Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 18, 1994 TAG: 9407220055
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I recently heard that O.J. Simpson's lawyers get $500 or $600 an hour. This is outrageous! It's obvious the federal government needs to take over.
Lawyers should be required to join Legal Maintenance Organizations. Americans could then choose which LMO to join. The government could require states to establish a bureaucracy to manage lawyers' fees and reject needless meetings, phone calls, briefs, motions and other bill-padding practices. The government could regulate time spent by lawyers on various types of cases, thus saving the public money.
The bureaucracy could be financed by taxes on tobacco products, country club memberships, or other things that lawyers need. There could be taxes on student loans for prospective lawyers, bar-exam taxes, and special taxes on any lawyers who run for public office.
Yes, there could even be a special tax on lawyers who are elected to Congress. If the Supreme Court eventually decides that term limits are illegal, we should ask our congressmen to pass a hefty re-election tax. I have a feeling this would solve more problems than you might think.
EUGENE CHAFFIN
BLUEFIELD
No second chances for Oliver North
AFTER READING some recent letters to the editor, I have a growing concern for Virginia. The letters to which I refer are ones praising Oliver North. Their language and general tone make me wonder if North has picked up some Lyndon LaRouche supporters.
The writers think highly of North as an American. One described him as one who ``stands for traditional morality.'' Now I'm really concerned!
The North I know is a man who seems selective in choosing whose orders and what loyalty he follows. I agree with his supporters that he was just following orders when he became involved in the arms-for-hostages scandal. But he obstructed the search for truth by our nation, speaking through our representatives in Congress.
In doing so, he betrayed his fellow Americans, but remained loyal to an individual (whom he later betrayed in the publication of his book). Is this the same North of whom some are singing such praises?
He's betrayed us once. Let's not give him another chance.
JIM BARNHILL
ROANOKE
Tobacco firms do the brainwashing
IT AMAZES me just how far smokers will go to deceive themselves about the dangers of tobacco smoke. Now Myrtle Adams of Independence (July 5 letter to the editor, ``A smoke screen for other dangers'') claims that health professionals are brainwashing the public in order to ban smoking everywhere. Nonsense. I'm sorry to tell you, madame, but the brainwashing you've received has been from your precious tobacco companies, not from us ``anti-smoking'' types. The facts are:
The Environmental Protection Agency has listed environmental tobacco smoke as a type A carcinogen, in the same category as asbestos.
Children living in smoke-filled homes are three times more likely to develop allergies, respiratory infections and asthma.
Allergies are smoke-related. Just ask any allergy sufferer whose eyes water and burn, and who begins sneezing as soon as someone lights up.
Yes, I agree that tobacco farming is a proud heritage for Virginia. But times have changed. Less than 25 percent of Americans smoke, which means the majority of us don't want to be exposed to the poisonous gases coming off the end of your cigarette.
Wake up, smokers. Stop listening to the propaganda that tobacco companies are feeding you. We don't want to usurp your rights as Americans; we just want to breathe without sneezing.
DONNA PROCTOR
Health Educator
Roanoke City Health Department
ROANOKE
Drawing the line on personal freedoms
A RECENT letter to the editor complained of the lowering of American moral standards by acceptance of practices that had been frowned upon in the past. The writer closed his letter with a further complaint that he was being deprived of his constitutional rights to smoke when and where he pleased.
Somehow this individual has failed to recognize that our Constitution guarantees us freedom to do what we like so long as our behavior doesn't endanger the life or well-being of our fellow citizens. We aren't free to smoke when doing so threatens the health or convenience of others; we aren't free to drive a car when under the influence of alcohol or drugs when doing so endangers others; and we aren't free to father and abandon illegitimate children when doing so puts an inequitable tax burden on our neighbors, and multiplies the incidence of crime.
DONALD R. FESSLER
BLACKSBURG
by CNB