BRAC move to Alexandria doesn’t make sense
Re: “Empty offices blight region,” Nov. 19
Your articles about empty offices prompt many questions. For a start: How does our government see fit to spend $1.2 million to develop a brand-new 1.4 million-square-foot office building to house 6,400 Department of Defense workers who currently occupy nearby rented space in the midst of a fiscal crisis? Is adding an additional 1.4 million square feet to the local vacant office space inventory supposed to be economic stimulus? Why didn’t the government cut some extremely favorable long-term lease or purchase agreement for some of the currently vacant 47 million square feet of local office space? Was there no alternative but to pay $105 million for another 16 acres to develop a brand new military base, including a bomb detection facility, in Alexandria? How does it make sense to shoehorn thousands of military employees into a semiresidential community nowhere near a Metro station instead of relocating them to the 8,600 acres the military already owns at Fort Belvoir? Would traffic issues at Fort Belvoir really be worse than those along Interstate 395 near Seminary Road, especially since the bulk of BRAC traffic would be going counter to the main traffic volumes?
Donald N. Buch
Alexandria
In Europe, crescents will soon replace crosses
R
e: “The cross Europe is not allowed to bear,” Nov. 19
Meghan Cox Gurdon is concerned with Italy and Europe folding to the European Court of Human Rights on bringing the crosses down in the schools. Don’t worry, Meghan. In a little over a generation, they’ll all be forced to put up crescents.
Lawrence M. Krauser
Gaithersburg
Archdiocese abandons Gospel dictates
Re: “D.C. sells out poor for gay marriage,” Nov. 23
Reading the teaser for Star Parker’s column (“Why does gay marriage trump the needs of the poor?”), I expected to find a critical look at the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s decision to abandon the Gospel’s dictates to help the poor and afflicted. I was shockingly wrong. Instead, I found an offensive (homosexuality is akin to alcoholism), muddled (gays should overcome a “base instinct” to settle down and commit), and biblically ignorant (misunderstanding both Sodom and equivalent sins) diatribe. Gays and — lesbians particularly those with children — are simply seeking to build the loving, stable families that Ms. Parker purports to admire. More than ever, our city needs more love, stronger families, greater unity, and a deeper commitment to helping others. As a Christian, I’m baffled how Ms. Parker and our local diocese have missed that fundamental message. Pepin Tuma
Washington
