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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 31, 1992                   TAG: 9203310406
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

LACK OF SUPPORT HINDERS MANY YOUNG

It's bad enough that a child/teen-ager should grow up not even seeing his/her father/mother, but some have to grow up on the income of one parent. They pass all these new laws about actually doing something about the parent who abandons children, and still nothing is done.

It's hard when you haven't got enough money to pay for food, new school clothes, fees and doctor bills. How can you afford to create a life for yourself with nothing?

I have had to work at night since I was 14, plus go to school during the day to support myself and my mother. I have written to Congressman Jim Olin numerous times. But still nothing has been done. Even after they find my father it will take another six months to take care of my case. They have told me this story three times in the past two years.

I'm only one in a million people who share this problem. Now I ask, what can be done? DAVID UNDERWOOD ROANOKE