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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 24, 1993                   TAG: 9303240322
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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CHILDREN'S AGENDA IS NONPARTISAN

I WISH TO commend the Roanoke Times & World-News for the March 7 editorial on a "pro-children bias."

One reason it is so difficult to get the needs and issues affecting children on the public agenda is their lack of power, particularly political power. They don't vote.

Issues affecting children have reached crises levels. However, I hope we don't proceed in a partisan way to build an agenda for children. The opportunity and initiative they are being given with new leadership in Washington is not a partisan issue. Children are voiceless and vulnerable in an era of fiercely competing needs.

While all of our futures are connected to children and their needs, we often and correctly frame these issues in economic terms. In the final analysis, I suggest that the needs of the most vulnerable of our society are, first and foremost, moral issues and not only economic ones. If we proceed with our new opportunity for children on this basis, we will achieve much more in their interests and ours. RON HERRING ROANOKE

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