Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9410120003
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Humanitarian aid continues to flow, but reports indicate much of it is getting into the hands of the military. This should be no surprise to anyone.
But an invasion would do more harm than good. Almost 95 percent of U.S. citizens in Haiti now are members of religious orders who have devoted their lives to the Haitians, and wouldn't consider leaving. In a recent open letter to President Clinton, they stated reasons for not invading Haiti, and outlined a plan of nonviolence for the coming months. Why is the administration apparently not listening, and instead amassing invasion forces near Haitian waters?
The last time the United States invaded in 1915, the Marines stayed 19 years, and organized the foundations of the present military/police system. The United States empowered the Duvalier regime, and trained Gen. Cedras and Michele Francois at the U.S. School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga. The majority of Haitians fear an invasion, despite their need to have the present coup leaders deposed. An invasion would destroy the empowerment of the leaders of the Peoples Movement, which began developing in 1971.
Let's focus on strengthening the embargo - closing the Dominican Republic border with helicopter patrols and U.N. monitors, and putting consistent political pressure on President Balaguer. Let the administration visibly show more political resolve to return President Aristide.
If we have the will, democracy will return to Haiti, and the Haitian refugee problem will disappear.
BOB DELLAVALLE-RAUTH HUDDLESTON
No violation of 'second law'
IN AN Aug. 13 letter to the editor (``The evolution theory is not sacrosanct''), Larry Necessary presents a specious argument frequently employed by creationists: The evolution of life would violate the second law of thermodynamics. The problem lies in his version of that law, that ``any system, without intelligent direction, will degrade to a more random state.'' This statement is not the second law of thermodynamics.
What that law tells us is that a completely isolated system (not any system) degrades to a more random state. The earth's biosphere isn't an isolated system; it receives energy from the sun and cools by infrared radiation into space. This tremendous amount of energy constantly entering and leaving biospheres drives many processes, which result in highly ordered, less-random states. For example, organized structures such as cyclonic circulation systems, hurricanes and tornadoes form from the atmosphere's random turbulence. Likewise, all living organisms form complex, ordered structure from highly random raw materials.
These are specific examples of systems changing from a random to an ordered state, yet there's no violation of the second law because these aren't isolated systems. That similar processes occurred at the molecular level, which ultimately led to life on earth, isn't in any way contradicted by that law.
BRIAN DENNISON Professor of Physics Virginia Tech BLACKSBURG
Priorities are out of joint
IT'S NO wonder the times are out of joint. Linus Pauling, one of the greatest minds of our time, dies, and he gets mentioned in two columns on the last page of the first section (Aug. 21, ``Nobel-winner Pauling dies''). I thought it wasn't going to make the newspaper at all.
A NASCAR driver, Ernie Irvan, crashes. While it's a tragic event, it's appropriate news for the front page of the sports section (```A hard hit, straight on'''). It's hardly newsworthy enough for the front page of the newspaper.
Pauling's 93 years and remarkable accomplishments span the 20th century. Your readers have been affected more by the life of this extraordinary man than by all the race-car drivers who have ever existed.
It's unfortunate your news reporting seems aimed at the lowest common denominator. Your readers deserve better.
NANCY A. GIBBS BLACKSBURG
Skilled workers can help teach others
I'M A student at Virginia Western Community College, and am about to graduate with an associate degree in electrical/electronics engineering technology. My goal is to earn a bachelor's degree from Old Dominion University (while living in Roanoke) through the VWCC/ODU satellite-education program. A nontraditional medium, a nontraditional student.
The reason I'm writing is my concern over what appears to be the lack of cooperative education in the Roanoke area. The local engineering firms (mechanical, electrical, civil) have a motivated pool of talent that could be used to fill short-term, part-time or full-time, teaching positions. Also, students could take a semester off from school to work, gain experience and save money for the next semester.
I urge employers interested in cooperative education to contact the career-services office at local community colleges.
ROBERT CASEY ROANOKE
Those who can pay| have right to choose
I'M 75 years old with osteoporosis, and have already suffered a spinal fracture and recovered, with care. I fear that if Congress passes a health-care bill, the federal government will control the kind of health care I receive. If I fracture a hip, which occurs for those suffering from osteoporosis, the powers that be could rule that it wouldn't be ``cost efficient'' to replace my hip, which is the usual treatment for a fractured hip in older people. If I suffer a heart attack and need heart surgery, would it be ruled that, because of my age, it isn't ``cost efficient'' to allow the surgery?
I read that 80 percent of Americans are pleased with their health-care program, and what they pay for it. Why should they be forced to come under the federal government's rule, and be dictated to as to what kind and how much health care they're entitled to and how much they'll pay for it?
Think what proposed health-care plans could mean. One more freedom/right taken away from us!
The better solution would be to expand Medicaid, with provisions for those who can't afford health-care plans, and to require doctors to give medical care to those under Medicaid. Leave those covered under our chosen health-care plans alone.
This would be the most cost-efficient plan. We who have our own chosen plans are willing to pay for our own coverage. Give us this right!
MARIE L. GRAY ROANOKE
Atomic attacks actually saved lives
IF HIS mea culpa on Hiroshima (Aug. 15 commentary, ``It's time to admit America's nuclear error'') is any indication, Stewart Udall hasn't read George Feifer's ``Tennoyan,'' an in-depth and rather gruesome study of America's invasion of Okinawa in 1945. The punishing defense put up by an essentially abandoned Japanese force, undersupplied and hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, inflicted a terrible cost on American troops and Okinawan civilians. This campaign served as a harbinger of the probable result of an invasion of Japan proper. Feifer's research further suggests that militarism still reigned supreme in Japan during 1945, and that even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the decision to surrender was a close call.
Unless Feifer's study is seriously flawed (and it appears well-researched), there can be little doubt that a prolonged conventional assault on Japan would have resulted in millions of military and civilian casualties. It would seem the atomic attacks, although hardly a ``humanitarian act,'' saved many more lives than they took. This is grim arithmetic, to be sure, but it supports the wrenching decision made by Truman to use these terrifying weapons.
EUGENE E. DERRYBERRY ROANOKE
Health care and heels on Capitol Hill
I WAS sorry to hear that Vice President Al Gore had injured his Achilles tendon and needed surgery. I noted that the surgery was done at the Bethesda Naval Hospital at taxpayers' expense.
If he had been injured while on duty, I wouldn't write this letter. But he wasn't. No, he got his injury while horsing around playing basketball. If it were you or me, we'd have to dig deep into our savings to pay the medical bills. I guess the only way I could get this free service is to become a politician, and then I'd get all the free medical care I ever needed.
And there they are - politicians in Congress - debating over President Clinton's health-care plan, cutting out this and that, making it a watered-down health-care bill. I can see us taxpayers getting the shaft. Now I really feel sorry for those who can't afford health insurance.
If those politicians sitting on their rears come up with a watered-down health-care bill, then they had better start looking for a job.
RUSSELL W. JOHNSON VINTON
by CNB