Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994 TAG: 9403210170
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
For people who are deaf, new technology means two-way video communications that would allow us to "sign" over the telephone. Network-based voice-to-data conversion would allow people who are deaf to communicate directly with any hearing person instead of using a communications assistant.
His support will encourage new competition in telecommunications. People with disabilities owe Boucher a special "thank you" for ensuring the information superhighway is open to all Americans.
Gary Viall, President
Virginia Association of the Deaf
Jury's decision disgusts readers
I am responding to the recent letter about the murder trial of Kelly Floyd Marshall, who brutally murdered Tabitha Jo Bell and their unborn baby. I am so utterly disgusted at the jury's decision to convict Marshall for only second-degree murder. The facts were laid out and the decision was so obvious. I cannot believe the jury could not do a better job, considering that this murder was so brutal. I am appalled that Marshall was not tried on two counts of murder since he not only murdered Tabitha, but he, in turn, murdered his own unborn child.
Tabi was seven months pregnant. Just take out an encyclopedia and take a look at a fetus that is seven months along. That fetus fully resembles a human being.
For Virginians to be so concerned about cracking down on violent crime, this decision sure isn't a representation. I hope those people can live with themselves.
Kelli Joyce
Blacksburg
Agree, disagree with Dan Schneck
I agree and disagree with Daniel Schneck's guest column last Sunday.
What is right in his column is his concept of the goodness and loving kindness of God. He goes beyond this to two or three more concepts that disagree with the Hebrew Scriptures and drastically contradict the Christian New Testament.
The first concept is that God never designs for punishment. A general response would be "read the prophets." When God gives up on striving with people, his perfect justice comes into play.
Since God loves us in spite of his goodness and our perversion, he had to find a way to accept guilty people as innocent. The only way he could do it was to pay for our sins himself.
The barrier between God and man is not man's sin. The barrier is that man refuses to acknowledge God's assessment of us as wrongdoers. As long as we claim our own innocence we remain guilty.
The mark of those forgiven by God of their sins is authentic love from the spirit of Christ himself. If the New Testament is true, God's forgiveness can only be had through the sacrifice of the body of Christ. Schneck has his own interpretation of God and of Christ, but neither of his characters occurs in the Bible. Every man has a right to believe what he will, but for me faith needs an objective basis.
Rick Swindell
Blacksburg
Support Clinton health plan
I support President Clinton's health-care plan. It would eliminate discriminatory pricing by drug manufacturers, repeal the insurance industry's antitrust exemption, create an outpatient Medicare drug benefit with fair pharmacy payment, and expand consumer freedom of choice.
As a local, independent community pharmacist these are issues I think need to be addressed. Many of the insurance plans being offered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield as well as other companies, are exterminating community pharmacies. They allow us to provide drugs and services to their plan members at little or no profit to us.
Pharmacists, historically, have included charges for their services in their dispensing fees. Not anymore, according to the insurance companies. We are not being reimbursed enough to pay our overhead, let alone make a profit. Please help independent pharmacists to survive.
Amy Westmoreland,
President
Southwest Virginia Pharmacists Association
Blame politicians for inconveniences
The ice storms of the recent past are gone except for the scars and the financial impacts of them. Linemen, highway and town employees deserve a very well done! Politicians' manicured hands in the affairs of our infrastructure are not visible as town employees, but are far more influential than is apparent at first glance.
We in Blacksburg were without water because the appointed boards responsible didn't see fit to provide a spare source of power for pumps supplying storage tanks: which incidentally provide the water pressure as well as the volume available.
There is no separate fire water system in the town of Blacksburg to my knowledge. If we were without water, we were without fire water also. No fire water, no fire fighting capability and no sprinklers functioning. Who has put us in this fix?
Ms. Obenshain waxed lyrical in a recent Current editorial on the pros and cons of locating the new Interstate 73. She, in prose convincing enough to sell laissez-faire medical insurance to Bubba Clinton, asked for reason in locating the road. If Obenshain will ask any civil engineering undergrad, he will show her in page one of any highway engineering text that politicians locate roads, not engineering economics or any other rational conclusiom.
Businesses want roads to drag consumers right past their doors. When the money wants a road somewhere, where do you think the politicians want it?
Projected revenue in Blacksburg is up over 7 percent. We can't spend this increase in improving the infrastructure which is in deplorable condition. So what are we going to do about our fire protection? What about the ever-increasing water, sewage and refuse rate?
Bob Anderson
Blacksburg
Bike commuting's pluses, minuses
Your recent article on bicycle commuting illustrates well both the wonderful advantages and the frightful hazards of this unique way of getting to work. It is economical, environmentally friendly and fun. It can also be extremely dangerous, particularly when bicycles and motor vehicles share roadways designed solely with the needs of the motor vehicles in mind.
The fact is, virtually none of the major highways nearby have the smooth and consistent paved shoulders cyclists need. Neither U.S. 11, Virginia 114 or Virginia 8 are suitably equipped. Our county's busiest road, U.S. 460 between Blacksburg and Christiansburg, has shoulders in only a piecemeal arrangement, making it unusable.
Paved shoulders on the main highways would make bicycle commuting between towns feasible and would open opportunities for hundreds more people, myself included.
Banishing cyclists like Tim Myers, pictured on your cover, to Ellett Valley rather than the U.S. 460 corridor, makes his trip twice as long, much more strenuous, and, with our recent wet and icy roads, quite dangerous. Many would-be riders who lack Myers' available time, conditioning or bicycle handling skills simply cannot ride. All roads need to be made accessible to make this option viable for a larger number of commuters.
Michael Abraham
Blacksburg
by CNB