ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 15, 1996 TAG: 9601150005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTER
THOSE recently elected representatives who populate the U.S. House understand the overwhelming concern of voters who elected them to office. Voters feel that we, as a nation, have been sold into financial slavery by presidents and Congresses who spend money we don't have for things we don't need or cannot afford. Even needed things carry outrageous costs when managed by the federal government.
The Senate has benefited little from the infusion of financial responsibility these new representatives have brought to Washington. Many well-intentioned senior senators are out of touch with the reality of their constituents who have real concerns about our nation and its headlong rush into bankruptcy. Those constituents feel strongly that a government that constantly spends far more than it takes in has to cut spending or increase taxes.
I support the actions of the House in demanding that we, as a nation, start down the long, painful road to a balanced budget and stop the growth of the federal government and welfare programs.
There are far too many individuals in this great country who go from the cradle to the grave never having worked for a paycheck. We have far too many second- and third-generation welfare recipients who have no idea what it's like to go to a job. We have far too many unwed mothers who continue to have illegitimate children by a variety of males because our system of welfare encourages instead of discourages such behavior. Welfare has become the crack cocaine of the lazy. They get hooked on something for nothing - welfare - and never have the desire or incentive to kick the habit and go to work.
To those of us who carried water for cooking and bathing from the spring in a bucket, ate food cooked on a wood stove and went to an outside johnny house, work wasn't and isn't a bad word. It was and is the honorable, expected thing to do.
To those in the House who persist in their quest for a balanced budget, I say go to it. That, after all, is the work we elected you to do.
BILL CORBITT
CHAMBLISSBURG
Gingrich deserves nation's gratitude
ATTENTION all whiny, crybaby, leftist, belligerent, bleeding-heart Democrats: Shut up! I'm so sick of hearing you gripe and moan about Newt Gingrich, when he's the only politician since Harry Truman who is truly trying to make a difference and standing by his every word.
When I was younger (and dumber), I was a Democrat. I thought that making everyone equal was a good thing, and that sameness produced harmony. Then, unlike many Democrats, I got a job and began paying my bills, welfare's bills and Medicaid's bills. And you know what happened? I found out equality stinks. Why would I want to be equal to some welfare leech sucking off of the blood of society and doing nothing to improve myself?
So I decided that I would work harder and be better than those people, and someday I would find prosperity. Yet, five years later, I still seem to be struggling to get ahead. Why? Because 52 percent of everything we earn goes to pay some form of ridiculous taxation.
When the brainwashed, Democratic lever-pulling elderly cry over Medicare because they're too stubborn to read the benefits that the GOP's changes will bring to them, I say tough! When the greedy welfare class says ``gimme, gimme, gimme,'' and there's nothing left because the country's bankrupt, I say tough! You've been following the Democratic dinosaur for 40 years, and you've run the country into a canyon of debt. Gingrich has been in power for one year and has done more to help this nation in that year than Democrats have in all 40 previous years combined.
CLAY COEY
BLACKSBURG
Children learn from others' traditions
REGARDING Amina Al-Hindi's Jan. 1 letter to the editor, ``Christmas was on display in public schools'':
I literally had to bite my knuckles and scream. Where do the letter writer's children attend school? I'd like to know where this school is that shows such respect for the Christian faith.
I'm proud that my children respect all religions. They know December isn't just the ``Christmas month.'' Each December, my children come home humming songs of Hanukkah. They love to tell me about Jewish traditions and games, and they know that Christ was born a Jew. How sad it is that other families cannot be exposed in our schools to the madonna, the star, the wise men and the Christ child. We make sure that we expose them to everything but the true meaning of Dec. 25.
The basis of Christian holy days has been swept under the carpet along with our traditions and the development of our children' faith. Let's not forget that children need to share in each other's excitement over special days. School shouldn't be just a function where children press their noses into books. They need to learn from each other, socially and respectfully.
Would someone please show my children the baby Jesus on display in our public schools? I'd love to hear them sing carols in school pageants. Being one of many room mothers who organize parties, we're instructed that there should never be any Christian influence. We are supposed to stick with snowmen, sleighs, reindeer and winter themes in December. So here we are, the majority, listening to our children sing and talk of everything but Christmas.
No need to worry, Al-Hindi. The public schools are making sure that they keep separated from the church - the Christian church, that is.
KATHRYN C. GREISER
SALEM
Government debt is the culprit
REGARDING Walter Russell Mead's Jan. 1 commentary, ``There's a message for U.S. as workers arise'':
His commentary seeks to make a point by obscuring the real one. To draw any conclusions about capitalism by making comparisons between the technocratic kleptocracy of Salinas' Mexico, the Gosplan Mafioso of Russia, and the strikes by the pampered and privileged public-sector unions of France is ludicrous. If these disparate situations have anything in common, it's that government elites have warped the market for their benefit. Thus private investment is difficult at best in Mexico and Russia, though billions of dollars pour out of these nations into Swiss banks and Riviera casinos. In France, the public-sector unions are attempting to extort a standard of living that's unsustainable and leaves 12 percent of their countrymen unemployed, with further job erosion inevitable if conditions aren't changed.
What all three of these situations have in common is a massive public sector being financed, in the case of Mexico and Russia, by international ``loans,'' and in France by enormous government debt. The erosion in living standards of the working class isn't caused by governments spending too little, but rather that the enormous public sectors are consuming the wages of the workers through ever-higher taxes and/or inflation.
What Mead should realize is that no matter how educated or benevolent his beloved policy wonks and government regulators may be, in a computer-connected international economy, capital flows and exchange-rate changes will quickly defeat any attempt by a government to rig its economy, and that paying the bill widens the income differential as the holders of government debt lay claim to the resources (oil reserves, hard currency or government revenues) of the nation.
SCOTT ANGELL
HILLSVILLE
A tasteless way to sell a brew
THE MILL Mountain Brewing Co. advertisement (Dec. 17 edition) that showed three wise men following the star and finding a beer bottle wasn't cute but tasteless. Making fun of another's faith is never appropriate. I expected better of The Roanoke Times.
DOROTHY-BUNDY T. POTTER
LYNCHBURG
Garbage piles up in Bedford County
EIGHTEEN months ago, Bedford County changed its garbage-collection system. We went from one of the cleanest and most cost-efficient garbage-disposal systems to a complete disaster.
If you tried to put garbage into a collection box the day after Christmas, you know what I'm referring to. People of Bedford County deserve better than this since we, the taxpayers, are paying for this service. Everyone blames everyone else for the problem and no one - the hauler, landfill operators, county administrator or members of the Board of Supervisors - will take credit for messing up our garbage system.
Bedford County's so-called leaders are now talking about selling the landfill since the county doesn't seem to have the capability of managing it. They have also proposed guarded collection sites. I wonder if the guards will lock up and go home when containers overflow on holiday weekends?
RICHARD H. RUFF
BEDFORD
LENGTH: Long : 156 linesby CNB