ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 6, 1995                   TAG: 9504060043
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long


FISCAL FOOLISHNESS IN THE COUNTY

EITHER Roanoke County residents are paying too much in taxes or members of the county's Board of Supervisors have lost their minds over fiscal responsibility.

According to the March 29 article ``Roanoke County goes to monthly water bills,'' the county is going to spend $32,000 to save $6,400. That's right - the board approved spending more than five times the amount it might save.

It's hard to believe that in these days of fiscal tightening, Roanoke County would waste taxpayers' hard-earned money in such a manner. Obviously, the Board of Supervisors has too much money to waste or could care less about management and spending.

It's time supervisors become more responsible with citizens' money and stop wasting it. Surely, every county resident could think of better ways to spend money.

DAVID R. JONES JR.

VINTON

Krisch family got tabloid treatment

AFTER picking up the March 20 edition of your newspaper, I was infuriated! The same slanderous form of journalism that causes me to ban the national television news is alive and well in your newspaper.

The headline, ``The fall of the Krisches,'' on the article about the Krisch family by Sandra Brown Kelly was enough to make me sick!

I've not had the pleasure of knowing the Krisch family. However, I do know the impact they've had on the Roanoke Valley over the years, both with jobs created and with their support of culture and charity. I think your newspaper could have been a little less like the tabloids that throw any juicy title out there just to grab a reader.

KAREN S. PITTMAN

ROANOKE

Clinic's plans can't be sugarcoated

REGARDING Kathryn Haynie's sugarcoated March 18 letter to the editor ``Planned Parenthood prevents unwanted pregnancies'':

May we visit when they start mutilating living fetuses and see for ourselves how caring and safe Planned Parenthood really is? May we reveal how we saw the tiny body parts, or would they hide the evidence from us?

Concerning the very girls and women that Haynie says Planned Parenthood cares about and is helping: Planned Parenthood would have had no problem if they were killed while living and growing in their own mother's womb.

The fact remains that unborn, developing children will go into the Planned Parenthood clinic alive and leave dead.

ANGIE THOMPSON

BLACKSBURG

Child abuse is too often ignored

READING YOUR March 8 article ``Toddler severely beaten,'' I finished it with a knot in my stomach. This child endured torture, and the neighbors, who provided much dialogue for your article, stood by and let it continue. It's disgusting and heartbreaking that this woman only decided to discuss this child's abuse when an opportunity to get her name in the newspaper arose. This is a bad testimony to the fact that abuse is ignored on a daily basis.

Shame on this newspaper, too! Consider your sources in the future. No one should get limelight in such a negligent manner.

SUSAN RIGNEY

PULASKI

The accused take a double hit

JUDGE George W. Harris Jr. should be thanked by every Constitution-loving son and daughter of founding families who left liberty safeguards to us all for recently dismissing a driving-under-the-influence charge against a woman whose license had been ``administratively'' removed for seven days under a new law (March 10 article, ``New DUI law in jeopardy'').

Prove the crime, then exact punishment - one per crime. That sentiment is worth fighting for to keep innocence from being overpowered.

When children are ``removed'' from a home on suspicion of an agent of government, punishment has already been inflicted. Then review (with hearsay) determines fault, if any. In child-abuse cases, people are rarely charged, so they miss due process and rules of evidence. The burden is on the accused to prove himself/herself innocent against public money, muscle and immunity. The attorney general's office has repeatedly ruled that due process isn't a part of appeals.

Abraham Lincoln said calling an animal a sheep didn't make it one. Calling a punishment ``civil,'' having separate ``triers of fact'' (from agency to bench, and claiming there isn't double jeopardy) can't overcome reality.

A horrible accusation or an unpopular accused isn't the issue, but ``bad cases'' have encouraged disrespect for law and order with people's permission. Our state's Constitution notes all laws are ``presumed'' constitutional. We wish.

Taking double hits from front-line law enforcement, caseworkers, drug agents or tax collectors (in error often) and the judicial system better remind us why George Mason, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry demanded due process. They were upset by one arrogant monarch's sovereign immunity. We've pinned sovereign immunity to every badge, and opined that it drapes the derriere of every public worker.

Battering the Bill of Rights hasn't protected children. Dethroning double jeopardy - again, after a couple of centuries - is the only hope of citizens everywhere.

BARBARA BRYAN

Communications Director National Child Abuse Defense and Resource Center

ROANOKE

Audience didn't upstage Offspring

MARK MORRISON'S March 8 review, ``Offspring was upstaged by moshers an surfers,'' showed his lack of appreciation or understanding for true alternative music. The lyrics aren't nearly as important as the music's energy and rhythm.

I disapprove of his comparison of Offspring to dirt in a negative way. Maybe they are like dirt, or earth, because their music is different and simple. His comments insulted the group's many dedicated fans. The audience surfing and mosh pits were very exciting, but never more exciting than what was on stage. My friends and I enjoyed the concert very much.

CHRISTIAN DUKE

CHRISTIANSBURG

Parole board was negligent

REGARDING the March 8 article ``No-parole board sets murderer free'' from the Landmark News Service:

If the parole board had not reviewed James M. Wear's case, why did it issue a warrant?

If board members reviewed his case, as the newspaper seems to have done, they may not have had to violate the law themselves. It was not like he had escaped or possibly could be considered to be armed and dangerous. For their review, seeing that Wear was on a monitor, the board could have had him closely monitored until it reached a legal resolution, or at least completed its review!

RICHARD E. HICKS SR.

TROUTVILLE

O.J. witness was put on trial

I THINK it's ridiculous the way Mark Fuhrman was handled in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. The defense claimed that Fuhrman, the white police officer who actually found the glove at the crime scene, had planted it there just because he used the ``n'' word as a racial slur 10 years ago.

DANIEL BOONE

SALEM

Dittoheads should think for themselves

THIS IS to neither agree nor disagree with views expressed by Rush Limbaugh. But why am I getting one of those funny feelings at the back of my neck that more and more people are blindly accepting his opinions, facts and philosophy without any reservation?

I have no quarrel with the ``dittoheads'' except that they, as well as the rest of us, need to listen to both sides of the issues, and then make up our own minds. Most people in the media, especially talk-show hosts and the like, are in the business of self-promotion first and foremost.

So, let's not be so quick to ``rush'' to judgments on the issues. Listen to Limbaugh if you will, but occasionally sprinkle liberally (oops!) with grains of salt.

FLOYD R. TOMPKINS

ROANOKE



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