Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070022
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Yet, we constantly run ads seeking employees. A very large number of new hires stay with our company less than three months. The work is hard at times, and working outside in the extreme heat or cold weather can be rough. But it's an honest living.
Our employee problems are not isolated incidents that occur only within the tree business. They seem to be in most labor-related industries, and can mostly be blamed on the social services and welfare programs available to unemployed people. In other words, why should they work when they will lose subsidized housing, food stamps and free health care for their families?
I have always heard about the times when people were embarrassed to have to rely on any form of government assistance to live, and how there was such a thing as ``the work ethic.'' I rarely see this today.
I'm not saying that there aren't people who need assistance, and not everyone is capable of doing certain types of work. But I can say from experience that there are many people capable of working who choose not to. The reason isn't lack of work, but lack of incentive.
LINDA P. HULLETT
BLUE RIDGE
A one-sided view of abortion issues
AFTER READING Matthew Franck's rambling anti-abortion rationalization on May 23, ``Dodging the abortion question,'' it seems that if this were a lecture, those still awake would be confused. I was surprised that he's employed at Radford University. The writer's point of view would seem more at home at Camp Liberty in Lynchburg. But then there are those in state government who would transform the entire system of higher education to be more in line with Liberty. That's another story.
The bottom line, when one considers such lines as ``species of killing,'' ``abortion ... is the evil to be prevented,'' and `` ... why is abortion a failure? ... it must be because the fetus is a human being,'' is one-sided.
The far right refuse to admit that defining a fetus as a human being is a choice based on personal belief, usually religious. Under the Constitution, we're not all required to share the same reglious beliefs, yet. Of course, Newt Gingrich and Pat are working hand in glove to correct Madison's error.
WILLIAM CLAUSSEN
BLACKSBURG
The columnist has a short memory
REGARDING Ellen Goodman's May 30 column `` ... while the GOP veers far right'':
She states: ``Republicans can't get nominated without them [referring to the religious right]. Can't get elected to the White House with them.''
I would like to ask this memory-lacking bag of wind just how in the world did Reagan, Reagan and Bush get elected anyway?
DAN QUAM
ROANOKE
Many unsung groups in the valley
REGARDING the Creative Child art project referred to in Harold Ford's May 25 letter to the editor (``Teaming up to benefit children''):
The Moss in the Valley Chapter of the P. Buckley Moss National Society did some of the ``grunt work.'' Moss contributed two 1987 original etchings, and 25 members conducted a raffle, raising more than $2,200 for the funding. This group, with Moss' art, has raised more than $20,000 in the past five years to benefit several charities in the Roanoke Valley, all involved with young children, physically handicapped or learning disabled. These outreach projects are another example of unsung workers in our valley.
IDA C. CLEMONS
SALEM
Leadership, news and public service
IT WAS refreshing to see Barbara B. Richardson's remarks (May 25 letter to the editor, ``Other TV stations should take note'') about television talk shows. These programs proliferate because they're inexpensive to produce and appeal to demographic groups, which can be attractive to advertisers. If more remarks like hers were made to and heard by advertisers, the pressure for local commercial broadcasters to air them would diminish quickly.
Unfortunately, Richardson's last sentence and your headline create the notion that other over-the-air broadcasters in the Roanoke-Lynchburg television market need to clean up their acts if they, too, want to be community leaders.
As the one responsible for non-network programming on one of those ``other stations'' (WDBJ 7), I'm proud to say that locally our television station carries no talk programs, no ``reality-based'' programs, and no tabloid-news programs from 6 a.m. until midnight.
Talk programs and their subject matter have never taken a lot of our air time. Our viewers tell the ratings folks they prefer anything Andy Griffith does to ``Cops,'' ``Oprah,'' ``Inside Edition,'' or ``Ricki Lake.''
Central and Western Virginia viewers have depended on our news programs for two generations. Many say they like our professional attitude toward journalism itself. ``NEWS 7'' has always been a ``what you see is what you get'' product. It would be difficult for us to square our hard-news attitude with some stuff that passes for news in productions like ``Inside Edition,'' ``Hard Copy,'' ``A Current Affair'' or ``American Journal.''
From local programs like ``Friday Football Extra'' to Robin Reed's almost daily stewardship of Weatherschool for our area schoolchildren, WDBJ 7 is, and has been, an active player in our community for 40 years. We have made some programming mistakes, and we'll make some more, but that will never have an impact on the hours of public-service air time we give to deserving organizations and causes every year. Our community looks to us for leadership, not because of the programs we cancel, but the responsibility we show on and off the air.
``Ricki Lake'' will be on one of the "other stations'' in this area this fall, but it won't be ours.
JIM SHAVER
Vice President
News and Programming
WDBJ Television Inc.
ROANOKE
Dave's nothing to lose sleep over
I WAS amused by Kathleen Wilson's article (May 2 Extra section, ``Doin' time with Dave'') about her visit to David Letterman's show. It confirms what I've said about him all along. As a hard-core insomniac who found him amusing at 12:30 a.m. but almost unwatchable at 11:30 p.m., my theory is that the success of a Letterman joke is inversely proportional to the wide-awakeness of the audience. Those who ``lo-ove'' him fall asleep before the World Wide Pants logo comes on.
The Academy Awards show was the finest performance Letterman has ever given, or is ever likely to give. He did all the things he does best, and displayed every nanometer of talent he has. The only thing wrong was the audience. They were awake, and cold sober. When Letterman sends his audience to the Hello Deli for a ``lovely beverage,'' he doesn't intend for them to drink anything containing caffeine.
Obviously, the sarcastic guy taking tickets hasn't been instructed properly. If you've ever been really awake during Letterman's show, you would have showed up late in hopes of being in the standby audience. They are the ones who get all the perks. The night Wilson's article appeared, they got to go see Conan O'Brien's show, which is probably funnier when you're awake.
Of course, if I were the parent of teen-agers, I would (hypocritically) insist they watch Letterman rather than the soft-core porn of Jay Leno. Good ole asexual Letterman can be counted on not to say anything unsuitable for the young and innocent, anything politically offensive, mentally stimulating or tell any new jokes. The Top 10 list is supposed to bomb, isn't it?
JANE PILSON
RIDGEWAY
by CNB