Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 6, 1994 TAG: 9407060024
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A follow-up article should be published on how the center works now. My daughter is 38 years old and has been there since 1970. They've never sterilized her.
The facility is well-run, with psychologists, case workers, doctors and nurses. Patients are kept clean, are fed well and are not abused in any way. Should they be abused, the worker would be fired.
The center has classes for speech, everyday hygiene, communication skills, etc., as well as field trips. The staff members who work with my daughter have a yearly review of her progress, and offer ideas for helping her in the future. I'm invited, and do attend. I've found these staff members to be very caring and hard-working
This news article was true as far as it went, but an update of how the center has changed should be published. Some people might assume it's still the way it was depicted in the article.
I've been pleased with my daughter's care, as I know others with family members there have been. I bring my daughter home for weekends and she's happy to come home, but she is just as happy when she gets back to the center. They can do more for her than I can by myself. People of Virginia should be proud of Central Virginia Training Center.
NELL C. SHERERTZ
ROANOKE
Faith doesn't promise happiness
IN CAL Thomas' June 22 column (``Total eclipse for a man who had the world''), he bemoans materialism and (surprise!) advocates religious faith as the key to happiness.
In 1978, Jonathan Freedman published ``Happy People,'' a survey of empirical research on what actually makes Americans happy. He reported the effects of many factors, including faith. He found that those who are religious are no happier than those who aren't. There was no relationship between happiness and belief in God, belief in a personal God as opposed to an impersonal one, or belief in an afterlife.
There were small but consistent differences in happiness between denominations. ``The happiest groups were the Unitarians and Quakers; the next happiest were the liberal Protestants (Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian). Catholics, Jews and conservative Protestants (fundamentalists, Baptists, etc.) were less happy and equally so.''
He found a strong relationship between happiness and confidence in one's guiding values. A feeling that life had meaning and direction also contributed strongly. ``But people who believe in God or accept an afterlife are not more likely to think their lives are meaningful. This is a surprising finding. The sense of meaning is what is important, whether or not it has a religious origin.''
Once again (surprise!), Thomas is off the mark.
JOHN HODGES
BLACKSBURG
Gay lifestyle violates nature's laws
I DON'T think I'll ever understand how your liberal newspaper survives in the most conservative part of Virginia (the lack of competition notwithstanding).
Your editorials (June 21, ``Supervisors shouldn't be censors'' and June 23, ``Motherhood and logic win the day'') supporting the so-called gay lifestyle tried to give legitimacy to a violation of nature's laws. I'm waiting until you write one supporting gay marriage.
Of course, it doesn't stop there. You constantly run down the National Rifle Association, and the Second Amendment that the NRA fights to protect. If the First Amendment were under attack, you'd sing a different tune.
Also, your support of the violation of the rights of consumers of a legal product (tobacco) is enough to cause a revolt.
President Clinton, Sarah Brady, Henry Waxman and Anne Donley may be your heroes. But for most of us, they're just an example of the type of people we need to fight if this nation is to remain ``the land of the free.''
RAYMOND MEADOWS
PEMBROKE
A prescription for decongestion
I'M SO sick of truck traffic at Exit 150 (Troutville-Fincastle-Cloverdale exit) off Interstate 81. Why can't truckers be made to use Exit 150B to access Truckstops of America? In other states, I've seen the state police sit at an exit where truck traffic is prohibited to make sure they use the designated route.
If you approach the intersection of U.S. 11 and U.S. 220 at the Interstate 81 exits, you're either going to experience traffic congestion from trucks going into the truck stop by stretching across three lanes, or you may experience being run over by truck traffic coming off the exit ramp. While trucks are stretched across three lanes, traffic backs up, and one car or truck might make it through the turn light.
The sign on I-81 telling truckers that access to Truckstops of America can be achieved by using Exit 150B may not be large enough for truckers to read. There seems to be a very simple solution to a very big problem at this interchange: Enforce the use of Exit 150B by trucks. Truckers may find that they can get to where they're going faster, and so can the rest of us.
KATHY SAMMONS
FINCASTLE
Support laws that value human life
SINCE THE O.J. Simpson tragedy, there's been much talk in the media regarding domestic violence across the country.
When abortion was first legalized in 1973, I attended a meeting regarding its effects on women and ``all'' of society. The main speaker, a physician, pointed out that when those in the medical profession receive payment for a service that destroys the very beginning of life, violence in every aspect of life will increase. Abortion is the ultimate abuse, and abortion has led us to an abuse-and-destroy mentality. The cost of one abortion is one human life.
Nicole Brown Simpson was one human life. The first human right is life. We should fight against policies that devalue human life. As citizens, we should work together so that our nation will uphold laws protecting everyone.
ANGELINA DALY
MONETA
Heed Einstein's words this fall
OUR CONSTITUTION is what makes us a stable community of people with a territory, economic life, culture and language in common. Destroy it, and we become a rudderless mass, and no longer a nation.
A group of his peers made the findings that Oliver North chose to trample on our Constitution.
Albert Einstein had it right when he stated, ``The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.''
His is the proper message to every Virginia voter this fall. Beware of those who would destroy our Constitution by making their own laws or who believe that the end justifies the means.
FRANKLIN M. RIDENOUR
ROANOKE
Let the president mind our business
AMANDA Cockrell's June 23 letter to the editor (``Taking pride in Clinton's war record'') said much of what's gone on in my mind as I have seen our president ridiculed on the editorial pages almost daily.
I, too, had a husband, brother-in-law and brother who served in World War II. I lost my fiance to whom I'd only been engaged for three months. My younger brother served in the Korean conflict. I had numerous other kin who protested or refused to serve in the Vietnam conflict. I'm extremely proud of them all. The letter writer told the story far better than I could.
I hope those finding it such great sport to pick on the president and Mrs. Clinton will tend their gardens, mind their sheep or pick their noses, and let our country's leader get on with the job we elected him to do.
FRANCES H. TAYLOR
ROANOKE
Elected School Board better?
I WOULD like to thank members of the Roanoke County School Board for the way they've managed the school system, and for their outstanding selection of a new school superintendent. We have two grandchildren in the county's school system, and take great interest in their education.
While I agree with the people's right to vote on school-board members, I think it will be almost impossible to elect people who will do as well as what has been done in the county for a number of years.
RAYMOND L. HALL
ROANOKE
by CNB