Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 23, 1994 TAG: 9403230119
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A glance at the map shows the route following I-77 through Bland, Wythe and Carroll to be most direct. Further, your March 9 news article by staff writer Greg Edwards (``Roanoke Valley just might get I-73'') indicates this route would cost $471 million less.
In view of difficulties balancing state and federal budgets, it would appear unseemly to opt for a more expensive pathway while hoping that hypothetical projections will produce a bonanza for the local economy. From past experience, we suspect that a few speculators would cash in, while the rest of the taxpayers are left to absorb the damage to our community.
Nature trails in the Pandapas Pond area, Poverty Creek Valley and many other parts of the Jefferson National Forest would no longer be easily accessible for recreation. Cut off from U.S. 460, many county residents would be forced into long, round-about commutes to work, school and shop.
Please support the most direct and least expensive route.
GARY and LUCILLE GRIFFIN
NEWPORT
Room in the world for more children
HAL Eaton's criticism (March 9 letter to the editor, ``Thomas offers emotional claptrap'') of Cal Thomas' Feb. 16 column (``Mother Teresa brings power of the truth to the powerful'') about Mother Teresa made me realize how selfish we've become.
Are we so centered on ourselves that hearing the truth about ourselves appears to be a trick to gain applause? Are we so blinded by our inability to create love that we see Mother Teresa's words as pretentious language and insincere sentiment?
Isn't it time to reconsider the course that human events have taken? Since the right to life is one of many endowments from our Creator to all mankind, shouldn't we question the authority of any who'd take away this gift without any new laws but by selfish interpretation of older laws?
Mother Teresa creates love through compassion, forgiveness, humility, justice and mercy. She believes there aren't enough children in the world, and there's room in hers for 30 million more. Eaton shouldn't worry how we'll take care of them. Our Father in heaven will care for these and the 60 million heartbroken parents of these children whom he overlooked.
MARSHALL TACKETT
BUCHANAN
Whitewater story is hyped by media
A LOT of us are pretty fed up with the media's shrill and overblown treatment of the so-called Whitewater story. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves for carrying water for such sleazeballs as Sen. Al D'Amato and his ilk. The obvious motive of these hypocrites is pure politics.
A special prosecutor's been appointed, and is aggressively pursuing his assignment. That's as it should be. So let him do his job, let the president do his and Congress do its. And let the media tend to their business, which is to report, not create, news.
BILL WOODS
BEDFORD
Incestuous feelings are not 'normal'
IN RESPONSE to the Feb. 22 ``Men's Column'' by Neil Chethik entitled ``Sexual feelings for your children don't necessarily mean you're sick'':
He was responding to a letter from a man who was having sexual feelings toward his 13-year-old daughter. Chethik stated these feelings were ``common`` and ``normal.''
This is one time I don't agree with the experts. Any father who has sexual feelings toward his daughter is sick and needs professional help. There's nothing wrong with a father who hugs and kisses his daughter, but there's something wrong with a man who finds his 13-year-old daughter sexually attractive. My father never had sexual feelings toward me.
Roanoke Times & World-News, please don't print any more such articles. They give parents the wrong idea about what's acceptable behavior.
JORDAN SMITH
ROCKY MOUNT
Voters needn't pick lesser of two evils
I'D LIKE to tell Alison Allsbrook Aylor, author of the Feb. 26 letter to the editor, ``Robb is bad; North is worse,'' that the alternative for senator is Sylvia Clute.
Ms. Aylor said, ``We desperately need candidates for the United States Senate who reflect the pride and honor that most Virginans feel for our state.'' Ms. Clute is that candidate. She has realistic ideas that will give Virginia a strong economy, children an education that will prepare them for the future, and will help neighbors take their communities back.
Holding an elected office will be a first for her, but that's nothing unusual. Ms. Clute's faced many new challenges. She was the first female attorney for Reynolds Metals. She knew nothing of banking, yet she learned enough to make the Womens Bank, of which she was chairman, turn a nice profit. Ms. Clute will work just as hard in the Senate. She's not a professional politician, but a politician who'll be professional.
Don't allow the '94 Senate election to be a choice between the lesser of two evils. Vote for Ms. Clute in the Democratic primary.
ELIZABETH JONES
GOODVIEW
by CNB