Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 17, 1994 TAG: 9405170084
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
This legislation would force stations to give free, equal time to opposing views on any issue discussed on the air.
It's clear Congress is trying to keep talk-show personalities such as Rush Limbaugh off the air due to the incredible influence that conservative commentators like him have on public opinion and action.
Since Limbaugh's popularity has skyrocketed, so have phone calls and letters to Congress challenging our elected leaders' actions. Constituents no longer need to take a politician's word for something because they're able to hear another side and make judgments for themselves.
In the face of more opposition than they're used to, members of Congress are trying to take action. If they can't legally keep Limbaugh and other conservatives off the air, they'll try to regulate them out of business.
The Fairness Doctrine was tried in the '60s under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations to keep their opponents from expressing their views.
While personalities such as Limbaugh are controversial, and many Americans don't agree with their opinions, the vast number of news and entertainment sources available - both liberal and conservative in tone - allow audiences to choose programs that fit their tastes. They aren't forced to listen to any political commentators. With many programs available, audiences who don't agree with Limbaugh can easily tune him out.
If liberals pushing this legislation are tired of the opposition conservative commentators are stirring up, perhaps they should re-evaluate their policies rather than ignore America's First Amendment right to a free press.
MR. & MRS. J. HOWARD BASHAM
DALEVILLE
North will fight battle for Virginia
I'M A conservative and I supported President Reagan for both terms of his office.
I also supported John Warner in the past, but I'll try to help pin the tail on that donkey if I'm still living when he seeks re-election.
Being a Marine during the Korean conflict and very familiar with the duty of the Special Forces, I know the first commandment is to protect the integrity of the commander in chief, who is the president, and the integrity of the United States. This is what Col. Oliver North did. It was his duty under his job security.
If there were lies told in any situation, it's my opinion that the lie was told by my beloved President Reagan.
I feel voters of Virginia want a senator to work for them, so they'll support and vote for North. He's our best chance to get a good representative who'll fight the battle, as he was taught and as he did for his country.
DONALD R. HAGERMAN
PENHOOK
Tax codes helped create the deficit
YOUR MAY 2 editorials (``The truth about deficits ... '' and `` ... and ways to cut the debt'') and the April 22 commentary (``After taxes, the deficit will continue to mushroom'' by Robert L. Bixby) pertaining to the national debt, its causes and possible cures as proposed by the Concord Coalition do not address a major contributor to the situation: changes in the tax codes in the '80s and the supply-side economics that did not generate anything but drastic unemployment and deficits.
If the numbers of unemployed were reduced, part-time workers had full-time jobs, and full-time workers with poverty-level wages were employed in jobs leading to a middle-class standard of living paying taxes and contributing to the economy, this would shrink the federal deficit. The federal government could then spend less on high-cost items associated with those problems.
BILLY T. PROFFITT
SALEM
Boucher deserves praise on his vote
THIS NEWSPAPER should be ashamed to berate Rep. Rick Boucher for his vote not to disarm honest citizens (April 30 ``Briefly Put'' entitled ``Boucher's bad vote''). When a member of the House of Representatives has guts enough to vote against the party line and votes instead for what his people want and what is in his heart, he should be held in high esteem.
I don't understand why the media continue to try and help the criminal element by disarming honest people. Most of you wouldn't know an assault weapon from a water pistol. Gun control and crime control aren't the same thing.
CHARLES S. HACKETT
VINTON
Cat ordinance penalizes the poor
YOUR April 20 editorial on cat licensing in Roanoke County lacked, in our opinion, intelligence and consistency (``Cat-ridden county sets feline limits'').
In supporting this new ordinance and defending those who carry it out, you ignore the realities of life for many living in Roanoke County and Southwest Virginia. Ironically, the census report (editorial directly below your lead editorial, ``Work, wages and poverty'') shows this ordinance can only punish and deprive the innocent - cats and kittens who'll be destroyed for being unlicensed, and those people and their children who cannot afford licenses for spaying and neutering, despite a sliding-scale arrangement.
The poverty of millions of Americans makes them less equal in many ways in this country. One of them is the difficulty of having a pet, or being able to care for it properly, because costs are involved. Yet these people and their children love animals as much as anyone else.
The answer to this problem, according to many who've studied it, isn't a mass euthanasia program for animals whose only crime is to have been born and who actually contribute to the cleanliness of the environment by controlling the mice population. Education programs in schools on the need for spaying and neutering, proper care for animals, and a free spay-neuter program for everyone under the poverty level would make a difference.
JENNIFER BAKER
RYAN A. KOCH
BLACKSBURG
Editor's note: This letter was signed by three other people.
Work continues on behalf of animals
HOW pleased I am to see that Tammy Javier, former director of the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, has reorganized her efforts to alleviate the suffering of animals in the Roanoke Valley and beyond.
Last April when I resigned my post as public-relations director of the Roanoke Valley SPCA, I did so from a feeling of extreme frustration over the Board of Directors' shifting attitudes. It appeared to me that ``looking good'' had replaced ``doing good.'' And I didn't have Javier's courage to continue the struggle.
She and her friends have organized LES. As I understand it, LES stands for legislation on behalf of animals, education of the public about responsible pet ownership, and a spay/neuter clinic. Somehow I knew adversity wouldn't slow Javier down. She has my deepest respect, and I hope she has the wholehearted support of concerned citizens of this valley.
BOBBI NAGY
FRANKLIN, W.VA.
No tolerance for intolerance
IF YOU'RE not an active ``anti''-something today, you're living in the dark ages. Activists' demonstrations and protest groups are destroying our country.
Examples: If you're anti-``Wizard of Oz," the book is removed from the library because you haven't taught your children the difference between fact and injury to the cerebellum. If you're a neo-Nazi or skinhead, you acquire a permit to march in a Jewish community. Is the United States going crazy or what?
Then we have anti-smoking activists. If they're really against smoking, there are lots of smoking cars, factories, furnaces, etc. We'll never have a smoke-free, chemical-free, disease-free environment. Rules against smoking at the shopping malls won't bother me. But I can't stand the pushing, shoving, belligerent get-out-of-my-way crowd, the obscene language, or parents with screaming kids who'd rather be home napping.
Most all anti-whatever are fundamentalists. The way you can tell is by asking them. They'll tell you their way is the right way, no doubt about it. Bob Dole is their leader.
Our forefathers wrote this country's laws with freedom and welfare in mind. Between every line is tolerance, which anti-whatever activists lack. Mine is growing thin because I can't tolerate intolerance. Whatever happened to the live-and-let-live trend of Americans?
SARAH WIRT
BUCHANAN
by CNB