Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503300028
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Congress members need to understand that the scheduled deliberations will extend far beyond determining the wisdom or merits of term limits. Failure to approve the measure, after their constituents have spoken loud and clear on the issue, would be tantamount to stating that the public is too inept and/or immature to initiate such legislation, and only those in Washington are blessed with the intelligence and insight necessary to make decisions of such magnitude. It would also further deepen the resentment, rage and alienation of Americans for the governing elites.
Present members of Congress would be well-advised to keep in mind that former House Speaker Tom Foley's career was abruptly ended when he failed to support the voters' decision in his own state to impose term limits. I hope that his ``father knows best'' attitude isn't a contagious disease running rampant in our nation's Capitol.
The term-limit movement is a populist call for returning our country to a land where its people rule and exercise a vital role in shaping the institutions that govern them. It also is a grass-roots revolution in which Americans everywhere are saying that they want to get rid of professional politicians and replace them with citizen legislators. Political parties and people getting in the way of this rapidly expanding movement are taking an enormous risk of being run over by it.
CLAUDE E. STEWART JR.
VINTON
Keeping tabs on representatives
SEVERAL weeks ago I wrote to the newspaper about printing how our members in the House of Representatives and Senate vote on issues that come up, so that we can see for ourselves how they vote instead of waiting until election time before it's brought up.
Thank you for publishing this information recently. I'm sure there are many in your readership area who are concerned as I am.
O. BROOKS JOHNSON
NARROWS
Another insult to American veterans
FIRST, there was the flap over the Smithsonian picturing the Americans as the bad guys during World War II. Then our illustrious, draft-dodging, pot-smoking, womanizing president declares that V-J Day will now be known as ``End of the Pacific War.''
Who cares whether Japan's Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama is embarrassed? V-J Day will always be V-J Day until the last surviving World War II veteran has taken his last breath. Changing the name of this great victorious day is an insult, not only to us living veterans, but also to the thousands who gave their lives so that President Clinton and his Arkansas pals can live in freedom in America.
As far as I'm concerned, I don't give a rat's behind what Murayama thinks!
BUD FEUER
ROANOKE
Catering to cutthroats
NINCOMPOOPS in the Clinton administration and Congress attempting to formulate our foreign policy have outdone themselves in achieving new heights of imbecility in the agreement with North Korea.
Under its terms, we're committed to provide two new nuclear reactors worth $4 billion, free oil during the time these reactors are being built, and an upgrade of the ancient North Korean power grid.
In return, we're getting promises from the North Koreans to shut down their old reactors, ship the contents out of the country (destination not specified), and we'll be allowed to inspect nuclear fuel and weapons' sites, but not before five years from now.
Is there anyone anywhere who believes in the validity of promises made by these barbarians, these liars of Panmunjon, because of whom 23,300 Americans lost their lives in the Korean War?
And while the bumblers ruminate as to how to cut school lunches and Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and chip away at entitlements in an attempt to achieve some semblance of fiscal solvency for this country, cowards of Clinton's administration seek to buy off North Korean threats of nuclear weapons with $4 billion of American taxpayer money - plus the rest of the giveaways mentioned above that could easily equal or exceed another $4 billion.
Is this the pattern of the future? Do we buy off every little country run by liars and cutthroats at the mere whisper of nuclear arming? In so doing, we dishonor the memory of 23,300 American men who made the final sacrifice in a senseless war that accomplished nothing. It's a shameful example of the lack of character and integrity of those to whom this country's future has been entrusted.
BUD SANTORO
ROANOKE
Information gap on Bedford merger
THE CONSOLIDATION presentation at Liberty High School on Feb. 21 was fine as far as it went, but it didn't tell us everything. Some examples:
The city (shire) of Bedford will receive only 6 cents out of 71 cents in real-estate taxes, and 20 cents out of personal-property taxes per $100 of assessed value. The county (consolidated city) of Bedford will receive the rest. The city will receive only 50 percent of the sales tax it now receives.
The city will give away all school buildings, the library and animal shelter. Does this include the Wharton House? Will the city be compensated for these buildings, and will it still have to pay so much per student to have its children educated?
If the city decides to annex, how will it provide water, sewer, streets, garbage and leaf pickup, snow removal, etc., without raising taxes?
The presentation stated that ``to the extent possible'' no one would lose his or her job or take a pay cut, but there's no guarantee. Some job titles and pay grades will undoubtedly have to be changed.
Will the city be required to provide water-and-sewer services to the county on demand? Will the rates be the same?
Will electricity revenue be shared with the county?
The city will be able to enforce zoning and subdivision regulations one to three miles into the county.
The county may and undoubtedly will pass a meals tax as soon as possible.
We haven't been informed just how much this consolidation process has cost taxpayers.
A "shire" is defined as a British county. How strange it will be to explain to our British friends that we live in a county inside a city. What has been proposed is just a reversion back to a town. Do Bedford city residents want this?
DAVE BALLARD
BEDFORD
Mother Teresa tells rest of story
J. CARL Poindexter (March 3 commentary, ``Only women should decide abortion law'') leaves out more than half the equation. A pertinent brief asks the Supreme Court to hear a case involving Alexander Loce, convicted of trespassing as he tried to stop his fiancee from having an abortion (The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 25, 1994):
``America needs no words from me to see how your [Supreme Court] Roe vs. Wade decision has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate of human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts - a child - as a competitor, an intrusion and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent ... And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners.''
With these powerful words, Mother Teresa has just described the effect on society when only the woman has been given the right to decide.
MARGARET A. WHITEIS
HUDDLESTON
by CNB