Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409210028
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The people who have moved out to the Poages Mill area to take advantage of the blissful country life are participating in a cycle that inevitably destroys the values they are seeking. Subdivisions bring the cars that bring the roads that bring the businesses. This process takes place over a strikingly short period of time.
While many new residents of the developments along U.S. 221 have magnificent views of the mountains, their homes have largely blighted the view from the Blue Ridge Parkway for about 10 miles. New homes spawned by the ``improved'' U.S. 221 will, in turn, blight their views. The short-term solution is to move still farther out. But when the sprawl from one city meets the sprawl from the next, there is no longer room to escape.
Each new home is estimated to generate 10 car trips per day. That traffic burden rapidly changes the rural character of an area. The Roanoke County Comprehensive Plan called for maintaining the Poages Mills area as a ``rural village.'' People who really love the country should insist that such plans be made and enforced.
DAVID S. HUNT
ROANOKE
Robb's words don't match his votes
I WAS so amused by the Aug. 25 letter to the editor by Robby Burke of Harrisonburg (``Goodlatte's crime vote is confusing''), and by the graceful way Sen. Charles Robb dodged the question in the Aug. 24 Citizens' Q&A column, that I felt compelled to respond.
Concerning Burke's confusion, I've corresponded with Goodlatte on several occasions. He has made it very clear that he isn't a puppet for the National Rifle Association or any special interests. He simply votes the way the majority of his constituents prefer. I think the fact that no one is opposing him reinforces the satisfaction of his constituents.
Regarding the Q&A question: What will the candidates do to stick up for us honest gun owners of America? Robb's answer was: ``I support the right of all Americans to keep and bear arms.''
Robb claims he supports our rights, and then votes for the weapons ban. Does that sound like someone who supports the right of all Americans to keep and bear arms?
TERRY L. DOOLEY
MONETA
No such thing as a 'safe' abortion
REGARDING Judy Morris' Aug. 25 letter to the editor, ``No return to back-alley abortions'':
She perpetuates the fallacy of belief that abortions of a generation ago were performed in ``back alleys'' and on ``kitchen tables.'' Some were. Most were performed by doctors, willing for a price to do what their professions forbade them to do. Today, abortions are still performed by doctors, the difference being that now they may advertise their services. Abortion - an operation in which a healthy woman has her womb pried open, and a living, healthy baby is killed and removed - may be legal, but it will never be safe. Women are still being injured, and some still die, from abortions.
Morris cites the woman who rightfully mourns the death of her grandmother from an illegal abortion. Perhaps this woman should also mourn her aunt or uncle who also died that day. Those who promote abortion truly are forgetting someone.
LUCY RUHL
FINCASTLE
Call death factory what it was
IN THE Aug. 25 article in this newspaper regarding the Illinois man arrested as a Nazi war criminal (``Illinois man charged as Nazi war criminal'' from The Associated Press), Treblinka was identified as a ``labor camp.'' On the contrary, Treblinka was a death camp. The only purpose for its existence was to render living humans into dead humans. It was a death factory responsible for the death of more than 800,000 persons.
ALLIE FRAZIER
ROANOKE
Look closely at a liberal record
OLIVER NORTH and Chuck Robb: Which Senate candidate is mainstream and which is radical? When we consider their positions on important issues, we see North as mainstream, and Robb as the radical liberal.
Robb voted for the two biggest tax increases in our nation's history. Not satisfied with that, he proposed a fuel-tax increase of 50 cents per gallon! North would have opposed all these tax increases. Robb opposed an amendment requiring a supermajority vote of three-fifths instead of just a simple majority to raise taxes. North would have supported this amendment, making it more difficult to raise taxes.
On March 30, 1993, Robb voted for 54 pork-barrel projects and wasteful spending proposed by the Clinton administration. North would have voted no. (In a rating of all 1993 spending votes released by the National Taxpayers Union, Robb received a score of only 29 percent - only a few points above radical-left Sen. Ted Kennedy.) Agreeing with a big majority of Americans, North supports a balanced-budget amendment; Robb opposes it.
Congress members exempted themselves from obeying many laws - equal employment opportunity, civil rights, labor, etc. - that they imposed on the rest of us. North would have voted on Oct. 29, 1991, for a motion that would have eliminated these congressional exemptions. Robb voted to keep them. Along with a huge majority of Americans, North supports term limits for Congress; Robb opposes term limits.
Don't be fooled by the liberals' dishonest name-calling and propaganda, and don't be fooled by Robb's conservative talk. Facts show us North is mainstream, and Robb is the big-government, tax-and-spend, radical liberal.
HAROLD E. DUDLEY
BLACKSBURG
North wants effective prevention
IT'S TIME to put a cap on the growing violent-crime rate in our country to keep our families safe. As U.S. senator, Oliver North would cut wasteful spending and construct new prisons that do not have more room and comfort for prisoners than for those who serve aboard our Navy's ships and submarines.
These prisons would be located away from neighborhoods in more isolated regions, especially in the Western states.
No parole, and prisoners' working six days a week, eight hours a day, would make people think twice before they assault the neighborhood convenience-store clerk or attack women and children at the shopping mall.
North would give federal aid to state agencies only when states required violent offenders to serve a minimum of 85 percent of their sentences. Nonviolent offenders would work on highway maintenance and public-land improvements. Anti-drug and rehabilitation programs would turn many away from future offenses.
North would have voted to eliminate so-called racial-justice provisions, which proposed to put a quota on the implementation of the death penalty, and which would, in effect, abolish the death penalty. Sen. Charles Robb voted to allow race, color or creed to determine whether those guilty of heinous crimes would be executed. Robb would allow the guilty to claim they had been ``discriminated against.''
MARILYN T. CANODE
CATAWBA
Spirituality's role in mental health
HAVING READ your article (Aug. 23 Extra section, ``God meets psyche'') on the New Hope Christian therapy program at Lewis-Gale Psychiatric Center, I'd like to comment.
Since mental health is far from being an exact science, it certainly is a remarkably powerful instrument to include spirituality among the aspects of psychological, physical and social issues that affect mental illness.
Christian psychotherapy is so healing because it utilizes discipleship as a way to gain an understanding of one's self, and then to begin to heal mental and emotional wounds with the help of Christ and close friends.
RONALD L. OVERSTREET
LYNCHBURG
by CNB