Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 30, 1995 TAG: 9507280023
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Nevertheless, the warning signs have been accumulating for years. During the '80s, we witnessed attempts by Tipper Gore and Jesse Helms to silence voices that were ``subverting'' youth or ``perverting'' the culture at large.
My guess is that the Bennett/Tucker crowd wants to create some ``decency'' bureaucracy so that Washington can further micromanage our lives at our expense.
Some people will continue to bleat, ``What about the children?'' But these are the same irresponsible people who drink while pregnant, smoke around their kids, and pump them full of refined sugar and Ritalin. They are convinced that the only thing that can save their kids is new legislation. But what about effective parenting?
They complain about televised images, but it's their option to turn off the set (or toss it out) and spend time raising the child. Do they want this? No, they want to turn the communications media into a sanitized baby sitter, which it was never meant to be.
MICHAEL BARBER
ROANOKE
A monument to victims
SINCE it's sports-related, why not put Arthur Ashe's statue in a park, and dedicate a space on Monument Avenue to all black people who suffered from slavery? Slavery is a blot on the past of whites and blacks.
Most people who became slaves were sold by black leaders as spoils of tribal warfare to white slave traders. With so many innocent victims, why not a monument to them?
JEANNE PRICE
FLOYD
Act now to stop the suffering in Bosnia
AS MEMBERS of The Blacksburg Community Group, we want to voice our concern over what's happening in Bosnia. We're outraged by the inability of the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies and the United Nations to effectively convince the Serbian community that genocide cannot be tolerated in this world. Our group feels strongly that we must act now to stop human suffering in Bosnia, and urge that the following steps be taken:
Evacuate Bosnian women, children and the elderly to a host country (such as Italy, Turkey or Egypt) until their homeland is restored.
Withdraw U.N. peacekeeping forces in the shortest possible time, or reauthorize these troops with more effective orders that will allow them to effectively defend Bosnian ``safe havens.''
Eliminate the embargo on the weapons trade prejudicing only the ability of the Bosnian Moslems to be able to defend themselves.
We believe that ethically committed people in this country can no longer stand by passively and watch these atrocities continue on a daily basis.
SUZI GABLIK
JOHN BROWDER
Members of The Blacksburg Community Group
BLACKSBURG
Electing officers saves money
IN RESPONSE to your July 15 editorial (``Courthouse crowd clings to the past'') concerning your disgust for elected constitutional officers in Virginia:
To imply that elected prosecutors may be duplicative, outmoded and unnecessary financial burdens on local taxpayers is patently absurd.
If we study your implicit proposal to appoint or hire ``professionals,'' we must first look at this state's first attempt at your project - the public-defender system (professionals who defend criminals at the public's expense).
In a matter of a few years since the beginning of this bureaucracy, the Public Defender Commission has managed to better staff, better supply and even pay substantially higher salaries than most commonwealth's attorneys in Virginia. The problem became so acute that special legislation was passed this year to provide elected commonwealth's attorneys pay parity.
See what happens when you start appointing ``professionals''? They will surely find the fattest vein running out of the heart of the state treasury into which the needle must go.
You should explore your position on this matter. You will find that professional county managers and city managers will love to appoint and control elected constitutional officers - for a huge increase in salary, of course.
PAUL H. THOMSON
Commonwealth's Attorney
WINCHESTE
by CNB