Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 12, 1994 TAG: 9412140012
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Thomas says ``morals are no longer a concern to educators,'' and ``private schools and Christian schools consistently do better than government'' schools. (What's a government school anyway? A school for governments?)
As a parent and a teacher, I feel I have certain teaching responsibilities to my children and other teaching responsibilities to my students.
In my parental role, I feel it's my duty to instill good values (right and wrong, virtue and vice) to my children. As a teacher, I feel my primary role is to educate my students in the selected academic subjects that I'm certified in.
While most teachers I know have no reservations about reinforcing good values, it seems that we're now being tasked more and more with parental responsibilities.
Maybe it's time to stop blaming schools for the shortcomings of today's youth and start accepting some of the responsibility for what we as parents have long shirked.
JERRY W. WERTZ ROANOKE
Why blame the president?
I'VE NEVER seen in all my years of voting a president as ``bashed'' and put down as President Clinton.
Yes, government is out of control and corrupt, but why blame it on him? I didn't agree with him on Haiti or Somalia, but does anyone remember Ronald Reagan sending our young men to Lebanon to die, or Grenada, or the bombing of Libya, or George Bush's Iraq and Panama? I don't think Clinton knew the ``mess'' he was stepping into when he was elected.
Now we have three big bags of wind - Jesse Helms, Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich - who are going to solve all the government's ills. I can't wait.
The reason they don't like Clinton is because he's not a Republican.
IRENE GROVES ROANOKE
Only white males can be criticized?
``MIRACLE on 34th Street'' is sexist? ``The Lion King'' is racist, sexist and homophobic? Where do you get these ideas?
Why is everything a white male does considered racist or sexist? Since the regular media will not report on the racist ways of black leaders, I guess I'll have to be the nonconforming citizen to bring it out.
Recently, while turning the television channels, I passed C-Span. An African-American Leadership Conference was being held. Ben Chavis was one of many black leaders on the stage. The conference was about issues facing the black community. The audience was allowed to make statements and pose questions to the leaders.
There was only one white person in line. When he got up to the microphone to make his statement, the commentator said that he wouldn't be allowed to talk. The man argued that he had been in line for 30 minutes, and wanted to make his contribution just like everyone else. A black leader spoke up and said that this conference was for his race and nobody else's. The man was surrounded by blacks and led out by black police officers.
What if the man had been black and the leaders white? I bet you would have been all over it then.
BEN DICKERSON ROANOKE
Celebrity isn't everything
REGARDING the Nov. 28 column, ``& Now This ... Miss Virginia missed'':
Seems to me that Kathy Lawson's attitude was very poor, ill-mannered and insulting. To say, ``who wants a no-name substitute?'' is insulting to the first runner-up. She has no better manners than Miss Virginia, who reneged on a contract. Surely, with three weeks notice, Lawson could have done a bang-up job of promoting the first runner-up (provided she was available).
Why not have several parade marshals - people in her own community who have done an outstanding job of leadership or have unselfishly given of their time to volunteer jobs? I'm sure there are plenty of celebrities with ``names'' in her own community.
SANDRA BORJA CLIFTON FORGE
by CNB