Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 31, 1995 TAG: 9507310016
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
We're a country of people who are voyeurs regarding the past. The problem is that we don't observe what's going on in our own society today, and we're not proactive for future results. What occurred in Chicago was a debacle. We shouldn't have people in America suffocating to death due to lack of air conditioning.
It's another issue regarding the haves and the have-nots, the affluent and the poor. The rich live because they can afford air conditioning. The poor die because they can't afford it.
The incessant political rhetoric between the two parties prolongs the problems in our society today. When lives are at risk, action needs to be sought immediately. People cannot wait for an election result to have problems resolved.
To whom much is given, much is expected. Those who have been given a good education and who are in politics either are regressing in intelligence and need to get out of politics - or they need to start using the intelligence given to them to look after those who are dependent upon their wisdom.
After all, that's how they wanted it in this competitive world. They didn't want someone else to get ahead of them. That means they are responsible for the salvation of poor people like those at risk in Chicago.
KATHY ARTHUR ROANOKE
Don't trust city promises
LYNCHBURG continues to pander its so-called ``annexation immunity agreement,'' an inane vehicle by which Lynchburg would offer Bedford County immunity from annexation in return for ``some tangible benefits to the city'' (July 25 article, ``Bedford puts trust in Lynchburg'').
This ``annexation immunity agreement'' somehow rings false, due to all the ridiculous and expensive strings attached to it in proposals made so far. And what it amounts to is extortion.
In view of the monumental problems associated with the encumbered offers made so far, the Bedford County Board of Supervisors decided, for the moment, only to accept the intent of the offer at its face value: that Lynchburg has no intent of annexing portions of Bedford County at this time.
But readers should make no mistake about it. In spite of the soothing, intentionally disarming nature of Lynchburg's carefully drawn formal response, it would be a mistake of the first magnitude for Bedfordites to waver from the course toward consolidation.
Even if Lynchburg officials were sincere in their assertions of noninterest in annexing any part of Bedford County, as Shakespeare said in ``Hamlet'': ``The lady doth protest too much, methinks.'' These pronouncements of noninterest can (and would) be repudiated in a heartbeat as situations develop to the contrary.
As for state law prohibiting annexation, keep in mind that the operative factor here is only a moratorium that expires on July 1, 1997. Hardly a permanent barrier should the lust of annexation fever rise in the hearts of governing officials of certain nearby cities.
CHARLES H. KINNEY BEDFORD COUNTY
Home is where this patient is
IN RESPONSE to Marlene Wilkerson's July 20 letter to the editor, ``Dialysis patients aren't homebound'':
I am happy that her husband can go just about anywhere he wishes, and the fact that he can put himself on dialysis in the car and on the boat is great! But my grandson has been on peritoneal dialysis for almost two years now. He's hooked up to this machine nightly for 12 hours at a time and is practically homebound.
Wilkerson can't categorize all dialysis patients the same way.
NELLIE A. STUMP SALEM
by CNB