Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 15, 1993 TAG: 9310260302
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Your polls show most of us are opposed to the North American Free Trade Agreement. You then presume we must be misinformed. We don't understand. The unions, the Jesse Jacksons and the Ross Perots have misled us.
Not so. We can reason, and we know what's wrong with NAFTA.
We think the concepts are wonderful, but we just don't trust the sellers and other signers.
If supporters of NAFTA want to convince us, tell us what safeguards are built in for now. Tell us how the signers and enforcers would suffer personally if they fail to enact and enforce strong environmental laws, good minimum-wage laws, workman's safety and health-care requirements, and fair laws governing access to local markets.
Don't speak of side agreements to be made someday. Is a side agreement like if my bank loans me money and I promise to stop by someday to tell them when and how much I'll repay? Would you enter into any contract leaving your compensation and your liabilities to be determined at some later date, with your own money, that is?
If you ever want the public's support again, try acting like:
We understand what you're doing to us.
We're going to remember at election time.
It really is a New World Order.
ROBERT S. TERRY
BEDFORD
Voters ought to be troubled
IN WARREN Fiske's Sept. 6 news article, "Farris battling his past," Don Beyer labels Mike Farris' views as "troubling" - and they should be.
I feel the majority believe an overhaul of our present school system is long overdue. Evolution is taught, but creationism is denied equal footing. Jesus cannot be called the son of God, but he can be called the son of a b(the learning tree).
Gideons are no longer allowed to pass out New Testaments to students, but Planned Parenthood is welcome to pass out contraceptives. Abstinence is pushed aside and, in its place, "safe sex" is the battle cry. Tax credits are denied private academies and home schoolers, yet we have no say as to what our taxes support in the public school system.
Where is the neutrality and fairness? If striving for these make Farris a religious bigot, then label me one also.
We have a president who was alleged to have a past of pot smoking, womanizing and draft dodging. This did not seem to bother people too much, so why all this fear of a candidate with a religious past? If we try destroying Farris' candidacy for this reason, we are dead wrong. If we sow to the wind, we will reap a whirlwind.
C. BERKLEY STEVENS
ROANOKE
A fine tribute to a fine man
REGARDING Cody Lowe's Sept. 5 column entitled "This disciple left us much more than he ever took" about Stewart Robertson, who died a true disciple of Jesus:
I knew Stew and had worked with him for a short time. He would have dearly loved the article. I know personal feelings come into every article written; however, no truer words were ever written concerning Stew.
Lowe asks, " ... why couldn't someone else have faced the pain and trial of cancer ... rather than someone who spread so much sunshine ... ?"
In my opinion, God allowed Stew's illness to show his glory to the world. Confusing? Sometimes. You see, Stew's ability to spread so much sunshine, despite his illness, was one of the best ways to glorify our Lord. God could have cured Stew, but we would have attributed that to modern medicine. Instead, despite his cancer, he was still able to touch all of us. More than likely, Lowe would not have written this article at all if Stew had died of old age.
Thank you, Mr. Lowe, for doing a wonderful job at glorifying our Lord and Stewart Robertson all in the same breath. I can only hope I leave this world with those I love feeling the same about me.
KATIE YATES
SALEM
First let's reinvent Congress
PRESIDENT Clinton talks about the need for a structural reorganization of government. This proposed overhaul of government practices would eliminate waste in many departments in our federal bureaucracy. This process, if it is to be successful, can only begin in Congress.
Buy-outs and early retirement, mentioned in Vice President Gore's plan, should begin with older, comfortable congressmen who have operated the ill- equipped machinery of government for years.
This stamp-collecting, overdraft family of politicians, who have brought the ideology of lobbyists for special-interest groups, should be removed from their positions first.
These old, over-the-hill, politicians, who favor particular business groups for personal gain and instruct younger politicians to go along with the flow, need to be removed from government decision-making.
These business-as-usual, self-serving politicians have established a decadent process within the bureaucracy of our government. In other words, their well- established, smooth-talking governing process has got the federal bureaucracy in a rut.
These politicians with inexcusable, stale ideology must be replaced with political leaders who have new ideas if the wheels of government are to turn smoothly again.
WILLIAM D. STALLARD
ROANOKE
by CNB