Cooperative Living March/April 2016 - 6

Mailbag
FLY FISHING EVENT PLANNED
FOR APRIL
Consider this an open invitation to
attend the Virginia Fly Fishing & Wine
Festival (VFFF), April 9-10, at the state
fairgrounds outside Richmond.
Now in its 16th year, the VFFF is the
only event of its kind in the country and
combines all aspects of fly fishing and fly
tying in a family-friendly, hands-on,
stress-free environment. We cover
everything from fly fishing for salmon in
Alaska to chasing bluegills in family farm
ponds to landing stripers on the
Chesapeake Bay.
Know nothing about fly fishing? No
problem! We've gathered the nation's best
fly anglers, instructors, authors, tiers and
guides in one place. We want to teach
your kids about fly fishing, too! Children
16 and under are free with a paying adult,
and we offer free fly-tying classes to
children and adults throughout the day.
Also available for free to uniformed Boy
Scouts is a Fly Fishing Merit Badge
program. Earn your Merit Badge right at
the festival! A special outreach for
children is offered through
takemefishing.org.
The festival will be held April 9-10,
2016, at Meadow Event Park outside
Richmond. Food, wine and live music
will also be available. Admission is $20
per person and includes free wine tasting
for those 21 and over. Outdoor
enthusiasts from New York to Georgia
will be at the show; come experience
the joy and discover the peace that only
fly fishing can bring you. For more
information about the festival, visit
www.vaflyfishingfestival.org.
- Beau Beasley, Festival Director
WhatzIt?
Make your best guess at this photo of a
familiar but unidentified object. Send it in
writing with your name, address and phone
number to WhatzIt?, c/o Cooperat ive Living,
P.O. Box 2340, Glen Allen, VA 23058-2340; or
guess online at www.co-opliving.com under
" Contests. " Dead line for entries is March 18. All
correct entries will be put into a drawing and a
winner announced in the June 2016 issue. The
winner will re ceive a check for $25. 
4 | Cooperative Living | March-April 2016
MORE ON THE AFRICANAMERICAN
EXPERIENCE
It is fitting to celebrate Black
History Month by mentioning the
contributions of African-American
Virginians (February Viewpoint,
" Great Virginians " ). But no history
of the African-American
experience in Virginia can be
complete without discussing the
troubling history of slavery, Jim
Crow, segregation and the struggle
for civil rights in Virginia.
Slavery in America originated in
Jamestown in 1619. Later, some Virginians
recognized the incongruity between the
ideals of the Revolution and slavery. Some
freed their slaves and some proposed plans
for the gradual abolition of slavery; all these
plans were unsuccessful. Thomas Jefferson,
the author of our national creed of liberty,
believed slavery was a " moral depravity " that
threatened the existence of the Union, but
never freed his slaves.
The Jim Crow segregation laws were
strictly enforced in Virginia. After Brown v.
Board of Education, many Virginia school
districts declared massive resistance to the
Supreme Court's school desegregation order;
some even closed their public school systems
entirely to avoid integration. The seminal
case that struck down anti-miscegenation
laws and echoed down the years affirming
the right to marry the person you love
carried Virginia's name, Loving v. Virginia.
No history of race in Virginia could be
complete without mentioning one of the first
" sit-ins " in American history. In 1939, several
black residents of Alexandria, led by attorney
Samuel W. Tucker, " sat in " at the segregated
Alexandria Library after being refused library
cards. Tucker was a leader in the fight against
segregation in Virginia, arguing four cases
before the Supreme Court.
NOTE
EMAIL
WRITE US!
ADDRESS
We want to hear from you - comments,
opinions, suggestions. Your letter must be
signed and legible. We reserve the right to edit for
grammar, style and length, with a 250-word maximum
for acceptance. Write: MAILBAG, P.O. Box 2340, Glen
Allen, VA 23058-2340; or email mailbag@co-opliving.com.
Please include your name and city/town of residence, with
Mailbag as the subject.
NEW ATTRIBUTES OF ICE AND
WATER?
On page 17 of the February issue in your
article about The Homestead, there is a
photograph of a water play zone. The
caption beneath it contains the following
sentence: " The heated outdoor pool is open
year-round and also used for ice skating in
the winter months. "
How is this possible? Do you know
something about ice and heated water that
the rest of us don't? Enjoying the magazine
with an extra smile today!
- Elizabeth White, Fredericksburg
DON'T WE WANT RELIABLE,
LOW-COST POWER?
I am not an expert on climate change. I
know that climate does change. I've
noticed that it gets colder at night or in the
winter months and warmer during the day
or in the summer months.
Renewables are great, but the sun
- David A. Drachsler, Alexandria
and Mt. Jackson
doesn't shine, the wind doesn't blow, and
the water doesn't flow 24 hours a day all at
the same time.
We need to install approximately five
units of renewable energy for every one
unit of scheduled energy. Renewables are
not always available when we want them,
so we must turn to scheduled energy
sources.
The January
2016 WhatzIt?
was a feather,
and reader
Tom Camden
of Lexington
was our
$25 winner.
Congratulations,
Tom!
 DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS?
www.co-opliving.com
http://www.takemefishing.org http://www.vaflyfishingfestival.org http://www.co-opliving.com http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living March/April 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living March/April 2016
