Nation Notices Study in Scarlet

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 15, 2011 in Education. 5 Comments

It was last week that the Albemarle School Board voted to remove Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet from the sixth grade reading list, in response to a parent’s complaint that the book’s portrayal of Mormons is insulting to them. Now it’s making national headlines with outlets like The Atlantic and Time writing of the book’s “ban.” (It wasn’t banned—it was stricken from the sixth grade reading list.) The brief novel was the first Sherlock Holmes story, one of four novels featuring the famed detective, although it was the short stories that made the character famous. A committee was appointed to read the book, and in the committee’s report (2.9MB PDF) they explain that they “could not fathom how anyone who read the book with a critical eye could not see the overwhelming religious bias presented,” and that the book’s general lack of critical claim made it a less than ideal choice for introducing middle school students to the genre, anyhow. I recommend starting with Part 2, Chapter 3 to get a sense of the book’s depiction of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Since there’s really nothing more to this story, presumably the national attention will die off pretty quickly.

Libertarian Running for School Board

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 12, 2011 in Education and Politics. Closed

Charlottesville Libertarian Steven Latimer is running for school board, Graham Moomaw reports. The 24-year-old and newly minted library employee is running on a platform of limiting spending on education and establishing more charter schools. The 2009 VCU graduate moved to “the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Charlottesville” a year and a half ago. He’s an occasional blogger and regular twitterer. (Note that school board elections are non-partisan, so parties don’t nominate candidates, nor is party affiliation listed on the ballot.) Latimer is the fifth candidate to declare for the four seats up for election this year.

Thomas Informally Agrees to Limit 29N Access

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 10, 2011 in Transportation. 10 Comments

Supervisor Rodney Thomas has informally agreed to limit access to 29N in exchange for VDOT funding the Western Bypass, Jim Bacon writes on Bacon’s Rebellion. A major problem with the bypass bypass is that it doesn’t really bypass very much at all—there’s plenty of sprawl to the north of it, and the county has shown no willingness to reduce the rate of expansion of that sprawl. Every new road that connects to 29N, every new business entrance, every new stoplight makes the bypass that much more useless. (Recall that the 29 Bypass actually bypassed 29, once upon a time. But the urban ring sprawled out past it.) Now Thomas has committed the Board of Supervisors and Albemarle County to not just limiting new access, but also potentially to eliminating private roads that connect to 29N and getting rid of some median-strip crossovers that currently allow traffic entering 29N to turn either right or left.

Of course, that’s just Albemarle County. Greene County isn’t about to make any such agreement, and at the rate they’ve been growing in the past decade, our wise willingness to limit access to 29N may be made irrelevant as Greene and points north keep clogging up 29 with new gas stations, shopping centers, and connecting roads.

The Awkward Topic of Huja’s Accent

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 10, 2011 in Government and Politics. 36 Comments

In The Hook this week, Lisa Provence writes about the socially difficult topic of City Councilor Satyendra Huja’s strong Indian accent, and the difficulty that some people have understanding him. A few weeks ago, a woman addressing the council said that she’d had trouble following his remarks, saying that “it is the right of citizens to hear and comprehend what is going on during official meetings,” and proposing that Huja should pay for a translator so that citizens can understand him. It was that last bit that seemed to rile up some other councilors and members of the audience—Huja has a perfect command of English, and mention of a translator smacked of xenophobia, muddying an otherwise straightforward point. Council then did something extraordinary in response to the implication that their fellow councilor was not fit to hold office: they held a vote of confidence, which passed unanimously.

Culturally, we tend to regard it as our failing if we have a hard time comprehending somebody with a thick accent. The single-term Democrat is seeking reelection, which makes the topic more ticklish still. Assuming that this is actually a problem that merits addressing (I rarely have difficulty understanding him, but I don’t doubt that others do), it remains an open question what an appropriate response is, on either a governmental or social level.

Time Capsule Burial Captured on Film

Published by Waldo Jaquith on August 8, 2011 in Entertainment, General News and History. 4 Comments

Any question of where the city’s 1962 time capsule was buried can be put to rest, thanks to this film from Tom Hartsell:

The 8mm film was made by his father at the time of the capsule’s burial. The capsule’s location has been unclear, and the city has been eager to find out, so that it can be unearthed next year, for the city’s 250th anniversary.

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