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

DATE: TUESDAY, June 28, 1994                   TAG: 9407050136
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VIRGINIA'S `DIRTY MONEY' CROP

IT HAS come to my attention that 9th District Congressman Rick Boucher has been negotiating with the House Ways and Means Committee to try to reduce the proposed cigarette-tax increase to a useless 15 cents a pack.

I'm outraged by this attempt to undermine one of the few sane proposals to be put forward in Congress recently regarding national health care. If we continue to allow tobacco, which is a dangerous and highly addictive drug, to be sold instead of banning it outright, the very least we can do is make cigarette taxes high enough to discourage smoking and cover increased health-care costs created by tobacco use.

Personally, I'm ashamed of Boucher's action, and of Virginia for continuing to grow large amounts of this harvest of death. Make no excuses, tobacco money is blood money. It's dirty money, earned from the pain and suffering of people who die slowly from diseases that tobacco causes. No moral person could take money from the growing or sale of this filthy product.

If we truly do want a future America in which people are healthy, and where health-care costs are reduced to a manageable level, we must rid our environment of toxins. This includes industrial wastes, unnecessary agricultural chemicals, and toxins like tobacco that have no benefits whatsoever to the user.

BOB SHELL

RADFORD

Attack on North insults intelligence

REGARDING the June 7 editorial, ``Oliver North, Republican'':

I can keep silent no longer. I must express my opinion regarding statements and innuendos made in that editorial.

I, too, believe in our First Amendment regarding free speech. However, some of your writers have demonstrated a wish to utilize this freedom to its fullest without the responsibility that goes with such privilege. I feel the minimum responsibility that goes with freedom of speech is to reveal the author of such ``speech.'' Whether an editor or regular citizen, you should identify yourself when printing your opinions about someone or something.

You must think all your readers are fools. If North is building his campaign upon ``a rock of criminality,'' then what has President Clinton built his presidency upon? If you're going to call the kettle black, please call all black kettles black, and spare us the partiality.

You've suggested that North's election to the Senate by 30 percent of the vote (in a three- or four-way race) would be the result of a ``dangerous contest.'' Didn't Clinton win the presidency by taking about 43 percent of the popular vote?

You end your attack by stating that North is an example of America's declining values. I won't disagree that our values are declining. However, you insult my intelligence by assuming that he has a lock on this representation. Maybe you, your media colleagues and the bigger part of local, state and federal governments are classic examples of this decline, which is supported by citizens who condone and/or live these declining values.

RALPH N. BOSEN

ROANOKE

Editor's note: Editorials (on the left side of this page) express the Roanoke Times & World-News' opinions. Members of the editorial board who are responsible for producing these opinions are named every day under the editorials.

Kroger serves as a valley citizen

ON JUNE 18, Habitat for Humanity blitzed eight houses, getting them under roof in one day. There were a number of corporate and church sponsors. One corporation, the Kroger company, totally sponsored a house.

In addition to this financial commitment, Kroger provided daylong snacks and drinks, even bringing them to the individual job sites, and a complete lunch for some 300 people. Kroger is truly a responsible corporate citizen in the Roanoke Valley. Thanks, Kroger.

WERNER C. STEINLE

Habitat volunteer

ROANOKE

Coverage not only on evening news

IN REFERENCE to Tom K. Bridges' June 16 letter to the editor, ``Heroes were cast in Clinton's shadow'':

I thought the coverage of D-Day by all major networks and cable television was excellent. It definitely wasn't limited just to the evening news.

I saw and heard good speeches given by dignitaries of European countries, good speeches given by veterans of D-Day, and the best speech was given by the president of the United States, who handled himself with dignity and poise.

CARL SCOTT

ROANOKE

by CNB