Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 7, 1995 TAG: 9504080009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The United States is the greatest country in history because our founding fathers understood the three greatest events of history: that God revealed himself to the Jews, the Greeks invented democracy, and Jesus came for all mankind.
There is nothing more important - or fascinating - to tell to our children.
JOHN SIMAN
GOODVIEW
It's up to parents to feed their kids
IN RESPONSE to Pauline Holloway's March 9 letter to the editor, "Children's nutrition isn't welfare":
The same thoughts are offered by everyone spending tax money: ``Don't cut my good deal! Federal money should be paid to local school boards.'' I wonder how many lunches Holloway's salary would buy?
The last paragraph of her letter stated, "Child-nutrition programs aren't welfare programs, they're education-support programs aimed at building healthy children, ready to learn.'' How times have changed. When my wife and I married, we understood it was our responsibility, if we had children, to send them to school healthy, fed and with lunch for the noon meal. If single, married or divorced parents have children, they should support them, not expect some tax-funded program to do it for them. There are too many parents on welfare raising children with tax dollars.
Do we want ``education-support programs'' to raise our children? I think not. Some children need lunch support, which we should fund. But parents have a responsibility also.
Schools need to maintain discipline, teach more of the three R's, including student responsibility. Better make that four R's!
PETE T. JOHNSON
MONTVALE
The controversy over the flag
REGARDING the appearance of Republican Party Chairman Patrick McSweeney in Danville at the dedication of a Confederate monument (March 28 Associated Press article, ``Flag speech seen as tactic''):
The same politically correct vs. politically incorrect arguments have been reported at length in South Carolina. In that state, the Confederate flag still waves every day above the statehouse, and some want it hauled down.
Last year, a television station in South Carolina held an impromptu poll. By calling one of two telephone numbers, viewers could express their desire to see the flag go or see it stay. The calls were free, and the call-in lasted for 24 hours. With all viewers having the same opportunity to call, more than 90 percent of those phoning in voted to have the flag stay. Perhaps honoring the fallen of the Confederacy isn't such a politically incorrect idea after all.
I believe all cultures should be honored. It does seem at times, however, that some people (and there is no hidden meaning in ``some people'') believe that every culture should be honored except mine.
BARRY A. PRICE
FANCY GAP
What's the matter with kids today?
JAMES LILEKS' Feb. 24 column ("Kids today are, like, totally stupid?") is demeaning to students. I'm a senior at Liberty High School, and I find it very offensive.
Children today have just as many worries and problems as youths of the past. Lileks acts as if today's problems are meaningless in comparison to the past. Diseases seem to be a larger concern now. Also, it's obvious the traditional family is on the decline, resulting in more stress on youths involved.
The quote that is most biased is, ``So why are the schools behaving like Soviet factories, turning out loads of useless merchandise that doesn't work and no one wants?'' This is really discriminatory toward today's youth.
This man should take a look back on his adolescence, and see that kids will be kids and youths do have intelligence, even if they do project themselves differently from adults.
CARLA MEADOR
BEDFORD
A different breed of public employee
THIRTY years later, same story (different location), and I doubt if it will change until politicians and managers realize that law-enforcement personnel should be on a different pay plan from municipal employees.
When I lived in Petersburg years ago, Colonial Heights and Prince George County would let Petersburg hire and train law officers, then hire them away with their higher scale for trained officers. Asked why let it continue, Petersburg's city manager replied that the officers made the same as other employees.
This led me to ask a city employee, with whom I'd worked on many Jaycee projects, why not pay law-enforcement officers higher wages than municipal employees? His answer was basically the same as the county administrator mentioned in the March 24 article on pay inequities (``Police pay inequities challenged in Roanoke County''): It would create problems in the ranks; too much work.
It appears years of inattention to this problem has caused it to mushroom. How many other employees walk down a dark alley at 2 a.m., or get called out of bed at a moment's notice to lay their lives on the line, protecting someone's life or property?
Back then and maybe now, most officers had to work extra jobs, if approved by their supervisor, to make ends meet. Why can't officers be paid a wage so they don't have to moonlight, can be rested and sharp, ready to serve, protect, and enforce the laws? These officers are a different breed because they're dedicated. Otherwise, they wouldn't go through the training required, and later put up with abuse heaped upon them when they uphold the law.
The county might be the first to set up a totally different pay scale for its law-enforcement personnel. But how can a law officer be classified with a branch librarian? Beats me! I would think the retention rate of good officers, who are able to move through the ranks, would far outweigh the cost of training new personnel in large numbers.
JOE KEININGHAM
VINTON
Condoms do not prevent AIDS
IN RESPONSE to Carole Jordan's March 13 letter to the editor (``Why the fuss about condoms in class?'') and the news article (``Condoms taboo; just abstain''):
Jordan writes about a young woman who offers condoms to her classmates and how bright she is for doing so. Jordan obviously believes that it's possible to have safe sex in the age of AIDS. I disagree with her views on handing out condoms to high-school students. What kind of message do you give students when you hand out condoms? I think, in effect, it's saying they don't need to worry about whether it's right or wrong, and the condom means everything will be OK.
The article on passing out condoms at T.C. Williams High School is about Mary Heil, a school nurse who gives students a talk on abstinence, but hands out condoms anyway. I admit Heil makes it sound like handing out condoms is a worthy and noble cause since she states that ``the main purpose of the program is to prevent the spread of AIDS - not to reduce teen-age pregnancy.''
In that article, it's stated that many experts say condoms can reduce the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Notice the words: ``can reduce the spread of AIDS.'' It doesn't say ``will stop the spread of AIDS.'' Some experts say condoms cannot reduce the spread of AIDS since the intrinsic voids in a condom are five microns in size, and the HIV is one-tenth of a micron in size, or four-millionths of one inch.
Instead of handing out condoms in school, pupils should be warned that premarital sex of any kind, with or without ``protection,'' could put them in a life-or-death situation - life if they become pregnant; death if they become pregnant and decide to legally murder the child or if they contract AIDS.
BARRY ASHBURN
DUBLIN
by CNB