Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 21, 1993 TAG: 9309220322
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
First, my statement was that I would not want to teach three courses a semester, not three a year.
Most of my interview with Mr. Walzer was devoted to my case for Virginia Tech's faculty being involved in teaching and research. I discussed my preference for teaching undergraduates, and said that I wouldn't want a job that was either all research or all teaching. I noted that when I had had jobs that were all research, I really missed interacting with students, but while I love teaching, I would find doing just that unsatisfying.
We discussed my other responsibilities and the work required (20 hours a week) to teach a course in engineering design.
Finally, by emphasizing only the contrast with high-school teaching, Mr. Walzer made it sound as if I were gratuitously insulting high-school teachers, whom I greatly respect.
Mr. Walzer's factual error may have been a simple mistake, but by printing it out of context without verification, he completely distorted and misrepresented my position, in serious violation of journalistic ethics.
If much of the information in this series of articles is as inaccurate as this small bit, your newspaper has done a real disservice to higher education.
CHARLES W. BOSTIAN
BLACKSBURG
\ Good riddance to trade pact
WHY WOULD a president who has aspirations to pass a health-care bill jeopardize its passage by associating himself with a seriously flawed and probably doomed piece of trash like the NAFTA treaty?
Getting the health-care bill passed this year is going to be a struggle at best. By bringing up the North American Free Trade Agreement at the same time, it is going to divert attention from health care and give the impression that Clinton doesn't really consider our health of importance.
More than 100 congressmen and congresswomen have begged Clinton to give his attention to health care and let Henry Kissinger and George Bush pass their own NAFTA treaty if they can.
If the billions of dollars being spent by the 30 families that own and run Mexico and additional billions being spent by Chase Manhattan Bank and others on lobbyists and newspaper articles won't convince the American public, then all the kings' horses and all the kings' men won't help.
NAFTA is dead and good riddance. The Democratic Party did not write it nor will it help U.S. workers. It is the worst piece of legislation to appear on the scene since the 1980s.
JACK FRAZIER
PETERSTOWN, W.VA.
\ Asheville knows parkway's value
I HAVE followed the recent debate over allowing "development" along the Blue Ridge Parkway with great interest. Initially, I was not very concerned. I thought that no one, not even in Roanoke County, could possibly be stupid enough to ravish a unique national treasure. I see that I was wrong.
Several weeks ago, I took some time off and my wife and I drove the full length of the Blue Ridge Parkway. One of the things that really caught my attention is that the area right around Roanoke is the only part of the parkway that is already becoming an eyesore from urban sprawl.
Contrast this with the area around Asheville, N.C. There, people understand the value of the parkway, and the value of the tourist dollars it brings. You can drive the parkway through and past Asheville and you would never know you were near a large city.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is an absolutely unique and invaluable piece of this country. Unfortunately, when it was established, the National Park Service was given limited authority over the land on both sides of it. In hindsight, we can see that this was a great mistake, at least in areas where unthinking bumpkins are allowed to make decisions that affect the parkway forever. I suppose we will just have to terminate the parkway some miles north of Roanoke and start it again at Rt. 220, and let the section in between become just another ordinary road. What a waste!
9BOB SHELL
RADFORD
by CNB