Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 27, 1994 TAG: 9412290005
SECTION: EDITORIALS PAGE: G2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Your claim that the money game gives the incumbent the inside track doesn't wash. One look at recent election results shoots that claim full of holes.
The one big money issue you failed to address in your editorial is the question of ``free ink.'' Oliver North may have raised more cash money than Sen. Charles Robb, but when the issue of free ink is considered, the financial picture changes.
Your daily diatribe focused on North, along with your constant praise of Robb, had to be worth thousands of dollars in favorable publicity for Robb. Multiply this by the number of liberal-leaning newspapers, TV news reporters, magazine writers, radio reporters, etc., and a completely different financial picture begins to emerge. North had to spend millions of dollars just to try to counter unfair and biased reporting.
I do agree that it's time for campaign-reform laws to be considered. To have real campaign-finance reform, the important issue of free ink must be incorporated into the law with a clause regulating equal access to and time in the news media when such access or time has been freely bestowed on the opposing candidate or political party. Only then will we have real campaign-finance reform.
Your editorial contention that the public isn't fooled by the standard ``insider statement'' surely rings true. Neither is the public fooled by your liberal bias.
JOYCE S. SIMMONS ROANOKE
Job security for the Hill rats
COME JANUARY, hundreds of congressional staffers will be looking for jobs because their bosses were ousted by the electorate. In addition, Republicans have promised to cut the total number of staffers. Where will they go, and should we care?
According to a Nov. 15 Wall Street Journal article, "They'll Never Leave," many may become career civil servants (?) in the executive branch with the same job security and benefits as now.
Most Hill dwellers know about the Ramspeck Act, but probably few others do. This decade-old law allows out-of-work staffers to become members of the entrenched bureaucracy. The requirements for acceptance are that they've worked as Hill staffers for a minimum of three years, be qualified for the position, which can, of course, be tailored to fit qualifications, and must exercise their Ramspeck eligibility within a year after losing a congressional job. President Clinton will be pressured by Democrats leaving Congress to pressure federal agencies around the country to accommodate these out-of-work staffers.
It hardly makes sense to fire the bosses, then entrench their staffs in significant law-making and decision-making positions throughout the bureaucracy to continue to impose views rejected by the electorate. At a time when people want less government and smaller bureaucracy, this procedure seems out of step. No wonder government is the country's largest employer.
The Ramspeck Act should be repealed, and the congressional retirement plan should be reviewed. Reps. Thomas Foley and Dan Rostenkowski were retired by their constituents, but they are assured of $100,000-plus and $90,000-plus a year respectively in retirement benefits. And these are just two retirees!
When Congress talks about cutting costs, it should begin with its own to show it is really serious. We send people to Congress to do good, not to do well at taxpayers' expense!
BILL and MARY CLARE WOHLFORD WYTHEVILLE
D-Day memorial needs area support
THE NATIONAL D-Day Memorial Foundation is very excited about building a national monument in Bedford. It will be of value to every citizen in the area and to future generations, too.
We need regional cooperation to achieve this goal. Raising the monies and accumulating support are of utmost importance.
Roanoke city offered us a site, which wasn't selected for many reasons, but vindictiveness wasn't among them. It's the hope of the foundation that Mayor David Bowers, City Manager Bob Herbert, City Council, and citizens of Roanoke accept our thanks for their offer and support our decision. We've moved beyond the site-selection process, and we urge all Roanoke Valley citizens to back our efforts in building a worthy monument.
CATHERINE THOMAS BENSON Secretary National D-Day Memorial Foundation ROANOKE
Bowers works hard at his profession
IN HIS Nov. 7 letter to the editor (``Mayor shouldn't defend drug dealers''), Stephen D. Vassar complained because the newspaper reported that Roanoke's Mayor David Bowers, in his capacity as a lawyer, was defending ``drug dealers.'' Vassar thought that very immoral after police go to so much trouble to bust drug dealers.
In the United States, a citizen accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt at a trial. The accused must be defended at the trial by a lawyer. If he cannot afford one, then one is appointed for him. In this case, Bowers was appointed by a judge to defend these accused drug dealers. A lawyer doesn't have to believe in a client's cause to agree to advocate that cause.
In Roanoke, lawyers are on an alphabetical list to be appointed to defend criminally accused indigents. Vassar ought to thank his maker that we have such a system, and that we have lawyers such as Bowers to accept such appointments.
Vassar states that Bowers' acts are a conflict of interest. Our city government (as well as our state and federal governments) is divided into three equal branches:
Under Roanoke's charter, the city manager is the executive and a paid employee of the city.
The second branch is the independent court system, operated by the state and not Roanoke city.
The third branch is the legislature, which consists of City Council. The City Council chairman is ex-officio mayor. His governmental duties are to vote on legislation. The mayor and council appoint the city manager, but have nothing to do with the court system and have only slight control over the city manager after his appointment. We expect the mayor and council members to be ordinary citizens, earning a living from pursuits other than employment by the city. Bowers works very hard as a lawyer while serving as mayor.
Again, Vassar should thank his maker that we have a mayor and City Council gainfully employed in their various occupations outside city government, and thus have true representative democracy in running our city. Instead of criticized, Bowers should be applauded.
JOHN H. KENNETT JR. ROANOKE
Blacks need to study black history
REGARDING the Confederate flag and black history:
The emotion with which some readers object to the flying or displaying of the Stars and Bars ignores some important facts of history, such as that, according to The American Heritage magazine, the U.S. census of 1830 listed American free blacks as owners of more than 12,000 black slaves (``Blacks: The Forgotten Class,'' March/April 1993).
Another ``lost'' fact of black history is the letter to the editor of the New Orleans newspaper, signed by several Louisiana free blacks, begging Jefferson Davis not to give in to the North's demand to abolish slavery in 1860.
My point is that humanity is flawed and always has been, and no race is completely free of human defects: Blacks owned slaves; the black Buffalo Soldiers slaughtered Indians; black-on-black crime is out of control; and so on.
Today, several women of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are accusing their male counterparts of sexual discrimination and, they add, this discrimination has been aided by the long-standing rule in the black community of not admitting any problems to any outsiders (i.e., whites). That much, at least, is now out in the open, and it's a good first step.
Now, if the black community continues to realize that hiding problems doesn't solve them, maybe it will also come to realize what the Stars and Bars actually represents: Southern rebellion against lies and oppression of the North. Then, perhaps, all Southerners will join in another fight for freedom from those damn Yankees (liberals), and finally can live together in peace.
JEROME C. WATKINS SALEM
by CNB