Tuesday, November 28, 2006

More Evidence of Media Deceit

[The following article originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on Thursday, October 19, 2006.]

Over Their Dead Bodies
By Jerry Fuhrman

Deceit is probably too strong a word. It implies the intention to defraud. And, without evidence of intent, that might be a stretch. Laziness is part of it, though. Perhaps willful ignorance. Certainly sloppy journalism.

I'm reminded of the news account in July, accompanied by fantastic photos, of an ambulance that had been destroyed by an Israeli missile as it was being used to care for innocent Lebanese civilians in Cana. The photos clearly showed a gaping hole in the roof of the vehicle, centered in the large red cross that had been painted there to signify the fact that the vehicle was being used by non-combatants. Very damning stuff. And a complete fabrication.

It was only after the BBC, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and countless other organizations reported, in sober tones, the horrific circumstances of the incident that someone took the time to enlarge the photos and found that the metal around the hole in the roof of that ambulance was badly rusted, meaning the damage was clearly ancient. But the damage had been done, and the story was quickly forgotten as the news organizations involved moved on -- to another fabricated photo, this one of Beirut enveloped in billowing smoke. Shameful episodes both.

Which brings us to ABC News and its treatment of Southwest Virginia's very own 1173rd Transportation Company of the Virginia National Guard.

On July 27, ABC aired a report, and accompanied it with spectacular video, of an attack on a civilian convoy in the streets of a village near Balad, Iraq. The video, shot by the driver of one of the supply trucks in the convoy, clearly showed the line of vehicles coming under assault, followed close on by the disabling of one of the trucks, and the cold-blooded execution of one of the American civilians. 

Disturbingly, the video also seemed to show a 1173rd Humvee fleeing the scene of the fighting once the escort came under attack, leaving, as reported by the driver and by correspondent Brian Ross of ABC News, the civilians in the convoy to their fate.

In ABC's report, Ross asked the driver, Preston Wheeler, who narrated the video: "You were abandoned?" Wheeler's reply: "Yes, sir."

To many of us who watched the video at the time, it was clear that there was more to this story. In the first place, the video distinctly showed the Humvee that was reported to have abandoned the field to have, instead, simply moved forward with the lead trucks. And one was prompted to ask the obvious: If the driver was left alone to die, why wasn't he dead?

It was only after the broadcast of the incriminating account that the rest of the saga became known. It turned out that Wheeler's truck was being protected all along by other members of the 1173rd throughout the attack, men and women, America's finest, who heroically and selflessly risked their lives to save his.

What's most galling about this, beyond the gross misconceptions created by the report, are the excuses made afterward. In a feeble attempt to "provide the opportunity to respond," ABC noted in the report itself that the Army was "unaware of the incident" and could therefore "not comment."

When a far more factual account of the events that occurred emerged, ABC reacted with all too familiar weasel words: "The report accurately portrayed Wheeler's experience during the ambush." Other news outlets and editorial pages around the country repeated ABC's response and many tried to blame the military for the inaccuracies, writing that, had the Defense Department been more cooperative and less secretive, the full scope of the incident would have been revealed and there would have been a more balanced report provided.

Sure there would.

We often hear people on the left saying, rather incongruously, "We support the troops but not the war." We now have another glaring example showing how delusional -- or deceitful -- they are. ABC News attempted to destroy the reputations of soldiers who had risked their lives in mortal combat in order to, once again, denigrate our actions in Iraq. That is without question.

Here's to the 1173rd. No greater story of heroism and devotion to duty has ever, finally, been written.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Staying The Course

[The following article originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on October 12, 2006]
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The Soft Bigotry of Can't-Do
By Jerry Fuhrman

When it comes to discussing long-term economic prospects for Southwest Virginia, a perplexing sort of defeatism reigns.
A pervasive and frustrating can't-do attitude. What President Bush has called the soft bigotry of low expectations.

It manifests itself in gatherings of area business and political leaders, most recently in the "Creating A New Economy in Southwest Virginia" conference in Abingdon this past June attended by Gov. Tim Kaine and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon. At such gatherings, it is accepted as fact that the direction in which our corner of the state is headed takes us away from that which has worked best over the years and toward a kind of competition-proof "asset-based" economy centered around basket weaving and banjo plucking.

It can be seen in the recently inaugurated "Return To Roots" campaign introduced with great fanfare by Kaine and state Sen. Phil Puckett, the thrust of which is to implore, with the creation of an Internet Web site, the estimated 15,000 high school and college graduates who have migrated from the area in recent years to return here where "job opportunities are exploding."

Those new jobs, except at one government-created data storage center over in Lebanon, mostly involve inbound and outbound telephone call centers. The fact that our elected officials consider it necessary to beg native Virginians to come home says a good bit about the likelihood of their success and about the attractiveness of those "exploding" job opportunities.


In fact, it is manufacturing that has been the lifeblood of this region for many decades. And it is this segment of the economy that gets short shrift in discussions about our future.

We hear it all the time. Manufacturing is on the decline. Has been for years. It's a disparity in wages. We can't compete with the Chinese. It is more cost-effective to cut down a tree in Wise County, put it on a boat headed for Shanghai, where it is made into cheap furniture and returned to Wise County and sold at the local Wal-Mart in Big Stone Gap, than it is to manufacture the cheap furniture in Wise County in the first place. We've heard it; we all know it to be true.

This is why we resort to talking about our future as being in asset-based basket weaving and banjo picking. Because we can't compete with the Chinese.

Well, you might find this interesting. The Chinese government, in partnership with a company called Nanjing Automotive, has announced its intention to build a new automobile manufacturing plant (in which it intends to revive the legendary MG brand) ... in Oklahoma. That's Oklahoma, USA. Low-wage China.

Why? Because the market is here; the highly motivated, productive labor pool is here; the raw materials are here in abundance, and because officials in Oklahoma haven't adopted the idea that manufacturing is dead in the United States of America.

So we are witness to this spectacle: While we accept plant closing after plant closing here in Southwest Virginia as being, somehow, God's plan, and seek, in response, a workforce made up of pickers, pluckers and pottery producers, the manufacturing sector prospers in other areas of the country.

Has the U.S. experienced devastating industry job losses in recent years? Without doubt. But if one looks at durable goods, Southwest Virginia's greatest strength, employment in America's factories is at an all-time high.

Is our workforce, in terms of productivity and output, still the envy of the world? You bet. Does manufacturing still provide 12 percent of our Gross Domestic Product? Fully. Can American manufacturers compete with the Koreans and the Chinese? If they're smart, efficient and unencumbered by burdensome government taxation and regulations.

So what it comes down to is this: We here in Southwest Virginia can compete with anyone in today's global arena. If we choose to. Unfortunately, we have leaders who choose not to. Perhaps it is time for the citizens of Southwest Virginia to choose for them.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Chilhowie Royale

[The following article originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on Thursday, October 5, 2006]

A Gambling Fix For a Poor Economy
Jerry Fuhrman

It's time we had this debate. Gaming is a cash cow. Should it be allowed to flourish in Southwest Virginia?

Now, before you get your undies in a bunch, it would serve you well to remember that one can't drive down a street in any village or town in the area and not be confronted with signs and placards heralding the current status of Virginia's favorite sport. No, not Virginia Tech football; I'm referring to our state-sanctioned lottery system. In fact, I can find out what the lottery jackpot has risen to at any given point in time by driving past the Pepsi plant in Wythe County and looking at the massive billboard nearby.

Gambling, like it or not, is already an integral part of our society, with the Virginia Lottery pulling in nearly half a billion dollars in revenue for the state education fund last year alone.

With that understood, how about we invite Donald Trump or Bally's to build a casino just off I-81 in Smyth County? Say, Chilhowie.

Let's look at the possibilities.

When you think of the No. 1 destination in America for tourists who want to play the slots or a hand of blackjack, what comes to mind? That's right, Las Vegas. Guess what the fastest growing city in America is. Right again. Did you know that Las Vegas played host to 26 million tourists last year who contributed $14 billion to the local economy? And, at the risk of being accused of disparaging Wayne Newton's talents, those millions aren't flocking to Vegas to hear him belt out "Danke Schoen."

By comparison, it makes our best efforts at developing the tourism industry in Southwest Virginia through the construction of miles and miles of bike paths and hiking trails, the results of which have brought us a handful of fast-food establishments and an outfitters shop or two, seem kind of ... what's the word? Puny?

Las Vegas is unique, you say. We could never replicate here what they have accomplished there. If you were to take a look around, you'd find fabulous growth in gaming tourism occurring across this great land, in places like Turtle Lake, Wisconsin; Christmas, Michigan; Joliet, Illinois.

Dollars generated by tourists visiting casinos in Louisiana and Mississippi now account for a stunning 8 percent of total state tax revenue.

Could Smyth County benefit from a casino or two being built in its midst? Take a look at what has happened to Tunica County, Miss. Famously referred to by the Rev. Jesse Jackson as "America's Ethiopia" because of its crushing poverty, Tunica was once one of the poorest counties in the country. In 1992, shortly after the gaming industry received approval from the legislature to build casinos in the area, construction began in Tunica with $3 billion of construction and related tourism investment.

There are now nine casinos operating up and down the Mississippi River in Tunica County (it was not in the path of Hurricane Katrina so it escaped relatively unscathed), employing 12,000 people (with ancillary employment, the number grows to 19,000). County per-capita income has risen from $9,900 in 1992 to an estimated $20,400 in 2000. 

Unemployment dropped from 13.6 percent to 5 percent. Its population has risen 13 percent in the decade between 1990 and 2000. The county, 72 percent black, prospers like never in its history.

Smyth County, by the same token, has seen its population, according to the latest census data, actually decline by 1.3 percent in the last five years and its private nonfarm employment drop 9.6 percent. Its median household income is more than $18,000 below the state average and the number of people living in poverty is 5 percent higher.

Chilhowie in particular could sure use an infusion of capital. 

Having suffered through plant closings and more than 1,430 layoffs (in a town of 1,784 people) in recent years, a casino prospering where once Reebok and J.C. Penney T-shirts were made might be just the thing.

Impossible, you say? It could never happen? Perhaps. But our state government got into the liquor business many years ago for similar reasons. Why not roulette tables?

I even have a slogan for Chilhowie to adopt, if it hasn't already been taken: What's spent in Chilhowie stays in Chilhowie. Let the good times roll.

On The Road

Business took me to Ocean City, Maryland yesterday. I wasn't there as a tourist but it appeared to be a beautiful town - before the storm hit. The wind was menacing coming off the Atlantic. Imagine trying to cross the Bay Bridge, which rises high into the air so that ships can pass underneath, with gale force winds buffeting your light-weight vehicle. I thought there were a few times when I was heading into the drink.

I then passed all kinds of traffic accidents on my way to Annapolis and Baltimore in a driving rain.

But I live to tell the tale. Winchester today. Then home to Paula's loving arms. Life is good.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

A Quirky Rule

It's been many years since I've flown Southwest Airlines. So long, in fact, that I remember my roundtrip flight from Detroit to Chicago but I don't remember why I was on it. Anyway, someone suggested recently that I could get a good price on a ticket to Norfolk out of Baltimore so on Wednesday I became, once again, a Southwest customer ($98 one way; not bad).

I had forgotten that the airline is unique in having an operating procedure that doesn't call for assigned seating. Your boarding pass simply designates a particular section on the plane to occupy. No big thing, although I usually prefer a window seat and work to secure one in advance.

Anyway, what's fascinating about this is the way it plays out. Because there isn't an assigned seat for the passengers, people start lining up at the gate early, presumably to get the best seat in the house, whatever that is. Think of it as festival seating at a concert (without the deaths).

This flight lasted approximately 50 minutes. To get a "good seat," some passengers waited in line for an hour and a half.

Now, I may be missing something here, but unless there are dancing girls and free champagne (I waited with eager anticipation; it wasn't offered in the section in which I sat), there's not a seat on a plane worth standing in line 90 minutes for.

But to each his own.

The plane went up. It came down. I live to tell the tale. No complaints from me.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Hurricane Appalachia

[The following article originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on Thursday, September 28, 2006]

The Way of Appalachia
By Jerry Fuhrman

Hurricane Katrina ripped into the Gulf shore a little more than a year ago, bringing devastation, widespread hardship and at least a thousand deaths to the area. Since that day, President Bush has made a total of 13 trips to the Gulf to check on the progress of the recovery effort. From his latest visit, a particular quote stands out: "We have a duty to help the local people recover."

And help we did. According to the Wall Street Journal, the federal government has now allocated $122.5 billion for reconstruction. New Orleans in particular, for too long awash in contaminated flood water, is now awash in cash.

Meanwhile here in Southwest Virginia, particularly in the Appalachian coal counties along the Kentucky and West Virginia borders, where there are also large swaths of devastation and widespread hardship, we await with eager anticipation the president's next visit and heartfelt words of encouragement. And maybe our own $122.5 billion.

Shoot, we'd be tickled to experience his first visit. Even a telegram. A message in a bottle. 

Nobody's holding his breath, though. It's Appalachia after all, where devastation and widespread hardship are accepted as being, well, the way Appalachia is.

I wonder what the town of Pocahontas, over in Tazewell County, could do with a billion or two. They might be able to tear down and haul away the rubble that was once whole blocks of beautiful homes. Or Raven, where King Coal abdicated his throne a long time ago and moved to Wyoming. The folks there might be able to get decent roads and a new sewer system. Those residents of Lee County who draw their drinking water from a pipe protruding from a mountain seam might be able to get 19th century technology installed. The opportunities abound.

At the Bland Ministry Center, in another Appalachian community that struggles as well in the aftermath of the same hurricane, where one of the area's largest crowds to ever assemble routinely gathered in an abandoned car lot and shoveled sweet potatoes from a huge pile that had been dumped there for poor people to toss into sacks and boxes and take home to their hungry children, what could the ministry do with some of that $122.5 billion? Or $122 for that matter.

I've wondered on occasion what might happen if the Baptists there painted the word "SUPERDOME" across the front of the abandoned textile factory next door and positioned poor folks on its rooftop, shouting and waving to passing air traffic, holding signs that read, "HELP!" There are even some black families up the way that could be enlisted for the endeavor. We could make it a racial thing. And watch the billions pour in.

In lieu of federal largesse, the needs of the Bland Ministry Center not withstanding, we could use, more than anything else, a whole lot more employers. Jobs. And with them, a future for our children. Hope.

Which makes the news coming out of the hurricane recovery effort going on down in Mississippi and Louisiana all the more frustrating. Our government is providing fabulous tax incentives to companies that make a commitment to invest in the hurricane-stricken area and is sheltering businesses there from an array of government regulations. Millions and millions in tax breaks. Moratoria on taxes. Tax credits. Tax exempt bonds. On and on.

What might Rowe Furniture and Webb Furniture and Pulaski Furniture and Hooker Furniture and Stanley Furniture and Thomasville Furniture and Vaughan Furniture and Bassett Furniture Industries have done with similar tax breaks, had they been offered, before all these Southwest Virginia employers closed facilities forever and fired employees? Think of the countless number of businesses and innumerable jobs that would come to the area if conditions were created such that profits could be maximized and growth opportunities were assured. Why, we might be able to compete with Guatemala and New Guinea for the first time in years.

People who flock to the ministry center for free hair cuts, free food, free clothing, and free dental work could actually start paying their way. They could begin contributing to the community. And they could offer their children hope.

As that politician said, "We have a duty to help the local people recover."

As the Baptists say, "Amen to that."