Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 11, 1994 TAG: 9411160039
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
However, before Republicans revel too much in their gains and leadership roles to come, they should be sobered by knowing that the heavy onus of performance will be on them. They must now craft logical solutions to some very critical problems. Their so-called Contract With America can't be considered a serious matrix by which to fashion the needed solutions. Large increases in defense spending, hefty tax cuts for the rich (or anyone else) at this time, and balancing the national budget are absurd on their face.
In theory at least, Republicans are supposed to embody principles of common sense, practicality, fiscal conservatism, integrity, etc. It's now time for them to dust off these attributes.
The Republican record in the last Congress wasn't always one of trying to help solve our problems, but often appeared to be an effort to play politics to the hilt in trying to stymie the administration's proposals as a way to discredit and undermine the president and lay groundwork for the November elections.
Then, too, the Democratic leadership wasn't always an example of reaching out in a nonpartisan way. They used procedural tactics to thwart legislation from leaving committees to get consideration on the floor. To them, this may have been good politics, but helped assure hostility by the opposition.
A highly mobile defense force with adequate facility for very rapid deployment, a serious ongoing effort to cut the federal government's size and expense, ending unsuccessful and unneeded programs, instituting term limits, cutting Congress' salaries and perks, and setting a definite time by which the budget must be balanced are some things voters had in mind when entering the booths.
The result wasn't so much an expression of passionate embrace of Republicans as it was a manifestation of disgust with Congresses of recent years, and the hope that this realignment may produce some needed solutions.
GEORGE H. HILL FERRUM
For accountable school boards
AFTER reading your Oct. 25 editorial in regard to elected school boards (``Say `no' to elected school boards''), I question the position your newspaper has taken. I wonder where your knowledge might have originated, or was it mere political hogwash?
As a former elected school director, past president and secretary of a school board with 12 years of service to the school district, I must defend the elective process. You speak of accountability. Is it not far better for those elected to be accountable to the district's voters than to those who have appointed them to their position? Your fear of some group or organization controlling the elective process is unfounded. It's apparent that you missed issues of democracy during your formative years.
Public education should be foremost in the minds of every Virginian because our youth are the building blocks for the future.
Your editorial does nothing but perpetuate the good old boy's club where there's some question of accountability as to the needs of a respective school district.
BOB M. KREAMALMEYER BLACKSBURG
The issue was states' rights
I READ with interest the Oct. 26 letter to the editor by Jeff Artis, ``Holding on to flag-draped fantasy.'' I commend him for his compositional abilities, but, alas, he doesn't have all his facts straight.
Virginia seceded from the Union only because President Lincoln called for federal troops to force the original seven states to stay in the Union.
My great-grandfather thought he was fighting for the right of his home state to secede. He had no slaves, and only fought because his home state was being invaded. It's unfortunate that Artis seems to believe that only rednecks, Klansmen and skinheads support the right of people to fly the Confederate flag.
RAYMOND D. CAMPER JR. ROANOKE
Abortion is also a `canned hunt'
HOW IRONIC that Suellen Stracke's Oct. 24 letter to the editor (``Abortion isn't equal to murder'') was followed by a letter condemning the ``canned hunts'' of confined animals as uncivilized (``Uncivilized, unsporting hunts'' by Virginia A. Zahn). Abortion is the ultimate ``canned hunt'' in which a helpless unborn child is dismembered in his/her own mother's womb. As films like ``The Silent Scream'' and ``Eclipse of Reason'' verify, the unborn human shuns the instruments of his execution in a futile but desperate attempt to save its life.
For that child, there is nowhere to hide.
TRESA CLARKE SALEM
Correction
A sentence in Peggy N. Dudley's Nov. 9 letter to the editor (``Bullets or abortion, it's the same'') should have read, ``After all, it's her body.
Hating the sin, loving the sinner
I TAKE exception to two letters to the editor that appeared in your Oct. 25 newspaper that seemed to classify all Christians as hate-filled, intolerant bigots (``Fear, hatred and ignorance are evil'' by Don and Brenda Ringstaff and ``Passing judgment on diversity'' by Chuck King). The ``real'' Christian person is as opposite from that as anything can get. The born-again believer does hate the sin, just as God does, but he loves the sinner and wants him to come to Christ.
As to the statements about God and Jesus loving everybody - that's true. But God hates sin. Homosexuality is sin. This isn't my statement but God's statement.
JANE LAM ORANGE BOONES MILL
A decision based on greed?
I'M APPALLED at Norfolk Southern's recent decision to end its steam excursion program (Oct. 29 news article, ``Last run for NS steam train''). It's an affront and a slap in the face to every Norfolk & Western and Southern railway enthusiast, not to mention communities such as Roanoke, Chattanooga, Norfolk, Greensboro, etc., that have supported steam excursions by selling out train after train.
NS operates the two finest examples of steam locomotion ever built in the J-611 and A-1218 (which were built in Roanoke), and they're not going to be kept in service? It's incredible to think that NS could buy that kind of public-relations value.
NS's decision is exemplary of corporate greed, especially in the face of its third-quarter profits. Is NS too good to consider that there's an obligation to ``pay back'' for its success? It owes something to its heritage beyond sticking another dollar in its already bloated pockets.
ROBERT LEFEVER ROANOKE
Despicable epithets and fear-mongering
In A Nov. 1 editorial, The Washington Post noted that Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat from New York's Harlem district and a member of the Ways and Means Committee, recently gave a partisan political speech in Manhattan to an audience largely composed of blacks and Hispanics, in which he defined the election as few others have. ``It's about race,'' he said, ``and a certain costume change. Once it was `sheets and hoods' of the Klan. Now it's with the `black suits and red ties' of conservative politicians. It's not `spic' and `nigger' anymore. They say, `Let's cut taxes'.''
To equate racial epithets of ``spic'' and ``nigger'' with those who want to cut taxes is inexcusable. To cut taxes, I think, would be good for everyone. However, this provides an idea of what he thinks that taxes are for: his constituents. Apparently, they're not supposed to work and earn anything. Rather, they're supposed to exist on whatever he can arrange for them to have. If some oppose that, according to him, they're obviously racists.
Clearly, Rangel is obsessed with race and is merely transferring his thoughts to Republicans and his opposition. To suggest taking a Klansman's hood and placing it on a conservative politician's head because he or she suggests cutting taxes is fear-mongering and most despicable. Further, it was intended to help get the black vote out for him and his Democrat cohorts.
No one stood at the meeting to oppose his views, and the national media didn't report the incident at the time. Apparently, it all depends upon whose ox is being gored.
CLAUDE E. STEWART JR. VINTON
by CNB