Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 15, 1995 TAG: 9502160005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Blacks could emulate Jews. They stick together. Jews remember the Nazi terror - Auschwitz, Buchenwald. Jews remind their children of the Holocaust.
By contrast, blacks seem stricken by chronic amnesia. We forget the shackles of chattel slavery, the heinous atrocities, crimes of reconstruction and segregation. The indignities of economic, racial and social injustices. Blacks forget that 130 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, we're still second-class citizens.
Although chattel slavery has been abolished, we're still economically enslaved. Ironically, we forge the chains that enslave us. Through apathy, lethargy and complacency, we lost three black-owned institutions: Burrell Memorial Hospital, Magic City Savings & Loan, and the William Hunton Life Saving Station.
We've nothing to leave posterity. This epitomizes civic and community irresponsibility. The appallingly sad travesty of our rich cultural heritage is our unawareness of being 100 years behind the times. For shame!
As a 77-year old retired Baptist pastor, I've lived and worked in Roanoke for 40 years. We shall overcome, with ballots and bucks.
CORDELL A. DICKEY
ROANOKE
Does political life have no prime?
WHEREAS airline pilots and train drivers, etc., are required to retire at age 65, because it's said at that age they're somehow not mentally capable of continuing in their chosen profession, how come members of government and the Supreme Court are allowed to continue until they're in their 80s, 90s or until they die?
Pilots and train drivers are responsible for at most 300 to 400 people at any one time, but aged members of government and the Supreme Court are responsible for millions. Is their mental ability somehow different from ``normal'' citizens of this country?
COLIN BROWN
ROANOKE
An expensive night for many families
MY WIFE and I recently went to the Monster Truck Jam at the Roanoke Civic Center. What a traffic mess! Where were the city police? It seems that Roanoke city would receive some type of revenue from crowds that the civic center draws, and it wouldn't be too much to provide some type of traffic control. While sitting in the line of traffic on Interstate 581, we were almost rear-ended.
After all that, the parking lot was full. When asked where to park, we were told to find a side street. We noticed people parking in the post-office parking lot, which is owned by taxpayers, so I didn't see a problem with that. However, someone must have. With no police around, there was six to eight wreckers towing cars. After the show, families with small children were standing in the cold waiting for a taxi to take them to get their cars. The wind chill was close to 0 degrees. For a family of four, it would seem that with tickets, cab fare and towing expenses, that night cost them more than $100.
It all seems like a gimmick to me. All you need to do is buy a wrecker, get an event calendar from the civic center, and you're in business.
We don't plan to attend anything the Roanoke Civic Center offers again. I'm thankful that I parked on a side street, and left before the wreckers got me.
DARYL TOLER
CHRISTIANSBURG
Investments in future leaders
THANKS FOR your new focus on productive teen-agers in the Roanoke Valley, and congratulations to the young people whose hard work you've featured. Your news story on the Governor's School Science Forum and your "Extra Credit" series are excellent tools to highlight the efforts of bright, active young people - our region's future leaders and taxpayers.
It is worth noting that proposed budget cuts to education and various educational/cultural centers in Southwestern Virginia would have taken away resources to nourish continued growth of these young people. If they expect to pursue a college degree, they may find that institutions of higher education have suffered immeasurably from years of budget slashing. Of course, if these young people aspire to become prison guards, they'll have their futures assured! Otherwise, they'll have to take their talents elsewhere.
Perhaps your continued emphasis on their good work may help prove that young people need the emotional and financial support of citizens and legislators. Certainly, we want them to become even more productive adult members of our community.
MARLENE M. PRESTON
ROANOKE
by CNB