Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505190013
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
We must teach our children that the proper response to a medical emergency is to call 911. We must supervise the medications our children take, monitoring both the use and the effect of the medicines. The widespread prescription use of Ritalin makes it easily available for abuse.
We must supervise our children's parties. We must not leave a child at home alone (or with a peer baby sitter) overnight. No matter how mature and trustworthy our children are, they lack the authority to handle uninvited friends looking for an unsupervised place to party.
Drugs, including the drug of choice for today's youth (alcohol), seem to be at the center of most bad things that happen to our children. As parents, too often we feel we are fighting the battle for our children alone. What parents do individually can never be enough.
As a community, we need to demand enforcement of point-of-sale alcohol regulations, Virginia's use-and-lose laws for youthful offenders, other drunken-driving laws and curfew ordinances. Raising our children is the most important job any of us will ever do. We must demand more help from our community because it truly does take an entire village to raise a child.
BONNIE WAYBRIGHT ROANOKE
Buchanan didn't snub Tour DuPont
IN RESPONSE to the April 29 news article about the Tour DuPont and Buchanan (``Bike racers won't pass God in town''): While a church or persons of any faith should not have to be apologetic about their beliefs and views, and while there were some in Buchanan who viewed the Sunday scheduling of the race to be inconsiderate to the great number of Christians who attend the five churches on Main Street, and while the race could have been scheduled to avoid the conflict, I think the words and tone of the article intentionally maligned both Buchanan and Christianity.
First, why shouldn't those who believe that the Sabbath is on Sunday, and that it is a day of worship, feel that their rights were infringed upon when they were told that they might not be able to have access to the churches on the race day? They should not have to apologize for their desire to freely exercise their religion. Those who felt strongly about this took a stand and exercised that right.
The article stated that only Presbyterians compromised. Not true. To the best of my knowledge, Trinity Episcopal worshipped at 9:30 a.m.; First Baptist at 2 p.m., and Trinity United Methodist, Andrew Chapel United Methodist and Lithia United Methodist each worshipped at 9 a.m. Members of the three United Methodist churches even planned a picnic after the services to watch the race.
So of the five churches on Main Street, a minority took a stand against the race. To represent that as a majority in Buchanan against the race, and to represent Christians (in Buchanan) as a whole as being against the race, was inaccurate and hurtful. It demeans the character of a town that your newspaper last year espoused as one of the best places to watch the race!
REV. DONALD M. WARRICK JR. BUCHANAN
Renters subsidize taxes for others
SO, LYNN H. Anderson doesn't feel that we renters pay enough taxes, eh? (May 5 letter to the editor, ``Renters don't pay fair tax share.'')
He says something about how we enjoy all of the benefits of education, police and fire departments without paying for them.
Is he aware of how high rent is in the Roanoke Valley? Apparently he understands that we offset the tax debts of rental-property owners, but he would like for our rent to go even higher so that we would pay even more.
Maybe he doesn't understand that the personal-property taxes we all pay for our cars is as high as it is so that real-estate taxes can be lower in Virginia than in most other states. (At least, this is the explanation that I got from a representative of the tax department.)
Since I pay a ridiculously high amount of taxes on my car so that Mr. Anderson's real-estate taxes are lower, I want him to reimburse me. Or at least stop whining about the supposed tax break renters get!
ROBERT MILES SALEM
by CNB