Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408050068
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Associated Press reports that $27 billion in child support has not been paid, even after being ordered paid by the courts.
We should require mothers to make every possible effort to establish paternity, then require the father to pay child support. With sophisticated communication systems that are available, almost anyone who has a Social Security number can be found.
Fathers who are delinquent, married or unmarried, should be required to pay, by way of the courts. Those delinquent should expect to lose their drivers' license. If that doesn't work, then they should face time in special camps. All prisons don't have to be air-conditioned and supplied with such niceties as televisions. If necessary, some military bases that are scheduled to close can be converted to special camps.
We should demand that our elected officials do a better job. Illegitimacy in our nation is increasing at an alarming rate. Nonsupport of children is a disgrace, and a drain on our nation's economy and well-being. This we shouldn't have and certainly don't need.
WILLIAM E. REYNOLDS SALEM
Help for Rwanda: too little, too late
IF THERE is still a voting American undecided about supporting a government health-care program, he or she need only consider our current administration's response time to the Rwandan refugees in Goma, Zaire. Clinton feels our government can take on the monumental task of proposing, implementing and controlling something that will require one-seventh of our nation's tax revenue. And he couldn't even have the foresight to prepare for a cholera epidemic, which has and is affecting a population equivalent to a modest American city.
Now, the administration is behaving as if the epidemic (of biblical proportions) just fell out of the sky without warning. It's incomprehensible, given the number of refugees, water source and acreage upon which they were settled, that he didn't send aid sooner, and thus have helped prevent many deaths via the deadly disease. And, yet, he'd have his employers (us) trust his administration blindly to implement a national health-care system.
Refugees are now fleeing from one death into another. It must seem an easier passing, with head held high and eyes flashing defiance, facing the business end of a machete - compared with wasting away, minute by cruel minute. The mighty United States came through - a day late and a dollar short, I'm afraid. It certainly won't matter to the thousands who are dead and dying that relief is on the proverbial way. But as an American citizen, I'm thoroughly disgusted and embarrassed at the way our administration handled this tragic mess.
SAMANTHA MAJORS ROANOKE
Limbaugh is not in Will Rogers' class
REGARDING Cal Thomas' July 20 dithyramb - excuse me, column - on Rush Limbaugh (``Liberal elitists just don't get Limbaugh's satire''): Classing Limbaugh as a satirist is like calling a butcher a surgeon.
As to the Rotund One's intelligence, the last time I heard his show, he explained how he read an article in the New York Times Book Review four times before he understood it.
Thomas' defense of Limbaugh's many ``factual errors,'' as best I can piece it together from his flailing prose, is that it's OK for Limbaugh to lie because the liberal media do it, too. I thought Thomas was a Christian, and here he condones a violation of the Ninth Commandment, not to mention the Golden Rule! He does speak the truth when he says that Limbaugh counters his critics with ``an avalanche of facts and pugilistic rhetoric '' - which is to say that Limbaugh is unwilling, or unable, to use logic and reason.
As for his contention that Limbaugh is a modern Will Rogers, the radio personality of the '30s who Limbaugh resembles most is Father Coughlin. And I suspect if Rogers had ever met Limbaugh, the famous quote would now read, ``I only met one man I didn't like.''
JAMES G. SHELL ROANOKE
Haiti's Aristide is a demagogue
THE UNITED States may eventually send American troops to Haiti to shore up Jean-Baptiste Aristide, who is to be restored to the presidency of that poor nation. Aristide is a Marxist demagogue who resigned as president rather than face criminal charges ranging from theft of public funds to incitement to murder.
In a recent profile of him, The New York Times buried a reference to his speeches ``interpreted as condoning the practice of `necklacing' political opponents with burning tires.'' In one speech, he described this barbarism as ``a beautiful tool.'' A painting glorifying it hung on his office wall. Are we considering invading Haiti to keep him in office, or to keep him from barbecuing his enemies?
J. PERKINS ELLIS SR. ROANOKE
Boucher's puny appeal to 'protocol'
NINTH DISTRICT Rep. Rick Boucher recently defended his weak Second Amendment stance by appealing to House ``protocol.'' This lame excuse demonstrates why we need real change in the House and Senate. It's inexcusable that Boucher would have greater regard for protocol than concerns of his constituency.
Oliver North and Steve Fast are the clear choices for citizens desiring greater freedom to protect themselves.
PATRICK L. McCUNE MEADOWVIEW
by CNB