‘Us’ ballot grows; Perriello bearded

By Darrell Laurant

Published: October 5, 2008

A few thoughts for a Monday … 
- Vote early and vote often, as Mayor Daley used to say.

We’ve added two more people to our “President of Us” contest — Jim McFarland and Jason Watson. They had expressed interest early on, but got lost in the shuffle because the contest was put on hold for so long.

Jim is a massage therapist in Lynchburg who competes in age-group swimming and runs triathlons. As anyone who knows him has learned, he is also a man of strong and articulate opinions. In keeping with the style we’ve adopted here, we’ll call him “The Runner.”

Jason, meanwhile, is the executive director of the Patrick Henry Boys’ Home in Brookneal. Let’s make him “The Teacher.”

Obviously, all of the candidates have family and (we hope) friends. So that might be the reason you vote for one of them.

Even if you don’t know any of the 10, however, here’s something to think about. These people are actually nothing but surrogates for you, and the interesting thing will be which set of solutions and ideas wins — not which person. So vote, even if it’s for strangers.

You can read about each candidate’s positions at a place on the Web that we will have established by tomorrow. We’ve tried to trim each “platform” as much as possible while still maintaining its essence.

The main idea behind having a two-person runoff is to keep one candidate from winning by attracting a large number of “special interest” votes while the rest of the voting is spread among nine others.

That would work in the opening round, but not in the second, because the rest of the voting would be focused.

- Don’t vote for Tom Soprano … er, Perriello.

A recent ad paid for by the Virgil Goode campaign has plumbed new depths of innuendo. Somewhere, they found an old photo of Goode’s Fifth District Congressional opponent — a clean-cut fellow, by all appearances — with several days growth of beard and a sullen expression on his face. That menacing image hovers in the background while the voice-over tells us that Perriello is “from New York” and adds “Tom Perriello: Not good for Virginia.”

Let’s see: Five o’clock shadow, expatriate New Yorker, a vowel at the end of his last name, not good for Virginia. What could they possibly be implying?

- Parks Snead and the Flashing Headlights Syndrome.

From what little I know about him, I think Parks Snead is an excellent choice as Lynchburg’s new police chief. He seems level-headed, he knows the city, and (best of all, from our perspective) he doesn’t mind talking with the media. In those ways, he seems an extension of Chuck Bennett.

One of the problems he faces is pretty much the same everywhere — I call it “the Flashing Headlights Syndrome.”

When someone winks their headlights at you, it usually means there’s a police car lurking around the bend. Don’t get me wrong — this is information I’m glad to receive. But it also epitomizes the “us versus them” aspect of the police/public relationship.

In reality, cops aren’t around just to spoil our fun. In fact, they’re willing to risk their lives, in many cases, to protect our lives and property. Conversely, I truly believe that most people are honest, whereas the police often have a tendency to see everyone as a likely criminal.

Lynchburg is as good a place as any to begin changing those perceptions, on both sides.