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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 21, 1995                   TAG: 9504210063
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RACIAL DIVIDE ON A CITY BUS

I EXPERIENCED my first ride on a Valley Metro Bus while taking the public tour recently of the renovated Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center. I took a window seat; the seat beside me remained vacant. When all seats were taken (except the one beside me), passengers (all white) remained standing. Just before the bus pulled off, a woman in a green pantsuit mounted. Upon realizing that people were standing, she asked if she could sit beside me, and I said yes. We chatted until we reached the hotel.

Tours were eloquently conducted by black and white volunteers employed by Roanoke city. When the tour ended, we mounted the bus to return to the Williamson Road parking building. Again, I sat in front of the side doors as I had on the previous bus. This time, the lady in green sat across from me beside another lady. Again, the bus was filled with men, women and children who were standing. The seat beside me remained vacant.

Had I been someone of celebrity status, the seat beside me would have been occupied. However, I'm an average person, courteous, sensitive and accommodating, who happens to be black.

LAURICE HAMPTON ROANOKE

\ Congress says go for the green

DEMOCRACY and forests: Going, going, gone?

Welcome to the Capitol Hill Gang's version of America, where chain saws are revving and we citizens are supposed to get out of the way.

As part of the Rescission Bill package, both Houses of Congress have passed public-lands amendments that would:

Double logging in national forests across the country.

Override the Endangered Species Act and other landmark environmental legislation.

Strip citizens of their constitutionally protected right to judicial review.

Add $375 million or more to the federal deficit.

The Taylor/Gorton amendments would allow transnational corporations to accelerate logging in pristine areas nationwide, based on a forest-health emergency concocted by timber-industry think tanks.

No one in Congress should be able to hide on this vote. Republican Bob Goodlatte and Democrat L.F. Payne voted for the disastrous Taylor amendment. Of all the House legislators from this area, only Democrat Rick Boucher voted against it. You don't need to read behind the lines to understand that the real ``contract'' was written between Washington politicians and their corporate funders.

SHERMAN BAMFORD ROANOKE

Cowardly and criminal

ON BEHALF of the Arab-American community in our area, I want to express my horror and shock at the cowardly terrorist attack on innocent people in Oklahoma City. A criminal act such as this cannot be legitimized by any cause.

I also wish to express my condolences to the families of the victims and pray for the speedy recovery of the injured. I hope the perpetrators of this barbaric crime will be tracked down soon and brought to justice.

I urge all Arab-Americans and Muslim Americans in our area to immediately take an active part in donating blood to the Red Cross, offer any additional aid that may be needed, and provide every assistance possible to federal authorities if such assistance is requested.

FAHIM I. QUBAIN BUENA VISTA

Blind to the truth of life

THE TASTELESS editorial cartoon of April 16, depicting the GOP elephant at the doctor's office having the pro-life ``leech'' removed, requires a response.

Continually, the liberal media attack anyone who chooses to promote the truth of life. Though creative in their attacks, the media are blind to the truth and ignore reality.

A much better cartoon, still depicting the liberal agenda, would be to place the pro-life issue as the backbone of the elephant. Have we already forgotten the November 1994 election in which most pro-life candidates won over their opponents? (Note: I didn't pull a cheap media trick by giving a fitting non-P.C. name to the opponents of pro-life candidates.)

The media vehemently oppose telling the truth about abortion to people, because we all act and vote for the truth. Perhaps, but not likely, they'll choose to begin printing and voicing the truth about killing the unborn rather than fiction and lies. Babies are babies, and death is death - this is the truth.

By the way, media-types, where were you the nine months before you were born?

CARLTON COURTNEY ROANOKE

by CNB