your views

REFUSING TO PAY AGAIN

AS A PROUD AMERICAN, I feel an obligation to our founding fathers to reject the commonwealth's plan to force me to pay a toll to pass through a tunnel that is already paid for.

I paid my tolls for many years while commuting to the Navy Yard, and I am one of the many people who used to exit the Virginia Beach Expressway at Independence Boulevard so that I could pay the 10- cent toll instead of the 25-cent toll.

Common sense seems to indicate that there is a better solution than giving a highway to a private contractor, but common sense has long since left the political arena.

My modest proposal is this: Do not get an E-ZPass transponder. Let them bill you based on a license plate photo. Refuse to pay the bill. Will they put us all in jail, or will they simply close the tunnel to nonpaying travelers?

Let's be realistic here: $1.84 per trip is just the beginning. It's an onerous toll to travel through a tunnel that the taxpayers have already bought and paid for, and since the taxpayers no longer own the tunnel, there is nothing we can do but suck it up and pay the toll.

At least the Jordan Bridge toll has been only doubled from what it had been before the old bridge closed. What is the multiple from 25 cents to $1.84?

I'd love to increase my gross income by a fraction of that multiple. Then maybe I could afford to pay the toll.

Martin Whelan

Norfolk

In the money

It's ironic and sad that the contracted tolled bridge strategy could actually put all Virginians on the hook for a private company's profit.

Localities had argued that the upgrades to the tunnels were a state issue and that state taxes should pay for them.

Now, in this scenario, a private company gets to engineer its profit, too, thus making the tunnel fix even more expensive for all Virginia taxpayers.

Marshall McClure

Norfolk

If it works for one

I really don't understand why The Pilot editorial board has complained that the tunnel tolls are too expensive and that there are no reasonable alternatives.

If, as The Pilot's editorial board has maintained, the federal government is justified in using Obamacare to force post-menopausal women to purchase insurance that includes maternity coverage, isn't it obvious that we have entered the era in which the ends justify the means, in terms of public policy?

Who cares about fairness? Certainly not our senators and president. Why expect it from the state government?

Gregory Bidanset

Virginia Beach

Changing times

The iconic view of America is that we are a nation of self- reliant, pioneering, strong individualists where the hand of government should intervene only when there is a collective need, such as national defense.

However, the reality of that idea changed in the 1930s when Social Security redefined government's role to include an ever- increasing number of social interventions. The latest and most intrusive is the Affordable Care Act, in which government will essentially control one-sixth of our economy.

Americans are generous helpers of others, but the ACA will test us in a new way. Until now, government wealth redistribution for social goals has been abstract. We pay individually through withheld taxes. No money is taken directly from our hands, our wallets or our checkbooks.

The ACA will change that. For the first time, individuals will see and feel what the subsidy of the welfare of others will cost them personally, through increased premiums, fewer choices and lower quality and quantity of service. So what will be the response?

The furor already besieging Democrats in Congress is only a harbinger.

Arthur S. Poole

Virginia Beach

A few questions

I was appalled when I read in The Pilot recently that a woman, age 29, thought it best to quit her job and go on Medicaid so that taxpayers would pay for her gastric bypass surgery. Is it really that easy to get Medicaid?

At one time, we were a proud country and no one would dream of letting the government take care of us.

Is this what our young people now believe? God help us.

Mary Welch

Chesapeake

A vote for the chickens

Re "Chesapeake law would come home to roost" (Hampton Roads, Nov. 24): I read this story with much concern for my six beautiful hens and expensive designer chicken coop and run. The City Council is considering allowing the lapse of the ordinance that lets city residents keep six laying hens.

We have six hens. They are smart, comical, tame and give us eggs. Our coop and run are kept clean and our hens are well taken care of, as any pet deserves. We subscribe to backyard poultry magazines and have similar friends. Twice a day, the hens get supervised backyard time which we love as much as they do, because they are so amusing.

Some people abuse any privilege and can't keep any pet properly or obey any law.

I love my hens. I hope the Chesapeake City Council makes backyard hen ownership permanent.

Susan Harrell

Chesapeake

Sad outcome

I voted Nov. 5. To my chagrin, none of the candidates I voted for was elected. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that I am a poor judge of character.

It only means that there are a lot of uninformed and misinformed registered voters who should have stayed home on Election Day.

Henry T. Filek

Virginia Beach

Help after Haiyan

I am writing to urge my fellow Hampton Roads residents to contribute whatever they can to help the Philippines recover from Typhoon Haiyan.

The Filipinos were our brave, staunch allies in World War II, dying right alongside our American GIs.

Let's step up and help these folks.

Darryl White

Virginia Beach