
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 7, 1990                   TAG: 9007100414
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BRIEFLY PUT...

GIVE Virginians a break from charges of racism, will you? Some news articles - including ones about Gov. Douglas Wilder's travels and friendship with a billionaire's estranged wife, Patricia Kluge - pander to subtle racism, said the chairman of the General Assembly's Black Caucus last week. A different standard is being applied to Wilder, Del. William Robinson complained.

But the stories Robinson cites became news because Wilder has applied a different standard to himself. Wilder won't disclose the profits from his inaugural, probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, most of which are roughly equivalent to political contributions. The previous governor applied a different standard, and did disclose inaugural profits.

Since taking office, Wilder has used state aircraft for personal transportation, including to visit his friend Kluge, and he has resisted coming clean with the accounting. The governor's office says he won't reimburse $20,000 in state helicopter-operation costs. Previous governors applied a different standard, and were more careful about their personal use of state aircraft. Racism has nothing to do with any of this.

\ Congress did right in allowing states to borrow against fiscal 1991's authorization to restore imperiled food allotmentas under the Women, Infants and Children program. Every dollar spent on WIC saves $3 in future health costs for the program's clients. Rather than resort to such stopgaps again, Congress should make sure WIC is adequately funded in the future.

\ Convicts at Bland Correctional Center in the Programs Assisting Youth project tell it like it is: Drugs and alcohol abuse are the shortest route to a seriously messed=up life, and young people, if they've got any sense, will steer clear. PAY, sponsored by a prison-based Jaycee chapter formed by Bland inmates, is similar to programs launched by inmates in other prisons to help young people avoid the mistakes that landed them in the slammer. It's nice Bland inmates are trying to do some good while they're doing time.

\ One and a half cheers for the Bush Administration's concession that permitted a 93-nation agreement on ozone protection. America will provde technical assistance to poor countries in phasing out production of chlorofluorocarbons. U.S. foot-dragging on such efforts is baffling; the Third World didn't create the ozone problem.

by CNB