, in collaboration with universities or as partners with city and county governments. Options are endless. Urban America is beginning to wake up and feed itself.

Urban agriculture can play a critical role in reversing many negative aspects of industrial agriculture. Urban farming enhances the health of metropolitan residents, creates “green” jobs, produces affordable locally grown organic fruits and vegetables; teaches people to grow their own foods; reconnects people to their food and the land; and strengthens the environment through reduced fossil fuel dependence and carbon sequestration.

The source of our food is an abstract concept for most of us. But this is changing. More and more people are exploring the supply chain that connects the production of their food to its final consumption. People are returning to the earth as they learn that urban gardens provide benefits beyond good food. This includes economic savings, environmental improvement, lifestyle enhancement, increased exercise and family and community bonding.

President Obama mentioned increasing agricultural exports, but also said that First Lady Michelle Obama would continue her work on problems associated with child obesity. Ironically, the industrial agriculture the president supports is directly connected to child obesity. Industrial agriculture and the lack of personal involvement in food production are leading factors causing our people to become obese and less healthy.

The time has come for we Americans to reclaim our agricultural heritage. Participating in urban agriculture would be a major step in that direction.

- K. Rashid Nuri is director of the Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture.

Hunter Mabry: Tell McDonnell to commute Paul Powell’s death sentence
Virginia is scheduled to carry out its 106th execution on March 18th. It would be a miscarriage of justice for Virginians to permit this to happen.

There is no doubt that Paul Powell committed a horrible crime — a crime for which he could have been given a sentence of up to life imprisonment or, if aggravating factors were found, the death penalty.

But in its zeal to prove the presence of aggravating factors, the prosecution introduced false evidence that showed Powell guilty of two prior crimes of murder when in fact Powell had been cleared of those charges. Additionally, the prosecution also told the court that this evidence had been “certified” when in fact it was uncertified.

It shakes the confidence of Virginians in our criminal justice system when a jury’s death sentence rests on serious false evidence and a false claim introduced by the Government. Such action by the prosecution should not be tolerated.

Unfortunately, the Virginia Supreme Court has never reviewed all of the false evidences in this case. When four out of seven Justices for this case upheld the lower court when reviewing only partial evidence, the other three Justices wrote a vigorous dissent: “such a serious mistake in a capital case may well cause the public to question whether our courts adequately ensure the fair application of the death penalty statue.”

In view of the above, Powell’s sentence should be commuted to life in prison without parole.

As the case now stands, the only person having authority to commute Powell’s sentence is the governor, who opposed Powell’s attempts to correct the serious errors made by the prosecution.

Please contact Gov. Robert McDonnell and request him to commute Powell’s sentence to life in prison without parole. You can contact Gov. McDonnell at P.O. Box 1475, Richmond, VA 23218 or 804.786.2211 or Fax: 804.371.6351 or by email at www.governor.virginia.gov/TheAdministration/contactGovernor.cfm.

- Hunter Mabry, Waynesboro

Haresh Daswani: Of walks and meditation
One of the most important aspects of decision making has been to keep a calm mind. The advent of many distractions have kept us from being able to sit in peace and review our decisions, the issues, and formulate solutions. But it also goes beyond with us a needing constant general reflective state. We need to be able to reflect to be able to better govern ourselves and the situation.

The most important and readily available method would be meditation. It is important to keep ourselves in a quiet and comfortable room or environment, with dim and cozy lights, either silent or with some simple meditation music, and either keep silence or chant a mantra that would have its effects designed for what we are looking for. Meditation has been very effective in spirituality, mental peace, and helping compassion. It has been noted through several tests that those who meditate are generally happier and healthier. A happy mind keeps a healthier body.

Meditation too, is very difficult, clouded minds prohibit one from being able to let go and focus. It is very difficult for a novice to immediately meditate if there is a lot of mental burden being carried. Assistance is greatly encouraged from proper masters who can guide the student towards intended peace.

Another effective system of meditation has actually been walks on the park. Not everyone has been able to appreciate the effect of walking on parks, but the calm state, with right breathing, and its light activity, brings forth meditation. One gets to better appreciate details not seen due to a hectic lifestyle. It is important to pause and smell the flowers. Walks have been known to spark ones creativity and inspiration, with paintings, writings, and even business ideas emanating from a simple walk in the park. The mental calm that is found in walks is found in mediation, with the ultimate focus being on detachment.

Detachment is the key ingredient from mediation and walks. One has to get out of the emotional cloud of the situation and be able to step back and appreciate in a more objective point. Another key aspect is to refresh one’s mind and let in inspiration. A light mind presents ideas on a constant basis.

As one taps into the mental significance of a healthy mind, one then realizes that what the mind thinks, the body will feel. A stress free mind produces less stress for the body. The same applies as one has to ensure that the right diet is taken and a proper lifestyle is followed.

The best part is, none of these activities are taxing. The initial state may be found to be difficult, but the change in lifestyle is not severe. One has to embed such in their habit, making it part of their daily ritual. In time, changes will be felt.

As one leads to the other, and better decisions are made, better consequences can be expected, which thus leads to better achievement of results.

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Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

Richmond: House Democrat leader reacts to block by GOP on antidiscrimination measure House Democratic Caucus Chairman Ken Plum released the following statement this afternoon on the refusal of the House of Delegates to consider SB 66, State Sen. Donald McEachin’s bill to prohibit discrimination in state employment:

“Sen. McEachin’s SB 66 was an attempt to take an important step in protecting Virginians against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

“I am disappointed that Republicans in the House of Delegates once again refused debate on this important issue and placed in jeopardy Virginia’s status as the ‘Best State for Business.’ By rejecting Senator McEachin’s bill, House Republicans are sending a message to businesses and individuals around the country that Virginia is not welcoming of all people.

“It appears that the only solution we now have is for Governor McDonnell to send down a bill. I hope that he will do so immediately to enable proper debate on this topic.”

Today’s vote comes after Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sent a letter to Virginia’s colleges and universities asking them to repeal provisions protecting faculty and staff against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Richmond: State Senate passes charter-school bill The Senate of Virginia today passed legislation to change the charter school application process in Virginia but preserve the authority of local school boards to approve or reject charter school applications.

The bill passed today makes no changes to the charter school approval process, and only small changes to the charter school application process. No school board will be compelled to approve new charter schools under this legislation.

Virginia already has charter schools — publicly funded schools that are given more freedom in their curriculum — but this legislation will improve the quality of applications submitted to local school boards and make the process more open to the public. Gov. Bob McDonnell made reform of Virginia’s charter school structure a priority, but his original bill would have given the unelected State Board of Education veto power over the decisions of local school boards.

Under current charter school law in Virginia, applicants can confer with State Board of Education to prepare an application, and then submit their plan to the local school board which either approves or rejects the plan. If enacted, SB737 will allow an applicant to submit their plan to the State Board of Education for a basic evaluation and then submit their plan to the local school board which approves or rejects the plan. Under the new law, if a school board denies an application they will have to state the reasons, then applicants can work with Virginia’s Superintendent of Public Instruction to make technical improvements to their application.

Once the changes are made, an applicant can appeal back to the local board, which then approves or rejects the plan again. The appeal process back to the local school board is the biggest change that SB737 makes to existing charter school law. Localities will not be obligated to approve any new charter schools and will have the final word in whether to approve new charter schools. No outside entity will have more than advisory power in the process.

Senate Democrats raised concerns with Gov. McDonnell’s original charter school reform legislation. The bill, as introduced, included an appeal by rejected applicants to the State Board of Elections, which is comprised of gubernatorial appointees. This arrangement would have given a group of political appointees veto power over local school boards in violation of the Virginia Constitution which says that “the supervision of schools in each school division shall be vested in a school board.”

The arrangement which passed today was introduced in the Senate Education and Health Committee and is the result of many hours of negotiations between legislators, Gov. McDonnell’s office, and education stakeholders.

Education stakeholders, including the Virginia Education Association, opposed plans to take decisionmaking power away from local school boards, as Gov. McDonnell’s original legislation did, but they do not oppose the legislation that passed the Senate today.

McDonnell, for his part, declared the Senate move to be a victory for his efforts in the charter school arena. “I applaud the Republicans and Democrats who came together today to help Virginia school children, especially those who are at-risk and disadvantaged, gain more educational opportunities,” McDonnell said in a statement. “In the modern economy, education is the coin of the realm. Without a world-class education our young people will not be able to compete with their peers in the global marketplace. States that move proactively to bring innovation, competition and reform to their public schools are not only serving their young people well, they are improving their prospects for future economic prosperity and job creation.”

“This positive legislation to reform our public education system and give all Virginia’s young people the tools they need to learn and succeed is the result of real bipartisan cooperation in Richmond. This is a great day for Virginia’s public schools, our public school teachers and students and parents in every community,” said State Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg.

D.C. News: Perriello backs bipartisan bill to cut pay for Congress Congressman Tom Perriello is backing a bipartisan bill to make members of Congress show a personal commitment to cutting federal spending. He is a cosponsor of H.R. 4720, the Taking Responsibility for Congressional Pay Act, which will cut pay for all senators and representatives by 5 percent starting Jan. 1, 2011. If the bill is passed into law, member salaries will be reduced for the first time since April 1, 1933.

Additionally, recent House expenditure reports show that Congressman Perriello’s office ranks second lowest in personnel compensation for all House members who served an entire year in 2009.

“We need to restore the true meaning of ‘public service’ and part of that is taking personal responsibility for our national fiscal crisis. Working families across Central and Southern Virginia are getting by on less and making personal cuts in the economic downturn, and they are the folks who pay my and my staff’s salary. We’re tightening our own belts just like everybody else,” Perriello said.

Congressman Perriello previously fought successfully to block the automatic pay raise for federal lawmakers in 2010 and 2011 fiscal years. He is also a co-sponsor of H.R. 1597, which would repeal the law that provides automatic pay adjustments for members of Congress. Instead, congressional pay raises would be brought to a simple up-or-down vote.

Campaign Trail: Eagle Forum endorses Morton in Fifth GOP race Eagle Forum PAC, a conservative public policy organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly, is endorsing Feda Morton in the race to represent Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District.

“Feda and I have worked together for many years to elect conservative leaders, to protect life and marriage and to fight out-of-control government spending,” said Virginia Eagle Forum President Helen Blackwell. “She has a proven track record as a hard-working elected official and an uncompromising conservative leader.”

“Feda is exactly the kind of leader we need in Washington,” said Eagle Forum founder and president Phyllis Schlafly. “As a career schoolteacher who has taught at public schools, private schools, homeschooled her children and was elected to serve on the Fluvanna County School Board, Feda knows how badly federal meddling impacts education.”

“Feda knows that from education to the economy, solutions must come from communities, not the federal government,” Schlafly said. “As a lifelong resident of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional district with a distinguished record of service and political involvement, Feda knows the community well, and is in the best position to represent its needs to Congress.”

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“Where you stand depends upon where you sit,” has eight simple words which explain politics. But it need not.

Stands have and will be taken during the discussions over where to cut our local school budgets in these tough fiscal times. Mostly they spring from where one sits. And that causes problems. Such stands overlook where the kids are sitting. And their need to have a say.

Thus, the school debate is not focused on what is best for the educational development of children ages five through eighteen. We debate local budgets in much the same manner as the nation debates health care. Students and patients tend to be afterthoughts.

In an attempt to change focus for this week we will not sit in paradise. Rather we will move out of the Valley of Virginia to all of Virginia. We will consider what is best for the kids no matter where they live.

Before we start we need to keep in mind that there are no local schools. School divisions are in name only. Virginia’s public schools are half breeds, roughly half local and half state - except that the local part gets to make up the difference whenever shortchanged by the state. And, of course, who can forget big brother? Washington loves to stick its nose into our tent. It’s filled with unfunded federal mandates.

Nonetheless, one major problem has been solved. If the Commonwealth gave out revenues uniformly to each child in each of its 146 divisions there would not be a level playing field for Virginia’s kids. The rich divisions would just get richer and the poor ones would be left behind. So fueled by powerful interests in Southside and other poor areas, the General Assembly determined that if the Department of Education is to have a voice to go along with its money, state aid can not be uniformly distributed. As a result, the Local Composite Index (LCI) was born.

The LCI is the formula for disbursing state school funds. Half (50 percent) is based on property values, 40 percent on income and 10 percent on retail sales. Typical of the educational establishment when they get their hands on numbers, the opposite is often true. For example, the low numbers for Augusta County (.3416), Staunton (.4024) and Waynesboro (.3609) mean that these three school districts receive more than the average in state aid! (Lee, Scott and Wise counties in the far Southwest receive the most per student aid.) We will call kids in these jurisdictions Paul.

And where does the money come from to pay Paul? From Peter, where else, otherwise known as Virginia’s cash cow. Arlington, Alexandria and Falls Church have high index numbers of 80 percent, with the state’s largest school division, Fairfax, at 71 percent and fast growing Loundon at 59 percent.

(Political sidebar: Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, while performing another gig, did not wish to use the most recent property data for the LCI because property values had fallen so much up north that the money flow to the rest of Virginia would be slowed. One local Republican delegate, taking his usual stand based on where he sits, agrees. Both go for a “freeze.” But not our new Republican governor. He prefers not to change the rules in the middle of the game.)

Again, what this all means is that in order to have a “fair” distribution of state school aid some local divisions will get more (up to four times), others less. Is this fair? As we said, “fairness” is defined by where one sits.

Like our minds, recessions and budget cuts are terrible things to waste. If we recognize that while neighborhood schools are a feel good concept, they do little to give our kids a decent shot to succeed in today’s highly sophisticated and technical world. And they are costly. Very.

So think beyond school boundaries. Think of what combo schools would do both for the students and their taxpaying parents. The long road will come into view. It will show that there is no going back, unless we wish to reopen every rural school closed over the past century.

If we stand for tomorrow and our kids - no matter where we sit - we will not have missed the opportunity presented by today’s budget. The General Assembly may be doing us a great service - by forcing us into the 21st century.

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“Oh, Lord, it’s great to be humble, to be perfect in every way,” goes the delightful ditty by Tom T. Hall.

Tom probably wasn’t aware when he wrote and performed this homage to false humility that he echoed somewhat Jesus’ warning not to perform perceived acts of piety to gain others’ approval. Dust off that Bible and check out the clear-cut injunctions for yourself (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21). It’s not easy reading, because it hits me where I live.

Our prayer life, our giving and other expressions of oblation should arise from love, honor and obedience to God rather than attempts to rack up spiritual Brownie points.

But that’s easier said than done. Even in preparing this reflection I struggle with the “need” to impress whoever chances upon these words with my intellect, experience and way with word pictures. The messenger trumps the message; I go away feeling smug, but God is not impressed.

I was munching on my fish sandwich at the local Dairy Queen I frequent - not just because think their food is tasty and it’s close to my workplace but because they offer a senior discount - and looked over to see an elderly couple hold hands across the table and pray silently before consuming their cheeseburgers. It touched my spirit. Were they doing this to draw attention to themselves or to acknowledge God’s benevolence?

I think I need to pray some more about this (and do it without injecting “just” and “really” so often in my prayers).

Lent, the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, for many is a time to devote more time to prayer, reflection and voluntarily cutting back on an activity or giving up something as a way of drawing closer to God. Wife Anna is still spending time on the computer every day, but she’s bypassing one of her favorite pastimes - playing “Hearts” and “Solitaire” - a big deal for her.

Several years ago, I vowed to abstain from chocolate and other sweets for the entire Lenten season. A candy dish sitting on top of the tube in our living room beckoned this weary TV watcher to garner sufficient strength to get up off the couch, lunge forward and thrust one’s hand deep into the carbohydrate cache for an ample supply of miniature peanut butter cups, peppermint patties and Hershey’s kisses. If forced to choose between TV and satisfying my chocolate craving, I’d opt for the latter any day. So to publicly declare my intention to abstain from this palate-pleasing pleasure is a major oblation.

Again, if I do deny myself, it should arise from a desire at self-discipline and self-improvement, not to impress my Creator or my family and friends with my feeble attempt at surrendering a craving - if only temporarily.

I have a small plaque on my office desk given me some time ago by a member of my church small group that states, “It is my heartfelt prayer that you will be blessed today and everyday.”

What a privilege and blessing to be able to pray and to know that others are praying for me. Prayer should be conversational, open, honest, Christ wants us to talk to Him regularly, as a friend and confidant, not to impress others with our words, but to have a conversation with Jesus and to wait upon the Lord with expectancy, believing that an answer - it may not always be what we want to hear will come in God’s good time.

Someone said, the highest form of prayer comes from the depth of a humble heart. I want to spend more time acknowledging my weakness, my dependency, and focus less on reciting a list of perceived wants. God already knows what those are.

In this reflective season of Lent, may our prayers of confession, petition and praise - whether silent or audible, private or public - always be directed toward our omniscient God, not to impress others. And then, let us give of ourselves and our alms as a responsive act of gratitude to and worship of our Creator.

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The tool-belt recession is having a negative multiplier-type effect on the U.S. economy. AFPBusiness.com examines a report from the Center for American Progress that offers as advice to Congress the idea of promoting energy-efficiency incentives to homeowners as a way to get construction workers back to work.
 

Click here to read the story on AFPBusiness.com.

Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
 

I applaud the Staunton Public School system and the Staunton community for the orderly process that surrounded the move to consolidate its four elementary schools into three to help meet a projected big budget shortfall for the upcoming 2010-2011 school system.

The puzzled look on my face as I smack my hands together has to do with how I’m wondering through the applause - if the move makes sense now, why wasn’t it done, say, last year, or the year before?

“I suppose you’re correct … consolidation could have been done at some point in the past,” Staunton Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Steven Nichols answered my query to that end in an e-mail exchange Tuesday, a day after the Staunton School Board approved a consolidation plan proposed by Nichols.
  

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The Tuesday, March 9 installment of The AFP on WREL has AugustaFreePress.com editor Chris Graham and WREL host Jim Bresnahan talking about:
- Should the NCAA Tournament be expanded from 65 teams to 96 teams?
- Can Virginia Tech possibly be on the tourney bubble with a 23-7 record and 10 wins in the ACC?
- The guys break down the upcoming ACC Tournament.
- Chris complains about having been forced to cover all 11 games of the 2007 tournament in Tampa from a front-row seat with unlimited access to free goodies including Haagen-Daas bars.
- And more.
  
  

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