Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504060003
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: G2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
So what's this about tort reform? Dole & Co. want to limit the ability of juries to award damages in civil-liability cases. Where is ``less government'' in that?
The jury is one of society's greatest freedoms. A panel of citizens from our community, citizens like you or me, deciding damages in a civil trial has nothing to do with Uncle Sam. He only provides the court as a forum for debate. Even as common and contemptible as Republicans make us out to be, we citizens have the power to decide what's fair and what's negligent. It's an ultimate freedom, but apparently we can't be trusted. Republicans claim that the corporate citizen must be protected. They assert that corporate citizens everywhere are bleeding to death at the hands of murderous juries composed of you and me.
The American jury system has voiced its opinion over and over again. Our society won't tolerate the vast resources of corporations steamrolling the average citizen. Further, it's important to remember that the term ``corporate citizen'' is an oxymoron. Businesses aren't citizens. They don't and shouldn't enjoy the rights that we individual citizens have. When a corporation bleeds, it's money. When a citizen bleeds, it's blood.
It's beyond doubt that the Contract with America is a scam - steamrolling its way through Congress, powered by the ``blood'' (money) of corporate America. Wake up, people!
ALLEN EMORY
ROANOKE
Men can't relinquish moral responsibility
REGARDING J. Carl Poindexter's March 3 commentary, ``Only women should decide abortion law'':
He holds that biological differences disentitle men to ``seek imposition of their abortion views on women.'' Perhaps he assumes that all women are pro-choice, and only men are pro-life. I know many women who would instruct him otherwise.
In the 1992 presidential campaign, candidate Clinton repeatedly said he wanted to make abortion ``legal, safe and rare.'' By Poindexter's reasoning, Clinton had no right to tell voters what he sought regarding abortion. Perhaps Hillary should make a statement for her ``disentitled'' husband.
Some of us who remember the Vietnam War era believe abortion to be the most divisive issue in America since that conflict. Among the Americans serving in or with the U.S. military in Vietnam were women volunteers. But most U.S. service personnel were men - draftees sent to Vietnam. Yet when these young draftees returned home, they were sometimes greeted by young female protesters hurling insults and objects at the men in uniform. No one suggested that the women had no right to protest a ``man's war.'' Similarly, men have a right to join women in peaceful protests near abortion clinics.
Life presents each of us with moral dilemmas, and abortion is one of them. To say that women only can discuss abortion is to suggest a return to a double standard of morality wherein women are expected to set the limits of sexual/reproductive behavior, which men will continually challenge. Men must not relinquish their responsibilities. Women and men should search for solutions without regard to gender.
JOHN H. WOOLWINE
ROANOKE
Life sentences vs. executions
EVER SINCE Cain slew Abel, human beings have been murderering one another. In past centuries, a killer, when caught, was promptly and frequently publicly executed. Now, some good people believe executing a convicted killer is too extreme a penalty for the crime committed. Of course, the murderer isn't concerned that someone was killed. It was a deliberate act the murderer decided had to be done. The killer acted as judge, jury and executioner, giving the victim no chance to plead for life.
Well-meaning citizens believe that since executions haven't stopped murders from being committed, they're useless. Many also believe it's possible an innocent person may be executed. The legal system has many costly safeguards to prevent such an unfortunate occurrence. Every cost study undertaken has found that it's far more expensive, because of added legal safeguards, to carry out a death sentence than it is to jail a killer for life.
A life sentence without parole has advantages the death penalty also has. It prevents any repetition of the murderous act, and prevents the murderer's defective genes from being passed on.
Until legal experts are able to come up with positive, definite guidelines that justices in every state could use to order an execution that wouldn't be viewed as arbitrary or racist, it's less controversial and cheaper to have life sentences without parole or weekend passes.
LOUIS P. GLENN
ROANOKE
Proposed merger raises temperatures
A FEW Bedford County residents, in an effort to avoid being annexed by Lynchburg, are clamoring to link both Bedford city and county into one unit. Being a county taxpayer for many years, and having spent my best years at long, hard hours of toil and sweat to pay for land to have a place to live, I boil over in anticipation of this thing. I live here by choice and not by force, along with many others.
Fellow farmers - whether dairymen, cattle raisers, tobacco growers or whatever - if you have one acre or several 100 acres, let's get our ostrich heads out of the sand and band together to stop this stigma before it stops us. ``Don't sell your birthright for a mess of pottage.''
GARLAND P. NOELL
MONTVALE
Local agency deals with reality
IN RESPONSE to Fredrick Williams' March 6 commentary, ``Planned Parenthood has a conflict'':
He's most certainly free to express his opinion toward abortion. It continues to be an undesirable but unfortunately necessary personal medical decision for women when faced with an unwanted/unplanned pregnancy. It's also his personal decision concerning donations to United Way if he has a philosophical conflict with its support of Planned Parenthood.
Our country's teen-age pregnancy rate is epidemic in proportion, and stems from multiple, complex social and family dysfunctions. Health-care workers involved in providing contraceptive, prenatal and abortion services are dealing with the reality of modern, comprehensive, reproductive medical care.
I'm a registered nurse and childbirth educator working in maternal child care, and know the joy and miracle of birth and parenting. I also plan to volunteer as a client escort at Planned Parenthood's Roanoke clinic because I believe in a woman's choice to decide.
JANE HELLMAN
BLACKSBURG
Lawmakers must keep reins on Allen
NOW THAT the governor's ill-conceived, destructive and ludicrous tax-cut program has been defeated, we should thank the coalition of forces - Republicans included - that engineered the coup. It's the rare story of ambitious political designs being defeated by the people. Bravo!
But the governor threatens to come back for more. Lest anyone still not understand - the so-called tax savings aren't worth the price, and can hardly be called tax savings at all. This governor has proved himself an enemy of children, students, teachers, the poor, education, culture, social services and business. So, let's hope the coalition maintains itself for three more years.
That we must endure three more years of it enrages me. If any of us performed so poorly during our first year on the job, we'd wind up on the street. Yet we, the taxpayers, pay the governor's salary! The man goes on record as vindictive enough to punish politicians who disagree with him, and he has promised to campaign against them. Who knows what he would do, if he could, to ordinary people who challenge him.
I say keep the reins on tight for the next three years, then consign him to political oblivion. With such leaders, no wonder ordinary people have lost even a smidgen of respect for authority.
LOUIS GALLO
RADFORD
by CNB