Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 22, 1995 TAG: 9504240009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I realize this fear is unrealistic. It wouldn't take much to overcome it. I can't be alone when I say I would gladly sell my whole body for a song, provided they don't collect it until I'm dead. But right now, no one is offering me a dime for it. By law, they cannot.
Yes, I have a greater, more realistic fear that someday I'll need an organ transplant. As Leftwich points out, there's a good chance I might not get it. But this fear won't be alleviated by an act of generosity - mine or anyone else's.
She and others can call me selfish if they think it will help. I just think that, while generosity is a good thing, we ought not be staking lives on it.
If I'm ever in need of an organ, I hope that by then the law has changed, and I've become a paid ``donor.'' For then I know there will be a surplus of available organs rather than a shortage.
ANDREW AKERS
SALEM
Try overhauling the entire system
I WAS appalled to learn what Roanoke County police officers make (March 24 article, ``Police pay inequities challenged in Roanoke County''). How are we supposed to keep officers who make less than a fast-food restaurant manager? No one can live off what they make. We try to encourage people to get off welfare and food stamps by implementing various programs to help them train for and get jobs, yet our police officers can't even live without assistance. This doesn't make sense to me.
If they're concerned about ``creating inequities'' by changing one person's salary when he or she complains, why not revamp the entire system and give everyone a fair salary? I think County Administrator Elmer Hodge highlights the travesty of the whole system when he states that by raising a detective's salary to where it should be, he would have to change 200 other people's salaries. So 200 other people aren't getting paid what they deserve?
CARMEN J. MARTIN
ROANOKE
Pat Cupp will work for district
ON MARCH 28, Pat Cupp announced his candidacy for the state Senate (March 29 article, ``Montgomery GOP will have to choose''). More than 200 people came out to show their support. I was honored to be one of them.
Cupp understands this district's needs. He was born in Montgomery County, and has lived there most of his life. He's a successful businessman, not a lawyer, who will fight for jobs and economic development in Southwest Virginia. He will also protect higher education, and work to stop educational disparity. Cupp's a man of integrity who will put his experience, enthusiasm and love for our district to work for us in Richmond.
I encourage all voters to support him.
VICKI BRIGSTOCK
BLACKSBURG
Will family buy $500 worth of cereal?
A HYPOTHETICAL situation: A family lives in Washington, D.C. Their annual income is $199,999. They have one 12-year-old child who attends not a public school but an exclusive private school. At the end of the year, the government gives the family a $500 tax credit for the child.
How does this help reduce the deficit? And please don't tell me that the family will buy $500 worth of a generic cereal so that Kelloggs or General Mills can trickle on us.
SANFORD GROSS
CHRISTIANSBURG
`Takings' is setback for the environment
``TAKINGS'' is an idea that could end up taking back the progress made in cleaning up the environment in the past 25 years. This is an interpretation of the Constitution's Fifth Amendment that would force taxpayers to pay every time a regulation limits the value of private property in any way.
In an extreme example, if I wished to allow a toxic-waste dump next to your farm, you would have to pay via taxes for me to desist in this endeavor.
CARY HOPPER
BLACKSBURG
by CNB