
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 10, 1995                   TAG: 9502100026
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SLAM AT ALLEN INSULTS STATE'S VOTERS

GEORGE ALLEN was elected governor by the largest majority of voters in my memory on a platform calling for lower taxes, reducing the size of state government, welfare reform to include a work requirement, building enough prisons to keep predators off the streets, and doing something serious about our schools.

On Feb. 2, Democrats in the General Assembly canceled the votes of that majority, apparently asserting that those voters are intellectual inferiors and not sufficiently intelligent to know what's good for them.

Perhaps voters who want their votes to count will elect Republican candidates for the House and Senate in the coming election.

All who voted for the Allen program can be sure that House of Delegates Majority Leader Dick Cranwell and other Democrats are chortling at your impudence. They may even quietly wonder why a majority of voters believed that their votes would make a difference. We are, after all, a boorish lot desperately in need of guidance by the ruling elite.

A. JOE McCREERY

MONTVALE

Law-enforcement trainees will benefit

REGARDING the Jan. 28 story, ``Sheriff candidate sees `posse''':

I expect that I didn't explain it well enough to your staff writer, and for that I apologize. But the $1,500 pledge from my salary will establish an educational fund for department personnel who seek higher education to complement their career goals. Successful completion of accredited courses of instruction in our community-college system or at a four-year institution will be required for consideration of tuition reimbursement.

Specialized training, such as at the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center for State and Local Law Enforcement Training, is provided free of charge, and includes lodging and meals. (All an agency has to do is pay the officer's salary while the officer/deputy is in attendance.)

In reference to the ``sheriff's posse,'' I'd like to add that volunteers would be screened like any police applicant. Criminal-history checks, drug testing and other applicant-screening procedures will be adhered to. A spokesman for the National Sheriff's Association has said that the program is a good one that acts as a supplemental arm for the law-enforcement community. The most successful program is in effect in the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department in Arizona. It uses approximately 2,000 volunteers in its posse.

MICHAEL J. BROWN

Candidate for Sheriff

Bedford County

MONTVALE

Warner rejected by his own colleagues

ONLY in the world of political doublespeak would one find the statement by Sen. John Warner's chief of staff, Susan Magill, soliciting support for him at the end of your Jan. 24 story providing results of a recent poll about him. She said, ``I just hope Virginia Republicans keep their eye on the goal, which is to keep this Senate seat Republican.''

Warner's actions denied a Senate seat to the Republican Party in the November election. He has personally done more damage to the Virginia Republican Party in the past two elections than any Democrat.

It's instructive to look at how he's regarded by the Republican Party leadership in the U.S. Senate. After the Republican victories in this past election, he sought to chair the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. His colleagues rejected him outright. They know he's erratic and undependable in support of the Republican cause. Virginians have a Republican (?) senator with 16 years seniority who will never be given a major legislative responsibility unless he's able to claim it under the archaic rules of seniority.

MAXWELL DYETT

MONETA

Time to de-junk Roanoke's streets

WHAT A shame someone from another state has to pay the Star City a visit and observe all the trash and junk cars that Michele Beres of California did (Jan. 28 letter to the editor, ``Good impression marred by trash'').

I thought Roanoke had some ordinances against old junk cars that do not have a motor in them. Yet they're parked everywhere, in back yards and on the streets. Let's get busy and clean up some of this mess before it's too late.

MAE JONES

ROANOKE

Oh, the beauty of that `snowy night'

THANKS to Bill Sampson for his beautiful and thought-provoking ``A silent, moonlit snowy night'' (Jan. 31 commentary).

One of the most memorable pieces of creative writing ever!

BETTY GRAHAM

ROANOKE

by CNB