Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 21, 1994 TAG: 9404210193
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The content of this humor has moved beyond satire and is becoming quite vicious. It's questionable to this reader if an evenhanded and factual editorial policy would allow such opinion under the guise of conscientious journalism.
On the other hand, you're not letting Trudeau do your bidding, are you?
BYRON R. DICKSON
ROANOKE
A rosy view of Whitewater
THANKS to Victor Kamber for his March 31 commentary, ``Whitewater another Watergate? It's time to get real.'' It lets the rest of the world see how little the socialist left of the '60s has progressed. The ideas of the '60s haven't left them, just their touch on reality.
``Some politicians and pundits are comparing Whitewater with Watergate.'' Hum! I think there was an investigation into Watergate before facts were made clear. Plus, Whitewater has an added attraction - a dead body!
``Hillary Clinton, hailed until recently as superwoman, is suddenly being vilified by the pack media.'' Hum! Since she's decided to become an official-nonofficial-official, she needs to have some sort of accountability. But isn't this the same pack media that got Slick Willie elected? What happened?
``Alfonse D'Amato, the most investigated senator in history, [source please?] has suddenly become the Republicans' point man on ethics.'' Hum! I wonder who the Democrats would put up to match him? Kennedy, Biden, or ``I didn't do anything wrong cause I can't remember'' Clinton?
The commentary was fun to read, but I think Kamber's looking at this White House through Rose Law Firm-colored glasses.
JEFF BORTHEN
ROANOKE
City needs greater interstate access
THE PAVEMENT hit the fan: The Virginia Department of Transportation's local route of choice is Bent Mountain. Interstate 73 will pit neighbor against neighbor and bruise many feelings in the community. In the end, government will do as it sees fit. I'm for the roadway.
Another interstate in the Roanoke area will help promote growth for the economic climate in Southwest Virginia. We want to be a professional area with businesses supporting our comfortable lifestyle, but many are unwilling to pay the piper. People I grew up with left the area because no jobs were here for them. Times are tough all over, but Roanoke makes it more difficult than it has to be. I was born here and want to stay, but there has to be progression, not regression.
If we want to be the transportation hub and distribution center everyone thinks we already are, we need access to Roanoke from more than one interstate. It costs more to haul freight to an area that isn't easily accessible. Not only do you have to have something going in, but you need to have a back haul lined up to get the truck going and earning again.
Roanoke services many outlying areas, and people come here to spend their money. Better roads would benefit, not hinder, Southwest Virginia's progress.
Someone asked me how many years I'd lived on the mountain. She'd been a resident of Roanoke County in the Bent Mountain community for three years. I'm 21 years her senior, very attached to the area and love the mountain. But if we don't change with the times, the times are going to change without us. Roanoke will be just another ghost town. It used to be the home of Dominion Bank, Norfolk Southern and other businesses that eventually found it inconvenient to be headquartered or located in an area that's unwilling to invest in its own future.
JUSTINA L. BROWN
BENT MOUNTAIN
Tags on cats tough on taxpayers
THE LATEST news is that Roanoke County has succeeded in getting a law passed requiring all cats to have a tag (April 13 news article by staff writer Jan Vertefeuille, ``County passes cat law''). This law will require more animal-control officers, and most likely require a tax increase to cover this. And I don't have a cat. This will also give the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals more animals to destroy, making some people happy.
RUTH G. CUNNINGHAM
ROANOKE
Griffith supports a reckless plan
ON MARCH 31, Del. Morgan Griffith advised a group of more than 400 area opponents that he supported, against his constituents' voiced wishes, a proposed alternate Route 6A for proposed Interstate 73. This proposed route would permanently and rapaciously devastate large, remote areas of invaluable, irreplaceable natural resources and beauty, including Bent Mountain, Alleghany Springs and scenic, recreational and historic regions of Giles County (among others) in the name of economic development for Roanoke.
The express understanding was that said development, when transpiring as the result of an interstate highway, occurred from commerce and activity centered around highway interchanges rather than from some general osmotic process emanating outward from exhaust fumes of tractor-trailers speeding through on their way to distant points.
When a Bent Mountain-area interchange was specifically opposed, Griffith quickly and confidently assured the assemblage that, because more localities request interchanges than funds exist for, he could virtually guarantee ``if Bent Mountain doesn't want an interchange, they will not get one.''
Two questions remain unanswered: By what elusive mechanism, then, would promised area growth occur? What factors, if any, besides transportation corridors and economic growth, do Griffith and those supporting this most reckless and needlessly consumptive proposition believe possess intrinsic value worthy of careful consideration?
KATHY DAVIEDS\ BENT MOUNTAIN
America can't claim `holier than thou'
THE APRIL 3 news article by staff writer Cody Lowe, ``Christians feel spirit of renewal,'' contained an extremely erroneous and chauvinistic remark: `` ... the United States - arguably the most religious nation on Earth ... ''
Among many nations that can be considered more religious is India. The vast majority of its population (more than three times that of the United States) are extremely spiritual and devout, whatever their faith. Most Hindus (roughly 80 percent of the population) observe daily domestic religious rituals and frequently worship in temples. That India exceeds us in its religiousness is an opinion shared by my parents, who served as Christian (Lutheran) missionaries there for 30 years.
Most predominantly Muslim nations can also be considered far more religious than the United States. The vast majority of Muslims throughout the world faithfully pray five times a day. While most Christian churches are filled to the brim only on certain Sundays like Easter, Muslim mosques are packed for congregational worship almost every Friday.
There are other nations considered more religious than our country. I hope that in the future your writers will avoid erroneous statements that insult the cultural integrity of people outside this country and a large number of foreign residents and recent immigrants in this country.
PETER SCHMITTHENNER
BLACKSBURG
Government should stay out of it
IT LOOKS like we're determined to let our government get into the health-care business. This is not a very good idea.
Let other countries that lean toward socialism have socialism. It's not for us!
In America, we don't need any more government regulations. We have too many now! The idea that government can do anything and everything is purely a socialistic dream that doesn't work. We cannot mix it in with a democratic, by-the-people government. It will only infringe on our freedoms and, if we're not careful, will finally do away with them. Do we want that to happen? If we do get into this, we need to understand that it'll cost us plenty, in more ways than one.
C. GLEN STINNETTE JR.
HUDDLESTON
by CNB