Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010032
SECTION: EDITORIALS PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Clearly, you were slandering the state's method of execution. Maybe not in so many words, but it was quite obvious that you had put Virginia on just about the same level as Dana Ray Edmonds. Both, you say, are premeditated killers. Your cute little play on words may have fooled some into thinking they had drawn that conclusion of premeditated murder on their own, but not others.
Another implication was that the state was ``eager'' to kill Edmonds. If it was so eager, why didn't it do it a long time ago? And why is it that so many murderers get away with just a slap on the wrist? For a state so eager to kill, it sure does let a lot of chances slip right through its fingers. No, the problem with our system today isn't how many executions we do, but how many we don't do. If people knew they would be executed for murdering someone else, I guarantee you they would think twice about it.
Your comment about Texas executing a man who was later said to be innocent doesn't hold water compared with the many cases of murderers who are set free, only to kill someone else. Think for a minute what your thoughts would be if it was your wife, son, daughter, brother, etc., killed by Edmonds. I know you'd have a very different opinion from that expressed in your editorial.
For society's sake, let's be thankful we have a justice system to keep some of these murderers from roaming the streets, looking for their next victim.
ANGELA POLZELLA
PENHOOK
Put faith now in the legislature
I, LIKE Gov. George Allen, have faith. It seems, however, that our faith lies in different places.
In a Jan. 14 news story (``Governor operating on faith''), he said that he "feels bad" about the 36,000 teens who will cease to receive Medicaid, and the 48,000 families removed from welfare roles without any state programs to prepare them for that day. His answer to their upcoming hardships is that he has faith that they'll be all right.
He didn't mention the 320,000 shut-in adults who will cease to receive Meals on Wheels, the thousands of mental-health cases who will lose the programs designed to help them, the teens who will leave school as programs designed to keep our next generation interested in learning are abolished, the countless Virginians who will lose access to public-health clinics providing services from AIDS testing to vaccination programs, or "honest and hard-working" Virginians who might find that they cannot send their son or daughter to a Virginia state college due to the closing of departments and programs.
I'm sure he also feels sorry for them, and has faith that they, too, will be all right without these state-supported services. But I have faith that the average Virginian isn't so selfish and shortsighted to be willing to trade these valuable services for what amounts to a $33 tax saving in 1995, or even the proposed whopper of $435 combined federal and state tax savings for a family of four in five years.
Yes, I believe the state system can and should be made more efficient, but destroying a system with one stroke of a pen seems unfathomable. It also seems unreasonable to lose so very much to save so little. In five years, the proposed tax cut will save less than $10 a month for each member of that family of four. It seems to me that particular $10 has a great deal of buying power.
I hope our representatives and delegates will fight for reasonable change, not the proposed demolition of our state government.
JOAN KALNITSKY
BLACKSBURG
Many are more deserving of honor
AT THE RISK of sounding banal, I must say it: Now I've heard everything! I refer to recent developments concerning commemorative postage stamps. In her Jan. 15 letter to the editor, Joan Howe reminded us of the ``deplorable trend'': ``First Elvis - now Marilyn.'' And now we read that O.J. Simpson has also been thus honored.
Ahead of his time, Tennyson wrote: ``The old order changeth yielding place to new.'' This certainly describes our condition but, unfortunately, change isn't always a progression toward a better world.
As alternatives, what about several truly noteworthy persons, outstanding in their pursuit of excellence: Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Gen. Colin Powell, the Rev. Billy Graham? Or if it needs to be someone no longer living, I suggest Arthur Ashe and others of his caliber.
How far down morally do we have to go before people who care and who love our country will rise up in indignation and cry enough? I think the time has come.
MILDRED SADLER
SALEM
by CNB