Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 25, 1995 TAG: 9502280010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This has to be one of the most preposterous things I've ever heard of. Are we, the taxpayers, paying for these people to be able to tool around town in a brand new or nearly new vehicle? Give us a break, please!
It seems to me these same people could own a vehicle worth $1,000. Enough money would be left over ($6,500) to feed their families for the next three years (exit food stamps).
What totally leaves me clueless, however, is where these people get the money needed for car payments, taxes and insurance on these $7,500 vehicles. Seems like the whole system needs a real reality check.
DENNA S. BAYSE
ROANOKE
VMI should quit taking tax dollars
I CANNOT believe the judicial system would continue to ignore the discrimination against women in a state-funded school, Virginia Military Institute.
As a taxpayer, I feel there's an injustice if my daughters have the desire and qualifications to attend VMI, but can be denied due to their gender.
The same injustice would occur for my sons if they were denied an education at an all-female state-funded school.
I do not feel it would be the same to send my daughters to another school if they wished to have a military career, with VMI as their educational foundation.
From history, we all know how misleading ``separate but equal'' is. If VMI wishes to continue to be the boys-only club, then quit taking my tax dollars for its support.
ELLEN BOWLES
SALEM
Public broadcasting is a class act
PLEASE DON'T throw out National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service! To do so would reduce television and radio to the lowest common denominator.
On two recent occasions - the president's State of the Union message and the Super Bowl - we were forced to watch commercial television. That was a shock. The ads alone are enough to induce you to turn off the set.
What impresses us about PBS and NPR is the well-rounded approach to newscasts. There's nothing dogmatic or sensational. Instead, almost without exception, there's intelligent discussion about the subject matter under review. Let AT&T or one of the commercial stations take over and you'd have the confrontational, dogmatic, for-entertainment format of any of the national networks.
There's all this talk about continuing education. Let's not take away NPR and PBS, two prime sources, including ``Sesame Street'' and in-class use of programs of some intelligence.
Both stations are available where cable doesn't reach; NPR goes everywhere by car. To unfund one or both would be shortsighted, and in the long run a decision to be regretted.
JOSEPHINE R. and ALEXANDER H. MORRISON
BUENA VISTA
Qualifications are excellent
MICHAEL J. Brown is running for sheriff of Bedford County. He's been an extraordinary law-enforcement officer.
First working for Bedford County as a deputy, Brown was a Washington, D.C., policeman, a U.S. government agent for more than 20 years, enforcing liquor and drug laws, and an adviser for the government to Latin American countries on law-enforcement matters.
Brown had, and I think still has, the respect of every local, state and federal law-enforcement officer in nine counties and five cities where I worked as an enforcement agent for more than 34 years.
He was always back to back and side by side with us when the chips were down, going against the bad guys.
Brown will be for Bedford County a great sheriff - a law-enforcement officer with initiative, innovation, aspiration and cooperation. He'll solve crimes, resolve matters, improve public relations - and the county and its fiscal matters will be handled in an honest and open manner.
JACK ALLEN POWELL Retired Special Agent
Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control
Enforcement Division, District 2
ROANOKE
by CNB