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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 18, 1995                   TAG: 9503210033
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BRIEFLY PUT . . .

``TO BE a Virginian either by birth, marriage, adoption, or even on one's mother's side, is an introduction to any state in the union, a passport to any foreign country, and a benediction from Almighty God.'' - anonymous

Also necessary for 20-20 vision? One would guess so after hearing Democrat Linda Puller, a state legislator from Mount Vernon, say it's no wonder Republican Gov. George Allen has ``impaired vision'' because Allen ``is not truly a Virginian.'' Allen is from - good grief! - California. Even though he moved to Virginia as a teen-ager, he's been known to associate with individuals who are not FV.

Puller's comments came Thursday as she was introducing Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, House Majority Leader Dick Cranwell of Vinton and Sen. Louise Lucas of Norfolk during their swing around Virginia to highlight Democrats' superior vision, and the role they played in pulverizing Californian Allen's legislative program.

Puller's remarks, however, were a bit narrowly focused. She neglected to mention that she was born in Iowa, Cranwell in West Virginia, and Beyer in Trieste, Italy.

We're not sure what to make of this vision thing. But we recall what Republican John Warner said in 1978 when his U.S. Senate opponent exposed the scandal that Warner is ``not a true Virginian,'' but was born far, far away, over in Washington, D.C. Warner apologized profusely. With hindsight, he said he could see it had been a terrible mistake. It would never have happened ``except that I wanted to be with my mother at the time.''

REMEMBER that nagging little problem of health care that so troubled the nation just a year ago? Well, neither the rising number of uninsured Americans nor the rising threat of runaway costs has gone away. Sooner or later we'll need to revisit reform. A good starting point would be to ponder an observation by Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Nebraska.

Kerrey was commenting on the fact that the existence of taxpayer-funded national health insurance for every American - as long as you're over 65 - is rarely mentioned. "I do not exaggerate in saying - nor do I consider it funny," said Kerrey, "that I could have scored points in my re-election campaign by running a 30-second television commercial promising to keep the federal government out of Medicare."

by CNB