Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 14, 1994 TAG: 9403150156
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
To carry this economic philosophy a bit further: April and October are usually warm months. Removing these months from the school calendar could bring in hundreds of millions.
Does anyone see the potential here? By doing away with public education altogether, we'd have all the money we ever need. We could build year-round, indoor theme parks; there'd be jobs for our children, and schools wouldn't be necessary. As a visiting teacher in the Radford city schools, I'm told we don't teach our kids anything anyway.
Another advantage would be that our kids wouldn't have to take all those tests where foreign students keep beating our brains out. Self-esteem would soar!
TIMOTHY D. DOBBINS RADFORD
Duo damned by faint praise
I READ Seth Williamson's Feb. 17 review (``Roanoke Symphony delights a near-sellout audience'') of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra's Feb. 14 performance with mouth agape, particularly as he offered faint praise for the duo-piano team of Carolyn Victorine and Rebecca Wallenborn.
Countless other music enthusiasts with whom I conversed considered the Mozart Concerto, flawlessly performed by Victorine and Wallenborn, the unequivocal highlight of the program, and elegant as well as engaging in its execution. Let's give credit where credit is due - to two virtuoso pianists who just happen to reside in Roanoke!
BETTY H. LESKO ROCKY MOUNT
The dangerous sale of 'safe' sex
SINCE they proclaimed the week of Feb. 14 as National Condom Week, I'd like to make a point. Instead of taxing tobacco, why not tax condoms? You can't get pregnant, nor can you get AIDS, just having a smoke or a chew. That week should have been called Valentine's Week, with the giving of flowers and candy to those you care for and love.
If free condoms are given out in all high schools, it would be like saying go ahead and have fun. What happened to the old way of just loving someone with a hug and a smooch, and respecting each other as a good person until the knot is tied?
AIDS wasn't started by tobacco. Smoking commercials have been replaced with ads for condoms for running toward the sack to help couples be safe. These people are trying to bring down our country, lower our morals and spread venom among our young boys and girls. By the way, what's safe sex? Abstinence.
JOE SLATTERY BLACKSBURG
Death toll paid by higher taxes
TO Marie B. Alexander, smoking kills. (Feb. 16 letter to the editor, ``Freedoms on line with tax proposal.'')
It makes perfect sense to raise cigarette taxes. Smoking is very expensive to our society, besides being a filthy, nasty, dirty and stinky habit. It kills people; ask any lung doctor. My mother, father, aunt and uncle died from smoking cigarettes. They were the typical ``never sick a day in their life'' type until they got cancer. Then the medical bills were out of this world.
Worrying about the 274,000 jobs is touching, but condoning a narcotic (nicotine) that's addictive is wrong. I'm sure we can employ people to create something positive rather than to make a killer.
I drink alcohol, and I'm glad taxes will increase on it. Alcoholism has taken a huge toll on our society and medical system. It's never paid its way. It's time for deadly habits to pay their way.
LINNEA V. McDONALD MONETA
Build the bypass; wait and see
I HAVE, over time, gotten used to the idea that the Roanoke Times & World-News' editorial policy is blindly behind the ``smart road,'' and that I can count on an editorial trumpeting support for any reason imaginable on a regular basis - most frequently the supposed great economic benefits and new growth that will accrue to Roanoke, if not to the indigenous unemployed and underemployed, particularly in the New River Valley.
However, I can't seem to get used to your repetition of the spurious notion that somehow the New River Valley will be perpetually condemned to traffic congestion, even after the 3A bypass is completed, unless the smart road is also built. I wish you'd stop. It's not true, and it's not nice of you to twist things just because you have the editorial power to do it. Let's build 3A, then see.
DONALD R. SCHUMACHER BLACKSBURG
Her name isn't 'Little-Known' Clute
IS HER name really ``The Little-Known Sylvia Clute''? At least every time you write about her, those five words appear together. I suppose when she wins the Democratic primary nomination to the U.S. Senate, you'll write ``The Little-Known Sylvia Clute has swept the Democratic primary, defeating incumbent Chuck Robb and that really little-known other woman, the Lyndon LaRouche candidate.''
``Little-known'' indeed! By now you've written enough about her to be able to drop that belittling prefix. Everywhere I go, people support her. The overwhelming majority of people I approach sign her nominating petition; very few refuse on the grounds they support another candidate.
You've written about her principled positions, fundamental decency and unsullied character. Her campaign slogan is ``Leadership to bring us together.'' After the last statewide election - where divisiveness was the rule, not the exception, resulting in a split ticket for the majority of voters - we sure need that.
Ms. Clute has addressed Unitarian Universalists and Baptists, gaining support from both groups, not because she tells different persuasions what they'd like to hear but because what she says is what she believes in. Her message is so healing and rational that people can't help but embrace her. Nor does she avoid hot-button issues. She addresses burning issues that have horribly divided us - abortion rights, gays in the military, values in education - and takes positions all can support - the liberals, the so-called religious right, and everybody in between.
MORTON NADLER BLACKSBURG
If the animals could have a say
ON Feb. 7, the Board of Directors of the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals fired a valuable employee, Tammy Javier. According to the board, she was unproductive. According to her, it was political.
On Feb. 8, the board fired Barbara Jones and Stephanie Dickenson for financial reasons. According to Ms. Jones and Ms. Dickenson, it was because they, along with Ms. Javier, have been too vocal about the way some members of the board have handled the running of the SPCA.
These three former employees gave many years of their lives to make it better for our animals in Roanoke. They cared about the animals. Who better to speak out for them than those who were there with them every day? What's going to happen to our animals now?
BARBARA ANN NEWMAN ROANOKE
Good teachers need good teaching
AS A GRADUATE student in the College of Education at Virginia Tech, I was appalled to read the Feb. 26 letter to the editor by George Wood, ``First, kill all the education schools.'' The loss of $1.6 million from the university's budget can in no way be considered a boon to the education of Virginia's children. Rather, it will have the opposite effect - eliminating the excellent faculty who guide potential teachers, who in turn teach your children in public schools.
Obviously, Wood hasn't been enrolled in teaching-preparatory courses at Tech. Regardless of teaching discipline, students in the College of Education must meet state-mandated requirements before becoming licensed to teach in Virginia. Among the requirements, a potential teacher must meet or exceed a certain level of student-teaching hours, maintain a high grade-point average, and complete a rigorous course of study that includes liberal arts, math, science and psychology. While we're required to take a few educational classes filled with educational jargon, many more courses are filled with practical classroom applications.
I hold a bachelor's degree in biology, and am working towards my master's in secondary science education. I not only know what century the Civil War was fought in, but also the reasons behind the war, along with many ``facts'' that apply to my own major. I also know that a primary reason why Johnny can't read or regurgitate history facts is the lack of funding necessary to produce excellent teachers.
KIMBERLY L. GROSS BUCHANAN
by CNB