LU: No thanks, no lot
Darrell Laurant
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By Darrell Laurant
Published: August 21, 2008
I was more than a little surprised at Wednesday’s decision by Liberty University to close the parking lot at The Plaza to those attending the Barack Obama rally at E.C. Glass.
This seemed to run counter to what I’ve seen as a trend by the university to involve itself more with the surrounding community. Indeed, LU has already made some moves in that direction, such as allowing local high schools to use its Vines Center for graduation ceremonies.
Wednesday’s “Obamashell” was a step backwards.
Of course, the committee sponsoring the event should not have advertised The Plaza as a potential parking space without checking with Liberty first.
On the other hand, it’s a Lynchburg tradition to park at the Plaza for events at and around Glass. People do it for the Virginia 10-Miler, the Kaleidoscope Art Show, and any sort of performance in the high school auditorium.
Spokesman Lee Beaumont didn’t help by using the excuse that allowing people to park there for this event would jeopardize the college’s tax-exempt religious status, Given the political track record of Jerry Falwell and his progeny, it would be very hard to make the case that LU is a foil for Obama.
Beaumont did insist that the school wasn’t making a political statement, and I have no reason not to believe him. The problem was, many of the people standing in that line that stretched from the front doors of the school to Jones Memorial Library definitely saw it as a “Republican thing.“
“What do you think?“ one woman asked, her tone implying that the question was moot.
This wasn’t the end of the world for anybody. Those who arrived early wound up parking on side streets near the school, others took shuttle buses from City Stadium.
Still, this was a big, mostly empty parking lot (there’s not a lot of commerce to disturb at The Plaza these days) that could have made parking a lot more convenient. LU wouldn’t have gained much good will by keeping it open—most people probably don’t even know the school controls the lot—but the Falwells accomplished the opposite by closing it. And why antagonize people for nothing?
Both Jerry Jr. and Jonathan Falwell are politically savvy. As such, they should know that perception is often all that matters.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( The Arbiter ) on August 25, 2008 at 4:09 am
Ahh, Oldman66, you speak volumes in one phrase. You say “without LU, YOUR Lynchburg (emphasis mine)would be a ghost town”. Do you not, Oldman, consider Lynchburg to be your town as well? If not, then why are you here? Why are you involving yourself in the politics and commentary between those of us who do consider L’burg to be “our town”? Are you, Oldman, simply one more pawn in the hand of the Falwell’s? Do you speak for them and argue on their behalf so they may remain unsullied by “common arguments”.
Come Oldman, either embrace the community, or leave it be.
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Posted by ( LapisLee ) on August 22, 2008 at 10:47 am
I don’t think Mr. Laurant is arguing that LU does not have a legal right to close off their property for the Obama event, I think he is arguing that that the neighborly and Christian thing to do would be to open parking for the use of such an historic event, just as they do for Kaleidescope and other community events.
Also, I don’t think Candler’s Station is denying Liberty and TRBC use of their parking lots, so it would be fair play for LU to have done the same thing for the Lynchburg community that wanted to take part in a historic event. Would Liberty close the Plaza for parking if John McCain were to speak at EC Glass? I would go to hear McCain speak just as I am sure that many LU students and Republicans went to hear Obama speak.
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Posted by ( oldman66 ) on August 22, 2008 at 9:23 am
LynchburgRes - Indeed I do suffer from “sour grapes” relative to the use of Biosolids in the area. Rest assured this concerns more area residents than who can park at the Plaza on a given day. “The local citizens of Lynchburg” need to concentrate on urgent problems rather than “vent” on trivial matters, but perhaps this is what they do best.
Face facts - without LU - your Lynchburg would be a ghost-town.
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Posted by ( Smith ) on August 22, 2008 at 7:43 am
Mr. Laurant,
I think you missed the point. The plaza is private property. Liberty has a tax status it has to maintain. It is not a religious and a political issue as many have stated. It is a financial issue and a private property rights issue.
The real issue that you missed is the Obama and the Democratic Party assumed it could use someone’s private property with out asking. Even when Liberty attempted to resolve this issue, Obama and his crew refused to work with them. They continued to demand that they had the right to take someone’s private property. In the end they took property from the city (did they even pay for the use of the busses, bus drivers, and the city parking or did the citizens in the city pay that bill). Again, the real issue is how Obama and his crew REFUSED to respect someone right to private property. Private Property Rights are fundamental is a free society. The real issue that is missed here is Obama’s attitude towards private property rights and his attitude that he is entitled to use what ever he want.
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Posted by ( LynchburgRes ) on August 22, 2008 at 7:29 am
Oldman- the parking lot issue would indeed be a molehill, if it were sitting on a level playing field. But what it is, is the peak of a dung-hill of a long history of un-neighborly and un-Christian practices by a “religious” institution and as such has made itself an easy target for more venting by the local citizens of Lynchburg.
I think you are just suffering from sour grapes because Mr. Laurant hasn’t written about what you want him to write about. I just recently read an article here on the NewsAdvance website about biosolids. I suggest you go and rant there.
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Posted by ( oldman66 ) on August 22, 2008 at 12:12 am
Mr. Laurant: And you get paid for this? The only agent I see trying to make an issue of the situation is this publication and it’s reporters.
On at least (2) occasions I have written “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR” asking this publication to investigate the innuendos between Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore relative to the “facts” about Warner’s tax increase, (the largest in state history), to off-set Gilmore’s car-tax rebate that was bankrupting Virginia.
The other topic I’ve presented is on the issue of biosolids. I have not been able to find how the practice of spreading “gook” on farm land was actually started or the names of individual/s behind it. Nor why elected officials don’t care to address the issue in lieu of the fact that 99% of rural Virginians opposed the practice. I do know the present governor is a big proponent of the use of biosolids as a fertilizer.
Perhaps you can take on something I believe to be of importance to citizens in the area rather than attempting to make mountains out of a mole hill concerning a freakin’ parking lot of all things.
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Posted by ( JacksonPollock ) on August 21, 2008 at 8:53 pm
The citizens of Lynchburg, and especially those who went to see Senator Obama, deserve an apology from the Falwell brothers, though it will likely happen when hell freezes over. The close of the Plaza parking lot was a juvenile, arrogant, and un-neighborly act by a university that needs all the positive publicity it can get in a city that is becoming more and more removed from the ideology of its right wing founder. Unless the Falwells offer an apology, I would suggest that the city immediately stop working with this institution of intolerance. What a piece of unChristian work LU is.
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Posted by ( opinion ) on August 21, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Well perception is everything.
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Posted by ( Punto di vista di paradigma ) on August 21, 2008 at 3:02 pm
It was widely reported in the media to go to the parking lots of the plaza if you were going to the Obama event at ECGHS. I needed to go to the public library and went to the parking lot there. It was full, so I went to the parking area across the street from the library and was stopped by two police officers who informed me that all parking was reserved for those attending the Obama event at ECGHS and that even though I was attempting to use the Plaza lot for parking for a business/service of the Plaza, I would not be allowed to park in the Plaza parking lot. Now we’re finding out that only Plaza-utilizing patrons were to be allowed to park in the Plaza parking lot. I find it hard to believe that it was only “discovered” or “revealed” that LU was manipulating parking access/privilege immediately before the event. Not political? Worried about their tax status, especially given their long, illustrious history? Come on, now. Get real.
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