ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997               TAG: 9703270006
SECTION: EDITORIAL                PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Give city's leaders credit for convictions

THIS WAS the headline on your March 19 editorial: ``Keep firefighting safe from politics.'' Then, in the first sentence, you made it political.

First, you tell city residents how happy they should be with the decision. Then, you urge Roanoke City Council not to back down.

After this, you strongly suggest that the decisions by council members Linda Wyatt, Jim Trout and Nelson Harris were influenced by the Roanoke Professional Firefighters union. But you never suggest that Mayor David Bowers and council members John Parrott, Carroll Swain and William White may have been influenced by city hall.

It would have better served the community to assume that each council member voted yes or nay on his or her own convictions, and not because of being influenced by either the firemen or the city.

When you write slanted editorials, they should be signed.

RICHARD A. HALL

ROANOKE

U.S. 221 must be made safer

REGARDING the March 2 news article, ``U.S. 221 plan to fix S-curve reignites fight'':

Roanoke and surrounding areas are opposed to change. People living in this area are slowly but surely increasing the chances that generations of Roanokers to come will have to relocate and seek employment outside the area.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has known for more than 20 years that the U.S. 221 strip of road that begins with the S-curve and ends near Cotton Hill Road has been extremely dangerous. If VDOT had addressed the problem years ago, the homestead issue would have been just another house that was sadly taken for the progress of growth of the community. Also, the businesses that lie along the close edge of U.S. 221 were considered growth for the Back Creek and U.S. 221 area when they located there.

As a new resident to the U.S. 221 area, I've noticed that for such a dangerous corridor there are no guard rails on the strip of road nearest to the creek. I'm not saying that the issue is the guard rails, but something needs to be done regarding the road. And the sooner the better.

GENIA NICHOLS

ROANOK

Working for the car payment

REGARDING your interview with Lawrence Burrell (March 2 Economy section, "One little paycheck just doesn't do it in a tight economy"):

One can easily read this article and see the solution: Get rid of the car payment! Anyone willing to pay $365 for a car payment when his or her rent is only $260 deserves to work two jobs.

I think your staff writer could have found a better example. After all, some people in the Roanoke Valley are working two jobs just to feed their family.

PAGE P. MARSHALL

ROANOKE

Society bends rules; God does not

I WANT to thank church minister Kelly Sisson and deacon Dale Jenkins for the fine compliment they paid the Southern Baptist Convention (Feb. 23 Extra section article, ``With mixed emotions, tiny Glade Baptist Church is parting ways with the Southern Baptist Convention''). The compliment was that the convention believes in God's holy word and tries to live by it.

Two things on which Glade Baptist Church disagreed with the convention:

The Bible is inerrant and infallible. God says this in no uncertain terms. He warns us not to add to or take away from his word. Everything in the Bible came from Jesus through the Holy Spirit. When you reject the accuracy of the Bible, you reject Jesus.

The Southern Baptist Convention doesn't believe in ordaining homosexuals. God says homosexuality is a serious sin (Leviticus 20:13). Somehow I don't believe he would approve of his people ordaining sin. However, you would find God's people with open arms if homosexuals or other sinners would repent and change their lives through Jesus.

I am baffled why anyone would want to claim to be something they don't believe in. To be a Christian, you must believe and trust in Jesus Christ. And this includes his word. The convention is just doing what God demands.

God's word is firm. Society changes and bends the rules and laws to suit its pleasures and desires. God is always the same.

DICK J. MAYES

HOLLINS

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