Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 6, 1995 TAG: 9506060095
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I would like to make parents of middle- and junior-high students in the Roanoke area aware that there is a fun-filled and wholesome alternative to Rave available to our youth. It is the National League of Junior Cotillions program, which in May finished its premier season in the Roanoke Valley with approximately 100 middle- and junior-high students from 12 area schools participating.
At Rave, as your article states, ``anything goes and everything rips.'' At the NLJC monthly dances, young ladies and gentlemen are required to attend properly dressed. At Rave, many young people experience a false sense of peace and harmony by dropping LSD and wafers of Ecstasy. At NLJC, youth learn ways of treating others with honor, dignity and respect.
While at Rave, youth only snap, bounce and sway to music blasting as loud as technically possible. At our monthly dances, ladies and gentlemen learn how to be graceful dancing together. They learn the waltz, fox trot, cha-cha, shag and the latest popular line-dances. The dances are taught to popular rock and top 40 hits that make learning fun for the participants. (All music is screened for appropriate lyric content.)
While at Rave, your article states that you may find guys hanging out in the ladies' restrooms. At our dances, you will find young gentlemen learning the proper way to seat a partner and how to go through doors with ladies. Participants learn about telephone manners and many other areas of social conduct.
Although many may feel that NLJC is just plain old-fashioned or not quite politically correct, parents should take a serious look at existing dance alternatives available for their children.
DONNA DILLEY
National League of Junior Cotillions
Roanoke area director
SALEM
Poff Building needs security checks
THANKS TO security guard Jackie Taylor (May 24 news article, ``Guard reprimanded over security measures'') for taking her job seriously by enforcing strict security measures in the Poff Building after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
I've worked in a prison setting for approximately 15 years in this area. I have a deep appreciation for dedicated employees like her who want to serve and protect while putting their own lives on the line to ensure the safety and security of others.
I can only begin to imagine the pain and suffering that families had to endure after losing their loved ones in the recent Oklahoma City bombing that devastated and saddened our entire nation. My wife works in the Poff Building, and I'm concerned for her safety, given the fact that any federal building could be a potential target for a similar disaster. I feel sure there are other spouses, children, relatives and friends who share my concern for those who either work or conduct business in our federal building in Roanoke.
On behalf of myself and others, I want to say thanks to Taylor for a job well done. It's comforting to know that workers who are hired to protect the public take their jobs seriously, and aren't just doing it for a paycheck.
ALAN COLLINS
VINTON
Sen. Robb wasn't kidding after all
WHEN Sen. Chuck Robb said in a television debate during his re-election campaign for Senate that he was ready to take money from ``widows and orphans,'' we thought he was exaggerating to make a point. But lo and behold, he wasn't kidding! By joining the Republican majority on the recissions bill, he did vote to do just that!
MORTON NADLER
BLACKSBURG
Doctors get docked by Medicare
IN RESPONSE to Russell W. Johnson's May 25 letter to the editor ``Medicare is on its last leg'':
I wonder if he, along with many other Medicare recipients, knows how much of the $6,300 charged by the hospital was actually allowed by Medicare and how much Medicare actually paid?
Being a medical secretary for the past five years, specializing in Medicare billing, I know Medicare only allows approximately one-third of the physician's actual charge. This means if the physician participates with the Medicare program, he must write off any amount over the Medicare-allowed amount. For example, if the physician's charge is $100, Medicare would only allow approximately $30, and the physician must write off $70 of the $100 charged. Medicare then only pays 80 percent of the $30.
Perhaps in the future, before complaining about physicians' charges, people will consider how much physicians and hospitals write off. Possibly if Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement were close to that of private insurance, physicians and hospitals wouldn't have to charge so much to compensate for what is lost on Medicare and Medicaid patients.
AMY J. McKINNEY
BEDFORD
A potential person isn't yet a person
MATTHEW Franck (May 23 commentary, ``Dodging the abortion question'') correctly makes the point that Clinton's moderate position - that abortion be ``safe, legal and rare'' - is weak. But he dodges a point himself.
The question is when a developing fetus becomes a ``person,'' not whether it's alive or human flesh, genetically unique or even a ``potential'' person. A potential person isn't a person yet.
Anti-abortionists stoutly declare that fertilized human eggs have souls. This is an assumption without evidence. Religious faith is a subjective choice; there's another revelation down the block.
To be a person, a being must have a functioning brain at least as large as a cow's brain. There's no ethical reason why early abortion should be rare.
JOHN B. HODGES
BLACKSBURG
Money's `time value' isn't calculated
I WAS amazed reading Luanne C. Weidner's letter to the editor (May 24, ``Medicaid is giving ample returns'') that she would wonder where her money went after it had been paid into the Medicare fund. I hope I can enlighten her a little.
Weidner appears to believe that letting Social Security have $100 over a period of years costs you only $100. In fact, it costs you the $100 and all that that $100 could have earned in interest.
Suppose you contribute to Social Security $100 per month over a period of 40 years. At an annual interest rate of 6 percent (compounded monthly), the total value of your ``investment'' in Social Security is $199,149.08. If this investment were paid out as an annuity so that the balance would be zero after 20 years, then the monthly payment, assuming the same interest rate, would have to be $1,426.77.
Notice that over the first 40 years, the total of payments to Social Security would be $48,000. The total of payments received over the retirement period would be $342,424.80. The difference represents the ``time value'' of money. It's what Social Security should pay for the privilege of using your money - often for as long as 60 years.
THOMAS C. McMILLAN
RADFORD
An ugly, new edifice downtown
I HAVE lived in Roanoke for 60 years, and I thought I had seen everything until recently.
A friend of mine called and asked me if I had seen the walkway from Hotel Roanoke across the railroad tracks. I told him that I hadn't, but I drove downtown to see it. I've never seen anything so ugly. I drove down a second time and took pictures.
Everyone I talk to says it's ugly, and they wonder who designed it.
In a lot of places downtown, you can hardly see the hotel, which is the most beautiful thing we have in Roanoke.
As taxpayers, we'll have to pay for it. If everyone felt as I do, they would speak up.
Another thing: I could hardly believe that a lot of our high officials, including the city manager, got a large raise recently - 7 or 8 percent. Do other city workers ever get a raise this large?
Fellow taxpayers, every year our taxes are raised. Maybe when you have had enough, you will speak up.
JAMES B. STUMP
ROANOKE
by CNB