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

DATE: SATURDAY, January 8, 1994                   TAG: 9401110248
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

CITIZENS CAN CONTROL HEALTH COSTS

IT IS TEMPTINGLY easy to blame out-of-control health-care costs on insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, labs and others involved in the management of health care. I suppose all of those just mentioned have some control over costs, but it seems to me that we fail to focus on the most effective way to control costs of health care. Apart from special situations, we as individuals have the power to control the costs of our own health care, but we don't want to accept that responsibility.

Our health-care costs would take a dramatic downturn if we'd stop smoking, stop using alcohol and drugs, stop speeding, always use seat belts, drive slower, drive less, rest more, go to bed earlier, make more friends, walk more, handle stress better, pray more, floss more, brush longer, quit shooting each other, eat less fat/white flour/sugar, eat more fresh vegetables/whole grains/fresh fruits, watch less television, smile more, get a hobby, do volunteer work, stay out of the doctor's office unless absolutely necessary, comparison shop for medical services, and on and on. Get the idea?

Let's quit blaming others for something that's, for the most part, under our own control.

ROGER DALTON

ROANOKE

1993 was the year of fair warning

REGARDING all cases of sexual harassment:

The year 1993 should be remembered as the year when fair warning was given to all males that it can be imprudent and costly not to avoid eye contact with females in the work place.

Sexual harassment is not gender-exclusive, however. The most flagrant example: Beetle Bailey's Sarge being harassed by Lt. Suggs.

Guys, beware. Females are arming themselves with daisies, knives and scissors! Be like Sarge, and hope that in 1994 he files suit against Lt. Suggs, wins, and thus levels the playing field for both sexes.

EDMUND J. KAY

ROANOKE

Perhaps we should repeal all laws

I'M AMAZED at the number of articles appearing in the newspaper that advocate legalized drugs, under the pretense that legalization would increase tax revenue and/or decrease crime.

How can we even consider legalizing something that has ruined more lives than anything else in the history of our world, and under the guise of increasing tax revenue?

On the other hand, legalizing drugs would decrease crime. But let's not stop with drugs. Let's also legalize bank robbery, rape, incest, murder and anything else there's now a law against. Let everyone do his or her own thing, anything goes. That's a common liberal approach. Legalizing any one of these makes as much sense as the other.

We need to clean up our act instead of making it dirtier. Quit making excuses and feeling sorry for criminals. And prosecute them within days of the crime instead of months or years later.

SAM P. SMITHWICK

CHRISTIANSBURG

Annexation issue being ducked

NEVER have so many politicians said so little. We refer to those Bedford folks who are supposed to serve voters in the city and county by taking stands on issues. Newspapers, radio and television coverage about the threat of Lynchburg annexation and the consolidation petition has been aired for three months. But it's as if City Council and the Board of Supervisors have jumped down a hole and pulled it in after them.

Since October, when Henry Creasy, Forest's supervisor, said he didn't think Lynchburg would annex Forest, more than 2,000 of his district's voters have signed the consolidation petition. He still hasn't discussed consolidation, but his involvement in the Reber/Lake Vista development speaks volumes. He seems more interested in urbanizing Forest than protecting it. It also appears supervisors who rubber-stamped that Reber deal (admitting they were f+inoto voting their consciences and that it would place the cost on taxpayers) are guilty of turning their backs on their constituents.

County supervisors know that if the 25,000 people living in Forest/Boonsboro/New London are lost to Lynchburg, Bedford's surviving citizens will be stuck with higher taxes to maintain existing schools, new landfills, roads, etc. Such a catastrophe hit Norfolk County before it consolidated, but this hasn't moved them to speak up. Del. Lacey Putney has acknowledged consolidation as a potential solution to Bedford's problems, condemned annexation and vowed to fight it in the legislature. But there may not be enough time.

In the Tidewater area where mergers are in place, elected officials initiated that process. In the local absence of such leadership to date, we'd hope that the Consolidation Charter Planning Committee would seek out and heed top-notch outside counsel.

H.F. and ANITA GARNER

FOREST

Military tactics vs. technology

I'VE NEVER been trained militarily. But as an American, I was shocked and saddened to read in the Dec. 25 Roanoke Times & World-News about the filming of the U.S. Rangers' raid in Mogadishu, Somalia (``Pentagon fights for secrecy of Somalia battle video'' from the Boston Globe). What affected me most was the account of the dropping of two members of a Delta sniper team to protect a downed helicopter and crew until, upon running out of ammunition, the snipers were killed.

Is protection of a helicopter a task for a sniper team? Seems like sniper training is for situations in which concealment and stealth would be requirements for survival. Why were troops put in a situation without the means of ammunition resupply? Was there any type of investigation over the handling of this? Is the reason I felt like crying because I have a 14-year-old son?

Maybe I got off the main subject of the article, which was the military's advancement in technology with the ability to film combat. I suppose so much money and time is put out by the military on technological frills that less is spent on the study of tactics.

ROBERT HUNDLEY

EAGLE ROCK

by CNB