With the 2011 General Assembly session opening today, I thought it would be important to highlight a bill that Del. Bob Marshall (R-13) plans to introduce.

No, I’m not talking about his proposed legislation which would ban openly gay servicemembers from serving in the Virginia National Guard.

No, instead, Mr. Marshall is going to introduce legislation seeking to allow Virginia to print its own money, specifically the minting of gold and silver coins.

Yep. You read that correctly.Mr. Marshall seems to think that the Federal Government has a monopoly on printing money. Well, they do, as a matter of fact, because it really makes it convenient to every citizen of this country, while traveling the land, to be able to use the same legal tender. We don’t need to be bothered with going to an exchange office in say, Florida, when we want to go to Disney World, for example.

This is quirky legislation, which actually does nothing to help the citizens of this fine commonwealth. Does it help fix our traffic woes? No. Does it help improve our schools? No. Does it do anything of consequence other than to get Mr. Marshall’s name in the paper? No.

It’s high time that the residents of Virginia’s 13th district see through Mr. Marshall’s charade, see that nothing Mr. Marshall proposes helps his district or the Commonwealth in any way, and see that they need new, effective leadership in the General Assembly. A person who will represent THEM, not a delegate’s own personal agenda.

The 13th district can do that this November.