Hypocritical stance on mining

To the editor:

So Ben Davenport and his "economic transformers" are against moving ahead on the Coles Hill uranium project?

While this is not surprising, it is yet another sign of the great divide between the folks who work like the devil for low wages and the folks who enjoy the fruits of that labor and get their kicks by telling the rest of us what’s good for us and what’s bad for us. It is a modern-day version of the old "plantation mentality."

Davenport, more than others, would suffer from the development of the uranium project. He has a lot of people working for him who would flock to a company offering top wages. If he doesn’t understand this, then he probably believes in the tooth fairy. But I suspect he knows it very well.

Keep in mind that some members of the Future of the Piedmont Foundation now opposing uranium mining moving ahead are the same folks who secretly sold our non-profit hospital in Danville to the highest bidder. They took that money (more than $200 million) and created an outfit called the Danville Regional Foundation. The very people who sold the hospital now control the DRF and use its resources for their pet projects.

Just recently, for example, DRF threw away more than $500,000 of our hospital money on a uranium study that virtually duplicated the work the Commonwealth of Virginia was already doing. And the DRF took that money out of Southside Virginia and spent it in North Carolina. So, if you recall the way they sold your hospital, and if you recall what they did with the proceeds, be warned that exactly the same instincts are at play when these folks start telling you that we need to delay uranium mining for more study after its been studied for years on end.

Many people I know are struggling with two and three jobs to make ends meet. I’m sorry, but there’s no way on Earth Ben Davenport and his super-wealthy pals can understand what it’s like for the honest people who work their hearts out and still struggle each month to pay their bills and hold up their heads at church on Sunday — and try to keep their children from knowing the pain of poverty.

The last thing we need are the richest people in Southside Virginia telling us we need to further delay an economic project that can truly transform the region. We must have better jobs to give us better futures for our children and grandchildren.