ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 25, 1997 TAG: 9701280107
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
Teachers: quit griping or just quit
EVER since my amble for the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, I've been constantly amazed by the intelligence, or lack thereof, of schoolteachers here in the valley. In my meetings and conversations at that time, I became convinced that they were only looking out for themselves. But since I was only talking with their representatives, I had no idea the mind-set about being monetarily and labor-abused was so prevalent throughout the profession.
Practically every day since Jeffrey T. Morris' Jan. 8 letter to the editor (``Be thankful for any salary raise'') appeared, we have been told of the horrid conditions under which teachers of this area are forced to work - and for the paltry sum our tight-fisted supervisors and council members part with for teachers to labor under those conditions.
I had assumed that teachers around here work in air-conditioned buildings, have teachers' lounges, buy their food at discount in school cafeterias, have safe parking places for their vehicles, get paid a year's salary for nine months of work, have a very enviable retirement plan, have sick leave and hospital insurance, and have a union (I've heard all the stuff about its not being a union, but it is) that protects even the worst absentees, drunks and ineffective teachers against dismissal.
If I were a teacher and as ill-treated as their letters suggest, I would be out looking for a better job. Let those waiting in the wings to get jobs as teachers find out for themselves the inhumane and stressful conditions under which teachers purportedly labor.
Outside of being drafted into the armed services, most of us live lives that are of our own choosing. If you don't like the pay, conditions, hours and whatever it takes to get the job done, quit - and don't bother us with your griping.
It's pretty hard to convince people that you are the victim when the product you are turning out is, on average, mediocre. Find out how to do the job better, and you will find you will have a better job.
DOUGLAS CHANDLER GRAHAM
SALEM
Stock market might save Social Security
I READ with interest Ellen Goodman's perception of the stock market and investing Social Security money in it (Jan. 14 column, ``Playing the stock market with Social Security''). If she thinks she will retire to a comfortable life earning 5.25 percent on certificates of deposit, then more power to her. I, like many, have my money in the stock market, and would like to see Social Security invested the same way.
As for "gambling" on the stock market, I would refer her to the Value Line Investment Survey where she could find companies such as Coca-Cola with 78 years of consecutive dividend payments or Gillette Co. with 31 percent annual return over the past five years. Investing in the very companies that make this nation great is not my idea of "playing" the stock market. This is a way to salvage our children's retirement. It deserves more than narrow-minded cliches.
JAMES C. BAY IV
HOT SPRINGS
Accusations hurt an honored veteran
REGARDING your Jan. 7 news article, ``Judge's foe accused of `vendetta''':
Jack Mills was called an anarchist, a blatant liar, and was also accused of telling ``half-truths.''
The definition of anarchist (a person who mocks or ignores rules, duties, orderly behavior, etc.) doesn't describe a retired Naval officer who, according to his military record, ``is one in a thousand in his dedication and devotion to duty,'' and a man who received the Navy Commendation Medal for service in Vietnam, an award of the secretary of the U.S. Navy.
Mills was also awarded other medals, including a Citation for Meritorious Service while serving as a naval officer in Danang, Vietnam, in 1967. In his spare time, he undertook a major project of rehabilitating the Danang Museum Park. He organized Vietnamese war orphans into a cleanup force to revitalize the park for the Vietnamese people under the Navy's civic-action program.
During that project, Mills noticed that many of those children needed medical attention. Through his efforts, those needing minor medical care were seen after each work period, while he took the more serious cases to the U.S. Overseas Mission Hospital. More than 1,700 children were treated during the month of May 1967.
In 1990 and 1991, he was a substitute teacher at the maximum-security center for youth in Tennessee. He has worked in numerous activities for troubled youth, and has also been involved in the Boy Scouts as cubmaster, scoutmaster and assistant director commissioner.
Your staff writer didn't seem to have any problem quoting a lawyer's unsubstantiated comments about Mills. What about some equal time for him? After all, there are too many veterans who are unappreciated. And this particular veteran is still very committed and involved in the future of our country: our youth. I know Mills, and he's no liar.
ELIZABETH JOHNSON
THAXTON
An insult to Jackson, Lee
I AM amazed and angered that The Roanoke Times would print such garbage (Jan. 21 Associated Press news article, ``Lee-Jackson-King day stirs up controversy among some'') as the quote from the leader of Virginia's chapter, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The leader referred to Martin Luther King Jr. as a ``great man'' and Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as ``treacherous Confederate generals.''
Lee and Jackson's records speak for themelves as to the great character they both possessed.
In my opinion, King was unfit to empty Lee and Jackson's chamber pot!
FRANK FERGUSON
COVINGTON
LENGTH: Long : 106 linesby CNB