Letters to the Editor

Thanks to Tenaska
Many heartfelt thanks to Dr. Robert Mayfield and the Tenaska staff, who time and time again have reached out to help our senior dogs at Peaceful Passings Senior Animal Rescue. We recently received a donation of a tool shed and much needed heavy duty tarps. This act of kindness comes as yet another answer to our calls for help – providing a cooling station during a seven-day power outage, a generator, hours of volunteer time assembling outdoor pens and Kuranda beds, sponsorship for special events, a donated file cabinet, pallets, and much more. Each season, I am contacted by Dr. Mayfield to inquire if the senior dogs have any specific needs. Each season, we are blessed by Dr. Mayfield’s generosity.

Thanks for bassoonist feature
Kudos to the Fluvanna Review for featuring a story on an extraordinary Fluvanna County High School student, Connor Reilly. Ruthann Carr did an excellent job of telling Connor’s story to the rest of us who have not had the pleasure of hearing him perform.

Connor’s story represents the best of our larger community, starting with Connor’s passion for music. The community circle is large: Connor’s mother, determined to help Connor pursue his passion in countless ways; the Fluvanna school system’s support beginning with his first music teacher at Central Elementary School; bassoon lessons from an accomplished University of Virginia musician; and then Connor moving into the best music forums in the country.
In this time of so much partisan division, the beauty of music makes us all smile. Thanks, Fluvanna Review! Connor, in your journeys, we hope you will bring back to Fluvanna beautiful music for all of us to enjoy!

Shannon Hubacher
Lake Monticello

Majority of vets voted for Trump
The divide in our nation is not defined by rural and urban, gender, ethnicity or those of us who served in the U.S. Armed Forces and those that have not. Unlike my fellow veteran, Mr. Neighbours, I have friends that have served and are currently serving that voted for President Trump. Military.com and PBS.org report that over 61 percent of veterans and active military personnel voted for Trump. As far as attacking President Trump’s lack of military service, neither our second president, John Adams, nor our last president, Barack Obama, served in the armed forces. I’m not sure what point Mr. Neighbours was attempting to make.

Mr. Neighbours’ comments regarding who receives Veterans Administration (VA) medical services is incomplete. Any member of the armed forces who suffers an illness, injury or is diagnosed with a disease while serving on active duty is eligible for medical services through the VA. Regarding “real vets” – having served 31 years and retired as a field grade officer and combat veteran, I’m qualified to define a veteran as anyone who has served on active duty honorably in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.

Like Mr. Neighbours, my medical care with the VA medical centers has been above par, but the VA bureaucracy is beyond dismal. It has been well documented that all veterans across the nation have not received the same kind of care. I applaud President Trump for focusing on our armed forces and our veterans. It is a very unique 1 percent. In my humble opinion the VA has become a massive bureaucracy that would be better served by sticking with administering and leaving medical care to the private sector. The VA should determine who is eligible for what and then issue the veteran a TriCare insurance card for medical care based on the eligibility; let the veteran decide where he or she receives treatment. Though Mr. Neighbours’ friends did not vote for President Trump, the majority of veterans and members of the armed forces did. Please give President Trump an opportunity and the respect the office of the presidency deserves.

Timothy B. Fulk
Broken Island