Eliza's Question

This sculpture by Stanley Bleifeld includes 18 bronze
figures emerging from a block of granite. It sits on the
ground, so people can touch it, so tourists and pilgrims
can stand beside the figures to pose for photos.
So children can play on it.

Eliza asked her mother, "Where’s Rosa Parks?”

In January of 2002, Eliza’s investigation of the grassy rolling hills of the grounds of Capitol Square, which had recently become her yard, had aroused her curiosity.

The youngest daughter of Virginia’s 69th governor, Mark Warner, had noticed that among the six statues of people around what would be her home for the next four years, not only were there none honoring a female, there were none remembering the heroines/heroes of the Civil Rights Era.

“It started me thinking,” said Lisa Collis, Eliza’s mother and then Virginia’s First Lady.

Collis’ thinking eventually led her to consult with people who might help fill in the gap in Virginia’s history her daughter had innocently discovered in the statuary of Capitol Square. 

On July 21, 2008, a new monument for Capitol Square was dedicated. The Virginia Civil Rights Memorial, a sculpture by Stanley Bleifeld, commemorates a turning point in history -- a 1951 student demonstration which was led by a 16-year-old girl named Barbara Johns. To protest the outrageously deplorable conditions in which they found themselves at Robert R. Moton, an all-black school in Prince Edward County, the students staged a “walk-out.” 

Eventually, those students’ cause was taken up by civil rights attorneys Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson. The Moton case was folded into four other similar cases to be argued before the Supreme Court as one. The result: The 1954 decision in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka ended the days in which separate-but-equal could be used as the underpinning for segregation in public schools.

At this time, it's worth remembering that the late sculptor/educator Joe Seipel (1947-2024) played a significant role in getting Bleifeld to come onboard for this project. 

-- Words and photo by F.T. Rea 

-- 30 --

'Queen of Claptrap' revisited

Laura Schlessinger

In 2000 I learned that if you write about certain public figures, or particular hot topics, it can bring on an avalanche of reprisals that can be startling. That year, I took an assignment to write an opinion piece about Laura Schlessinger (better known as Dr. Laura) for Richmond.com. 

The title of my column was "Queen of Claptrap." Once it was published the crazy reaction to the piece sort of caught me off guard. Shortly after it went online, I began receiving a bunch of nasty, threatening emails. 

By asking around, I discovered the emails were coming from an organized national group; the attacks were from people affiliated with something known as Free Republic. Then I learned that group routinely did that same sort of thing to any writer who criticized their beloved queen. 

Hey, if you've never had hundreds of hate-driven emails land on you in just a couple of days, let me tell you, at first it was scary. While I attempted to answer some of the initial emails in good faith, soon enough I came to realize that was a waste of time. 

So I asked a wise veteran journalist, who was a colleague, what the hell to make of what was happening. He just chuckled and said, "It means you're doing your job."

Here's the text of the 24-year-old OpEd piece:

Anybody who thinks the job of an opinion writer is easy should think again. Yes, everybody has opinions. That part is easy. What I'm referring to here - aside from the small task of gathering an opinion and converting it into an essay - is research. In order to put this piece together, I had to watch and listen to Laura Schlessinger.

Yes, the same Laura Schlessinger who is better known as talk-radio's Dr. Laura, the acerbic, self-styled adviser to the forlorn who has ridden a wave of controversy to a new syndicated television show.

To be fair with the reader, I have to admit that I have no patience with the entire confession-driven genre of programming to which Dr. Laura's television show belongs. I'm talking about the likes of Jerry Springer, Montel Williams, Ricki Lake, and so forth.

However, Schlessinger has been deliberately pushing buttons to move the stories about the views she voices on her broadcasts from the entertainment section to the news and editorial sections.

Thus, Dr. Laura has become a topic for OpEd columnists to consider. After a sampling of her product I have to say a little bit of the supercilious Dr. Laura goes a long way. For my money, she may well be the most obnoxious of the daytime talk-show hosts.

From what I can tell, her formula combines the hard-edge political and cultural outlook of the typical right-wing AM radio windbag - Rush Limbaugh being the most obvious example - with the lonely hearts advice of an Ann Landers.

Dr. Laura's frequently expressed judgments on homosexuality - notions that some would call antediluvian, while others plainly see as hateful - have provoked an anti-Dr. Laura movement that is making news as well. For more about that, check out stopdrlaura.com.

Dr. Laura, in spite of her startling throwback opinions, is a modern gal when it comes to making money; so she's got a website, too: drlaura.com.

"Do the right thing" is Dr. Laura's oft-stated slogan. Well, I can't argue with that. Who can? But the rub is who's defining what "right" is?

Dr. Laura's tonic is basically a dose of Pat Buchanan's political and social agenda, served up with Bobby Knight's bedside manner. The sad part of it - maybe even the scary part - is that some pitiful soul might take her mean-spirited blather to heart, because it sounds bitter and medicinal.

The burgeoning movement to protest her bashing of gays and other people she sees as immoral is gaining momentum. With quotes such as, "a huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys," being attributed to Dr. Laura, it's easy to see why.

While I can't say I'm prepared to endorse everything that's being said and done to "Stop Dr. Laura," I can say with enthusiasm that I'm a great believer in the time-honored tactic of boycott.

Apparently Procter & Gamble got the message. Like a string of other would-be national sponsors of her TV program, such as Verizon, RadioShack Corp., Kraft Foods, and Kimberly-Clark, P&G has decided to back off.

It won't surprise me if the television show - aired locally at 4 p.m. weekdays by WRIC TV 8 (Ch. 8 broadcast and AT&T Ch. 10 Comcast) - runs into trouble in the Richmond market. Virginia's particular brand of conservatism is baffling to people from other states.

Yes, Virginians are happy with right-of-center politics on many issues. Yet, they aren't comfortable with extremes in any direction; especially those extremes that are blatantly tacky.

Ask Ollie North: In spite of his far-right beliefs, his 1994 $25 million cakewalk to a Senate seat turned out to be a fall from grace. Ollie, with that checkered blue shirt and his self-serving lies to Congress, was just too gauche for Virginians to stomach.

By the same token, Howard Stern's radio show didn't last long in Richmond, either. Although it had plenty of listeners, the big local advertisers weren't comfortable being associated with it. What some of Stern's fans failed to grasp was it wasn't so much his lefty politics that got Howard in trouble in this market; it was his style.

It will be interesting to see whether WRIC will be able to run the commercials of major local advertisers such as Ukrop's Super Markets or any of the big banks in or adjacent to the Dr. Laura show.

With the anti-Dr. Laura movement picking up speed, I wonder how many Richmond companies are going to be willing to write off the entire gay and lesbian market for the sake of riding Laura Schlessinger's publicity wave. Beyond the organized alternative-lifestyle groups, the controversy that is swelling up around this talk show has bad vibes.

In ad jargon, it's going to be too easy for local agencies to buy around the Dr. Laura telecast. That simply means that roughly the same audience is readily available to an advertiser through other vehicles, so Dr. Laura and her hefty baggage can easily be avoided.

Bottom line: My hope is Dr. Laura will get canceled before I have to write any more about her. Just the thought of having to watch her on television again gives me the willies.

There you have it. That's all it took to set off a bunch of mean creeps who were hoping to make me back off. What I totally failed to understand then, 24 years ago, was that I was seeing the future. 

-- 30 --

The Dads' 'Redemption'

The Dads Second Album Release Party 

by F.T. Rea, Published by STYLE Weekly on Nov. 24, 2015

Enthusiasm filled the room when local rockers the Dads were performing. It exploded from the speakers. Steamlike, it rose from the crowd. Between 1980 and 1985, onstage in a saloon, the Dads delivered like few others.

Richmond was an accommodating home to some noteworthy black leather-clad punk bands during this period. There was an art-rock scene as well. In live-music venues you could hear reggae and hybrid sounds that fused Caribbean tempos with pop. Other rock ’n’ roll subsets were represented. Among them was a crossover scene that mashed up ’60s British rock with ’50s Memphis rockabilly. With two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer, the Dads operated somewhere in that groove.

The Dads’ sound wasn’t warmed over from the social causes and political crusades of the ’70s. They weren’t hurling nihilist anger at the establishment. Instead, they filled the air with harmonies and a beat that provoked young bodies to move. Theirs was a catchy sound easy to like, and as it turned out — difficult to forget.

But capturing their act and making it into a consumer product wasn’t so easy. The Dads’ one album, produced during their time as a touring band, was released by CBS/Estate Records in 1984. It was decidedly less than satisfying.

“Very unhappy” is how lead guitarist David Ayers characterizes how the band felt about the album. “It was so light and tame-sounding compared to what we were doing live,” he says.

Having met in 1980 as members of Virginia Commonwealth University’s orchestra, Ayers and drummer Mike Tubb were the two original members featured in every iteration of the band. With other pals along for the ride, the group started busking. Eventually, after some personnel shifts, what became the 1981 touring lineup stabilized: the late Bryan Harvey (vocals and bass); Mark Lewis (vocals and guitar); David Ayers (guitar); Mike Tubb (drums). In 1983, Lewis was replaced by Kevin Pittman on vocals and guitar.

“We were very tight musically and as friends, so our breakup had nothing to do with us not getting along or anything like that,” Ayers says of the band’s 1985 parting. “It was more the feeling that the Dads had come to the end of our road.”

Before the band dissolved there was a second album in the works. Accordingly, 30 years later the chance for another ride down that road has arrived.

Recorded by Sal DiTroia, who played guitar on the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer,” the tracks were laid down in 1985 at Live Oak Studios in Chesapeake. Recently Tubb and Victor Benshoff, the Dads’ sound man and road manager, dusted off 11 of those tapes. After some tweaking they were made into the centerpiece of a new album. Four songs recorded in 1982 and engineered by Bruce Olsen also are included.

About to be released by Planetary Records, the new album is titled “Redemption.” Isn’t all that good news worth celebrating?

News of this special event was first posted on Facebook by Mike Tubb. Brooke Saunders soon joined to promote it. As the word spread others came forward to volunteer to help perform 30-some numbers from the Dads’ songbook.

Among the musicians expected to gather onstage at the Canal Club are: Coby Batty, Mark Brown, Craig Evans, Gary Fralin, Harry Gore, Paige Harvey, Stephen McCarthy, Suzy Peeples, Kevin Pittman, Rob Reisinger, Brad Tucker, Jim Wark, Todd Woodson and too many more to fit in this space.

“Redemption” CDs will be available at the event and then go on sale at Plan 9 Music. Remembering the death of Harvey and his wife and two daughters in 2006, and the death of Victor Benshoff earlier this year, proceeds from the show and CD sales will go to charities selected by the Harvey family and the Benshoff family.

Now fans of the Dads, both old and new, will be able to travel the down the aforementioned road. The show amounts to a local reunion and is expected to be packed. The souvenir album should better replicate the soundtrack to many a good time back in the day. What’s not to like about that? S

The Dads perform at a CD-release party for “Redemption” on Friday, Nov. 27, at the Canal Club, 1545 E. Cary St. A small army of musicians will perform. The doors will open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10.