Pat Robertson,Hooters and you
by John-Henry Doucette
Welcome to Norfolk.
Or Virginia Beach.
Whatever.
The point is, you’re in college. A four-year Methodist
liberal arts college, to be exact,which is glad to have you. So
am I.
Let me explain.
This is your newspaper and I’m your columnist. I work for
you. I also work for free because nobody will pay me. We’ll
talk about lots of stuff. School stuff.
Such as what administrators are doing with the thousands of
dollars you paid them so you won’t have to work the lube
rack at Sir Speedy in four years.
The campus is in Norfolk-Virginia Beach, which is actually two
cities. The guys upstairs can’t figure out which is a bigger
draw for enrollment, so Norfolk-Virginia Beach it is. These
cities have similarities. Both have leaders which hand paper bags
full of money to business people.
Norfolk recently handed a bag filled with $300,000 to Hooters so
Hooters would build a Hooters downtown. For those of you who don’t
know, Hooters is not exactly a wildlife preserve for owls.
Hooters sells Buffalo wings and women, not necessarily in that
order.
Virginia Beach development officials are handing Pat Robertson an
“economic initiative package,” whatever that means, to
build an upscale old folks home. For those of you who don’t
know Pat Robertson, he is a man of God who doesn’t buy into
that vow of poverty nonsense.
In Norfolk-Virginia Beach, this is called “building for
tomorrow,” which is an inspiring catch-phrase which loosely
translates to “creative financing with public money.”
Hold on now. Virginia Wesleyan is not in Pat Robertson’s
pocket and there are no plans to funnel “Consider the
Harvest” funds to erect a Hooters next to the chapel.
But the college is between Norfolk and Virginia Beach. In many
ways this campus is its own little land. You know, like Disney
World or the space between Al Gore’s ears.
This community is powered by administrators, staff, faculty,
alumni and students. It is our job to use our voice when we see
something suspect. People usually listen here.
If they don’t, give us a call at the Marlin Chronicle and
ask for me.
I work for you.
And I work cheap.
Contact John Doucette through his mailbox in the Marlin Chronicle
office or at jhdoucette@aol.com.