Chris Berry On The Net

Let me say upfront that I am neither a supporter nor an opponent of Court Rosen. I know very little about him other than that he is well spoken and has a natural gift for providing eloquent but evasive answers to pointed questions. I also know that Mr. Rosen was recently the victim of a false and misleading attack by an anonymous group lacking the courage to stand behind their words.

Full page ads appeared in the Friday edition of the Roanoke Star Sentinel, and the Saturday edition of the Roanoke Times this week, with headlines asking the question, “Who is Court Rosen?” According to the Times version of the ad, they were paid for by Joe Smith of Citizens for Sensible Decisions. I think an equally valid question would be, who is Joe Smith, and who are the Citizens for Sensible Decisions?

A quick Google search on the group turns up virtually nothing, with the exception of a $300.00 dollar contribution to the Valerie Garner campaign, and a commentary by group member Suzanne Osborne that appeared in the Times back in February of 2007. Osborne berates the Times for what she considers inaccurate reporting of the attempts by the local democratic party to expel Mayor Harris and councilman Fitzpatrick after the last election. The group would be well advised to apply Osborne’s criticism to their own actions.

“Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me The Roanoke Times has a responsibility to the community it serves for accurate, impartial reporting of events; anything other than that should appear on the opinion or commentary pages of the paper…Just give us the facts, without the spin, in a fair and unbiased manner.”

Apparently they hold themselves to a lower standard. One of the main attack points against Rosen is that he had the audacity to answer “I don’t know” on more than one occasion during various candidate forums. The ad doesn’t bother to tell us what the question was, but based on what I saw at a few of these forums, “I don’t know” was one of the most carefully considered answers given by any of the candidates. I’ll take honesty over BS any day of the week.

The ad also attacks Rosen for the fact that has not served on any city appointed boards or non-profit boards. Since when are these requirements for a seat on city council, and since when does not serving on a board constitute “zero community involvement” as the ad claims? If serving on boards is the only valid way to be involved, that would mean 99.9% of us make no contributions to our community.

The fact that Mr. Rosen is a relative newcomer to the Roanoke Valley is also cause for attack. As far as I am concerned, many of our problems can be traced to the fact that our current batch of leaders have spent their entire lives in Roanoke, and have no idea how the rest of the world operates. Besides, if an Illinois native who spent her entire adult life in Arkansas can be elected to the Senate to represent New York, 3 years in Roanoke should probably be sufficient preparation to serve on city council.

The last paragraph of the ad states that “a vote for Rosen is a vote for Harris, and that’s a vote for the kind of closed door politics that have led to skyrocketing tax rates…” Good old-fashioned mud slinging is one thing, but outright lies are something altogether different. The last time the city real estate tax rate changed was in 2006, when it was lowered from $1.21 per $100 dollars to $1.19. Assessed values may have gone up, but anyone who claims that the rates have increased is either ignorant of the facts, or has no regard for the truth. In either case, we should all be highly skeptical of their claims.