Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 5, 1994 TAG: 9405060004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
New Century Council Director Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr. mentioned downtown's success with the Roanoke City Market (April 13 Business article by Lon Wagner, ``Fitzpatrick sees downtowns as people space''). What success? Where's the success? Show us success! There are just as many vacant storefronts on the Roanoke City Market as there are in the rest of downtown.
The City Market has had an abundance of trade and traffic since its inception. Calling it historic or a place where elite meet to eat may lure a few more to venture into downtown, but only on very rare occasions. Generally, the market attracts those it's always attracted - those looking for bedding plants, vine-ripened tomatoes, unusual and different dining places, and panhandlers.
So let's start with problems, not denying there is a problem.
I want to hear someone say, ``We have to get business back into downtown Roanoke before we can get customers into downtown Roanoke.'' Who's going to step up to the plate on this one? Nicey-nice City Council people? Nicey-nice visitor- and-convention-center people?
What we need is finger-pointing. It has to be someone's fault. Everything is someone's fault, and this is no exception. This city has too much going for it for everyone to waltz around with each other, acting like it's the economy, the times, or we've just fallen into a hole. I want to know who is at fault and ride them out of town on a rail. I want something accomplished now! Like, in my lifetime.
DOUGLAS CHANDLER GRAHAM
SALEM
A columnist's misplaced concern
ELLEN Goodman laments that a pregnant 14-year-old in Pennsylvania must notify her parents before having a developing human cut, scraped and suctioned out of her (April 26 column, ``Under construction: barriers to abortion''). She grieves for the teen-ager/woman who must listen to an accurate medical presentation of the facts concerning abortion and pre-born, developing humans. She's incensed this woman's been prevailed upon to wait a whole 24 hours before making a decision that could haunt her for a lifetime.
It doesn't seem to matter to Goodman that the woman in question possesses rapidly changing hormones and is at least a bit indecisive. The fact that a 14-year-old cannot get her ears pierced without her parents' permission doesn't seem to faze the columnist. She would prefer to make it as easy as possible for the teen-ager to have an operation that could perforate her uterus, cause sterility or worse. And this girl's parents would never even have the right to know that their daughter is at risk.
Well, if abortion-regulating laws such as those in Pennsylvania upset Goodman, I expect she'll feel more stress caused by the growing number and scope of such laws.
BRIAN ROBINSON
ROANOKE
And what if crooks have nine lives?
ARE CATS really the problem local officials would have us believe? Well, maybe so. We all know the little critters can be bothersome at times. But perhaps there's something else clawing at Roanoke's citizens. How about peace of mind that's missing when one walks to his or her car in a shopping mall or on a downtown street?
I recently came out to my car after work (you know, the kind where they deduct taxes) only to find my windshield smashed by a vandal, and probably not the furry kind. Just recently I found an empty wallet, except for some identification. After talking with police, I discovered the owner had been robbed. Not a critter was spotted at the scene of the crime.
After giving this a little more thought and reading past newspapers, I'll just curl up with my cat on the sofa and read a good book. Man, I think we're trying to license the wrong cats.
LINDA SHERMAN
ROANOKE
Constitution not valued by Clinton
AN APRIL 17 news story in this newspaper (``Warrantless searches part of gun crackdown'' from The Washington Post) said that Bill Clinton plans to spend $28.8 million to provide security and crime prevention for 135,000 public-housing units in Chicago. This is part of his policy to search for guns without a search warrant.
Clinton danced on the Constitution when he refused to bear arms in defending America, and now he's treading on it in the name of crime control. Will he kill his cat to control fleas?
How can he face America saying that public-housing residents have less rights under the Constitution than other citizens? Will his policy extend to other citizens near the area or those passing through? Where will it stop?
I hope courts continue to honor the Constitution by saying no to this dictatorial behavior, and that America wakes up to this scam before losing a valuable constitutional protection to someone who obviously doesn't understand or value it.
JACK WATTS\ BOONES MILL
No rights for very little people
A HEADLINE in the April 7 Roanoke Times & World-News, in reference to retiring Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, reads: ``He guarded rights for `little people'.''
In view of his leadership in the 1973 Roe vs. Wade court decision legalizing abortion, I'm forced to ask, ``Which little people?'' What about the millions of little, little people whose lives were terminated by abortion before they had a chance even to see the light of day, draw a breath, or speak a word in their own defense.
Who has granted the rights for these ``little people''? Certainly neither Blackmun nor those who, in one way or another, have concurred in his opinion. It's a sad commentary on our times that the pleas of these little people have been so callously dismissed.
LOUIS M. NEWTON
ROANOKE
by CNB