Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 7, 1994 TAG: 9411080004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Why the lack of attendance? Our own fine Roanoke Symphony concerts are attended by large audiences, so what happened with the Slovak Symphony performance - one that was adequately promoted and with the tickets considerably cheaper than those of the RSO?
Maybe it's because a larger number attend the Roanoke Symphony for social rather than musical reasons. Or maybe it's the Roanoke Valley's typical apathy for some cultural events in general. Whatever the reason, the low attendance was truly embarrassing for WVTF and those in the almost empty auditorium. I'm sure, based on this poor showing, promoters won't think twice about passing Roanoke by when events of this nature become available.
The future of the performing arts was struck a blow on Oct. 26 - a blow from which I hope we can recover.
CHARLES W. PERKINSON
ROANOKE
Jesus did not urge dependency
ON YOUR Oct. 11 Opinion page, a letter writer asked why liberalism might be called evil (``Why is it evil to be liberal?'' by Marionette Wiggins). Neither liberalism nor Marxism is evil. They just aren't very good ideas.
The letter writer suggested that Christ would have been a liberal. Not necessarily. Christ had complete sympathy for the unfortunate, but recall that his mission was our salvation and our restoration to grace. Had he intended to provide man with a system for long-term social survival - the task we must face - he would have not forgotten that men aren't angels. The perfect people, with completely charitable natures required to make a truly Marxist state work, simply don't exist in this world. There aren't enough saints. We become dependents with very little prompting as soon as we perceive that the state (our fellow men) will support us.
Most people with sympathy for their fellow man consider liberalism at some point in their naive youth. As we mature, and as we note how easily humans become dependent, many of us begin to recognize that giving a man a fish can deprive him of the ability to fish or even the interest in fishing.
ROBERT S. TERRY
BEDFORD
Mayor shouldn't defend drug dealers
I SEE that our mayor, David Bowers, made the front page of your newspaper on Oct. 21 (``Head of busy crack house is sentenced''). He was the crack dealer's defense attorney.
Where is our mayor going to stand with the decent people of this city who are against drugs and crack dealers?
I see this as a definite conflict of interest. If he wants to align himself with drug dealers, he should resign as mayor. It's an embarrassment for Roanoke's citizens to read in the newspaper that the mayor represents crack dealers.
Our police department works very hard to bust crack dealers, only to have Bowers come to the dealers' defense. I hope I don't stand alone in saying that I don't want someone with no morals, or lack there of, as our mayor.
STEPHEN D. VASSAR
ROANOKE
Time change wasn't reasonable
CONGRATULATIONS to your editorial staff (``Streamlining to an extreme'') and your staff writers for the ``Strike force summary'' in the Oct. 11 newspaper. You clearly had to burn the midnight oil to summarize the 466 recommendations in the 412-page draft report.
It was reported that one of the suggestions under transportation is to ``reduce the 30-day waiting time notice to a reasonable time frame.'' That's an admirable goal, but reducing it to 24 hours is ridiculous. That's the time your writers and the public had to review the report and its suggestions before the Oct. 11 public hearing.
It's clear why the strike force chose a railroad town for its first public hearing. You could hear Gov. Allen blowing the whistle all through the valley.
JAMES M. MOORE
BLACKSBURG
Strike Force report kept under wraps
AFTER HEARING the announcement on public radio of the Virginia Strike Force meeting scheduled for that evening, I drove to Roanoke with three friends.
It, of course, was most frustrating, since I had not had an opportunity to peruse the pages of recommendations because the report hadn't been made available to the public, except for those citizens with capability to access Internet. If one doesn't have this access, or the luxury of spending hours at the public library (no hard copy available on Oct. 11), one remains ignorant! Perhaps by design?
It appears Strike Force members and Gov. Allen aren't really interested in having informed feedback, since they made it virtually impossible to obtain the report before the meeting at Virginia Western Community College.
My primary interest being environmental issues, I scanned the many pages of recommendations during the meeting, and it appears that ``elimination'' is the key word. It sounds very noble - eliminate to reduce duplication and costs, protect private-property rights, etc. However, if one reads between the lines, it's obvious the final outcome is intended to eliminate sound environmental practices, eliminate endangered-species protections, and eliminate notifying the public concerning intended changes and regulations.
Monies were plentiful for the Disney park fiasco, but somehow we have to cut spending for clean air, water and natural resources, without which we cannot live on this planet.
ROSEMARIE SAWDON
BLACKSBURG
Price differences can be misleading
WHILE NOT wanting to demonize the pharmaceutical industry, you surely painted rhetorical horns on drug manufacturer Carter-Wallace in your Oct. 17 editorial (``The market sometimes is dopey'') on the reformulation of its drug, Organidin.
Your editorial regarding the price of prescription drugs was misleading because Organidin (iodinated glycerol) was withdrawn from the market, not only for the cancer concerns mentioned but also for lack of efficacy. The sensational $45 price difference trumpeted in an Associated Press wire story and subsequent editorial fails to compare the daily cost to the patient.
The $5 bottle of cough syrup must be consumed entirely in one day for maximum effectiveness. The $50 prescription product contains 100 tablets, costing 50 cents each. One day's worth of the prescription product at equal milligram strength would cost $6, yielding a difference of $1 per day. Additionally, there's an alternative prescription product called Humibid LA that delivers the same results in four tablets daily for under $2 per day.
Is it any wonder that the public has grown skeptical of health-care reform headed by medical experts like Hillary Clinton, the AP and your editorial staff?
MARK HOLBEN
ROANOKE
Blame Democrats, not Reagan
IN THE Oct. 17 issue of this newspaper, Dorothy H. Powell in her letter to the editor (``Robb spoke truth, even in jest'') and William B. Hopkins in his commentary (``The record makes Senate choice easy'') both - as editors like to do - blamed former President Ronald Reagan for this country's terrific debt.
Editors, Hopkins and, presumably, Powell know that Congress, not the administration, specifies every expenditure to be made. They also know, or should know, that Democrats have been the majority party in the House of Representatives all of the time and in the Senate most of the time since Eisenhower's presidency. Thus, the expenditure of every dollar - sometimes at the rate of about $1.68 for every $1 received - was approved, and usually initiated, by Democrats. Thus, the huge deficit has Democratic Party, not Reagan, written all over it.
HENRY D. GREGORY
ROANOKE
by CNB