Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9501170001
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
How long do we tolerate crime in this country, and what do we do about crime when it's gone too far to deal with - like now? We're not too overly concerned with crime until we become its victim. Crimes are like roaches - someone else's problem until they invade our home.
Have we reached a point of no return? Is crime too big for us to handle? Is it still growing?
I see the war on crime being fought much like the war in Vietnam. (That wasn't a war either, right?) It should, in fact, be fought like the war on Iraq in the Desert Storm days. Hit crime hard and long without letting up. We need to focus not only on the criminal, but also on judges, lawyers and politicians who live off of crime and want it to exist.
For those familiar with the Bible, there's a phrase that more clearly focuses on this: ``Withhold your sword from the blood of the enemies of God and you will be damned to hell.'' If we withhold true justice and tolerate crime, we'll be overrun by it, and will find ourselves in a living hell on earth, even in our own homes.
Turn on the television or pick up a newspaper and see how many people became victims of rape, robbery, murder, theft. How many were there yesterday? The day before? When do we reach the point of no return?
When you fight any war, you fight to win or you lose.
JOHN DAILEY
SALEM
Human potential is vastly underrated
IN CONSIDERING Charles Murray's and the late Richard Herrnstein's controversial book "The Bell Curve," I'm reminded of my childhood and the carnival's Fun House of Mirrors that would distort our view of ourselves in such absurd and funny ways. In times like these, it's good to be consoled by a sense of humor and to understand that imagination can be suitable compensation for what IQ is not.
When we believe in ourselves, when we know our potential lies in the body-mind-spirit totality that we are, then we know the IQ to be only a part of the whole. To consider ourselves otherwise is to become less than fully capable human beings.
When those such as John F.Kennedy (IQ-117) and J.D. Salinger (IQ-105) do no better than slightly above average on the intelligence scale, then possibly something has been overlooked or isn't being considered. More than ever, it becomes apparent that we really know very little about human potential.
In high school, a friend of mine was considered a brilliant student, a genius in fact. He never lived up to the billing. He dropped out of Yale after his second year, and now is a night custodian at a high-rise business complex. Another friend, a high-school graduate of no particular merit, went to work right out of school. Eight years later, everyone is amazed by the metamorphosis to successful business man.
Seems to me the writing is on the wall. We aren't just born dumb, smart, black or white. Better than that, we're born unique in body, mind and spirit! Recognizing that unique totality and its development can be the key to the happiness.
Murray and Herrnstein would have you believe that IQ is written in stone and somehow irreversible, when nothing could be further from the truth. Science consistently underestimates human potential. If we are victims, however, it's because we give credence to what's seen and said while ignoring what we ourselves may feel or think. The Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, once said, ``that man is without real will, when his attention is controlled not by his inner self but by the world around him.''
ERIK ANDERSON
MARTINSVILLE
Can schools spare a moment for God?
NOW THAT prayer in schools is back as an issue in Washington, D.C., let's see what can be done to accommodate everybody. Even though a person's prayer is a direct communication with God and it doesn't need a social setting, much stronger medicine is needed for the MTV generation. We need government classrooms sponsoring mandatory voluntary prayers every school day to hold the line against the devil.
Never mind that organized religious activities directly contradict the Constitution's separation of church and state. We'll just rewrite that old Constitution! Schools will soon be able to drill morality into their captive audiences. For this pure and noble purpose, the following amendment to the U.S. Constitution must be adopted without delay:
``All public schools are required to sponsor mandatory voluntary prayer sessions every morning according to the following procedures: Prayers will be said in Latin, Hebrew, Hindu, Arabic and Chinese. Each class must pray facing Mecca. Animals may be sacrificed and then cooked for school lunch. Students shall be led by Hare Krishna, Buddhist, and American Indian chants. Holy rolling, Bible thumping, and snake handling are allowed. Crackers dipped in consecrated wine shall be consumed. Incense will be burned, candles lit, and bells rung. If any time is left over from these more important religious activities, a brief moment of classroom silence will suffice for direct communication with God.''
CLARK M. THOMAS
ROANOKE
Campaign reform is the real solution
H. L. Mencken wrote: ``There is always an easy solution to every human problem - neat, plausible and wrong.'' Such a solution is term limits for members of Congress. The latest pusher of this snake oil is Newt Gingrich.
It's certainly a real problem that Congress is loaded with members who are mainly skilled at getting elected and at raising large sums of money to get re-elected, but there are also plenty of good members. The proper solution for this problem is real campaign reform to correct the present system that heavily favors incumbents over challengers. Voters could then more easily throw the bums out and re-elect good ones. The past two elections have shown that even with this bias, it's possible to defeat powerful incumbents who have disappointed their constituents. Reform would make it easier.
Two good arguments against term limits:
First, it's not right for any group of voters, however large, to tell another group whom they can choose to represent them. I don't want New York or California voters telling me I can't decide for myself whether my member of Congress deserves re-election. What business is it of theirs?
The second reason is based on the way laws are written. The team that drafts a law consists of members of Congress, the staffs of their committees, members of the federal bureaucracy most interested in the subject matter, and the expert and expensive lobbyists paid by special interests who have the most to gain or lose from the legislation. Under term limits, players knowing the least about the law and its probable effects, and those who have the least time to think about it, will be the new kids on the block, members of Congress who are supposed to speak for the people.
Term limits, no! Campaign reform, yes!
AUGUSTUS C. JOHNSON
SYRIA
GOP will dismantle the establishment
PROFESSOR Peter Fosl's nostalgic letter to the editor (Nov. 26, ``Don't bet on Demopublicans or Republicrats for change'') suggests that Virginians choose thinly disguised socialist parties, at a time when socialism has been rejected everywhere on Earth, except U.S. college campuses.
Of numerous misconceptions that necessarily preceded such a bizarre conclusion, the most elementary is Fosl's misconception about America's ``establishment.''
The real American establishment is made up of all those who believe that Americans are unfit to rule themselves. It includes entrenched politicians and bureaucrats, national media stars, elitist entertainment executives and, yes, some misguided academics. The people whose votes produced this year's conservative Republican landslide are Americans who wish to raise their own families, build their own businesses, keep their own money and elect their own leaders.
The real establishment would empower more and more unelected officials to enforce more and more regulations designed to take away these fundamental rights. Socialist parties, whether red, ``Green'' or plaid, would play right into the hands of this establishment. The ``change'' they support would only make government, and the establishment, stronger and more invasive.
This year's vote proves Americans know that radical change and power to the people will come only at the hands of conservatives.
EDWARD A. LYNCH
ROANOKE
by CNB