Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 8, 1994 TAG: 9409020014
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
This is the second editorial you've written relative to the reconstruction of U.S. 58 into a four-lane highway from Virginia Beach to Cumberland Gap. I'd like to point out the following facts:
McGuire Engineering Associates conducted an economic-impact analysis of the various alternative routes. Every alternative had a positive economic impact. The firm's analysis has not been factually contradicted.
The alternative adopted by the Commonwealth Transportation Board for construction had less of an economic impact because it avoided the Mount Rogers/White Top communities, which you stated would be ``degraded.''
People visiting the great Southwest all too frequently experience problems because their vehicles cannot negotiate the sharp curves and steep hills. This U.S. 58 project will alleviate that problem, and make the area safer and more accessible.
Your readers would be much better served if the editorial position of this newspaper was ``rethought'' than if the construction of U.S. 58 was ``rethought.''
PAUL HURLEY Chairman Mount Rogers Planning District Commission MARION
What about landowners' rights?
WE HAVE been Catawba Valley residents for more than 12 years, and we're dismayed over possibilities that proposed interstates and power lines could destroy the scenic valley.
As if these threats aren't bad enough, now the Appalachian Trail and U.S. Forest Service want to buy almost half our land, and even more of some of our neighbors' land.
We don't wish to sell, as we only have 16 acres to start with. We understand from family members who faced a similar situation that, if you refuse to sell, the government will take it anyway. Can anything be done about this infraction of individual rights?
Our land will be paid for in 18 months, and we had planned to build a cabin that would blend in with the surrounding area. Facing these controversies, we don't know what to plan for now. We've always supported the trail and the hikers, like driving them to the parking lot when they get lost, but we don't want them in our back yard.
The intended line for the trail will come within 200 feet of our living quarters, and take up more than half of our woodland. We don't want to sell!
SAMUEL F. REYNOLDS CATAWBA
Prison life offers good connections
I'M REALLY concerned when I read about all the good people who can find nothing else to condemn, so they pick on a cartoon movie entitled ``The Lion King.''
Let's get real. This is a cartoon - make-believe, fiction - and I seriously doubt that anyone intended for it to be anything other than entertainment. There are some real-life goings-on out there that could use some of that energetic condemnation.
One item that should cause every tax-paying Virginian to become very irate is the July 25 Associated Press article in this newspaper entitled ``Cable doing time.'' This makes me mad. Inmates at Greenville Correctional Center didn't get there by doing good deeds. I know a lot of law-abiding citizens who work hard every day, but cannot afford to have cable television in their homes.
This is an insult to all Virginians. Cable doesn't come free to any of us. I don't believe an inmate in any correctional center deserves to be royally treated.
It's things like this that make ``punishment'' no deterrent to crime.
BARBARA GROSECLOSE TROUTVILLE
Sticking police with the sticker task
THE JULY 26 news article entitled ``Stickerless cars may get stuck with $25 tickets'' is timely indeed.
At sticker price, plus $25, 3,768 scofflaws owe $169,560. Late charges and interest would push the total to more than $200,000. To paraphrase the late Sen. Everett Dirksen, ``That's a right smart bit of change!''
This issue isn't ready for City Council; it's a matter for the city manager and city attorney to rethink, and they should rewrite the ordinance and designate a collector.
Our city is a haven for derelict cars. Two such cars, sans inspection and personal-property stickers, have been parked on one Southwest Roanoke street for more than three months. One state authorization has expired.
Let's not burden policemen with loose, nonproductive tasks before a flawless remedy can be enacted.
ERNEST F. REYNOLDS ROANOKE
What valley needs is a green light
AS I travel the vexatious 4.3-mile stretch of Virginia 419 on my way to work, I'm forced to question the timing patterns of the 11 traffic lights that inhibit a smooth journey.
How is it possible that at least nine of the lights stop me each way of my trek? What kind of monkey-brained idiot derived the brilliant timing patterns here in the Roanoke Valley?
I've never taken a course on traffic-light timing or highway sequencing. However, I've been independently studying these subjects since age 16.
I've driven through cities where signs on the street read, ``Traffic lights timed for 45 miles per hour travel.'' What an interesting concept! Keep traffic on the main highway flowing with the use of timing intervals and light networking. I know it seems impossible. But using an ancient Chinese abacus and electronics from the '60s, this type of system could be installed right here in the Star City.
As a contribution to the valley, I could set up a seminar with some of the best traffic-pattern specialists of our time. I'm sure bananas could be served.
JAMES P. MARRACCINI ROANOKE
Virginia must not risk it with North
WE CANNOT risk entrusting the office of U.S. senator to an individual who has never been elected to public office.
We know that Oliver North has only simple solutions to very complex problems that this country faces.
Virginians, be cautious. Don't allow the world to think that because a Marine colonel became popular during televised congressional hearings the commonwealth will put him in the U.S. Senate. Support Sen. Charles Robb, who has proved he can handle the job.
GILLIAM M. LEWIS ROANOKE
The qualifications are dubious
ON APRIL 14, the U.S. Senate confirmed President Clinton's nominee, Rosemary Barkett, for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
As a Florida judge, Ms. Barkett consistently ignored relevant legal authority, as well as undisputed facts in cases, in efforts to achieve her own liberal agenda, and to avoid even the slightest notion of individual responsibility. While Ms. Barkett's actions may qualify her as a sociologist, such actions are inappropriate for a judge.
In Wickham vs. State, Ms. Barkett blamed a murderer's actions on the ``milieu of violence'' in which the killer grew up. In LeCroy vs. State, a double-murder case, she blamed all youth crime on ``a failure of family, school, and the social system.''
In Hall vs. State, she voted against the death penalty for the killer of a woman and her unborn child because of ``emotional deprivation'' during the killer's life.
In Porter vs. State, Ms. Barkett argued that the killer was not capable of premeditation because of his ``emotionally charged, desperate, frustrated desire to meet with his former lover.'' In Hudson vs. State, she voted against the death penalty because the killer had been ``surprised by the victim during [his] burglarizing of the home,'' and therefore was ``unable, to a certain extent, to conform his behavior to the requirements of the law.''
Recent public opinion polls have consistently ranked crime as one of the principal concerns of the American public. The confirmation of Rosemary Barkett as a federal judge will do little to relieve citizens' fears.
It should come as no surprise that Sen. Charles Robb voted to confirm Ms. Barkett.
JAMES LOWE ROANOKE
by CNB