Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 25, 1994 TAG: 9401250274
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That time has come, and this is just a simple thank-you for your Jan. 20 news article by staff writer Mary Bishop entitled ``Out of the storm come quiet heroes.'' It was good that names were mentioned of those who went the second mile for their fellow man.
Much could be said, but, simply stated, we believe that we live in an imperfect world. We also believe that, minute by minute, there are those who go about their daily lives, unheralded, unnoticed, not touted, but loving and caring for their family and fellow man. They teach and live bottom-line values, morals and ethics. My family firmly believes they outnumber those who garner the greater portion of media effort.
There seems today to be a fascination with the bad and the ugly, the agony of defeat and the bizarre. Ms. Bishop and her news article shined a candle into the dark, and it was good.
Would it not be exciting to have a small daily section extolling the virtues of mankind? Our clan would subscribe for one full year instead of for the 13 weeks that we now pay. Seriously, we thank you, and please do it again.
BARRIE D. BOOTH
TROUTVILLE
Armed citizens can deter crime
I'M AMAZED at the liberal media's inundation of the public, in the electronic and print media, with their agenda for making a criminal's work environment safer at the expense of the personal safety of honest citizens.
Their answer to the emasculation of our police and courts is more laws toward the elimination of our Second Amendment rights. They use the tactics of slanted polls, inaccuracies, falsehoods and horror headlines to paint a picture of total chaos. The prevailing attitude is: Don't confuse issues with facts showing any positive aspects of gun ownership.
Fact: Criminal use of firearms is a small percentage of all guns in private ownership, yet the media and national leadership lump honest citizens with the criminal when addressing the issue of violent crime. To paraphrase a slogan of the 1992 campaign, ``It's the criminals, stupid!''
Fact: Courts have ruled that police cannot be held responsible for your personal safety. Their purpose is to serve warrants and enforce the laws of government.
Fact: Liberal policies in criminal justice adopted over the past 30 years have resulted in the lowest conviction and incarceration ratios in our history. Criminals face a one-in-17 chance of serving time in jail and those in jail, on average, don't serve a third of their sentences.
Fact: Guns are used an average of 2.1 million times a year to save lives, protect property and prevent crime. Almost half of this use is by private citizens.
A survey of career criminals shows that the biggest deterrent to crime is the possibility that intended victims may be armed.
As Thomas Paine noted, `` ... arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property ... Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.''
MARVIN E. SHOCKLEY
BUENA VISTA
Passage of bills necessary
HOORAY! Finally some good news in the Jan. 17 edition of the Roanoke Times & World-News.
As I browsed through the Outdoors section, I came across Outdoor Editor Bill Cochran's article in which he reported a bill being introduced to ``charge a fee from users of department lands, lakes and facilities if they don't have a hunting or fishing license or a registered boat.''
Being a long-time hunter, I'm well aware of peoples' attitudes, ranging from the generally misinformed public on down the line to the self-righteous, holier-than-thou eco-nuts.
For approximately 56 years, hunters and fishermen (or persons) have financially supported the lion's share of costs of public land and wildlife management through taxes on ammunition, fishing-tackle sales, hunting and fishing licenses, and boat sales and boat registration.
Meanwhile, non-hunters/fishermen have been allowed to trespass at will, with few or no restrictions, firm in their belief that they have every right to.
It's to be hoped that a concept long familiar to hunters and fishermen will slowly but surely dawn on the less informed. That concept is management - 365 days a year. Management takes money and requires an understanding of the interrelationships among people, land and wildlife. That being that any time people traverse across nature, they disrupt nature and wildlife. Whether it's photography of nature (interruption of feeding, bedding or reproduction), allowing domestic animals to run loose (killing, crippling, destruction of nests, etc.), camping (destruction of habitat, loss of nests, protective cover, etc.) or mountain-biking, if you're there, you're disturbing the environment. If you feel no responsibility to repair the damage, you've no right to be there.
I believe that's the core of the issue. Hunting and fishing licenses extend a privilege, not a right, and can be revoked upon violation of rules. High ideals don't constitute a right, and cannot issue a right. High ideals, therefore, must accept responsibility and submit to a privilege, bought and paid for, yet subject to revocation upon violations of the rules.
I urge everyone to seek passage of this and similar bills, to share unselfishly the burden of ensuring that there'll be wildlife for our children, our children's children, in perpetuity.
MICHAEL E. DALTON SR.
BLACKSBURG
Make sure teens get the message
THE JAN. 9 teen-pregnancy articles (Extra section, ``With help, luck and hard work, a way out'' and ``Who pays the price of teen pregnancy'' by Beth Macy) were very informative. Practically all articles have dealt with how to handle teen pregnancy after it happens, but there's been very little on prevention.
If one out of 10 teen-age girls will get pregnant, one wonders if any moral or physiological instruction is being given in homes, churches or schools. If it's being given, it would seem that teen-agers don't hear it or take it seriously.
Reinstate required attendance by students at assemblies once a week in junior and senior high schools. Bring in professionals to teach moral values, to present physiological consequences from sexual intercourse and to teach abstinence until marriage. Let ministers teach the same from the pulpit and before youth groups. Quit handing out condoms, which sends the wrong message. Teach discipline and self-control.
If these are old-fashioned ideas to be laughed at or shunted aside, then we can expect to go on seeing hundreds of teen pregnancies and thousands of taxpayer dollars paid out.
Never has a generation of youth been given so much information on television, radio, in newspapers, in schools, by counselors, etc., as this one. Yet young people rush hellbent to have sex. Most know they could get pregnant, get AIDS, and aren't in a position to support a child. What they don't have is any restraining moral convictions. Their moment of pleasure is all that's important.
Their animal appetites will only be curbed and disciplined by a power outside themselves, even the Lord's. They need to find that out, but cannot know it until they're told. They need to listen to the voice of conscience. It may be that even conscience will have to be reinstated.
CALVIN B. JOHNSON
ROCKY MOUNT
Mail service, airport took a holiday
DURING the recent terrible weather, almost every area of our valley responded admirably. However, there are two areas where ``doing the best we can'' was the phrase constantly used.
We did not receive mail Jan. 17-19. The extreme weather on Monday was an understandable excuse. But the next day I received packages and mail from UPS and Federal Express. Every day, the Roanoke Times & World-News was placed in its holder directly under the postal box. As of Tuesday, the roads were open. A caller to the Cave Spring Post Office received the word that ``we are doing the best we can.'' What's happened to the creed of the post office?
On Monday this past week, the airport closed at 5 p.m. I had a flight out two days later. The night before I received word from USAir that the flight was canceled and I was rescheduled on an earlier flight, which also was canceled. I was informed the airport was closed due to ice. I went to the airport on Wednesday at 2 p.m. to check on my rescheduled flight for the next day, only to be informed the airport was closed and would not open until late Thursday, Jan 20. Inquiring why Roanoke's airport was closed when others were open, I was informed that the chemicals it used required a temperature of 25 degrees minimum and sun. I read in the newspaper that chemicals to cover conditions below this were available, but not on hand. However, a truck was being dispatched from Charlotte last Tuesday and all would be well by that afternoon, according to the airport.
On Thursday morning, there was still no mail, no airport - only the statement that ``we are doing the best we can.'' Were they? Who's at fault for closing a new airport for almost four days? When we built air bases in Maine, Plattsburgh and Thule, Greenland, more ice than Roanoke has seen in five years was normal, but this didn't hinder operations of the SAC fleet. In Roanoke, more than 150 flights were canceled. If a prospective company is looking to relocate, think of the ammunition this will give Lynchburg, Greensboro and others. Someone really goofed.
JACK BURKE
ROANOKE
by CNB