Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 10, 1995 TAG: 9507110017
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
As a biology professor at the Virginia Military Institute, I had the pleasure of teaching Lapthe. At the time, I commented to my colleagues about the tenacity of this young man who came from a different culture and possessed very limited English language skills. Yet through sheer determination and commitment, he survived the rigors of academics in a military environment. Never did he request favoritism or complain about the work load.
Perhaps the most telling part of his character came when he graduated from VMI. He wrote a personal letter to the biology faculty thanking each member for his contribution in providing him with the privilege of obtaining a college education.
FRED C. SWOPE
Professor, Biology Department
Virginia Military Institute
LEXINGTON
Responsibility comes with freedom
WHERE ELSE on Earth can you do the following?
Speak or write your mind on any subject, or not say anything at all. Keep a small arsenal, or be the type who wouldn't hurt a fly. Know that if you commit a serious crime that you will be tried by a jury of your peers. Serve in the military to help keep our country free, or get an exemption from service on religious grounds. Have all the children you can afford. And if you have more than you can afford, Uncle Sam will help pay for their upbringing.
Be deeply religious and worship any god you so choose, or be an atheist. Be a workaholic in any field you want or be a bum. Be a marathon runner or a couch potato. Further your education to any level you desire, or decide that you're already smart enough. Participate in the political process, or not even register to vote.
Also, living in this country means having at your disposal the best infrastructure in the world - everything from roads, airports, telecommunications, health care, public safety, housing, and the world's best, most varied and cheapest food supply. Living here means that you can own property and real estate and live wherever you choose.
I'm convinced that 99 percent of the rest of the world's population would swap places with the average American in a heartbeat. We have so many freedoms in this country, and so many take them for granted. Along with these freedoms comes a tremendous responsibility to be responsible for their use and the consequences thereof. Too often we look for solutions to our problems from our government when the solutions are within ourselves.
JOHNNY ANGELL
PENHOOK
When will cars get smart?
I CAN'T understand why it's being called a ``smart road.'' Smart for whom?
I for one don't know if I have a smart car. Do I go to my local auto-parts store, and for under $5 purchase a computer chip to make my truck smart? Are there any reasonably priced smart cars at the dealerships yet? Or is this a case of putting the horse before the cart, and playing a game of economic catchup?
The whole thing doesn't make any sense to me. That being the case, would someone explain what's so smart about it and for whom it is smart?
JAMES A. McGRATH
EGGLESTON
Picking the wrong lawyers' issue
I APPLAUD The Roanoke Times for your citizens-agenda drive to make democracy work. I'm heartened by the fact that you want to cover issues that are important to all of us, instead of the political grandstanding we so often see. However, you have so far failed to convince me that's how the editors really feel.
In your June 29 edition, with blaring tabloid headlines, you chose to cover the story about a contribution that Sen. Brandon Bell returned to the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (``Lawyers' donation haunts Bell''). Yet you failed to cover the sweeping legal reform the U.S. Senate considered and passed that same day.
The article should have been about the candidates' positions on legal reform, and not on some Richmond-based association's attack on one of our locals. You missed the mark!
JUDY CLAYTON
ROANOKE
In Utah, jobs may be at stake
THE ROANOKE Times' July 1 Briefly Put (Opinion page, ``This land is everyone's'') on the relevance of the opinion of Utah's citizens regarding a new wilderness area runs counter to both logic and good sense to people in Virginia.
I'm not familiar with all the facts in Utah's situation, but it's a pretty safe bet that most of the land in question is national forest land. In my recent travels in the Southern Appalachians, I've been impressed anew with the U.S. Forest Service's skillful management of national forests for multiple purposes. In Virginia alone, thousands of jobs are related to the timber industry, which gets much of its timber from National Forest lands. If this land were officially converted to wilderness, many jobs would be lost. Virginians would howl, and rightly so.
Perhaps thousands of Utah residents also get their livelihood from these lands, and wilderness designation would limit their opportunities. Perhaps they, like many Virginians, simply object to additional federal restrictions that are inevitable under the wilderness designation. This could be part of the national reaction to excessive federal intrusion in our lives.
We're all concerned with what our neighbors do with their land because it may affect us; Utah people are no different in that regard. The difference is that in Utah the federal government is a much bigger neighbor, and federal government doesn't have to respect state and local laws regarding land use, if they exist.
I certainly don't object to national wilderness areas. I lived close to the Mount Rogers area for several years, and enjoyed many hours of pleasure and healthy recreation in its unspoiled environment. It and the adjoining national forest are assets to Virginia, and the state benefits from the balance.
There's a trend to return responsibility to state and local authorities, based partly on the assumption that they know their own needs better than Big Brother in Washington. It may just possibly be that Utah citizens and their elected representatives know better than folks in Washington or Roanoke what's best for their region, ``ownership stake'' notwithstanding.
HUGH S. FULLERTON
CHILHOWIE
Abortion statistics don't bode well
IT WAS a chilling irony that I came across an Associated Press article in your May 26 newspaper, ``U.S. abortion rate drops by 12 percent.''
The National Center for Health Statistics said, ``The abortion rate dropped by 12 percent from 1980 to 1992, partly because of a drop in the number of women in their late teens and 20s, when abortion rates are highest.''
So then, by logical deduction, we know the reason abortion rates dropped is because of abortion.
It's estimated that between 18 million and 30 million of my generation (baby busters) have been executed by abortion. If we keep on aborting, pretty soon there won't be any girls left to have abortions, and our problem will be solved, right?
Another tragic commentary on our ever-declining culture and society.
DOUGLAS B. LEVY
RADFORD
Don't join what God has separated
THOMAS ALVIN Lester Jr. is way off track in his June 28 commentary ``The sacred and secular should mix in political life.'' Things sacred belong to the church and God (with religion). But secular things are profane and outside the temple, not sacred. Nothing is more opposite or apart than the sacred and things secular. Yet he wants to mix them together as one, as though they are compatible.
He seems reluctant to quote the full verse explaining the big difference in Caesar's things vs. God's possessions. The complete quote says, ``Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.'' The word render means: To give or hand over. Yield.
The semicolon is a great separator. Here it separates things of God from things of Caesar, or things Caesar has from those of God. It works both ways. But since Caesar was emperor, he stands for government or the state. We see by this that sacred things are separated from secular things. Most important for us right now is that Jesus is the one who separated church and state. I don't think any true Christian should seek to join together what God separated.
ELLIS J. CARTER
MARTINSVILLE
by CNB