With two days remaining in the 2012 end-of-year holiday gift purchasing season — unless retailers push the post-season sales to encroach, as some did with Thanksgiving, on Christmas Day itself — I want to suggest a less obvious present but one with the potential to benefit many more people, including the giver, than most others you could buy. Intrigued, or at this late date, desperate, to know more? Since time is short, I’ll not go down the network television path with a “cliffhanger” episode. No, let me lay it out succinctly. Go to the Citizens for Accountability in Politics website and click on the “Donate now” bubble.

If you’re scratching your head in bewilderment or shaking your fist in anger because you don’t see how this will solve your last-minute gift-giving problem, you must have been “out of the room” this past year. Just about twelve months ago, the Grinch-in-Chief, Governor McDonnell, approved a deal with Elizabeth River Crossings that for 58 years will consume an ever increasing share of household income for people in our region who rely on the Downtown and Midtown Tunnels for passage to work, recreation, cultural events, religious activities, schools, and anything else that takes us across the Elizabeth River by car or truck. The only way out of this ill-advised contract is through the courts.
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