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.

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.

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.

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."

We Were Never United

[The following article first appeared in the Roanoke Times on September 21, 2006]

Post-9/11 Unity Was Shattered Early
By Jerry Fuhrman

Sept. 10. A significant date in history in a way, the day many of us recognize now as one of innocence, when we were still able to see ourselves living in an insulated cosmos, a Bill Clinton world of make-believe in which those depraved Islamist souls who want us all slaughtered were still skulking in distant and isolated regions of the planet, gangsters -- seemingly -- who deserved only the occasional cruise missile and a word or two of disapprobation from our State Department. Sept. 10. The day before Clinton's fanciful world of illusion came crashing down.

It was on that same date, five years later, that columnist Frank Rich, writing in The New York Times, asked the following important question: "Whatever happened to the America of 9/12?" The first sentence in his thought-provoking article is most telling: "The destruction of post-9/11 unity, both in this nation and in the world, is as much a cause for mourning on the fifth anniversary as the attack itself."

In response to Rich's question, Fox News commentator Fred Barnes said, more out of indignation than thoughtfulness probably, that we, as a nation, have never in fact been united since 9/11, that the left in this country has been in opposition to our every move since that very day.

He has a point. But Barnes is wrong. It's fair to say, as Rich implies, that unity in this country did exist on 9/12/01 and that it was subsequently, rapidly, predictably destroyed. By Frank Rich's pals.

Just as significant as Rich's use of the word "unity" is his decision to tie it to the occasion of our mourning. For a time after 9/11, this nation truly was united -- in grief. Initially it was more shock than grief, followed quickly by an overwhelming sense of national sorrow. There was even a brief period of international bereavement, as expressed in Jean-Marie Colombani's famous Le Monde headline of Sept. 12, 2001, "We Are All Americans."

It is just as significant that Frank Rich is still in mourning five years after the tragic murder of innocents in New York City, Arlington and in a cornfield in Pennsylvania. For most Americans, feelings of grief were replaced with thoughts of revenge. Self-preservation. Our children and grandchildren. Defense of the homeland. Resolve.

We declared war. And we left the Frank Riches of the world in the graveyard.

The signs of disunity became apparent early on. While the fires still burned -- literally. Little more than a week after that fateful day, leftist columnist and New York City resident Katha Pollitt wrote in The Nation, "My daughter ... thinks we should fly an American flag out our window. Definitely not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war."

A week later, another rabid leftist, Susan Sontag, wrote in The New Yorker, "The disconnect between last Tuesday's monstrous dose of reality and the self-righteous drivel and outright deceptions being peddled by public figures and TV commentators is startling, depressing. The unanimously applauded, self-congratulatory bromides of a Soviet Party Congress seemed contemptible. The unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well, unworthy of a mature democracy."

Frank Rich might take note: Susan Sontag, presumably one of his Upper West Side cocktail party pals at the time, had only scorn for America's unity.

Want to know what happened to that unity of 9/12, Frank? Talk to your friends and neighbors.

The rest of us remember that those cries for disunity began before we fired a shot in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks. Before President Bush declared war on Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Before Saddam Hussein was driven into a rat hole. Before we were able to recover the bodies of our 343 heroic firemen and 2,404 other innocent men, women and children.

At the same time that tens of thousands of America's best and brightest young men and women enlisted in the fight against those who seek the destruction of our way of life, Frank Rich's ilk turned their heads in contempt.

Yes, we are disunited. So be it. We will win this war in spite of their worst efforts.

A Note To All My Friends And Colleagues

You know how annoying it can be when someone never returns your call. You know what's even more annoying?

When someone sends me an email that reads, "Great idea. We should discuss. Call me."

I will tell you right now, I'll never call. I don't care who you are. I don't care how many years go by. I don't care if you're on life support and you need my liver. If your house is burning down and your litter of puppies is trapped inside.

My usual email response: "Your fingers are broken? You can't pick up a phone and dial?"

If you want to talk to me on the phone, don't send me a message to call you. CALL.

Sheesh.

On Treason And Those Who Promote It

[The following article originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on September 14, 2006] 

What's a Proper Punishment?
By Jerry Fuhrman

It can be said without too much exaggeration that Adam Gadahn is a member in good standing of the angry left in this country.

Born 27 years ago to hippie parents in Orange County, Calif., he and his sister were raised in an anti-war (and anti-electricity, anti-indoor plumbing) household where he learned a trade that proved to be of considerable value in later life. He and his father made a living by "humanely" slaughtering goats (by slitting their throats in ceremonial fashion), and by selling the prepared carcasses to the local Muslim community as food.

His expertise apparently has taken him -- as best the FBI can tell -- to Pakistan, where he interacts with al-Qaida's top terrorists today, and where his throat-slitting skills presumably are greatly appreciated. You may have seen Gadahn's photo on TV the other day. He was the young man shown on the Al Jazeera video, in full beard and Muslim raiment, along with the world's second most villainous terrorist -- Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

Gadahn created quite a stir when he sent the following message to our fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan: " ... we invite all Americans and other unbelievers to Islam, wherever they are, and whatever their role and status in Bush and Blair's world order. And we send a special invitation to all of you fighting Bush's crusader pipe dream in Afghanistan, Iraq and wherever else 'W' has sent you to die. You know the war can't be won and that the condition of America's war machine is going from bad to worse. You know you're considered by Bush and his bunch of warmongers as nothing more than expendable cannon fodder -- a means to an end."

"You know the war can't be won." "Bad to worse." "Cannon fodder." From the lips of an enemy intent on slaughtering our children and grandchildren.

A number of pundits drew a parallel after the video aired between Gadahn and one William Joyce. For those not around during World War II, Joyce, known as "Lord Haw Haw," was another traitor to his country. Born in the U.S., he subsequently moved to England where, in adulthood, he took up fascism -- the hippie fad of the day -- only to flee the country in 1939 to avoid arrest.

Eventually settling in Hamburg, he became a naturalized German citizen. From there, Joyce began broadcasting radio messages back to England and to troops fighting the Nazis on the continent, telling the allies that all hope was lost, that the SS and Wehrmacht were crushing the American and British troops on the battlefield, that Nazism was the inexorable way of the future, etc.

Sounds disturbingly like Gadahn, yes?

So now the question becomes: What do we do with this traitor? What should we do with a man who tells us that all hope is lost and who seeks our defeat? What's to be done with a man who says, "The global war on terror has become a global war of error. Attacking or threatening countries which did not attack us. Bombing neighborhoods to save neighborhoods. Committing atrocities in the name of stopping atrocities"?

What do we do with someone who denigrates the service of our brave soldiers by saying, "You would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."

What should happen to a man who says the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong"?

When he says, "And there is no reason ... that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children ... "?

I should tell you, those last four quotes actually came from influential Washington Democrats, not from Adam Gadahn. Tough to differentiate between them, isn't it? So what should be done with these perfidious defeatists in our midst? In the case of William Joyce, Lord Haw Haw was captured at the end of WWII, was tried and was summarily executed.

A New Business Comes To SW Virginia

To all you firemen and emergency medical professionals out there: Looking for the high quality equipment and accessories that your department doesn't furnish?

To those of you who are in purchasing for your local fire department: Looking for a broad assortment and great prices on firefighting equipment?

To those of you who will be looking for that ideal Christmas gift for that firefighter son, daughter, wife, or father: Wondering where you can find it?

Brand names like Rescue Tech, LaCrosse, Thorogood, Streamlight, MSA, and Gerber.

Books, statuettes, posters, paintings, knives, T-shirts, flashlights, stethoscopes ...

Look no further. First Due: Fire/EMS Gear has opened up in Salem (just off I-81, mile marker 141). As the owner (and full-time Roanoke firefighter) Jarrod Fuhrman will tell you, First Due is:

Southwest Virginia's newest dealer of products tailored to the specific needs of public safety personnel. If you are in the market for a new helmet, boots, gloves, goggles, fire service books, EMS supplies, collectibles, apparel, etc., then come by, call us, or shop right here. We are here to help you stay SAFE, EDUCATED AND PREPARED. 

Disclaimer: I am a devoted fan of the owner (and related by DNA)

America's Largest?

Someone needs to look this up. I'm on the 17th floor of the Radisson in downtown Indianapolis this morning. I'm looking out the window on a civil war memorial in the city's center that towers perhaps another ten stories above my elevation.

Is this the tallest Civil War monument in America? If not, it has to be close.

Lives Wrecked And For What?

[The following article originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on Thursday, September 7, 2006.]

In The Wake Of The Storm

By Jerry Fuhrman

• "During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why [Joe] Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife." Columnist Robert Novak, Oct. 1, 2003

• "Who had so badly served the president? Who Valerie [Plame] was and what she did, or who I was and what I did, were merely the administration's means of obfuscating the real issue and confusing the public. The White House was trying to fling dust into the eyes of the press and public while descending into what a Republican staffer on the Hill later called a 'slime-and-defend' mode." Former ambassador Joe Wilson, "The Politics of Truth," April 2004

• "What did President Bush know about the Valerie Plame leak, and when did he know it? Is it possible that he and Vice President Cheney, along with most of Bush's inner circle, could have known about this plot to exact retribution on Ambassador Wilson at the expense of national security? Is it possible that President Bush or Vice President Cheney could have been involved themselves?" Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter, July 22, 2005

• "Cheney aide Libby is indicted," Washington Post headline, Oct. 29, 2005

• "If [President Bush] leaked the name, you could be hung for that! That's treason! You could be killed! They shoot you on the battlefield for that!" Hollywood luminary and future Democratic nominee for President Ben Affleck, April 7, 2006

• "As most of us have long suspected, the man who told Novak about Valerie Plame was Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's deputy at the State Department and, with his boss, an assiduous underminer of the president's war policy. Armitage identified himself to Colin Powell as Novak's source before the Fitzgerald inquiry had even been set on foot. The whole thing could -- and should -- have ended right there." Columnist Christopher Hitchens, Aug. 29, 2006

• "Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously." Washington Post editorial, Sept. 1, 2006

Unfortunate? Perhaps. But for whom?

Valerie Plame has a book deal with Simon & Schuster estimated to be worth seven figures. Joe Wilson saw his memoirs (cited above) skyrocket to the top on a number of bestseller lists. And the two of them are sought-after guests at elitist Washington cocktail/Bush-bash parties.
Wilson's reputation is mud, but a bad reputation beats none at all, which is what he had prior to launching himself into the national political debate with his string of lies.

Colin Powell, ostensible friend and erstwhile ally to President Bush, should have come forward to stop this madness if he had maintained an ounce of integrity and any sense of loyalty. Instead, he sat back and watched this sordid saga play out. Why? His reasons are known only to himself.

Richard Armitage, Powell's No. 2 in the State Department and close friend, is silent. He, too, could have come to the aid of Bush, Cheney and Karl Rove, who have been implicated in this pack of lies. And he could have prevented Lewis Libby's indictment had he simply spoken up. He didn't. Look for his book to hit the stands any day.

No. Certainly none of these participants was damaged by this non-scandal. Who, then, lost?

Scooter Libby, of course, has lost everything, both in terms of his reputation and in the pocketbook. Not to mention the fact that his career has been forever destroyed.

The president and his closest allies have been damaged, to be sure, by "Plamegate," as was intended by those in the media and in the Democratic Party who plotted for it to be so.

But the big losers in this condemnable affair? Besides all those journalists and editorialists who really don't care? Us, for having been taken in by this pack of lies and liars.

A Village In Mourning

Work brings me to Lancaster, PA this evening. As I write this, I'm situated about ten miles as the crow flies from Nickel Mines, the small Amish town that fell victim yesterday to that monster who tied up and shot ten little girls, the youngest being six, killing five of them.

The entire local news was devoted to the crime and its aftermath. The Amish are a very inward people and shun, apparently, attention from the outside world. I feel for them in a number of ways.

My guess is the town is plagued with tourists today. But I'll not be one of them. They need to heal without people gawking at them.

For me, it's on to Philadelphia in the morning.

Those poor kids ...

Where's The Fight In The Fightin' 9th?

[The following column originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on August 31, 2006]

Get Ready To Rumble

By Jerry Fuhrman

This is an open letter and a word of advice to Bill Carrico, Republican candidate for the 9th Congressional District.

Everyone tells me you're a great guy with a superb track record in the Virginia House of Delegates and that you're right on the issues that matter most.

But you're going to lose if you let your opponent -- a powerful foe with a vast array of resources and a boatload of influential friends -- set the agenda and the tone of the debate. As of this writing, you are doing just that.

Your adversary has already begun the process of framing the contest in the same way he did in 2004 when he ran against Kevin Triplett. He has made it clear to his supporters -- and to his friends in the mainstream press -- that he is going to maintain a "positive campaign."

His intention is to force you to keep your criticisms positive as well or run the risk of being labeled, as Triplett was two years ago, as "having gone negative." Kevin played the game to the end and was positively crushed by 20 points on election night. Do the same, and prepare to meet the same fate.

There is much for which Rick Boucher has to answer relating to realities here on the ground; ground we are slowly, inexorably losing. And making nice will not get us answers. Especially to questions like these:

• Economic projections for Southwest Virginia -- even when taking into account more robust areas like Blacksburg, Wytheville and Abingdon -- paint a bleak picture. According to the Milken Institute, the nation's premier economic think tank, Bristol, as part of the district's only metropolitan statistical area known as the tri-cities -- ranks 170th in terms of future economic growth potential out of 200 MSAs across the U.S. To put it in terms that can be more readily understood, 170th puts Bristol on a glide path to third-world country status if we stay on course. Does Boucher find something positive in the fact that Bristol beat out Detroit (192nd)?
• Since he was re-elected in 2004, dozens of employers in Pulaski, Smyth, Scott, Russell, Wise, Wythe, and Giles counties as well as in Galax closed their doors because the cost of doing business here became too great. Why?
• The largest private employer in Washington County has laid off a fifth of its workers and is up for sale. Why?
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, since Boucher originally took office in 1983, Lee, Dickenson, Tazewell, and Buchanan counties have lost population as thousands of families have left the area to find work. Why?
• Add to that statistic another census bureau report that estimates a loss of population in Scott, Pulaski, Patrick, Wise, Russell, and Smyth counties between the 2000 census and today. Why?
• The largest employer in Giles County, one that provided 28 percent of total county tax revenue, has nearly shut down. Why?
• A quarter of the people in Lee County live below the poverty line. Why?
• Millions of precious taxpayer dollars have been devoted to developing the tourism industry in Southwest Virginia in recent years with virtually nothing to show for it. Why?
• Buchanan County has the highest suicide rate in the state, followed by Scott, Russell, Wise and Lee. Double the state average. Why?
• An estimated 6,000 homes in Southwest Virginia have no indoor plumbing. In 2006. Why?
• The government has found the drinking water coming out of Callahan Creek and the Powell River to be unfit for human consumption. Yet many citizens of Wise County have no alternative source of potable water. Why?
• Why substandard housing?
• Why a shorter life expectancy?
• Why higher infant mortality rates?
• Why underperforming schools?

Why?

Mr. Carrico, the people of Southwest Virginia deserve answers. You can choose to keep your campaign on a positive plane and lose, or you can demand accountability. Thunder your demand for all to hear. Convince the people of Southwest Virginia that circumstances here, though deteriorating, can improve. Convince them, and you'll win. Then, once elected, roll up your sleeves and bring positive change to this tortured land.

Christmas In September

I decided recently to cash in all the frequent flyer/frequent sleeper points I've accumulated from the many hotels and airlines I routinely patronize. Some of these had grown to embarrassing proportions. So I'm now the proud owner of a Sony photo scanner, a 6 megapixel Nikon camera, a $100 Lowe's gift certificate, about twenty magazine subscriptions (I just cashed in the last of my Continental Airlines points this morning) and I still have countless free nights at hotels that offer only free nights.

With the disappointing exception that nobody offers booze or cigars, this is kinda cool.

A Fish Story

Texas Redneck and his pet fish

A Texas redneck was stopped by a game warden in East Texas recently with two ice chests of fish, leaving a river well known for its fishing.

The game warden asked the man, "Do you have a license to catch those fish?"

"Naw my friend, I ain't got no license. These here are my pet fish."

"Pet fish?"

"Yep. Every night I take these fish down to the river and let 'em swim 'round for a while. Then I whistle and they jump right back into this ice chest and I take 'em home."

"That's a bunch of BULL! Fish can't do that!"

The redneck looked at the game warden for a moment and then said, "It's the truth. I'll show you. It really works."

"Okay, I've GOT to see this!"

The redneck poured the fish into the river and stood and waited.

After several minutes, the game warden turned to him and said, "Well?"

"Well, what?" said the redneck.

"When are you going to call them back?"

"Call who back?"

"The FISH!"

"What fish?"

Poll This, M*&#-^ F*'#@%`!

My mother is 79. A country girl who raises chickens, she lives over near Louisville. (Side note - she's smoked most of her life and can still kick your ass if you mess with her ... or her chickens).

She's meaner than a rattlesnake when provoked.

Yesterday someone just had to provoke. She received a phone call that, because caller ID showed that it had the same area code as my cell number (571, Maryland), she answered, thinking it might be me.

It turned out to be from one of those out-of-state political polling groups. The conversation went like this:

"Is this Mrs. Fuhrman?"
"Yep."
"Are you registered for the election in November?"
"Yep."
"Are you going to vote in the November election?"
"Yep."
"How are you registered, Republican or Democratic?"
"Independent.
"What is your age?"
"That is my business and no one else's."
"How do you intend to vote in this election?"
"Sir, that is the reason we have a secret ballot."
(Click.)

She was obviously in a good mood yesterday. She didn't reach through the phone and pinch his head off ...

Never Again!

[The following article first appeared in the Roanoke Times August 17, 2006.]

A Media Lap Dog No Longer

Jerry Fuhrman

The New York Times recently revealed in a front page article ("Partisan divide on Iraq exceeds split on Vietnam," July 30) the results of a study that showed more polarization exists today with regard to opinions on the war in Iraq than existed at the time of the Vietnam War:

"No military conflict in modern times has divided Americans on partisan lines more than the war in Iraq, scholars and pollsters say -- not even Vietnam. And those divisions are likely to intensify in what is expected to be a contentious fall election campaign."

The reason for this is simple. Unlike the turbulent days of Vietnam, in which the opinions expressed on network news shows held sway over the populace, much of America today relies on an array of alternative sources for news. And we are the better for it.

When Walter Cronkite declared in 1968 that the Vietnam War was "mired in stalemate" and couldn't be won, people's resolve was profoundly shaken. The former CBS News anchorman is now credited with having nearly single-handedly turned America against the war and to have brought it to an end. He deserves that credit.

Many of us on the right learned a valuable lesson from Vietnam, the offshoot of which is that it is because of Cronkite and others like him that those alternative news sources exist today. In the '60s, we were witness to nightly bouts of anguish and remorse displayed on the evening news over the pain and suffering inflicted by American military personnel upon innocent women and children in villages and hamlets seemingly throughout Vietnam -- North and South. And we subsequently learned that all the anguish was completely phony.

As soon as we retreated, Cronkite and his ilk on the left turned their backs on our allies there and the real slaughter began -- in South Vietnam in 1975 when wholesale executions of North Vietnam's former foes began, and, at the same time, in Pol Pot's Cambodia, where the killing fields were sown with the corpses of up to 3 million innocent people. Little was said about it on the evening news. Cronkite, et al, had moved on to Watergate and more enticing matters. Many of us learned not to trust these people ever again. We came to know them for what they are -- pretenders.

So, when President Bush appeared before a joint session of Congress 10 days after 9/11 and said, "Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes visible on TV and covert operations secret even in success," we took these words to heart, steeled our resolve, prepared for that long, protracted conflagration that was forced upon us by a fanatical foe, cheered our loved ones who volunteered by the thousands to enter into harm's way in order to make us safe here at home, and vowed to stay the course.

And we expected no help from the left.

What we expected we have gotten. More stories of pain and suffering. More complaints of brutality. At the same time that accounts of buses carrying school children in Jerusalem being blown up gain only passing comment, a report of prisoners in Baghdad being forced to wear panties on their heads is condemned ad nauseam. A Koran supposedly being flushed down a toilet in an American prison gets far more air time than does the cold-blooded execution of four Americans in the streets of Fallujah.

They expect us to take them seriously. We did indeed learn from Vietnam -- and its aftermath. We learned the slogan taken up by Jews after the Holocaust: Never again! And we took to heart and live by the powerful words of Abraham Lincoln spoken at a time when another great struggle was under way, one that was taking a far more grievous toll: "We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of Earth."

We resolve to maintain the world's last best hope in part because these pretenders won't. So we find ourselves with this great divide between the attitudes of Americans on the left and those of us on the right. We expected it. We accept it. We celebrate it.

As for Vietnam -- Never again.

Letters In The Attic

Harold Fuhrman, my father, served in the 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in World War II. He participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy, was captured by the Germans, spent months in prisoner-of-war camps, and was eventually liberated by the Russians. He returned home to Bowler, Wisconsin emaciated and in poor health in the spring of 1945.

It was thought towards the end of the war that the Nazis would retreat into the Bavarian Alps and would wage guerilla war from there after the German army was finally defeated. Because of that, the 101st Airborne was transferred to Berchtesgaden, where Adolf Hitler had his palatial mountain retreat, with the intention of taking on the remnants of Hitler's fanatical SS.

This letter was written by a soldier in the 101st to Harold from there. Adolf Hitler had committed suicide just a few weeks before and the German army had surrendered on May 7. When the letter was written, the war in Europe was ended but the war against Japan would still rage for another three months.

The letter is typed, double-spaced, on standard size lined paper. Being 61 years old, the paper is aged, faded, and in poor condition. The identity of the author, K. Dunbar, is unknown but since Harold had worked on Division HQ staff and Dunbar obviously knew him well, and the fact that he had access to a typewriter, leads one to believe that Dunbar too worked at Division HQ.

I found the letter among my father's possessions after he died. In reproducing it here, I corrected a few typos for the sake of clarity.

26 May 1945

Berchtesgaden, Ger.

Dear Harold:

I certainly was glad to read your letter and learn that you were home. Also that both you and Gamble [in combat Harold operated a bazooka; Gamble was his loader and was captured at the same time] came through O.K. I hardly know what to say to you and I hope that you get used to being a civilian before too long. Do you think that you will be discharged before too long? I sure hope that we can get back to the states before too long. 

We received notification from the War Department that both you and Gamble had returned to Military Control and we knew that you had been liberated by someone but we didn't know exactly who. As some of the other boys that are writing and telling you that we are down here in Berchtesgaden, Germany. Hitler's and Goering's old hideout. I sure wish that you could see this place. Those bastards weren't hurting for anything.

They will also tell you that Tom Doyle was captured up in Bastogne and so far we haven't heard anything about him. Herb Beck who was also captured is in a hospital in France trying to put some weight back on. In the three months that he was captured he lost 58 lbs. and when one of the boys saw him they said that he really looked bad. I sure hope that Tom comes through all right. J.J. Stevens gets letters from his sister but they haven't heard anything about him. Well I guess that I had better close for now ... So here's hoping that you enjoy a wonderful stay while you are home and God bless you.

K. Dunbar

A Failing Plan

[The following article first appeared in the Roanoke Times August 11, 2006.]

The Plan For Southwest Virginia Is Failing

Jerry Fuhrman

In a recent conference call with one of Virginia’s most powerful politicians, I asked how he thought the dismal situation in Southwest Virginia could be turned around. I wanted to know what could be done to counter the sweeping and devastating manufacturing job losses that have occurred, how he might deal with our coal counties that are losing population, and about our stagnant economy. His answer? “Tourism.”

Tourism.

Another politician who has no answers, no new ideas, so he falls back on the default position learned from and perfected by a long line of politicians past and present. Southwest Virginia has nothing going for it save some rocks and bushes so we need to promote what little we have in the forlorn hope that we can lure northerners down here and partake of our scenic splendor, and while doing so, try to get them to purchase a hot dog and a bottled water at the local gas station. That, friends, is the plan for our future success.

It certainly can be said that we have what can be considered a scenic – some might say rugged and inhospitable - landscape. And with it – because of it – we are burdened with a weak transportation infrastructure. To make matters worse, we have substandard schools. And a very low-tech environment with predominantly unskilled labor. And in the areas where we were traditionally strongest, we now have foreign competition. And in parts of the region, we are in the throes of depopulation, particularly when it comes to our best and brightest young people who routinely move out of the area in order to be able to make a future for themselves. Yes, we have our hurdles.

But, by God, we’ve got trees too. And boulders. Lots of pretty rock formations. And lizards and snakes and such. So our future, according to those we look to for guidance in such matters, depends on enticing tourists to the area to walk among nature’s wonders. Or some such. 

Not a Bad Day On The Mountain

It's a good day I think when you get a mention on CBSNews.com and in the Washington Post.

My guess is neither link will be active very long so check these out while you can:

• Melissa McNamara with CBSNews.com picked up my post from Saturday regarding Al Gore's hypocritical global heating lifestyle in "Gore Full Of Hot Air?".

and:

• Chris Edwards with the Washington Post links to a post I had on Sunday with regard to the disparity in wages between the Washington DC area and the rest of Virginia in "Federal Pay: Myth and Realities."

As for Ms. McNamara, not only does she write well (although I really must simplify the spelling of my last name), I want to give birth to her next child. Check out the accompanying photo; you'll see what I mean.

And don't anyone write me about my having been very critical in the past of CBS News. That's all now changed. A kind word from a good lookin' reporter/producer and I'm a changed man.