Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 27, 1994 TAG: 9401270298
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``Stella Bilzerian, 69, of Worcester, Mass., who couldn't get into her house because the lock was frozen. ... knocked on a neighbor's door, but the neighbor was afraid to answer.'' She died there, in the 5-below-zero temperature. Her neighbor, a woman of the same age, said she feels badly now, but ``you just can't take chances these days.'' Others reportedly died in the cold under similar circumstances.
I'm an older woman, also living alone, and not a neighbor in my area checked on me or called to see if I might need something in the five days I was in my home alone, unable to get out because of the cold and ice. Had the electricity gone out and/or the phone, I would have feared to knock on a neighbor's door.
In California, thousands of homeless, after the big quake on Jan. 17, stood in lines for days waiting for a bed or space in a shelter or tent, with children becoming sick and the elderly weakened. Yet in the Los Angeles area, there are thousands of homes with extra, unused, empty rooms.
It's frightening to see what's become of our country's social fabric. If we cannot love our neighbors, surely we can, in times of crisis, respond with some semblance of humanity rather than leave it up to local governments or charities. This is something to consider in a time of crime, fear and cold hearts. The economic growth and development many are so excited about these days show no signs of remedying our deepest maladies, indifference and hostility. Perhaps it works the opposite way as the poorer peoples of the world still seem to have some sense of community and warmth for each other.
ALLYN M. MOSS
BLACKSBURG
Thanks to Jefferson High's lifesavers
AS A 1937 graduate of Jefferson High School, you've lifted my spirit and body to heights of joy and praise for those who are responsible for the ``alive again Jefferson High.''
My son Mike, a '66 graduate, and I walked up to Jefferson High School recently. It was great to see all the action that was going on around there.
Thanks to Judge Beverly Fitzpatrick for being a founding member of the Jefferson Foundation, and to all others who helped one way or another.
GERTRUDE W. LESTER
VINTON
Protesters aren't wild-eyed extremists
IN RESPONSE to Lee D. Fitzgerald's Jan. 14 letter to the editor entitled ``SPCA shouldn't sanction protests'':
As president of the League for Animal Protection, we've never asked the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to join us in any protest and we never will. However, if Fitzgerald and SPCA board members would only do a little research as to how and why these organizations came into being, I'm sure they'd be shocked to learn that humane societies and SPCAs were formed to lash out and fight against f+ianyo act or proposal that results in animal suffering.
After conducting a survey of the SPCA membership, we learned that a whopping 79 percent contacted agree with, and are in support of, our opposition to Alleghany County's Boar Walla shooting preserve. Also, we're gratified by the support of the Franklin County Humane Society, Martinsville SPCA, Bedford County Humane Society, Virginia Federation of Humane Societies, and the largest of all animal-welfare organizations in this country, the Humane Society of the United States. Does this not say something?
Unlike Fitzgerald, we'll not resort to name-calling (i.e., wild-eyed extremists). Really now! However, we do insist the truth be told. Contrary to Fitzgerald's claim concerning the proxy vote cast for the nominating committee that was deemed invalid: After a thorough investigation, we're sorry to report that there's not one shred of evidence to verify this claim. It just didn't happen.
Letters like Fitzgerald's don't help this situation. Things are only made worse by lies and name-calling. Wild-eyed extremists indeed!
WAINE TOMLINSON
ROANOKE
An absurd premise about Kerrigan case
REGARDING the article on the front page of the Jan. 16 Horizon section entitled ``Sad truth behind Kerrigan coverage'' by Lowell Cohn of the San Francisco Chronicle:
He writes, regarding the news coverage given the Nancy Kerrigan incident, that ``news organizations tend to sentimentalize the lives of women athletes, especially white women athletes.'' This premise is offered as an explanation for what he considered an overdose of play on Ms. Kerrigan's attack. Cohn suggests that the fact she's not black, and not a man, made her drama more fascinating to the reading public.
The only way I can respond to this absurd premise is to ask readers (and Cohn): How would the news media have responded if the same thing had happened to Michael Jordan? Think about it. I think it's a pity that white female athletes have to be stabbed or clubbed to get equal time in the media.
Cohn reminds us that Ms. Kerrigan was not even badly hurt. This was allegedly a well-planned conspiracy to cut short the career of a talented athlete. That she was not permanently crippled is sheer luck. Are we to make light of the seriousness of the event because she's not now in a wheelchair?
KATHLEEN F. GOODWIN
COVINGTON
White's a plus for City Council
I'M HAPPY to see William White running to be re-elected to Roanoke City Council.
White has been a great help to Roanoke's citizens, and he works for all the people. When I'm at council meetings, he shows an interest in what's being said. He asks intelligent questions, so you know he's listening.
Whenever he's been asked to look into a problem at the schools, he personally comes (usually the same day he's asked) and stays with the problem until it's taken care of.
Roanoke needs White and people like him to continue being a good place to live.
MARY L. LEAR
ROANOKE
No more homeless - just tourists
CLEAR YOUR mind of everything else and imagine this: the Tour du Homeless.
People should get free food and lodging for bringing the tour through Roanoke. It could originate, say, in Washington, D.C., picking up more homeless along the way. The destination would be none. A bunch of nomads who travel north in the summer months and drift back south in the winter. Always on the go, visiting every city and hamlet in these United States - north and south, east and west. No more homeless, just visitors.
The homeless route could be down Campbell Avenue, left on Wall Street, east on Salem, right on Nelson, left on Church, left on Williamson Road to U.S. 460, and on toward Bedford and Lynchburg. This route would ensure that the City Market merchants get maximum exposure.
By the time this is organized, the police will have found three or four nags who are senile or dumb enough to allow overweight men, with about every electronic gadget made, to climb upon their backs. This could be worth coming into downtown to see. Also, it's to be hoped, by then they'll have figured out that horses with metal shoes have very little traction on hard-surfaced streets.
I believe that Roanoke County and the city of Salem will contribute a few of what they like to call ``the hard-earned'' taxpayers' dollars, if they can be assured that the tour will only go through and not stop in their jurisdictions.
The entire tour through the valley should take about three days, and most local homeless will join the tour, which should make for a happier downtown. Free food may have to be accompanied by free alcoholic beverages. I'm absolutely sure this will work because it's always worked to attract media people, the difference being that the media people are slightly better dressed.
DOUG GRAHAM
SALEM
Lawmakers crimp on library's needs
I HEARTILY agree with Beverly Kennedy of Salem regarding deplorably inadequate care and protection of materials now stored in the State Library and Archives (Jan. 20 letter to the editor, ``Historic records allowed to rot'').
Besides this, so little space and future provision is anticipated in the new library building that much of this treasure, largely irreplaceable, will have to be stored elsewhere, meaning archival papers and records.
This means much of it may be lost to future generations before it can be preserved or even catalogued. Lack of provision and adequate funding for the care and protection of historical documents is not only short-sighted, but careless. The value of these records to present and future researchers and historians cannot be adequately estimated.
Legislators, wake up!
MARY JANE VADEN
ROANOKE
by CNB