
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 29, 1994                   TAG: 9405270082
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By WHITFIELD COBB
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOV. ALLEN'S FAULTY GAME PLAN

AN INVITATION to speak at a college or university commencement gives one so honored an opportunity to share his acquired wisdom and even to promulgate his own motives and goals in life with a captive audience.

Such was the opportunity for Gov. George Allen when he addressed more than 4,000 recipients of degrees from Virginia Tech and an audience of about 25,000 on May 14. Presumably, all were believers in, if not exemplars of, higher education - the acquisition of broad-based culture as well as sophisticated skills for making money. He seemed to realize the occasion's seriousness, because he said he'd been reflecting on his predecessors' wisdom in preparing his comments for that day.

In this period when America struggles with street crime, gang warfare, chronic poverty, homelessness, teen-age pregnancies, sectarian bigotry, racial discrimination, spiraling health-care costs, and the widening gap between incomes of the very rich and the majority, what insight or guidance did Allen offer these graduates about to disperse over the world? Much of what he said was praising economic freedom, deploring ``regulatory obstacles,'' or defending his own programs for ``creating jobs for Virginians.''

He asserted, ``Economic freedom and opportunity are the keys to unlocking the potential of every individual to be self-reliant and independent.'' At one point he said, ``That's the name of the game today - competition.''

We know his father was a successful football coach, but was competition the only family value he fostered in this son? What of tolerance for differences, consensus building, community service or caring?

Coincidentally, on the very same page of this newspaper as the May 15 news article headlined ``Allen tells Tech Va. is job-hunting'' by staff writer Allison Blake, there was a another article, ``Goode urges graduates: Hold onto values,'' by staff writer Joel Turner. In this news story, Sen. Virgil Goode is quoted as saying, ``Too often our leadership has not given us the role models that our children so desperately seek, that our communities so desperately need.''

Perhaps we should seek wisdom from someone other than an elected official. In the April 24 Parade, Marilyn vos Savant (who's listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest IQ) said: ``I think the greatest thing people have ever done is decide to cooperate. Cooperation was the most important element in conquering smallpox, traveling to the moon, and in achieving any peace that lasted.''

Ultimately, any counsel's validity depends upon its consequences, not upon the counselor's authority. Even Allen's speech cited this dictum from Patrick Henry: ``I know of no way to judge the future but by the past.''

In Bosnia, Rwanda and Northern Ireland, we can see competition at work. In Jericho, Gaza and South Africa, we can see cooperation beginning to have desirable results. Do we really want to act as if living in today's world is just a game whose name is competition?

Whitfield Cobb of Blacksburg is a retired professor of statistics at Virginia Tech.

by CNB