Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 24, 1994 TAG: 9403260003
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If your only income is Social Security, Medicare must be supplemented. The health-insurance industry has no heart and no mercy. Health-care supplements are expensive; add to that the cost of medicine and you have a crisis.
Yes, it's true, Congress! Some Americans don't take their medicine so they can eat and keep a roof over their head.
Whitewater is a non-issue. I admire and respect President and Mrs. Clinton for their dedicated public service.
Republicans in Congress and the Republican Party, as usual, are hammering away at nothing to make it something. They're disgusting and are doing a disservice to the American people.
MARTHA BROWN VINTON
Israeli views are misrepresented
THE MARCH 6 Associated Press article, ``Many Israelis demand settlements' removal,'' is very misleading and totally slanted. It quotes, ``The Israelis are sick of settlers and their extremism ... ''
Be fair. Even ``Peace Now,'' the leftist group that organized the demonstrations, claims the ``tens of thousands'' (divided by 10 to get a more accurate figure) were comprised of the leftist parties (13 percent) and Arabs (15 percent) who voted for the current government. Indeed, these two groups comprise the present government's majority force. The majority Jewish population was simply not represented at the demonstration.
Give some of these facts in your reporting, and you may become an enlightened newspaper whose reporting is based on knowledge.
EVELYN DAR-EL BLACKSBURG
Outlawing tobacco would cost lives
IS THE Food and Drug Administration serious about classifying tobacco as a ``drug''? Well, then, I suppose they should consider sodium, caffeine, nasal spray, chocolate, basketball, gossip, television and sex as well!
Sure, it's fine to drink steroid-enhanced milk, consume genetically engineered vegetables and abort pregnancies. But if the FDA bans the production and sale of tobacco, our nation's economy will suffer and black-market tobacco will cost lives aplenty, and not because of cancer either.
Taxation of tobacco products is one of the major sources of state and local funding for education, highway maintenance and other projects. If Congress is stupid enough to ban the production or sale of tobacco products, then America is really in trouble.
E. ANNE MURPHY ROANOKE
Fair-minded Warner deserves our thanks
VIRGINIA residents of whatever political stripe, if they've cared enough about our commonwealth and our nation to keep abreast of governmental affairs, should know that Sen. John Warner deserves our heartfelt appreciation for his selfless dedication to duty, always doing his work in the office to which we elected him. He stands tall in the Senate, and rightly so!
While everyone's entitled to an opinion, perhaps it's as well to remember that opinions based upon facts carry some validity, unlike opinions born of hearsay, lies and fiction. It's to many of the latter that this newspaper's readers are being subjected.
For example, we read that some lies are ``good lies;'' that a single individual, without saying a word for or against an office seeker, can cause him not to be elected; that claiming a belief in God qualifies a person to be a senator, even though that person has neither the particular education nor experience to equip him for the job.
How odd that some folks seem to be partial to character assassination; to wimps, liars, felons; to spreading malice and venom; to trading on the name of God to further their own ends, and all the while claiming to be righteous!
I'm thankful we have fair-minded, level-headed and knowledgeable Sen. Warner in Washington. For my part, I'll sleep better knowing he's there.
ANNE C. CARICO TROUTVILLE
Future depends on balanced budgets
CONTRARY to the garbage and ignorance you espoused about having a balanced-budget amendment, it's the single greatest thing to come along since Ben Franklin, a gifted, brilliant and true Republican. If 43 states have a balanced-budget amendment, why can't the federal government? Frankly, we must and we can. It's absolutely imperative.
This is so serious and so important. A financial expert has said that the United States is going bankrupt in 1995. I kid you not! This amendment might save us from ruination. Without it, we're through, finished, destroyed.
It's the Democrats who are responsible for the astronomical $4.6 trillion debt. Democrats are spenders; Republicans are savers. Amen!
No less than a dozen times I've explained that all appropriation bills must originate in the House of Representatives, and the House is controlled by Democrats. See how simple it is?
R. KEITH WHITLEY BEDFORD
by CNB