Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140086
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yet they say Social Security should be protected. By whom? What justification can Democrats offer for cutting Social Security by this amount? A Social Security tax is a cut in benefits.
President Clinton has already proposed cuts in Medicare as part of his health-reform proposals. Now who is blowing smoke?
ROBERT J. LOVELACE ROANOKE
The governor should go figure
IF IT'S true, as I recently read in your newspaper, that the commonwealth annually shells out approximately $12,000 to incarcerate a minimum-security prisoner, then I think it worth noting that the state pays me approximately the same amount to teach English half-time (four courses a year) at Virginia Tech.
In other words, one half-time English teacher equals one full-time minimum-security prisoner, save for the fact that the prisoner can count on George Allen's support.
I hope our governor appreciates the beauty of this equation, since his assault on higher education in Virginia will indeed make state-funded colleges and universities more like prisons and well-funded prisons more like colleges and universities.
Maybe we ought simply to merge the institutions - higher education and corrections. That would really teach us liberal academic types a lesson!
THOMAS C. KERR RADFORD
Falwell indeed should apologize
I WISH to express my appreciation to Cody Lowe for ``The Back Pew'' column on Feb. 26 (``Brother Falwell ought to admit he's wrong on this one''). This needed to have been said for some time.
If Falwell makes tapes about our president, especially those that are untruthful, he should have to make a public apology.
ZOLLIE FOWLER MARION
Think twice before uprooting `family'
AS A FAMILY member of a resident at the Roanoke City Nursing Home, a volunteer at this facility, and a part of the home's ``family,'' which is a benefit found in very few facilities of this type, I'd like to address the decisions that Roanoke City Council and the city manager are facing.
We're speaking of the home of 58 elderly residents. When did they become profit-making statistics? It may be a fact that city taxpayers subsidize the nursing-home operation, but if there's a problem with this, are we also going to stop subsidizing welfare recipients, homeless shelters and other area needs? Why should our elderly residents be the target?
These residents are taken care of by a unique quality of employees who genuinely care and aren't just performing necessary duties. They go above and beyond the call of duty for these residents, giving them exceptional care not found in many larger facilities of this type.
A new, fancy facility might look better, and a larger facility might produce more revenue, but what happens to the personal and caring treatment these residents are presently receiving? The tears that were shed when they were told of this change tell us that they don't want the fancy facility and the large institutional atmosphere, nor do they want their home uprooted and their family torn apart. This family atmosphere wouldn't exist in a 100- or 150-bed facility.
If decision-making leaders would drive up on this hill when the residents are out on the patio having a cookout or picnic, enjoying the gorgeous view of the mountains, and breathing the clean and fresh air, they would think twice before taking these privileges away. What a beautiful sight this is! A view of buildings, cars, people and congestion cannot compare, either in scenery or in health risks.
I hope each decision-maker will take a good, hard look at this situation from a humane point of view, consider all recipients of taxpayers' subsidies, and think about the fact that the city isn't in the nursing-home ``business.'' The care and welfare of elderly residents shouldn't be a business, but a nonprofit obligation to elderly citizens. After all, these residents were at one time taxpayers!
GALA B. ELLIS MONTVALE
by CNB