Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 8, 1993 TAG: 9310280316
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
With a "buy now and pay later" mentality, military spending is a looming factor in our deficit problems today. While Republicans have cut into social and economic programs in an effort to fund their military-spending appetites, Democrats are trying to tax it away. Either way, tax-paying citizens suffer.
Military spending is the single largest expense in the federal budget ($277 billion proposed for 1994). Unfortunately, military-spending reductions have not been part of the deficit-reduction debate, and the deficit-reduction package recently adopted by Congress did not include a single cut.
Even though economic strength is becoming more important in international affairs today than large weapons arsenals, the United States continues to outspend all other countries. Our spending contributes to worldwide military spending, as countries try to keep up or develop arsenals to potentially protect themselves from us, the last superpower.
Even after the disintegration of the Soviet Union (which was related to its own excessive military spending, causing economic collapse), our spending has remained at Cold War levels. Remnants and relics of that and other past wars continue to burden us, even after they have outgrown their purposes.
According to the Center for Defense Information (a private organization directed by retired military personnel that monitors U.S. defense spending), we still have about 200,000 troops in Europe. At the end of 1992, we had more than 45,000 "permanently forward deployed military personnel" in Japan, even though they no longer need us. More than 40,000 troops are in Korea. The CDI is circulating a list of unneeded Cold War weapons, which, if eliminated, would save more than Clinton's deficit-reduction package without tax increases, without benefit reductions and with no loss of American defense capabilities.
If death and destruction aren't enough to deter this country from perpetuating war, maybe money will. According to media reports and polls, reducing the deficit is a major concern of the American public. If more people accepted the reality of what military spending contributes to the deficit, would they begin to break their conditioned response of raising a president's ratings when he takes a military action, and scold him instead for the waste and theft of it?
Americans who resent tax increases while government spending remains high should voice their opinions and support reductions of wasteful and unnecessary military spending.
COLLEEN REDMAN
FLOYD
Exposing shame of area doctors
HOW FORTUNATE we are in having such an alert media corps, so sensitive to any encroachment on the holy land of abortion rights! Prompt front-page reporting (Aug. 21 news story by Cody Lowe, "Anti-abortionist regrets timing") and broadcasters' sleuthing exposed the dire threat to women's health presented by a postcard mailing revealing three area doctors as abortionists, a fact they have not denied - and apparently could not deny. This threat to physicians and women's safety and welfare was thus made apparent, clearly and prominently, although the continuing methodical annihilation of 2,000-plus unborn babies a year in the Roanoke area - and more than 11/2 million nationwide - was never noted or mentioned.
If there is shame indeed in being labeled as an abortionist, then there is yet hope for the fading moral state of the nation in the abhorrence of this ancient barbaric act of desperation. And there is encouragement, too, in the substantial number of principled physicians who refuse to deny their Hippocratic oath to "do no harm," even when their nominal representative, the American Medical Association, has yielded to the political pressures of aggressive feminism. If, on the other hand, the abortionists feel no disgrace in the appellation, they should be grateful for the free publicity the postcard mailing provided.
As to Planned Parenthood's injured response to this "mean-spirited tactic," it is understandable that the nation's largest provider and promoter of abortion would resent any implied criticism of salutary activities that have "benefited" womanhood by the elimination of more than 30 million unborn babies over the past 20 years - half of them clearly females whose right to life was forcibly overridden by the self-proclaimed rights of their unwilling custodians. In any event, Planned Parenthood can rest secure in the knowledge that its ever- vigilant media guardians stand ready to leap to the defense in the face of any threat, real or implied.
LOUIS A. PATRICK
SALEM
The secret of youth?
I READ Jackie Wimmer's July 9 letter to the editor, "Don't peddle more pedalers on Roanoke," griping about adults behaving like overgrown kids, riding bicycles and messing up traffic on our community's streets. As a 65-year-old former couch potato, recently turned cycling enthusiast, I would like to report on my personal experience trying to act like a kid again.
I joined a local bike club, and in April began to ride my bike regularly to prepare for a major bicycling event scheduled for July, in which club members were to participate. Over a period of four months, I was able to increase my bike riding to about 100 miles a week. During the last week in July, I joined 19 other members of the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club for the 21st annual bike ride across Iowa, a 530-mile ride over a week's span. More than 8,000 bicyclists from all over the world participated.
The bottom line of all this frivolous activity: I have taken off more than 25 pounds of flab and am at a weight that I haven't seen since I was 18. My cholesterol has dropped 50 points and best of all, I feel like a kid again.
My advice to other couch potatoes: Dust that bike off and join in the activities of your local bike club. The good fellowship and exercise can make you, too, feel like a kid again.
LARRY REHFIELD
ROANOKE
Catholic Church offers meaning
I FELT sad in reading Dennis Lucera's Aug. 27 letter to the editor, "Pious, unholy papal words," about Pope John Paul II's visit to the United States. I was sad that he harbors such anger, and that such misconceptions continue to persist. Lucera mentions the church's role in past offenses, pillage of the native peoples and abuses toward women (witch-burning). These issues have been addressed.
Just recently, the pope offered apologies to native peoples for any wrongs done to them during the "conquest" of the Americas. The church has also admitted failure in past actions toward women and "heretics." I see no point in painting the present church with the brush of the past, only partially "wrong." I would not condemn Lucera for his ethnic roots.
One enduring myth suggested by Lucera is that of the Vatican's fabulous wealth. Why has it run in the red for the past 10 years or so? Its wealth isa mostly in art and real estate. The art is held for humanity, and there is no great clamor for cathedrals in the real-estate market.
Yes, the Catholic Church has erred in some of its actions in the past 2,000 years, but it has primarily offered hope and meaning to millions in the name of Jesus Christ. We are all growing in wisdom and understanding. May we show each other patience and tolerance in that difficult process of growth.
REV. THOMAS MAGRI
RADFORD
Cranwell is valued valley resource
I HAVE become extremely angry at the continued criticism in the Roanoke Times & World-News of Del. C. Richard Cranwell. I have known Cranwell since he moved to Vinton in 1968 and have watched him rise through the ranks of the General Assembly to become one of Virginia's most respected and effective legislators.
The newspaper acknowledged that Cranwell violated no law by investing in an insurance business, but it suggested that he has violated some "smell" test. I assume the all-knowing nose resides with the editorial writer (Aug. 28 editorial, "Cranwell: There oughta be a law").
Cranwell loves and cares about the Roanoke Valley, and is one of its strongest resources.
We have the Julian Wise Rescue Squad Museum, which was put in place to honor Wise, a Roanoker who started the first rescue squad in the United States.
There would be no museum without Cranwell. It attracts many visitors from across the nation and annually adds many thousands of dollars to the valley's economy.
When establishment of the museum was being considered, a group of us went to Cranwell and asked if he could help us get $500,000 to start the museum. We sat in his office, and to our joy and awe, he called Richmond and got a commitment for $500,000 to be put in the budget. Every year since then, Cranwell has continued to fight for operating funds for the museum.
When Southwest Virginia lost A.L. Philpott, it was a tremendous blow.
Thankfully, we have Cranwell who, in all of the legislators' surveys, was ranked second only to A.L. Philpott in the General Assembly. I do not understand why the Roanoke Times & World-News is bashing him.
GORDON WATSON
VINTON
by CNB