NOTHING `ABSURD' ABOUT VMI'S FIGHT

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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993                   TAG: 9301250264
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
NOTHING `ABSURD' ABOUT VMI'S FIGHT
THE COMMENTARY, "Stand, VMI, like a stone wall against feminist homogenizers," published Dec. 26 in the Roanoke Times & World-News, was a most welcome change from your own editorials concerning the admission of women to VMI. It was written by Mark W. Powell, a writer who lives in Maine and who attended the U.S. Air Force Academy in the early 1980s.
His article presented an objective view of gender integration resulting from the Supreme Court's ruling 10 years ago that schools receiving federal or state funds could not discriminate on the basis of gender. Powell acknowledges that worthwhile results have been achieved by this action of the Supreme Court, but that there are drawbacks as well. He sees the problem as one of a false "political correctness" forced on the majority by a social minority group, radical feminists and others, which wants to homogenize our entire society - an impossible goal.
Contrary to Powell's objective views regarding a change in VMI's all-male admission policy, the tenor of your paper's editorials on this subject has belied any objectivity whatsoever. Instead, your strong prejudice, which at times has been demeaning, sarcastic and unjustly critical, has blinded your readers to the overall scope and content of the issue.
In your Nov. 22 editorial, "VMI fight goes from bad to absurd," you stated, "There's a ludicrously anachronistic air about the entire issue." What you meant is that VMI is not considered politically correct in today's social environment, therefore the issue is ridiculous and obsolete.
You also stated that VMI's "continuing the attempt to defend the indefensible" is a source of embarrassment to Virginians. To the contrary, Virginians and other Americans recognize that for more than 150 years VMI has served Virginia and the nation through its superior educational and exemplary disciplinary-training system. Their question thus becomes: Why should such a proven record be abandoned to the whims of a social minority group without putting up a good fight?
Let VMI stay "out of step" and rest its case on its own ideals and principles. ELEANOR P. YOWELL BEDFORD

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB