ANSWERING THE CRABILL CAMPAIGN

The Crabill campaign’s response to the Open Letter from the school shooting victims and families wants you to believe that the Democrats are behind everything. Crabill neglects to mention that the Republican candidate for Governor, Robert McDonnell, and Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Bill Bolling, have both disassociated themselves from her words. Does Crabill want us to believe that the two leading Republican candidates for state office are in league with the Democrats?

As a matter-of-fact, the Crabill response to the Open Letter is a tour de force through “la la land.” Crabill and her spin-doctors avoid mentioning that key Republicans do not support her words. She blames all her ills on Democrats. She manipulates and distorts her own recorded words. And she fails to mention the critical issue facing Virginia—the safety of our children and schools.

Indeed, the safety of our children and safety of our schools are issues waiting for a politician to take up. The Review Panel Report commissioned by Governor Kaine is fatally flawed with inaccuracies and omissions—the report borders on being a cover-up. What better cause for the mother of four to champion in her campaign? What better cause for a woman whose party prides itself in family values? But, Crabill turned her back on this issue (was that a Democrat plot too?) and focused on tea bags.

The last thing the victims of the shootings at the Appalachian School of Law and Virginia Tech shootings need is to be lectured to about grief by Crabill and her cohorts. I would be happy to discuss grief with them—for example, how to deal with a seven year child who screams for four hours straight after being told some one chose the bullet box and gunned down her mother. How to help a father who was put in intensive care and nearly dies three times because someone chose the bullet box and killed his only daughter. We have had more than enough grief. We know all about grief and we know who is doing the intruding—it is the Catherine Crabills of this world who divert attention from the critical problem of the safety of our children and our schools.

After the mother of our oldest grandchild was murdered at the Appalachian School of Law, Albert Pollard was the one Virginia politician who helped us in our quest for answers. The electorate needs to know about Pollard’s willingness to help the family of a school shooting—a family suffering severe distress. Crabill can cry all the crocodile tears she wants over the shootings, but she cannot distort the fact of Pollard’s help to a family in crisis—she cannot distort that fact no matter how hard she tries.