ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997 TAG: 9704220115
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
Sculpture project should go forward
I HAVE been a professional artist for 30 years, and have experienced the agony and ecstasy that comes with my profession. My recent experience as one of four finalists for the Mill Mountain sculpture competition exemplified the full range of emotions.
First, the thrill of being a finalist. I worked most of the summer on the maquette to be presented in November to the selection committee. When another design was chosen, it was disappointing. But I had confidence that the best design had been selected, and looked forward to seeing it installed.
I was shocked to read your article (April 8 Extra section, ``Sculpture in limbo'') about the winners' plight. As finalists, we were under the impression that the only steps left before the project's completion were to select a winning design and raise the necessary funds. Now we find that Roanoke City Council may not even approve the project!
I cannot believe artists were asked to do so much work for a project that was in question. We assumed City Council wanted a sculpture at the site and had asked the Arts Council to find the best design.
How many fellow artists would have invested the time and energy had we known the project's viability was tentative? I am sure each design, as did mine, represented many more hours of work than was covered by the small fee paid. The $200 was almost more of an insult than a reward.
The winning design is excellent and represents a sensitive artistic response to the challenge of a special sculpture for Mill Mountain. Now, either let the artists do the job they were selected to do or reimburse them for the time and talent they expended. To force them into the middle of a controversy not of their making, and having nothing to do with their art, is unconscionable. By holding to their end of the original ``bargain,'' the Arts Council and City Council will give all visual artists in our community a vote of confidence in their professionalism.
JUDITH R. DAMON
ROANOKE
Of Clinton's IQ and valley cronyism
I FOUND two letters to the editor very interesting on your March 26 Opinion page.
Randy Newberry (``Toll roads go in the wrong direction'') said: ``I know our president cannot be this stupid." Oh yes he can, and is. The really stupid ones are those who voted for him and gave him another chance to sell the bedroom and the country down the drain.
The second letter by David Courey (``Taxed to the max in Roanoke County'') is right on! I've been here more than a year, and I find that Roanoke County, Roanoke city, Salem and Vinton are run by cronyism and men (where are the women?) who cannot make tough decisions without hiring a consultant. This is the worst-run area in the United States.
JIM FICHTEN
ROANOKE
Campaign spending isn't a top concern
THANK YOU very much, Phil T. Pafford (March 30 letter to the editor, ``Voters received fair warning''), but the majority of Americans are very satisfied with our president, Bill Clinton. The economy is booming, jobs are there for those who want to work, and inflation is nonexistent.
Sure, many organizations and interests gave money to the president's campaign. So what? It's a fact of history and American politics that big money is used to re-elect those in both parties.
Most people have more to worry about than who is sending money for politicians' campaigns. As Christ said, ``Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.'' We need to pray for our elected leaders, not criticize and condemn.
BOB GREGORY
ROANOKE
Get tough with illegal immigrants
FRANK Ellis' letter to the editor (March 20, "Immigration policy needs a quick fix") addresses an urgent matter. David Zachov's eloquent letter (March 22, "Meanness of spirit, not aliens, will destroy America") misses the point. We're facing a crisis of epic proportions in the Southwest with illegal immigration in excess of 5 million people!
They want our goodies (i.e., welfare) but not citizenship, except when they can vote for the Democratic Party. Moreover, many of them are militant in their desire to return to Northern Mexico what they consider to be its ``lost'' parts - that is, Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas.
I propose the following:
Arrest illegal immigrants. They should have no ``rights'' since they are criminals. Process these felons in the usual way, with mug shots and fingerprints.
Feed them, give them $50, and take or send them home. The women who came here to have babies should go, and the babies should be stripped of U.S. citizenship.
Warn illegal immigrants that if they are caught again, they will get a year in a jail, and will forfeit any chance of legal immigration.
Bill their mother country (Mexico or whatever) for the entire cost of arrest, processing, repatriation or incarceration. Freeze that country's assets in the United States until it pays the bill.
This will cause an immediate furor, complete with accusations of racism, inhumanity, mean-spiritedness, etc., from the usual suspects. However, it will result in far fewer illegals, as Mexico and other countries currently sending us their unemployed will keep their people home. There, they will be unable to vote Mexico's interests in U.S. elections - especially against tougher U. S. immigration laws. And these countries will likely discover that it's cheaper to educate and train their people.
DICK LAMBERT
EAGLE ROCK
If one teen tries suicide, it's an epidemic
UNFORTUNATELY, the news story regarding teen suicide attempts in Botetourt County ("No epidemic of teen suicide attempts," April 11) missed a very serious point.
The whole reason for your article seemed to be to point a finger at the supposed originator of the "rumor." Although I can't see how it is important, this same person could not have been the originator because I heard this same "rumor" before the funeral service, where it supposedly started.
But the important thing is that if one child either attempts to or does take his or her life, in my mind and to other parents I have talked to, it is an epidemic. The point is not how many, or who is saying how many; it is that any youth, one or more, feels there is no other option than suicide.
Unfortunately, there has been more than one attempt among Botetourt youths in the past months. But even if there has been "just" one, it is of great concern to us as parents and church members, and to the community as a whole.
If "rumors" can spur parents, community leaders and school personnel to further action to help our youth, then they have served a good purpose. Let's focus our time and energies on the real problems our youth have to face, not on trying to put a face on who might have started a "rumor."
BONNIE DAVIS
FINCASTLE
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