
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 11, 1994                   TAG: 9410150001
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SECURITY IS BOUGHT AT A HEAVY PRICE

BY NATURE, I'm a pessimist. Yet, when Congress returns from its recess to take up health care again, I hope Americans will realize that the nation has strayed far from our forefathers' path. We're being led down a different path by our seductress, a liberal Congress.

With a deep and enduring faith, liberals believe in their hearts that they know what's best for fellow citizens. Thus, when substituting their values for those of their fellow citizens (through legislation or judicial activism), their conscience is clear. Limiting government's power will thus be in tension with those who speak or act in the name of ``civil liberties,'' but who also support the stachose to live in a high-hazard area and chose not to buy earthquake insurance, can apply for and receive federal disaster-assistance monies? Why should the federal government, which is currently operating in the red, borrow more money (and thus remove that money from the pool of investment capital within our economy) to fund such private assistance programs?

Since emerging from the Great Depression of the '30s, Americans have steadily exchanged actual freedoms for apparent security. Be it earthquakes, floods or tornadoes, Americans look to the federal government to rescue them from perils that our forefathers once accepted as a part of life, and the consequences of those perils as their own personal misfortune.

However, this new security isn't free, but carries a heavy price. The ultimate price is life under a totalitarian state.

JAMES LOWE

ROANOKE

Trust Boucher to vote yes eventually

IF OPAL Price (Aug. 29 letter to the editor, ``Boucher seems to forget his roots'') really believes that Steve Fast ``might be for health care'' because he knows how much poverty there is in his district, she might like to buy a certain bridge that I have for sale.

Every member of the House of Representatives knows about poverty in his or her district, but that hasn't stopped ideological Republicans from fighting health-care reform all the way. By all reports, Fast hews to the mean-spirited conservative line of his Senate running mate. On the other hand, Boucher shows every sign of ultimately supporting reform, despite his opposition to a responsible tobacco tax. It's a pious hope that his opponent will suddenly become a champion of socially responsible legislation. I'll stick with Boucher.

DAVID A. WEST

BLACKSBURG

No such thing as partly equal

I VIEWED with interest and total disagreement your Aug. 12 comparison [Benson cartoon] of a 1944 Nazi Labor Camp and a 1994 Citadel Barber Shop.

One major difference: Prisoners were in the labor camp against their will; Ms. Faulkner is determined to enter The Citadel.

Among the many definitions the dictionary gives the word equal is ``all things alike.'' There's no such thing as ``partly equal.'' If Ms. Faulkner wants equal rights, she must take the bitter with the sweet. And that means, in addition to getting her name in the news, she must have her head shaved.

RALPH W. FOSTER

ROANOKE

Taking good care of convicts

IN REFERENCE to Russell W. Johnson's Aug. 31 letter to the editor ``Health care and heels on Capitol Hill'':

When he said that the only way he could get health care is to become a congressman or politician, he forgot about prison inmates. The only people in this country who receive guaranteed health care are convicts and politicians.

WALTER BIBB

VINTON

Robb's misdeeds are unforgiven

IN THE past several months, you've often referred to Lt. Col. Oliver North, using the prefix ``Iran-Contra figure.'' We know that our newspaper reports only the truth, or at least tells a story with a spattering of truth.

With this in mind, why haven't we seen reference to the nude-back-rub figure, Chuck Robb? Certainly, that prefix should be included in every mention of the junior senator's name.

The truth, get it? As I see it, the big difference between North and the nude-back-rub figure Robb is that the former was legally cleared of all charges made against him, and the latter was cleared of his womanizing only by Linda Bird Johnson Robb.

Virginia deserves better than the nude-back-rub figure as one of its senators. After all, one Teddy Kennedy is more than enough for our country to bare - sorry, meant bear.

WILLIAM K. KELLARIS

ROANOKE

by CNB