Perspective
TheRoanokeStar.com
Business is booming for Roanoke area gangs
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rug dealing. Auto theft. Identity theft. Extortion. Prostitution. Credit card fraud. Immigration fraud. Social security fraud. Home invasions. Shop lifting. Theft. Vandalism. Beatings. School violence. Shootings. Robbery. Murder. Arson. Tax fraud. Witness intimidation. Rental property fraud. Rape. Recruiting elementary school children for gang membership. And now, assault on a police officer. These are just some of the activities that Roanoke Va.’s home grown and national gangs participate in. Business is not just good for Roanoke’s gangs. Business is booming. Roanoke’s gang problem affects all of us. There is a direct correlation between Roanoke’s gangs and crime in our neighborhoods, the prison rate, depressed property values in certain sections of the city, the ever growing demand for resources concerning public safety, the teenage crime rate, the teenage
pregnancy rate, the Roanoke City Pounwed mother rate lice Chief Joe Gaskins and the spread of refuses to clearly say sexually transmitted gangs exist in Roanoke, diseases as girls are preferring to call them “sexed into� gangs. “organized groups.� Being “sexed� into a As a consequence, the gang means to join a Roanoke City Police gang, a girl must have Department can ignore unprotected sex with Virginia’s outstanding several male gang legislative package that Jeff Artis members at the same specifically deals with time as other gang all types of gang activmembers watch and videotape ity. this act. This is tough informaSince Roanoke’s gangs are not tion to read – but it is the stark being recognized and gang memreality we must contend with. bers are not being arrested (speThere is also a direct correla- cifically for their gang crimes), tion between Roanoke’s gangs gang members are not being and the city’s abysmal gradu- prosecuted for these crimes by ation rate. Gang members ask Don Caldwell’s Commonwealth why they should go to school Attorney’s office. This probwhen they can make hundreds lem is made worse by Roanoke of dollars a day working for their House of Delegate member gang? In all of these circum- Onzlee Ware, whose legislative stances, our tax dollars are being district is ground zero for gang used to fight community prob- activity in the Roanoke Valley. lems heavily influenced by the Ware is soft on crime. Outside proliferation of gang activity in of participating in political fluff, the Roanoke Valley. Ware has done little to address
Roanoke Revisited Sponsored by
The story of Sam Hill
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oanoke, Virginia has always been associated with railroad history. And over the years, many language expressions have made their way into our vocabulary--such as backtrack, just the ticket, one track mind, and staying on track. However, the Bud most unusual phrase that seemingly has no connection with railroading is “What the Sam Hill.� Many origins for this saying have appeared in dictionaries and lexicons. According to the journal of the Western Front Association, the expression “Sam Hill� refers to Samuel Douthit Hill of Kentucky. He was an American soldier serving with a New Zealand Rifle brigade in WWI who was killed in France in 1918. He was buried in a British cemetery. But, a few years later, his mother requested that her son’s body be moved to an American cemetery in France. Confusion resulted when, upon exhumation, the body was dressed in a British uniform. It was reburied in the American cemetery at Bony, France. But there was always serious doubt as to whether this was the Sam Hill from Kentucky. According to “Facts on File,� the phrase refers to Colonel Samuel Hill of Guilford, Connecticut. It seems that Colonel Hill was continually running for a political office, but no record of his actual existence can be found. Hence the expression, “Who in the Sam Hill is he?� But the most famous Sam Hill was a wood-burning locomotive
built in 1860, and a counterpart of the “General�, the well known Civil War train engine. The Sam Hill was originally named the “Satilla� and was used to haul timber. Like other locomotives of the era, the Satilla was finished in hardwood Feuer and heavily guilded. The engine’s four driving wheels were painted turkeyred, with thin yellow stripes on the spokes. Two cords of wood, and enough water to run 30 miles, were carried in the tender. In the early 1920s, Henry Ford refurbished the locomotive and renamed it the “Sam Hill�--after an engineer on the Michigan Central Railroad, whom Ford remembered from his boyhood. The Hill had a reputation for loafing between stations. And, to make up time, would race past the non-stop towns, giving rise to the expression, “He’s going like Sam Hill!� In October 1929, the locomotive, and three reconstructed coaches, carried President Herbert Hoover, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and guests from Detroit, Michigan to the Smith’s Creek’ Station in Greenfield Village for the dedication of the Thomas Edison Institute. In honor of the occasion, the Sam Hill was renamed “The President.� It was at this same station, years earlier, that Edison was once thrown off the train, with his chemicals, for setting fire to the baggage car. Now there’s a little unknown history for you.
The Recipe of the Week from the Happy Chef by Leigh Sackett
Valerie’s amazing potato salad Our editor’s wife Valerie is a fabulous cook. Valerie and Lawson live out in the country on a beautiful and peaceful piece of land surrounded by woods and a glorious babbling creek. Just recently at a Star-Sentinel cookout (we do have fun in this business!) I was fortunate enough to sample Valerie’s potato salad. I knew I had to have the recipe as soon as it hit my lips! When Valerie sent it to me, she wrote, “I’m not a recipe kind of gal, so I didn’t note quantities, please let me know if you would like an estimate.â€? I immediately knew that this particular recipe didn’t need it. Everyone should put as much feta cheese in this salad as they think it might need and remember to live a little more simply and carefree - even if the woods don’t reach up to their back porch and the creek doesn’t provide a lullaby every night! Thanks Valerie, I can’t wait to have fun with this recipe! -Boil whole red skin potatoes -Emulsify one cup olive oil with one cup cider vinegar with a Rotoblender (add ½ tsp dry mustard to bind and gradually add 2 tablespoons salt as blending) -Dice potatoes into one inch cubes -Add feta cheese. (I like a lot!) -Add approximately ½ cup chopped fresh dill -Add black pepper to taste -Add approximately 5 diced scallions - Stir all ingredients together and let sit for one hour.
the gang problem in his district. In addition, some of the people Ware has represented in his law practice have questionable backgrounds at best, a clear conflict of interest. Community hypocrisy cannot be ignored when discussing Roanoke’s gang problem. If White gangs did their business in Roanoke’s Black and Hispanic community instead of their own, and vice-versa, there would be a public outcry the angels in heaven could hear. Instead, excuses are made by these three communities for their community’s gang activities. Plus, there has been no public outcry over the actions, or lack of action by Gaskins, Caldwell and Ware concerning Roanoke’s gang problem. Yes, business is booming for Roanoke’s gangs. Until Roanoke attacks its gang problem head on, business will continue to boom for years to come.
Friendship translated on stage in Moldova
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eah, I’ve felt and wave. this way I guess this is my before. It’s cue. The Dean gives the feeling that goes, me a bear hug of a “What am I doing hand shake, and leaves here, anyway?â€? I’m the stage, as I continstanding on a stage in ue to wonder exactly a dimly-lit auditorihow this lecturingum, before 150 dental through-a-translator students and faculty thing is going to work at the Testamitanu out. I launch into my John W. Robinson Dental Institute in introduction, then Chisinau, Moldova. I pause after a few lines, am a so-called Visiting Lecturer, allowing Vitali to translate for the here to share stories of dentistry audience. Soon we reach a cerin the United States. The facili- tain rhythm. Natalia is switching ties here are meager, the school’s the slides when I point, and we budget thinly stretched, but the are well into a lecture on dental students are eager to learn. enamel histology as it relates to The Republic of Moldova, a bonded composite restorations. former Soviet state, is a small The crowd is at rapt attention. I country wedged between Roma- get the feeling that they are a great nia to the west and Ukraine to the unified sponge taking in all of the east. It’s primarily agricultural, information I have for them. The with crops such as apples, grapes, material I have prepared for these and tomatoes being mainstays. lectures is in twenty-minute secThe capital is a fairly compact tions. As I finish a section I ask, city with the usual combination “more?â€?, and the answer from of government buildings, parks, the audience is “Da!â€? so off we schools, apartment buildings, and go again. I try to throw some hua few museums, In this case it’s all morous lines into the talk now packaged in that unmistakable and then, with mixed results. stark and dilapidated Soviet style. Sometimes they laugh at what I know only a few basic words Vitali conveys to them at times in Romanian and the citizens when humor was not my intent. have ditched Russian along with Hmmm‌He could be telling their ties to the former Soviet them dirty jokes for all I know. Union- so I am essentially adrift Three and a half hours later, I’m here linguistically. Luckily, I am running out of material and my teamed with my new friend and voice is weak. I attempt to wrap translator, Vitori, but this young it up but the crowd doesn’t seem and energetic student does not ready to leave. A small group of know my language as well as I faculty members whom I had just would like. In speaking with him I met approach the stage and speak frequently encounter a blank look imploringly to me, asking me, in followed by a flash of a grin. I like broken English, “Do you have to think that his smile indicates any more material to show us?â€? understanding, but I wonder. The audience was still quiet and On the creaking wooden stage not dispersing. Not to disappoint, Vitori stands beside me at podi- I scanned the files in the laptop um number two. My laptop com- and came up with something else. puter is connected to a recently- Five minutes later, smoke and an donated LCD projector. Both acrid smell and a loud pop emamachines are plugged into Radio nate from the vicinity of the transShack euro transformers and formers and extension cord. A then into a highly suspect exten- small knot of students surrounds sion cord. Natalia will operate the the area as I look on. One of the machines from an uneven table students holds up a toasted transten feet away, and will change the former and all present know that slide when I tell her. The projec- the day’s lectures are over. Still on tion screen consists of two white the stage, I shrug and bow. sheets pinned together and hung The silence is broken by apon the concrete wall with pieces plause swelling up to me and Viof wire. There is no PA system. tali from the gracious audience As we get ready to start I notice a who rises to their feet. Now Dr. kind of a party atmosphere in the Elana, a periodontist, is making hall, and I wonder if they will lis- her way to the stage, clutching a ten to a word I say. bouquet of flowers that she hands Professor Stanislas, the Dean me. I feel like I have just won a of the dental school makes his Nobel Prize. But more than that, I way through the chatting, laugh- feel like I’ve really connected with ing crowd to the stage. He says a these fine people; that we share few words and the hall goes si- something truly great: It could lent. I am amazed. He continues be the love of our common prohis monologue, but. I don’t get fession and our love of learning. the luxury of a translation. Per- It’s probably more basic than that, haps he is talking about the new however; perhaps about forging relationship between our dental friendships and mutual respect schools. Or maybe he is talking and understanding. All I know about my visit and my credentials. is that I will miss my Moldovan He laughs, the audience laughs. friends when I go back to my He’s gesturing at me. I smile, nod, world in a few weeks.
5/23/08 |The Roanoke Star-Sentinel |Page 5
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