Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 12, 1995 TAG: 9505120014
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-20 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRAN S. BARKER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
We can be thankful that a few loud, confrontational zealots have made our quiet, quaint neighborhood look like Southwest Roanoke's version of the South Bronx ... at least in the local press.
We can be thankful that the media are oblivious to the fact that newcomers to the area will not understand the delineation of ``Wasena'' and ``Old Southwest,'' and that after reading staff writer Mary Bishop's news article on April 30 (``Trouble in Wasena''), new neighbors will think that copulating and defecating is performed on the streets shown on the map so prominently displayed.
We are thankful that our mayor had the decency to pull the rabble-rousers aside and offer them the opportunity to air their grievances privately, in the presence of those in a position to help. Of course, since it would not satisfy anyone's personal agenda if problems were solved out of the reach of the cameras, this option was discarded.
We are certainly thankful that Wasena is obviously a tolerant and fair-minded neighborhood, as evident by our choice of leaders for our neighborhood forum. The gentleman who heads our crime watch presents himself as a throwback to the late '60s, and our group president chooses to wear a local bar's T-shirt for her full-color public-press image. (Maybe we can get a slogan out of that: ``Wasena, where we don't consider alcohol a drug.'')
I guess we should be grateful that we have an active community group, but while other groups throughout the city offer hospitality, ours finds reasons to run self-respecting residents out of our proximity by use of scare tactics designed to devalue our beautiful properties and instill fear in the hearts of the elderly occupants.
We are glad that the local convenience store is taking steps to make itself less attractive - and less available to drug traffic, as this is possibly the only positive aspect brought out in the otherwise repugnant April 30 essay.
Yes, the residents of Wasena are certainly indebted to a small, vocal crowd of propagandists who have so ensured that, should one of our fine citizens want to move out of this den of iniquity, we can handle our property settlement in cash. That's because only a crack dealer will be interested in moving to such a publicly persecuted area.
I have been a homeowner in Wasena for 36 years. It is truly sad to know that the 1200 block of Kerns Avenue and 1100 block of Main Street have had drug-dealing problems. But two blocks do not a neighborhood make.
I would be extremely appreciative if the dogmatic fanatics would stop publicly slamming my neighborhood, as I have found it to be a wonderful place to live, and to raise my family.
If our community forum is truly altruistic, then let me offer this suggestion:
Why not make a humanitarian effort to go house to house, and speak with all of your neighbors personally about their problems and concerns? Collect your own research material in this manner, rather than relying on city workers to hand you a stack of statistics.
Talk to each of us, young and old, even those who might disagree with your point of view. And once your view is more circumspect and less narrow, we will all have a reason to be thankful.
Fran S. Barker is a long-time resident of the Wasena neighborhood in Roanoke.
by CNB