Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 14, 1994 TAG: 9404140302
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
His campaign is based on three prongs:
Smear Oliver North.
Declare that North shouldn't be nominated because bad things are being said about him.
Boast that Miller is a man of ``good character and integrity.''
Thoughtful people are disturbed by the inconsistencies in these three prongs.
Miller's smear campaign has no limits. He even makes a campaign issue of North's receiving psychiatric help for problems caused by marital difficulties and combat fatigue. (North's marital difficulties were caused by the duty he felt to his comrades in war.) Miller smeared not only North but all those receiving psychiatric help after combat.
Of course, Miller never served a day in the military, let alone in battle. North's response was right on target: ``Jim Miller ought to be ashamed that those of us who saw the horrors of Vietnam and then sought counseling to heal the wounds of war are somehow not up to his standards.''
Miller is using vicious, personal, mudslinging, anti-North smear tactics. It's difficult to think of anything more he could do to help Sen. Chuck Robb's re-election campaign.
No matter how hard Miller tries to prevent North's election, North will prevail. He'll be elected to the U.S. Senate, to the consternation of liberal politicians, the liberal media and the elite Washington ruling class. They'll lose, and Virginians and America will win.
LEWIS R. SHECKLER
RADFORD
White is an asset on City Council
WILLIAM White has served his constituency well the past four years. He has not hesitated to speak out when he believed it was in the best interests of city residents. As a member of City Council and a former Roanoke City School Board member, he has exhibited compassion, concern, care and humility. His knowledge and experience as a businessman and certified public accountant can only serve as an asset for Roanoke.
Therefore, I encourage you to re-elect White and allow us the privilege of having him working and serving us for another four years.
LESSIE J. POLK
ROANOKE
Have the Clintons hatched a monster?
SO LINDA Bergthold, a health-care expert for William M. Mercer Inc., a consulting firm, who helped craft the Clinton health-care plan, thinks that insured people opposing the Clinton plan are being selfish? (March 27 news article, "Insured Fearful of Reform.") Perhaps some are, but I suspect most opposition has nothing to do with selfishness. People have had time to contemplate this Frankenstein monster and are becoming frightened.
This isn't just a subsidy to secure health insurance for low-income people. Everybody will be required to participate, whether they're insured or not. Due to this, those already insured are afraid they'll end up paying more for less coverage, and will be thrown into the bureaucratic maw of an HMO.
The Clintons constantly reassure us that we have nothing to be afraid of. Their plan will help millions and only hurt the greedy. Should we trust them? The tremendous obstinacy they've shown in the face of Whitewater clearly indicates how readily they'd admit to flaws in their health-care plan.
Am I being selfish by criticizing the plan? I'm one of the 38.9 million uninsured Americans who this monstrosity is supposed to help. I oppose this plan because I believe the more government can do for you, the more it can do to you. The current administration causes me to worry about what it would do to us if it could.
JOHN BARNHART
ROANOKE
What will be the next expose?
IT'S WITH welcome relief to know you've moved to a higher level of journalism with your recent ``Time's Up'' series, by staff writer Ron Brown, on parking tickets in the greater Roanoke area. This long, overdue and assuredly prize-winning expose signals the kind of mature, civic-minded concern for our community's well-being and future that's been sorely misdirected in the vast wasteland to which the newspaper's buying public had been subjected.
Thank you for doing your journalistic duty and taking on such serious and truly threatening issues as parking tickets. It's doubtful the Roanoke Valley could deal with much more fluff news of local importance - babies born to single mothers, the extraordinary quality of U.S. Senate candidates, the joys of economic stagnation, the preserved quality of the Roanoke River, the wonderfully quaint unpredictability of our electric-power supply, and the nice effort at urbanizing the bucolic Blue Ridge Parkway by visionary developmental heroes.
Perhaps we can take the series as a sign that things are changing around good old Roanoke after all. Don't keep us waiting to see what other important and timely news articles you've planned. I can't imagine even wanting another source for my news.
KURT NAVRATIL
ROANOKE
by CNB