Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 28, 1993 TAG: 9311300349
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
McConnell is correct in predicting that the electronic village has the potential to create a job base that will grow and that the growth can come from small entrepreneurial companies. He is dead wrong, though, when he predicts that it won't happen because Virginia Tech does not understand entrepreneurs. One has only to look at the success of Virginia Tech's Research Park and its promotion of entrepreneurial efforts there as convincing evidence. McConnell falls into the same trap as a small minority of Blacksburg business people who find it popular to criticize Tech, even as the university extends its resources to help promote free enterprise and the entrepreneurial spirit.
My personal experiences with entrepreneurs have been that they always see the glass as half-full, not half-empty as McConnell seems to, and the successful ones have been those who expend their energies taking advantage of available resources and new concepts, such as the Blacksburg Electronic Village, rather than criticizing one of the hands extended to help them.
The headline writer also sees the glass as half-empty and says that our ``chance at good jobs is slipping away.'' Nothing could be further from the truth if entrepreneurs take advantage of the research results of this unique experiment and build their commercial objectives on research results that match their company's expertise.
RICHARD B. TALBOT
BLACKSBURG
Comic is racist toward white men
THE ROANOKE Times & World-News started a new comic, ``Where I'm Coming From,'' that has now twice in its short tenure proved to be unfairly racist to whites in its content. The Nov. 8 edition chides white men for daring to complain of being ``dumped on'' by blacks, women, etc., for past injustices.
I take issue with this comic for to reasons:
First, as a white or European-American, I take no responsibility nor do I hold any guilt for what previous white men have done before. Does society execute a murderer's child as well as the murderer? I'm responsible and accountable only for my behavior toward others. I treat all people with the fairness and civility that I expect in return. I refuse to accept any culpability for what has been done in the past by others. It's time to move on and deal with the present, rather than plant bitter seeds of resentment for the future.
Second, I feel this comic perpetuates the double standard of racism. You'd never dare publish one that was racist against minorities, yet we must constantly be assaulted by anti-white innuendos. If racism is wrong, it cannot be tolerated from anyone, despite past injustices. Two wrongs never have and never will make a right.
CHARLES MAZZA
MEADOWS OF DAN
Hero status doesn't qualify him for office
EVEN IN the Old Dominion, the most conservative of all the states, Republicans were unable to ram a right-wing fanatic down the throats of Virginia voters. Learning nothing from the Mike Farris defeat, they've dug even deeper into the right-wing bag and come up with a Senate candidate who's not only a zealot, but a convicted liar and crook as well. The fact that his conviction was overturned by a Reagan-appointed judge in no way mitigates the seriousness of his crimes. Incidentally, his answer to the gun-control argument is to sell more bullet-proof vests.
They boast that he's risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Anyone who knows anything at all about the military will tell you that an academy graduate who's advanced no higher than lieutenant colonel after 18 years is considered to have reached his level of incompetence. Promotions to that rank are automatic for graduates of any of our service academies.
It's true that Oliver North has a great combat record. So do a million other GIs, but that fact alone doesn't qualify any of them to hold high public office. We've been burned too many times by electing war heroes who had nothing else to recommend them.
JOHN W. SLAYTON
ROANOKE
Malicious killings of beloved pets
I LIVE in a beautiful, scenic area that local people call Sugar Grove - a place surrounded by mountains, streams and wildlife. There are also lots of hunters who come here. I'm not opposed to hunting for food, but I am opposed to hunting and killing our beloved pets.
I recently found a neighbor's Labrador retriever lying dead beside the road. The dog was the pet of a precious little boy. Whoever killed it wanted everyone to see what they'd done, because the rope that they had dragged the dog with had a red flag on it and the hunter's arrow was left in its body.
A similar incident occurred last year, except that hunter tried to hide the dog under some brush. These killings were not accidental, but done with malicious intent.
If a hunter cannot distinguish wild game from a well-cared-for pet, then he should keep his hind end out of the woods and out of Sugar Grove! That sort of cruel, sadistic behavior doesn't belong here. It gives hunters a bad reputation and causes much heartache.
DEBBIE WAGENBRENNER
CHRISTIANSBURG
Blackouts a possibility
HARRIET Hodges' Nov. 7 letter to the editor (``The fight is for energy conservation'') is loaded with well-meaning but misinformed statements about energy needs in this area. She claims Arcs wishes to ``lend a megaphone to faint voices.'' A megaphone is certainly not the need of the opposition to this power line, whose voices have been at a volume far exceeding the content of their message.
Ms. Hodges also claims Appalachian Power Co. and American Electric Power ``hire advertising consultants to scare us with `blackouts'.'' As an advertising and education consultant for Apco, the intent of pointing out the possibility of blackouts isn't to scare but to educate. In fact, Apco would be remiss if it did not point out the long-term consequences of inadequate transmission.
The implication made by her seems to be that blackouts aren't a real possibility, but are something made up by a consultant as a scare tactic. I can speak from first-hand knowledge about blackouts, since I lived through one in New England in 1965 and daily blackouts in Mexico City in the early '70s. They aren't only enormously inconvenient, but are a major economic hardship as well as environmentally damaging.
Ms. Hodges seems to imply that blackouts can't happen here. The facts speak otherwise. This summer (June 9 through Sept. 2) Apco experienced transmission overloads on 11 different days, causing cutbacks in generation at five different Apco generation plants and an economic loss to the Apco area of more than $850,000. As customer demands continue to grow, transmission overloads will only become more severe and more frequent and the likelihood of blackouts will increase. This dosn't mean we should be scared. It means we should plan ahead, which is why Apco is proposing to build a new transmission line.
BILL TANGER
Appalachian Power Co. consultant
ROANOKE
Rocks could make city safe
WHILE looking at the creeks and riverbeds during the dry weather, we see rocks galore. I believe that lifting the rocks to the river side would deepen the bed and make the city safe from another overflow. It could also give work to a few people who are in need.
EDITH ALL
ROANOKE
Article illustrates how we've strayed
I'VE KNOWN for a long time that the Roanoke Times & World-News is extremely liberal, but I think you've gone a little too far with your Nov. 18 article ``Pregnant and proud'' by staff writer Beth Macy.
I'm one of those who are now labeled ``the religious right'' or ``fanatic,'' but who used to be called the ``backbone of America.''
This country has strayed far from the principles upon which it was founded. In fact, children are now encouraged not to learn these principles.
What message is this article trying to convey to this area's youth? That it's desirable to be an unwed mother? That if your best friend gets pregnant, you should do the same thing?
The Bible is still the moral code for everyone. God will, in his own time, judge this nation as a whole and its people individually if they don't turn to him.
JANE L. ORANGE
BOONES MILL
by CNB