Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 12, 1994 TAG: 9402140320
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Now, at last it comes, like Lazarus from the tomb, looking this time more like himself than himself, for now it has an added luster. There's an underlying theme of Martin Luther King's immortal ``I have a dream'' that carries all the noble characteristics of a race finding its destined place in the annals of our history.
Appropriate also is the fact that the senator himself, a soft-voiced, unassuming son-of-the-soil man, has by these inspired and simple words assured himself a place in history, succeeding where so many have failed.
The halls will ring again, with children's voices singing in unison the words of this beloved song. Ringing down through the centuries, it will prove once more what we always knew: that dreams can never die, they only fade that they may come again, stronger and brighter with each new appearance.
RUBY A. ROBERTS
CHRISTIANSBURG
Hockey fans went hungry
ON JAN. 22, I attended my first Roanoke Express hockey game. Those behind the promotion and concept of this extremely successful professional team should be highly commended. The security of the venue, reasonable ticket prices, and an activity the whole family can enjoy are welcome and needed things for this area.
I do have one question. Why should vendors of the only refreshments available in the building close before the end of the event? With 12 minutes to go in the third period, all vendors were closed. The game was tied up at the end of regulation and went into overtime. For approximately 45 minutes of the 21/2-hour event, there wasn't a hot dog or soda to be found. That doesn't include the time after the game when fans, thirsty from cheering for the exciting and hard-working team, were unable to secure anything but a lengthy wait in line at a water fountain. I realize the food-service contract is probably to a private business, not Roanoke city or the Roanoke Civic Center, but let's get someone to deliver until the event is over.
I've observed the same lack of services at the Roanoke Regional Airport, when at 6 p.m. you cannot even find change for a vending machine (if they're working), let alone find something to eat, drink or read if your flight should be delayed. How did people survive during the ice storm?
It looks like a lot of lost revenue for someone. Let's demand that vendors cater to those who use these facilities, not do what's convenient for them. An airport with no convenient services or a civic center that cannot cater adequately to its customers will not help these venues continue to offer to people of Roanoke and the area top service or quality entertainment.
VICKI HELMS
ROANOKE
Young musicians are still learning
AFTER READING the review of the performance by the Virginia Tech Jazz Orchestra (Jan. 26 Extra section, ``RSO jazz falls short on pizzazz'' by Seth Williamson), I wonder if I attended the same concert as the reviewer.
Members of the audience around me were very enthusiastic and excited about the music they were hearing. How can eight or 10 years of playing an instrument by a young person still learning about the elements of music be compared to the ``musicianship of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra,'' whose members have infinitely more knowledge and experience? No one compares a collegiate football team to a professional one, and the same reasons apply here.
Joe Kennedy Jr. and the Virginia Tech Jazz Orchestra produced a very enjoyable evening of music, and I applaud their performance.
BRENDA J. LOUTHIAN
WIRTZ
The GOP embraces a scoundrel
MY COMPLIMENTS to Paxton Davis for aptly dubbing the Cornfield Jackass (Jan. 21 column, ``Whole lotta grinnin' in Richmond'').
My attempts to derive a suitable appellation for Oliver North produced nothing that was fit to print. The Cornfield Jackass is perfect.
North is a convicted felon. He's been exposed as a congenital liar and a most contemptible bigot. He's a disgrace to the uniform he wore and to the land of his birth.
He and the pseudo-Christians, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who would foist him upon the decent people of the Old Dominion, should experience our collective indignation and our rudest possible rejection.
The Republican Party of Virginia is doing honest people a grave disservice. Indeed it's an insult - embracing this scoundrel while he deals us the very ultimate expression of contempt.
ROBERT C. PERDUE
ROANOKE
VMI gives taxpayers their money's worth
SURELY with all the pork-barrel politics in this country and the state, we can afford to and should support something truly worthwhile. Can we justify spending millions on a study of the hazards of gas emission from cows, hundreds of dollars for a hammer, coffee pot or toilet seat for the military and deny hard-working, dedicated young men the type of education they deserve and/or desire? Which money is being better spent? Who's being self-serving, the government and politicians or the alumni and cadets of Virginia Military Institute who are trying to preserve a tradition of more than 150 years? It's a tradition that's stood the test of time and produced fine young men who go on to productive lives and have served their country well.
If the self-serving politicians win this battle, VMI shouldn't be required to change in any way. If women are to attend, they should live in the same barracks, wear the same uniforms and follow the same rules as the men. If a girl wants the ``VMI experience,'' she should adapt to the school, not the other way around. This isn't a comfy little school for pampered girls. It's a place where boys grow to be men. It takes an abundance of arrogance and egotism to destroy one of the two state-supported all-male military schools in the entire country.
Virginians should wise up and realize that they get a much better return on their money supporting VMI than on all the pork politicians produce. Our young men are legally entitled to choices in their education. Can we deny them this? They only have two options; certainly that's not too many. Get off the political bandwagon and use some common sense. Support VMI the way it's always been. VMI is, was and will forever be there to protect, serve and educate as long as we leave it alone.
PATRICIA P. SCHAAFF
ROANOKE
Lorena Bobbitt should be deported
LORENA Bobbitt got off scot-free for committing a brutal and inhumane act. At the close of the recent trial, she was found not guilty but insane. The jury decided she went nutso just long enough to take a good chop and then get the heck out of Dodge. Folks, they had sex. She went down to the kitchen, picked up a knife, went upstairs, and severed her husband's penis. Personally, that's not quite brief enough for me to call it ``temporary insanity.''
She won't go to jail, she'll not be deported, and she may not even be institutionalized after her psychiatric evaluation. We have enough wackos in this country. Why not send this one back to Venezuela?
I do believe her claims of sexual as well as mental abuse. John Wayne Bobbitt raped her continually and was just generally not a nice guy. Granted, he may be a schmuck who deserves to rot, but that gives her no excuse to do what she did. After all, two wrongs don't make a right, especially when violence is involved.
Ms. Bobbitt possessed the means to leave her husband. The American legal system was available to her. She didn't, however, have the right to take matters into her own hands.
JOANNA B. CAPPS
ROANOKE
2nd Amendment wasn't for hunters
AFTER READING R. Edward Mitchell's Jan. 22 letter to the editor (``Second Amendment: insurance policy against tyranny'') and the two opposing letters (Jan. 30, E. Jacques Miller, ``Writer provides formula for chaos,'' and Jan. 31, Eric Sheffield, ``Silly reasoning on gun ownership''), I'd like to even the score.
Mitchell's reasoning for the Second Amendment being in the Constitution hits the nail on the head. Why else would it exist? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what ``the right of the people to keep and bear arms'' means. Open your eyes, people! It's ludicrous to think our forefathers added the Second Amendment just to allow Americans the right to hunt game.
ALLEN B. BAIRD SR.
CLIFTON FORGE
by CNB