It has been wisely said that perfection is the enemy of the good. No finer example of this thought can be found than in the dysfunctional, ineffective, perpetual dithering of the Charlottesville City Council regarding the Meadowcreek Parkway.

In explaining her support for a 71-cent real estate tax rate (“Mallek’s approach becomes clearer,” The Daily Progress, April 26), Albe-marle County Supervisor Ann Mallek decided to hold on for the extra penny, which would be placed in a lock box for future economic downturns, because not ha-ving more money in county coffers to deal with decreasing revenue forecasts would have been irresponsible.

A recent letter compared the Advocates for Sustainable Albemarle Population study of the optimal sustainable population level for Charlottesville and Albemarle County to spending money to determine how many angels can dance on the head of a pin (“Popula-tion objectives are suspect,” The Daily Progress, April 16).

Re: “Soccer balls bring solace to children,” The Daily Pro-gress, April 26, about donating soccer balls to children in Mosul, Iraq:

Leaving Charlottesville by air, one becomes acutely aware of the disfigurement that would be created by a water pipeline from the Rivanna River to Ragged Mountain Natural Area - a 10-mile scar across the face of Albemarle. Is this what we want to leave for the next generation?

For 25 years I have lived in Charlottesville and have enjoyed every day, season and year here. This is a very special community and great place to live, but we all know that. Visitors see what we have, tell us about it and many return to live here

We are currently diving headlong toward the most devastating depression ever experienced. Commodity prices, including oil, are skyrocketing at an accelerated rate, without any improvements anticipated in the foreseeable future. Yet, Washington, both the executive and legislative powers, continues to fiddle a la Nero.

The Business article of April 17, “Quarterly results upbeat; stocks surge higher,” is a perfect example of “pumping.”
Nearly every finance company, JP Morgan-Chase included, is reporting terrible quarterly results, yet a vice president of a trading company is cited calling them “strong earnings” and recommending buying.

At a recent Albemarle County School Board meeting, plans for artificial plastic turf continued.
The April 20 Washington Post story “U.S. Investigates Artificial Turf’s Lead Levels” stated that the federal government is investigating whether turf contains lead that rubs off and poses health hazards.

In the spirit of earth week, I have a suggestion.

It was interesting to read the Yesteryears column in the April 20 Daily Progress (“Hair raising events in 1965 courts”).
I was a young police officer for Charlottesville Police Department in November 1967 and had to face Judge Allan Spitzer many times during the course of my law enforcement career.
I found out very quickly that he demanded respect in his courtroom, and would not hesitate to give someone a tongue lashing if they showed an attitude or tried to outwit him.

In the spirit of earth week, I have a suggestion.
If all property owners would pick up the litter thrown on their road frontage, it would keep our roadways beautiful.
It honestly does not take much time, and most of us could use the exercise.
Please consider making this a habit to help keep our state roadways clean.

How many years has the fiasco about the Meadowcreek Parkway been in the news and in the planning stage? Why can’t the planners realize that all aspects of the project need to be considered?

Now we have a delay because of Charlottesville High School and the loss of some of its land.

Who are the non-thinking, non-planning individuals who forgot or ignored this part of the puzzle?

I think it is shortsighted to think of reservoir expansion at Ragged Mountain and dredging of the Rivanna Reservoir as mutually exclusive issues; they are complementary, but expansion of the reservoir at the source of our supply addresses the long-term needs of our region more responsibly than dredging.

The relief that dredging provides is constantly diminishing because siltation is a constant and our demand for additional water is compounding.

During our time of media pessimism, we see a sudden inspiration that feeds our faith and hope.

This happened on April 19 when many counties came together to save homes and lives.

The wildfire in Buckingham County on that day offered us all a good look at our inner selves and what motivates us to become instantly compassionate.

In a recent letter my nephew, who is serving patrol in Mosul, Iraq, spoke of the children and the odd scene of seeing them play soccer in a dirt field with the horrible circumstances of war around them.
After reading the letter I appealed to the Soccer Organization of Charlottesville-Albemarle for soccer balls or equipment for this special effort, which Lt. Ken Marckesano had started to help with building relationships and trust through soccer.

A special thanks to Woodbrook Elementary School’s custodial staff member Gordon Carter.

My son left his new baseball glove on the playground during spring break. One week later, and after the lost and found had been emptied, I met Gordon.

This happy, jovial man remembered the glove in detail and believed he set it aside. Ten minutes later, he came out to the playground with an ear-to-ear smile, glove in hand.

The ancients had four causes of everything — earth, air, fire and water.
They did not make what is widely known as “the one great cause fallacy,” assuming that one thing is responsible for everything.
Yet, one letter-writer (“Economy suffers under Democrats,” The Daily Progress, April 20) has regressed to one great cause and that is, surprise of surprises, the Democratic Party.

In response to the letter “Population objectives are suspect,” The Daily Progress, April 16:
The author’s proposal to study how many angels can dance on the head of a pin is of no consequence. I, for one, have never worried about it and I dare say most people have not.
However, Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population’s plan to study the optimal sustainable size for Albemarle County is of great significance.

I find myself in sharp disagreement with the writer of the letter “Federal facility no benefit to area,” which appeared in The Daily Progress on April 14, and in full agreement with The Daily Progress editorial that characterized the move of at least 1,000 jobs to the area by the Department of Defense as a “Christmas present.”

The Intelligence Analysis Facility is not a smokestack industry.

Every day since Memorial Day 2007, I have worn a necklace carrying a 4- by 6-inch banner that rests on my chest displaying the current number of American soldiers who have died in the Iraq war.
As of this writing, April 10, this banner reads, “Why? — 4,032 — Taps — Still dying.”
People have expressed a great deal of interest in my posting the number of soldiers who died in Iraq.

The Daily Progress editorial of April 13 takes Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi individually and the House Democrats collectively to task for their response to President Bush’s attempt to have Congress agree to a U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
The editorial accused the Democrats of playing politics with the issue and changing the rules in the middle of the game.

One of the hit songs in 1959 was by Dinah Washington, “What a difference a day makes!”
In a purely musical but political context, that favorite oldie-goldie should be updated and retitled “What a difference a year makes!”
Fifteen months or so ago, the stock market was approaching a record high, the economy was looking very strong, unemployment was at 4.5 percent, gasoline averaged $2.19 per gallon and public approval of Congress was higher than that of the president.

I would like to respond to the letter “Animals at SPCA need visitors” (The Daily Progress, April 12).
I am a married mother of five children. We love cats and dogs; we had three cats and two dogs.
We recently moved from Albemarle County to the city, where two of our cats, not used to more traffic, have been killed.

To look at Charlottesville’s inner-city neighborhoods today, it might be hard to imagine that 40 years ago there was much blight hidden in the shadow of Mr. Jefferson’s University.
As a young student at the University of Virginia in the late 1960s, I was inspired to work with civic leaders such as Francis Fife, who had a long history of improving housing in Central Virginia.

Charlottesville-Albemarle has undergone vast changes in the past almost 30 years my family has lived, gone to school and worked here.

March 27 forcefully made residents of our community aware of that transformed reality.

The Festival of the Book brought countless folks flocking to the many events, though it also clogged streets and parking lots, creating gridlock in some places

The April 14 story in the Daily Progress regarding the county’s land-use taxation program (“Tax program catching heat in Albemarle”) is an excellent place to start a countywide discussion of this nearly $18 million tax program.
Since I have seen the Lane Auditorium full of people wanting to talk about a three-cent increase in the real estate tax rate, I think a program that is worth approximately 11 cents of the tax rate merits some time.

Thanks to The Daily Progress for coverage of Albemarle County’s recent budget deliberations in which the public was invited to participate. After attending the deliberations, once again I am trying to make sense of the never ending cycle of increasing our property taxes and specifically the action by the Board of Supervisors.
So let me summarize the events leading to our tax increase and to your headline in the April 11 Daily Progress, “County schools ‘very pleased’ with funding: Budget to exceed board’s initial request.”

Please add another warning to the excellent letter of April 14 about the deplorable plight of dogs in puppy mills (“Puppy mills are a horror to avoid,” The Daily Progress).
Not only are the puppies in pet stores often from puppy mills, but most of the puppies sold online, with the exception of rescue organizations, are almost all from puppy mills even though the sellers pose as legitimate breeders.

In the April 13 Letters to the Editor section was an emotional rant headlined “Guns don’t help state tourism.” Perhaps the most notable feature of his letter is that it did not mention one fact, statistic or piece of evidence.
If someone is going to argue that a random shooting in Central Virginia is causing a major negative impact on tourism in the state, then he should at the very least provide some, no matter how meager, evidence for the claim.