Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 7, 1994 TAG: 9401080014
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When our weather forecasters so kindly warned of snow in the area, Roanokers literally panicked. Grocery stores were flooded with customers who expected to be locked in their houses for months to come; some people rushed out to buy shovels and sleds, lest they become entrapped; and many of us wrestled out the winter stash of clothes and huddled in the warmth of our homes and vehicles.
As many of us trudged into the cold to rush to work, we cursed the weather for our inconvenience, pushed the snow off the windshield and turned the defroster up full blast. However, as we turned onto the road, many forgot the affects we have on other drivers.
Traveling down the icy roads at a safe 35 mph, I noticed a truck whose driver had neglected to brush the sheet of snow off the truck's hood, and snow was constantly being thrown onto the windshield. Obviously, the driver couldn't see and was therefore weaving back and forth across the yellow lines. The driver of the car in front of mine had forgotten completely about her back window, since it was impossible to see through the ice that had fallen off the roof. I only hope these two people arrived safely at their destinations.
Some truck owners love to think that a four-wheel drive means they don't have to worry about snow. How could they be more wrong? One such driver decided that he wanted to go about 15 mph too fast for the weather. When a U-Haul van lost control up the road, the truck driver slammed on his brakes. Didn't he realize that he could stop no better than the rest of us? Luckily, both vehicles regained control and those traveling behind these idiots were spared the vision of an accident.
I don't expect individuals to take a lesson on driving in bad weather. But f+ipleaseo use your common sense. If we took the extra time to clean off our vehicles and drive slowly, perhaps the hundreds of accidents that occurred in the past few weeks could have been prevented. And maybe one of those that is prevented will involve you.
KRISTYNE E. KEYES
ROANOKE
For name, look to mountaintop
NOW THAT the Hotel Roanoke renovation project is successfully under way, it's unfortunate that agreement hasn't been reached on the needed name for that all-important conference center. (Dec. 26 Business page article, ``That nameless enterprise `neath Mill Mountain,'' by staff writer Sandra Brown Kelly.)
It would seem only natural - too obvious, perhaps? - to market such a regional moneymaker as ``Star City Conference Center.'' Who else could claim such a title?
JAMES and ALICE ERICKSON
ROANOKE
Is it art or is it junk?
IN THE Jan. 2 Roanoke Times & World-News, under ``Art Exhibits,'' you reproduced a drawing entitled ``Wiener Walzer'' by Ini Chichester. This drawing is to be part of an exhibit that opens Friday at Studios on the Square on the Roanoke City Market.
I suggest the first thing you should do is run out on the nearest street corner and hire the first person who comes along to be your art editor.
This has to be one of the most blatant displays of ignorance of art that I've ever witnessed. I have a 3-year-old grandson who can draw better than this.
Having studied art under various teachers for the past 10 years, four of those in Roanoke, I can tell you there are some good artists in the Roanoke area who deserve to have their works shown and whose works would be appreciated by the public.
It's an insult to any reputable artist, amateur or professional, and to the public at large that you'd choose to feature trash like this.
Furthermore, it's my opinion that Studios on the Square completely lost whatever credibility it may have had by displaying junk like this. If any taxpayers' dollars go toward funding this, I'd suggest that there are a few million places where it would be better spent.
THOMAS BRIDGES
BLUE RIDGE
$813 a week? In your dreams ...
THE ROANOKE Times & World-News printed a gross misrepresentation of median wages earned for certain groups of blue-collar workers in the Jan. 2 edition. The median wage for 1991 made by painters, paperhangers and plasterers was listed as $813 weekly. Those of us who do this kind of work would like to ask the U.S. Department of Labor exactly what areas of the country were surveyed to ascertain these exorbitant wages. Surely not the Roanoke-Salem-Botetourt areas! Unless a large, well-known company has contracted to do the work, the weekly wage will gross only one-fourth to one-third of the stated amount.
The salary for home-health aides was listed as $15,500 per annum. A friend who's a full-time home-health aide reported her yearly wages as only a little more than $7,000.
The true facts are that the average blue-collar tradesperson is still making only one-fourth to one-third of the weekly wage that was listed in this newspaper. Many other wages listed are also questionable. Are these amounts possibly what the Labor Department wishes people would believe that others make?
LUTHER DEEL
CLOVERDALE
by CNB