Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507150004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Police officers may ask my friends and me to refrain from lounging on the tables in the City Market. I obey, and usually most of my friends do, too. However, when I ask police officers where they suggest we go instead of to the market area to meet our friends and talk, they cannot give me an answer. It doesn't seem right that they tell us to leave an area without having another place to suggest we go.
Finally, after much questioning, police said that we could go to local parks because they don't close until 11 p.m. I thanked the officers, and some friends and I went to Garst Mill Park to sit and talk. It was before 10 p.m. when policemen at the park questioned and searched us. I asked why this invasion, and one officer said that it was because we were from Cave Spring. I believe the officers were annoyed because they found nothing on us.
Yes, I wear a collar, chains, and have pink hair. But, no, I don't do or deal drugs, nor do I drink. Sorry to ruin the stereotype.
All I ask is for people to open their minds, consider what the individual inside is like, and stop judging by appearances. Don't make decisions based solely on what you read in the newspaper. We are teen-agers, we are people, and we deserve respect just like you do.
CARRIE McKAY SHELTON
ROANOKE
Christians are demanding fair play
YOUR June 21 editorial, ``In the name of Jesus Christ,'' was interesting, but offered no solution to the problem we're facing in this culture.
There was a time when it was correct for Christians to offer prayers in public schools. People didn't object to Christ's teachings. After studying his teachings for many years, I can't see why anyone would object.
For many years, liberals have deliberately sought to change the American culture to accommodate their view of the world. In spite of denials, they teach their religion almost everywhere. Don't they think Christians are offended at their teachings in public schools?
Something must be done to protect Americans' rights and allow them to exercise their freedoms. Public schools are becoming a hotbed for lawlessness. Something must be done to bring order back into the schools.
While I don't advocate abandoning public schools altogether, I urge leaders to protect every citizen's rights. Support a dual educational system. Distribute tax monies fairly to all private schools without respect to their religious persuasions.
Today we hear much about this subject, and we're going to hear more until it becomes a reality. It's the only fair way to treat Americans, and Americans are going to demand it. Christians aren't going to play dead anymore. We're going to demand a fair shake.
B. O'NEAL BURCH
CHRISTIANSBURG
Bring on the pony and dog races
WAKE up, Roanoke. I have lived here for 40 years, and have seen things built.
Why is it that we have the lottery, but not horse and dog races? Think of all the revenue it would bring in. I'm sure it would be more than the lottery. Will some top official answer this? I think we can prosper. Let's get this put on the ballot.
RALPH HAYES SR.
ROANOKE
Don't be sticklers for graveyard rules
EVERY DAY in this country, women are brutally raped and murdered, kids are beaten and left in dumpsters, and people are dying from AIDS.
Then you have people complaining about flowers growing on a child's grave (July 1 article, ``Court lets grieving mom keep blossoms at grave'').
I realize there's a rule against growing flowers in this particular graveyard, and I do respect rules. On the other hand, let these fine people step back and take a good look in the mirror. Here's a woman who has lost a child. As she has stated before, growing the flowers has been very therapeutic for her because it helps her deal with her child's death. And it also helps the world look a lot nicer.
If people would take the energy they put into complaining and find a productive way to help someone, maybe flowers on a child's grave wouldn't be such a big deal.
NIKKI MORGAN
SALEM
More should share their faith publicly
THANKS TO Jeff Eenigenburg for doing what was right in his June 12 address for the Patrick Henry High School graduation about ``pride and love.'' There is nothing more true than what he said: ``If we show love, we can defeat the spirit of pride.'' If we show love, others will show love. If we show hate, others will show hate.
He and I know that love is a gift from God, and it should be given away. In his speech, to me, he was giving away some of that love, and giving credit to the one who gave it to him. So often, we fail to do that.
I wish we had more people who would do what Eenigenburg did - show Christ that you aren't ashamed of him, and love Christ enough to want others to know him also.
I'm beginning to think everyone in the country has freedom of speech, except the Christian. If we go into the world and tell others of Jesus, we offend them. But there isn't a day that goes by that we aren't offended if we allow others to offend us. I have found that with the love of Christ within me, it isn't as easy to be offended.
Eenigenburg needs to keep up the good work, and may God bless him in the work that God has for him to do.
BETTY S. DIVERS
ROANOKE
The real tragedy is unwanted babies
NOW IS the time to understand that pro-choice isn't the extreme position but the compromise belief.
In my opinion, unless people are as adamantly against the death sentence as they are abortion, they call themselves right-to-lifers under mistaken premises. Otherwise, so-called pro-life people are really anti-abortion. And the opposite of anti-abortion isn't pro-choice but pro-abortion.
It seems inconceivable, but the time may come, if people in this country so outnumber its productive space, that the state may be forced to require all pregnancies, after the first or second, to be aborted. Other countries have already done so.
To my knowledge, pro-choice people have no desire to dictate to other women whether to carry or to terminate. By the same token, they don't want men and other women to intrude into their most intimate decisions about their own lives and bodies.
In my opinion, the extremity isn't necessarily in the belief. It's in the dictatorial attitude directed toward others who hold their own, different beliefs with just as much integrity. To denigrate Dr. Henry Foster, who earned his title, many honors and great respect under the hardest of circumstances, shows a capacity for small-mindedness and tunnel vision.
Abortion isn't the tragedy. The tragedy is ignorance, poverty and the millions of unwanted babies born each year without social, political, economic or educational support systems. They are abandoned by the system, not only to their own peril but also to ours.
ANN WEINSTEIN
ROANOKE
Postal rates soar, but not the flag
CONGRESS ESTABLISHED in 1942 an official set of rules, called the Flag Code, for displaying and honoring the flag.
When to display? The flag is displayed every day in good weather from federal and state government buildings, installations, schools and many public buildings. Special days designated for displaying the flag include Independence Day, July 4.
Some folks in Lexington noticed that our post office didn't display the flag on July 4. It wasn't an oversight, for a call to the post office explained that no one would be available to lower the flag. Imagine: Our institution entrusted with our mail, and on the federal payroll, cannot find the wherewithal to display the flag! Possibly an increase in postage rates could provide the required talent.
WILLIAM L. FOSTER
LEXINGTON
by CNB