Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 13, 1994 TAG: 9403150155
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I've seen estimates that the industry profits from our current health-care system exceed $100 billion a year. Not bad, considering that the insurance industry delivers no health care, but does create a jungle of paperwork for doctors and patients. With thousands of companies chasing our insurance dollars, the industry would appear to be a prime target, as it well should be, for the savings that will be vital to the success of any really reformed system.
It's a shame that, in this richest of all countries, proper health care should be a perk of employment, rather than a birthright for citizens. Universality and a guarantee of coverage should be the nonnegotiable minimal goals of any reformed system. So far, only the single-pay and Clinton plans meet these objectives. But honest debate among concerned parties might bring forth other viable alternatives. Political opponents, who'd sell the country down the river rather than allow anything decent to be credited to their opposition, are being heavily supported by those who stand to lose much money under a reformed system.
Money is power in this country, but so is the vote. The time's at hand to lean on our representatives, and to help them stand against the flood of special-interest money that's being spent to scuttle, or seriously undermine, the current effort to get meaningful reform.
RICHARD ARNDT BLACKSBURG
North was evasive; not dishonest
LIBERALS declare Oliver North shouldn't be elected because he's dishonest. They tell us he lied to Congress; he didn't.
During an off-the-record meeting with some members of a House of Representatives committee, North was asked questions about secret intelligence operations. Rather than disclose highly classified information and risk American lives, he was evasive in his answers. Being evasive in that meeting wasn't lying to Congress. The accusation is a typical liberal exaggeration.
Liberals aren't opposing North because they think he's dishonest. They want to stop him, because he'll be a very effective conservative in the U.S. Senate. Before calling him a liar, they should look into a mirror.
DENNIE CREGGER PULASKI
Please, no more mousey leadership
WE'RE ALL interested in Mickey Mouse coming to Virginia, especially our spanking-new governor and politicos in Charlottesville and Richmond. Haven't we enough Mickey Mice leading our great state and country already?
As a nation, we can reach the moon; move 500,000 men to the Middle East; sell and produce more arms than anybody in the world. But when it comes to natural disasters, our national, state and local great administrators wring their hands and govern in circles.
Our roads, bridges, electrical utilities, water, landfill and recycling facilities are in pitiful disarray. Our theological, educational and professional moguls are more interested in monies, sports, image and buildings. Indeed, we're hanging on only because John Q. Public works hard to cover up our administrators' mismanagement. Let's get back to the basics of our forefathers who established this great country.
Maybe the powers now and powers to be in our nation will wake up before it's too late.
GRANT HALLOCK CHECK
Child abuse seen every day
WELL, Roanoke, what will we hear of next in this sick world? We've already heard of parents chaining their children to beds, sexually abusing them, putting their poor, defenseless bodies in scalding water and murdering them! I'm really sick of it.
I work in a small grocery store and every day I see children who are being abused from slaps in the face to being pulled by their hair and ears. And every day I bite my tongue to keep from knocking out these abusers and telling them to hit someone who can defend themselves.
I've had it with these sick people. Next time I'll probably not bite my tongue.
TEREASA CARLESCO VINTON
Teachers can't do parents' job
I READ Brian Williams' Feb. 21 letter to the editor, ``Increase workload for schoolchildren.'' He proposed increasing the school year to 250 days. He states that our educational system is failing due to liberal policies. That may be a contributing factor, but isn't, in my opinion, the root cause.
Though I agree with many things in his letter, I take serious issue with his statement, ``Children need to learn respect, discipline and hard work in school.'' The responsibility for teaching respect, discipline and hard work rests with parents. Those are values that should be taught at home.
Schools might strengthen those teachings, but must concentrate on teaching our children how to read, write and about many subjects. Our schools and teachers desperately need our support, and as parents we should willingly provide it. One way to do so is to teach our children to respect themselves, their contemporaries, teachers and others in authority, and to teach, by demonstration, a work ethic. We should also begin early to teach the importance of education.
If all of us would start those teachings in the home, I'm certain we'd find a marked improvement in the ability of our teachers to teach and our children to learn. Kids might even find that learning can be fun. As parents, we might also learn that supporting their efforts and those of the schools can be gratifying and may also be fun.
HAROLD L. FORD HUDDLESTON
Giving other retirees the shaft
AS A Virginia municipal-government retiree, I'm fed up with federal retirees attempts to take more money from me. When I retired, I was told I didn't have to pay state income taxes on my pension. This was a little extra bonus for laying my life on the line daily as a police officer for 27 years.
Then federal retirees went to court and had that changed. I now have to pay state taxes, so my take-home pay is actually less than it was when I retired nine years ago. I'm not covered under the Virginia Retirement System as my former employer (the city of Alexandria) uses a private pension fund. Even with a cost-of-living increase each year, my take-home pay is still below what it was when I retired.
Any attempt on the part of Gov. Allen or any other politician to transfer more money from my pocket to federal retirees will meet with extreme disfavor at the voting booth. They have their cake. Now they're trying to eat mine, and I resent it. Why should these disgruntled money-grubbers force innocent taxpayers to subsidize their greed? Who's looking out for state and municipal retirees and their losses? What's being done for us? Are politicians just going to say, ``Take this shaft and love it?''
EUGENE H. HART ROANOKE
Playground story, now and then
WOE is me!
Some 15 years ago, several of us parents of Eagle Rock Elementary School children worked hard to put on one heck of a super school festival. We raised about $1,000 to buy playground equipment.
The principal then promptly confiscated the money and bought equipment for his office. We were furious! I went to the Botetourt County School Board and school administrators. Among others, I spoke with a top school administrator, Benny Griffith. He said that playground equipment was too dangerous - swings could hit a child in the head, or a youngster could topple off the ladder going up to a sliding board and get hurt. In disgust, we removed our then-third grader and sent her to a private school in Roanoke.
At its Feb. 22 meeting, the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors approved spending more than $10,000 for playground equipment, ``including a slide and swings,'' for Eagle Rock Elementary School due to the ``relatively low scores which Botetourt County elementary students'' earn on physical-education tests.
At that same supervisors' meeting, now-retired school administrator Benny Griffith was appointed to the Board of Supervisors as my representative from the Fincastle district, to fill the vacancy created by G. C. Thompson's resignation.
It's ludicrous that a school administration that seizes $21 million of our tax money annually cannot find $10,000 in its bloated budget with which to buy physical-education equipment. To come back to the public trough and make us cough up another $10,000 is nothing short of thievery! Woe is me!
ANITA LAMBERT EAGLE ROCK
by CNB