Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 1, 1995 TAG: 9505040005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Whatever former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's reasons for his recent statements - whether to purge his conscience as some think, or, as others suggest, to give supporting credence to those who shirked their duty to their country - does he honestly believe that the families and friends of those 58,000 young people will thank him for his ``new revelation''?
And, adding insult to injury, along comes Health Secretary Donna Shalala to say our best and brightest didn't serve. To me, this is the height of ignorance. For instance, even in the time when the greatest call for men to serve was at its highest level, one had to have a high-school diploma to be considered for the U.S. Air Force.
Our best did serve. These were young men and women who saw a duty to their country and responded with courage and patriotism in an unpopular war that politics determined they wouldn't win. They received no thanks from their government when they came home, and are now having to receive renewed indignities to salve the conscience and rescue the reputation of gutless wonders who orchestrated and escaped the horrors.
GLENNA RICHARDSON
SALEM
Availability of power is citizens' problem
DO WE need Appalachian Power Co. to build the proposed 115-mile transmission power line? Let's compare this situation to a one we had in our family a few years ago.
One Saturday morning my wife and our 16-year-old daughter were doing household chores, and the television was on. The lights began to dim and get brighter; the television and vacuum would get strong and then weaker. They were frightened and wanted to know what was happening. We were having a brownout! To prevent another one, the electrician installed a new fuse box and increased the amount of electrical current available to us.
There has been a steady growth in the amount of electricity used in the Roanoke area and Apco's service area during recent years by Apco's residential, commercial, and industrial and mining customers. The growth is expected to continue in the future. It isn't reasonable to expect the number of the utility's customers to increase every day and that more electricity not be generated.
I encourage us to consider electricity usage as our problem. To do this, I ask local governments to form a commission that will have a representative from each locality. This will enable them to learn facts relative to our electrical needs, and determine how more electricity will be made available to the area served by Apco.
If we don't work together to solve this problem, we'll have dreadful experiences before the year 2000 because not enough electricity will be available to us. We can expect to have a brownout or a blackout!
GILLIAM M. LEWIS
ROANOKE
Church's burning is community's loss
HAVING known Polly Ayers Bixler and Larry Bixler for many years, I mourned and cried at the loss of ``Old First Baptist Church.''
To see on television and in your newspaper the burning and destruction of the steeple was something I had to emotionally deal with. It's a great loss to our community and city. I hope there is some way something can be done.
ANN MOORE BUSH
ROANOKE
A wrong message on loves and guns
I ATTENDED the Centerpieces play, ``Fall Planting,'' at Mill Mountain Theater recently. I look forward to the monthly plays, and usually enjoy them. That day was different. The audience's reaction to the play disturbed me. They liked it, said it was heartwarming, humanistic, and that this kind of thing happens everyday. You see it on television and read about it in newspapers. One adult lady, apparently in charge of the children, said the children's parents signed permission slips for them to attend. And the children indicated this is the sort of life they live.
If so many liked it, why am I complaining? The play was about a grandfather and his grandson who had a so-called deep love for one another. The grandfather shot and killed some rats, and told his grandson that he was going to put them in the boy's oatmeal. The grandfather referred to the boy as a ``bastard,'' and the grandfather and grandson used profanity throughout the play. The grandfather scolded the boy for staying out late, claiming that he was rolling around in ``the hay with a tart.''
I fail to see how this verbal exchange shows any kind of love. I see it as abuse. Kids shouldn't be referred to as ``bastards.'' Other remarks were probably intended to be jokes, but that sort of joke is sick.
The grandfather held a .45 caliber gun between his eyes, and contemplated killing himself. This was done in front of the boy. This was outrageous - and more outrageous was the audience's laughter.
Small children (even pre-teen) were in the audience. The adults justified the kids' being there because they were given permission to attend, and because they see people with a gun to their head on television. To me, this play reinforced in people's minds that it's OK to threaten suicide in front of loved ones.
I didn't enjoy watching the actors bicker back and forth while using profanity, and the total disregard for gun safety bothered me. Even if the gun were a toy, the message it conveyed was appalling. Guns shouldn't be used to kill rats, should not to be waved around in the air and at the audience, and not be placed between a person's eyes. This was a horrible way to obtain laughs.
JACKIE TAYLOR
VINTON
Krauss concert was a special treat
ON April 14, a sold-out Roanoke Civic Center Auditorium was treated to one of the best shows I've ever seen or heard at that facility. I'm speaking of the Alison Krauss concert that had the best stage presence, a grateful audience, some personal contact with the audience, and a marriage proposal (she accepted) that your newspaper didn't deem necessary to review.
Krauss has been called the ``Queen of Bluegrass'' by ``King of Bluegrass'' Bill Monroe, and she really put on a top-notch performance. After several standing ovations and two encores, I saw some who were truly moved by her songs. If your newspaper didn't find it worthy to send a critic to work this performance because it isn't ``mainstream'' entertainment, then you and yours are completely out of touch. To those who were there, we know that we saw something special.
DONALD R. COLE
BLUE RIDGE
Warner's route is too expensive
LIKE ALL politicians, Sen. John Warner is at his best when he's spending taxpayers' money. He talks about the millions of dollars Interstate 73 might bring to the Roanoke Valley if routed through Roanoke (April 13 article, ``Roanoke's I-73 hopes boosted''). It's political rhetoric, and we all know the country definition of rhetoric.
Neither he nor any local politicians speak of the staggering additional costs (millions of dollars) of routing I-73 along the U.S. 460 corridor from Bluefield to Roanoke, and then along U.S. 220 South to the North Carolina line. They certainly don't talk about the millions of dollars it will cost annually to maintain this new interstate.
A beautiful and expensive (two tunnels) interstate is already in place in Southwest Virginia that can serve as part of I-73. It's called I-77, and it already serves north/south traffic from the Carolinas through Virginia and West Virginia.
Many years ago, politicians were responsible for this expensive routing of I-77. Some things never change. Just the names of politicians. One thing for sure is that politicians never pay for anything. They spend money like it belongs to somebody else. Ever notice that?
Not only will the Warner version of I-73 cost us millions of dollars, it will uproot a lot of people and destroy a lot of valuable property - all in the name of progress. Let's get real for a change. Do something different. Use some common sense. Wouldn't that be historical?
LEW GARDNER
NARROWS
by CNB