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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 24, 1990                   TAG: 9007240359
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HONEST POLITICIAN TARGETED FOR RIDICULE

POLITICIANS are looked upon by many, many people as unworthy of trust or belief, of being on the take, representing only the powerful and influential and talking out of both sides of their mouths.

But once in a great while, miraculously, along comes an honest, respected, hard-working one who truly tries to represent the people fairly and impartially. Being such, though, makes him the target of ridicule and criticism, and generally being put down as being some sort of idiotic nut.

State Sen. Granger Macfarlane is the target for such critical remarks by the Roanoke Times & World-News, which never misses an oportunity to depict him as dumb, ignorant and out of touch with reality. The same can be said for this newspaper. I might add that the newspaper discounts the fact that the senator is enormously popular with the people. So the newspaper is telling me, in effect, that the people are also stupid.

Sen. Macfarlane has introduced a most sensible approach to some of the valley's problems. With the commonwealth almost broke, it certainly must be obvious to sensible, thinking people that we cannot have everything we want at once. So he has suggested that a priority list be drawn up of the valley's wants by a high-level committee and then proceed from there.

But no, everyone wants his pet project funded first, regardless of whether it really is needed. Can anyone imagine spending millions of dollars for a parkway extension from Vinton to the Explore Project, which probably never will be built, when the federal government does not have that kind of money to spend on unneeded and unwanted projects and Virginia certainly does not have its share, some $15 to $20 million? There are no money trees in Virginia, and the people will absolutely not tolerate a tax increase in order to fund such foolish ventures.

If the Roanoke Times & World-News thinks its constant criticism of the senator will eventually destroy his credibility, you had better think again. The situation just might be the other way around. PAUL W. TYREE GOODVIEW

by CNB