Friday night, at the Chatmoss Country Club, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Bill Bolling, spoke to the attending bloggers. After a light hearted introduction - which included a hearty endorsement of Bob McDonnell for a second term as Attorney General - LG Bolling concentrated on the challenges that Virginia currently faces.
At the end of his speech, he very kindly gave this novice interviewer a few minutes of his time, so I asked him a few questions about what he and his wife do for entertainment - after all, politicians are people, too! That file (in .wma format) is at the end of this post. The LG was very gracious and suffered my fluff questions very kindly. He is an excellent speaker, and an engaging man. He focused his attention on me, and gave no indication of impatience or condescension, so I must give him the back handed compliment of being a wonderful "training wheels" interviewee, LOL
I also need to extend my thanks again to Jim Hoeft of Bearing Drift for the loan of his microphone, as well as all the encouragement and tips he gave on podcasting. He's very enthusiastic about this medium, and very graciously offered his assistance on any questions or problems any of us had. Thanks, Jim - you're a prince among men!
Technorati Tags: Virginia, Virginia politics, Lt. Governor, Bolling, Martinsville, Blogs United, conference, policy, transportation, health care, public safety, public education
LG Bolling began the main body of his talk by being quite frank that several challenges rise from the fact that he and Governor Kaine are from different political parties. However, he also emphasised that he and the Governor had a good working relationship. Because both men know that their constituents expect them to work together to get the job done, the Gov. and LG make it a priority to focus on uniting factors, rather than issues and stances which could be divisive. Most voters, Mr. Bolling noted, were in the middle, rather than on the outer fringes of opinion. So, with him as a Republican, and Gov. Kaine as a Democrat, the natural tension between them actually helps keep things in the center.
LG Bolling pointed out that many bloggers and political commenters generally concentrate on politics, rather than policy. He felt that, if policy were emphasised instead, greater unity and productivity would result. All political opinions agree that Virginia has many challenges, all want to leave a better Virginia to posterity, and all need to work together. By concentrating on acknowledged issues and focusing on how best to solve them, LG Bolling asserted that the political process would be invigorated and more productive.
Public education is, of course, one of the top issues in Virginia today. Mr. Bolling spoke about how Virginia needs to spend money more effectively - not necessarily to cut the educational budget, but on the need to make the existing money work harder and go further. Currently, only 60% of Virginia's educational budget goes to the classroom. By increasing that percentage to 65%, $450 million dollars would be freed up to directly benefit students. He is deeply concerned about restoring discipline to the classrooms of our state, which is admirable. Children cannot learn in a chaotic environment, and if teachers have no way of establishing and enforcing their authority in the classroom, chaos is definitely the result. Discipline in the classroom also extends to standards; if the child hasn't learned foundational skills (reading, writing, and 'rithmatic - and I'd add a good, solid broad foundation in US history and our Founding Documents, as well), then they are handicapped in the real world of work and life and citizenship.
He also spoke of raising teachers' salaries, but linked it to requiring higher standards by instituting competency testing and the elimination of tenure. While I understand that these steps might be worrisome to teachers and educators, I can also understand - as a consumer of educational services - the desire to know that the people educating my child have the best qualifications and are, indeed, the best possible teachers my child can have. Certainly, education has had money thrown at it for years, and yet America only ranks as number 24-29 (somewhere in there) in the world. Money isn't the issue: effective use of that money is.
Mr. Bolling continued on to discuss how public safety is also a critical issue. Gangs and gang violence are becoming a larger problem, and he was very concerned about implementing diversionary programs - supporting Boy and Girls Scouting, for instance - which would draw children away from gang culture. He specifically mentioned the concerns about gang recruitment in prisons, and although he did not have a specific answer to that aspect of the problem, he did state that the first step in the prison system is to acknowledge that there **is** a problem and determine its extent. However, in general, he supports increasing our police forces as well as increasing and expanding penalties for gang crimes.
Public safety concerns are particularly important when the problem of child prngrphy (yes, deliberate typo) and sexual predators come up. With the expansion of the power and access to the Internet comes the rise of stalkers who target children. I believe that LG Bolling mentioned the number of 50,000 predators on the Internet stalking children - a hideously high and a very terrifying number! Actually, this issue came up several times the following day, and it is certainly cause for grave concern... and action! So, inserting my $0.02 here, I would urge all parents to take the first steps and educate themselves about the problem, and then carefully discuss it with their children. With my own Munchkin, who is blessedly willing to listen, it may be that careful monitoring and pointing out proper precautions are all that's needed. However, all concerned parents should be diligently searching for ways to innoculate their kids against these prowling monsters.
Transportation. Ah, the great controversy facing Virginia - well, at least the one which seems to be getting a lot of press, anyway. LG Bolling said quite bluntly that nothing has been done to address the problem. He personally doesn't know how it will be solved, but he does know that no one will get all their way. He was very concerned that both sides stop looking for the perfect solution, and start focusing on what was possible. A solid consensus is urgently needed, and our representatives all need to learn to give in a little and implement practical solutions. Initially, this wasn't an issue that caught my interest; after all, I live in Pittsylvania County, where traffic is hardly a problem. But then I started thinking about it, and if economic renewal is to come to my area, one of our needs will be a useful and flexible transportation network. Therefore, although Pittsylvania's problems aren't as immediate as those in Hampton Roads or Northern Virginia, they are hopefully on the horizon, and it would be better to prepare now instead of being caught flat-footed in the (hopefully) near future.
Going back to the topic of education, I neglected to mention LG Bolling's comments about higher education and the need for people trained in good, solid trade. This partners with the need for economic development here in Virginia - if we don't have people who can do professional work in trade jobs - manufacturing, construction, transportation, etc. - then those jobs have to be farmed out, and Virginia will loose opportunities and money to an area which does.
Actually, Ms Byrne on Saturday expressed her concern that NAFTA and CAFTA were harmful to our communities because the manufacturing jobs which are so critical to the infrastructure of our country are being farmed out beyond our borders. She pointed out that these are good jobs easily able to support families, and I find I must agree. LG Bolling didn't dwell much on this subject, but there is still plenty to think about, and it is something for which Virginia must have a solution. Mr. Bolling was quite certain that one of the solutions would be a good quality VoTech program in place. Plumbers, electricians, mechanics, builders, and so on are all good, well paying jobs that are desperately needed, and don't require college degrees. Not everyone wants to go to college, and maybe not everyone should go to college (I'm one of them - I frittered away my time in college. While it was fun, I learned more about living in real life than I did in the classrooms.).
Mr. Bolling concluded his speech with a discussion of health care. He stated that there were still about 1 million Virginians without health insurance, and pointed to the success of finding a way for 184,000 (I think that was the number, I didn't write it down) underprivileged children to have access to insurance. He wanted to make it easier and more cost effective for small businesses and sole proprietorships to have access to health insurance. He also said that if Virginia didn't reform Medicaid/Medicare, these programs would bankrupt the state.
"These aren't Republican issues, these aren't Democrat issues, these are Virginia issues." LG Bolling was quite clear and very firm on this point, and emphasised throughout that focusing on the policy issues, and on things which unite rather than divide is essential to addressing and solving the challenges we face.
After his speech, LG Bolling took several questions. I was particularly interested when Eileen Levandoski asked what advice he would give to bloggers, and Jim Hoeft inquired about LG Bolling's stance on Freedom of Speech issues concerning the Internet and blogs. The reply was straightforward. To bloggers, Mr. Bolling says, "Be fair." He feels that blogs are good for communicating information and for holding politicians accountable. He simply asked for the courtesy from bloggers to be as fair as possible, which seems a logical enough thing, and something we all ought to strive for anyway. He also stated that he was very much against regulating or taxing the blogosphere (he may have meant to include the Internet in general, but didn't specifically make that statement, that I recall). He believes that if bloggers behave irresponsibly or illegally, there are existing laws - libel, slander, and defamation laws come to mind - which apply; there's no need for more legislation. He concluded with the "Be fair" statement, reminding us all that politicians, although thick-skinned by necessity, are still people, and that the general public is rather tired of negativity in any case. And so, "Be fair."
I thought the LG was a very interesting speaker, quite personable and obviously committed to doing the best job he knew how to do. I felt that he was genuinely interested in communicating with bloggers, gaining feedback and ideas, and working to serve the best interests of Virginia. I enjoyed his speech, which was delivered without notes - and without hesitations or fumbles. These are topics he knows very well, and he earnestly desires to find and implement solutions to them.
So, thanks to Lt. Governor Bill Bolling for his presence and his presentation. Now, I'm going to post this, and then come back and add in the .wma file of my interview with him. Thanks for reading!
UPDATE: Well... Audioblog (which I haven't used for quite a while) is being snicky, so I'm not going to be able to include a pretty player button. However, this MAY mean that I can include an MP3 version, as well as the WMA....
