With change comes opportunity

Charlottesville Daily progress
Published: May 12, 2008

The latest illustration of that maxim confronts our city and county governments and Piedmont Virginia Community College. With cooperation from local officials, PVCC can truly take advantage of change and seize an opportunity.

Our local governments need to act decisively as Monticello begins preparations to move from its visitor’s center building on Route 20 in anticipation of a November opening of its new center on the mountain. The vacated space on Route 20 would be ideal for expansion and conversion to a workforce development center.

This would be in complete alignment with the mission of the college at the top of the hill from the present-day visitor’s center. As the college has continued to grow, the demands on square footage have increased. The opportunity to nearly double the 10,000-square-foot space in the visitor’s center, and to convert it into a workforce training center, is too good to pass up.

As the college continues to train more students to be productive, contributing members of society, it’s imperative that city and the county find a way to help PVCC capitalize on this opportunity.

College President Frank Friedman, sums it up succinctly: “We think it’s a very appropriate use for the building. We would be doing something that benefits people in both the city and county and businesses in the city and county.”

U.S. can no longer ignore Chavez

As more confirmation of authenticity rolls in, it is clear that computer files seized from Colombia rebels prove that they’ve been aided and abetted by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The implications of this are far-reaching for other democratic governments in South America, not to mention our own in the United States.

U.S. intelligence officials confirmed last week the authenticity of hundreds of computer files captured in a Colombian government raid on rebels. Those files show a Chavez government with significant connections to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Funded primarily by drug trafficking, FARC has long waged a campaign of terrorism against one of the continent’s most successful democracies and a stalwart ally of the United States. The seized files show that Venezuelan naval intelligence officials offered FARC help in obtaining surface-to-air missiles. Moreover, they also offered them travel assistance to train on these weapons in the Middle East. Other files indicate that Venezuela has permitted the rebels to operate on their side of the border with Colombia, and has supplied them with arms, including rocket-propelled grenade launchers. And if anyone needs a convincer, there’s the message from the Venezuelan minister of the interior to the rebels. In it, he refers to a loan of $250 million from Venezuela to buy arms. “Don’t think of it as a loan, think of it as solidarity,” says the Venezuelan official.

The United States cannot stand by and permit Venezuela to continue to support a terrorist organization dedicated to the overthrow of a democratic government. It needs to take action with sanctions, starting with the declaration that’s now plain to the world: Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela is a active, enthusiastic sponsor of terrorism.