The Berlin Wall resembled an ideological scar and not only severed a city but symbolized the failure of an evil syste

I hope everyone saw the fantastic Ken Burns series about our national parks on

The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech. But does it also guarantee the right to disrupt someone else’s speech or to impede an audience’s ability to listen? That question was at the crux of a forum Sunday at Piedmont Virginia Community College titled “Free Speech or Disruption: Balancing the Rights to Speak and to Hear.”

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and that ticks me off.

The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors is poised to greenlight yet another round of demolitions of the university’s 1960s-era residence halls.

I am sure many of you also feel overwhelmed by this young, very young, woman’s situation. I believe Morgan is still alive. I also believe God is with her.

Many thanks to The Daily Progress’ David Maurer, a Purple Heart veteran himself, for his Nov. 8 Yesteryears column on James Monroe, “an example of courage for the nation,” who was also the first future president to be wounded in service to his country.

I’d like to clear up an important factual error in Donald Woodsmall’s letter of Nov. 6. He stated that IMPACT “chose this year to lobby government officials for more interpreters for non-English speakers.”

Kudos to The Daily Progress editorial board for pointing out Rep. Tom Perriello’s vote against individual freedom and choice (“A vote against your liberty,” Nov. 11), with his vote for Obamacare.

Now is the time for an injection of a little civility into the body politic. Many politicians have succumbed to a political swine flu of sorts.

My congressman, Tom Perriello, whom we fought very hard to elect, did hold true to the mettle that we knew he was made of and brought pride to his electorate by voting in our favor, and not that of special interests that have been perverting the democratic process of this country for many decades.

Surveys conducted of federal intelligence workers who may be moving to Central Virginia as part of base realignment provide valuable insight into the kinds of professionals who will eventually become our neighbors.

Congratulations to Charlottesville City Council for its bold initiative to address the enduring problems of racial discrimination and inequality and the consequent tensions arising out of them.

The editorial of Nov. 11, however, crossed the line of respectable journalism. It expressed opinions with no factual basis whatsoever and completely misrepresented Congressman Tom Perriello.

With a flick of the wrist, folks wandering on the Downtown Mall check the time on their watches or cell phones.

Nearly a year after terrorist bullets snuffed the life forces of her husband and daughter, Nelson County resident Kia Scherr hopes her new Web site will help other people find positive forces in their own lives.

Buckingham County residents will have to wait a few weeks to find out what’s going on in their circuit courthouse online.

The vote deciding the final design of the interchange that will serve as the Meadowcreek Parkway’s terminus has been delayed, after some members of the City Council expressed concerns about certain features, including bicycle and pedestrian connections.

The case of missing 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Dana Harrington has received intense state and national attention since she disappeared Oct. 17 after becoming separated from friends at a Metallica concert in Charlottesville.

For more information about Partners for Safe Teen Driving, visit http://www.safeteendriving.org.

Thirty-nine Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against the massive Medicare-cutting, tax-increasing, income-redistributing scheme known as health care reform, but our congressman, Tom Perriello, was not among them.

Regarding your story on the Board of Supervisors’ decision to approve a pedestrian connection into the Woodbrook neighborhood, I understand that Woodbrook residents are worried about change, but I wish they had the imagination to see the benefits of improved pedestrian connections.

You may be used to seeing sports heroes on special cereal boxes, from Bruce Jenner and Mary Lou Retton on. Now there are heroes of a different kind.

Tickle Me Elmo, thankfully, is long removed from the Must Have Christmas Present list for parents this holiday season.

Maybe we need a new highway sign.

An Albemarle County jury awarded $5.25 million on Friday to the parents and sibling of a 16-year-old county girl who was killed in a car accident in 2008.

The city moved up one spot this year

State police announced Friday that they think Morgan D. Harrington was trying to hitchhike on a Copeley Road bridge the night she disappeared, which her father said isn’t something she’d normally do.

Route 651 north in Orange County remained impassable because of flooding.

The election for the City Council has been decided for nearly two weeks, but one question still looms before the new body takes over in January. Who will be Charlottesville’s next mayor?