Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I decided to take a trip. The day I left it was raining very hard. Upon my return home the hard rains began again. One sunny afternoon I traveled to the village area of Mathews Court House. I thought I saw a lot more erosion of the ditches, but I wanted to make certain. I drove a little slower on my way home and sadly there it was, increased erosion of the ditches between Hudgins and Cobbs Creek.

I don’t know who is in charge of Virginia Department of Transportation. I believe the "buck" for this mess stops at his or her door. The cleaning of the ditches along the roads of Mathews County has not been "well done." In fact, the job was so poorly done that it created land erosion. I do not believe this kind of thing to be environmentally friendly.

This does not even deal with the expense of the job "not done well." Taxpayer dollars paid for the work. Now we can drive past and see the erosion taking place as the eroding landscape falls into and fills the newly cleaned-out ditches. The ugly eroding landscape will welcome the Tour de Chesapeake bikers unless the situation is corrected.

Where can we find knowledgeable leadership and good management? We do not have it in our federal government. We do not have it in much of our state government. We find less of it in our local county government. The majority of our supervisors care nothing about citizen private property rights. Only one supervisor, Ms. Putt, seems to understand how important "private property rights" are to residents. Thank you, Supervisor Putt. You are both wise and compassionate.

A definition of real leadership may help. I came across a good definition while reading a book by Eric Metaxas titled "Bonhoeffer." One example of a true leader given in the book is stated as "A true leader must know the limitations of his authority." A new idea from the book also leads the reader to see that a "leader" who does not understand his own limitations is a "mis-leader." There are far too many "mis-leaders" in our midst acting in the most irresponsible of ways. They should be replaced as soon as possible.

Sharon Slaughter

Cobbs Creek, Va.