Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990 TAG: 9003232207
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DEBORAH EVANS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I'm not sure that I've had schedules this compact before, but really I was just attempting to be responsive to invitations," Terry said after a speech before the Roanoke Rotary Club. "It so happened that all these invitations came together."
Terry's appearances included an anti-drug talk with 550 students at William Fleming High School, where she told students about Virginia's new "use and lose" law. Under the law, teens with drug-related felony convictions will face deferments on getting their driver's licenses, or lose their licenses altogether.
She closed by encouraging the students to "do the best you can. That's the most you can ask and the least you can ask."
Terry then spoke at the annual awards luncheon of the Association of Retarded Citizens, followed by a speech at the annual meeting of the League of Older Americans. Her final appearance was a dinner speech at the Rotary Club.
During those talks, Terry also mentioned visiting the Vinton Historical Society museum, and an early morning meeting with some Roanoke City Council candidates.
In addressing the Rotarians, the attorney general joked that Virginia Military Institute "features more suits these days than the average department store."
But in interviews with reporters, Terry stood by her defense of VMI's all-male admissions policy saying the state's educational system has enough diversity to allow females to get an equivalent military education at Virginia Tech.
"The fact of the matter is, I take the law where I find it," she said many times during the day.
"There are some that say it is a `separate but equal' defense . . . Absent an equal rights amendment, the standard for discriminating against a person on account of gender is different from the standard for discriminating against a person on account of race," Terry said. "You don't have to show as much justification."
During each of her talks, Terry said her visit to Roanoke had been "extraordinary."
While at Fleming, Terry met a 22-year-old Harvard graduate who returned to Roanoke to work with disadvantaged youngsters. The young man told Terry he had chosen his work because his Irish-immigrant parents had taught him that he had an obligation to make a contribution, she said.
As Terry was leaving Fleming, she met an 8-year-old girl who wanted to know what the attorney general was going to do to save her dying cousin; an infant in need of a bone marrow transplant that had been turned down by the Medicaid program. Terry said the girl told her, "you might be able to do something about this."
Terry told the Rotarians about the accomplishments of her office, including a law allowing the use of DNA evidence in criminal trials and laws giving localities and the state more regulatory power over dumps.
Another law, effective July 1, will mean consumers no longer have to give out credit card numbers when writing checks.
by CNB