Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508080002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
You may think I'm writing about children. But, no, I'm sharing comments made by the elderly. Oh to see us, the younger generation, give encouragement to senior citizens. Can we not spend time with stroke victims to help them regain their skills? Can't we spread some cheer with the lonely or those who feel deserted?
Isn't it time we give the elderly more of the respect they have earned? Other countries or cultures give tremendous honor to the aged. We have Big Brother and Big Sister organizations. Why can't we have Little Brother and Little Sister groups to spend some time with our valley's senior citizens?
ELIZABETH MARTIN
SALEM
The folly of trying to save the world
BOB GREGORY wrote about Bosnia (July 24 letter to the editor, ``The horrors redux in Bosnia''), saying that we, as free people, ought to urge our senators to ``act again as we finally did in World War II.''
Bosnia is certainly a tragedy and horror painful to behold. However, Europe has always been a tormented, blood-soaked continent of conscription, incessant war, oppression and persecution. Breast-beating over Bosnia's most recent misery is calculated to arouse the sympathy of Americans so they will agree to another foreign military adventure. Such callous manipulation of the emotions of good people is the chief tactic of the most depraved con game in history. War and atrocity stories sell more newspapers, media air time and other products of the military-industrial complex.
We have made the mistake before of embarking troops to save Europe from itself. At the behest of Woodrow Wilson, Americans went over there ``to make the world safe for democracy.'' America's 100,000 World War I casualties only succeeded in making Europe safe for Hitler. After nearly a century of war, conditions in Sarajevo are about like they were in 1914: Bosnians and Serbs are throwing bombs at each other. The futility of sending armed forces on world-saving missions ought to be self-evident by now.
Gregory's assertion that Americans are so free as to be under obligation to liberate people overseas insults the understanding even of the intellectually challenged. Everybody knows American freedom is more fiction than fact. It is infringed on by swarms of local, state and federal regulators.
That hypocrisy aside, American military ``liberation'' in Bosnia will repeat the error of World War I while inspiring loathing in the unadmiring mass of mankind. Just as patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, crusade is the last ploy of a discredited president and his decrepit party. After the Serbs attack Norfolk like the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, there will be more than time enough to act like we did in World War II.
Unfortunately, the control of the regulatory aristocracy is so secure that crusading American imperial government, like its Soviet counterpart, will probably only be restrained by bankruptcy.
JAY RUTLEDGE
ROANOKE
So now they're regulating grief
MY HEART goes out to the woman who was told she had to remove all flowers from her daughter's grave (July 25 article, ``Mother agrees - flowers will go''). What is the world coming to when a person isn't allowed to grieve for a loved one in her own way and at her own pace?
The so-called experts have set down rules for grieving, which include how much, how long and other rigid regulations. Don't they know grief is a personal thing and that no two people grieve alike? What appears utterly ridiculous to one person may seem perfectly sane to another.
Cemeteries aren't noted for being fun places. However, a few bright flowers would go a long way toward making them more bearable.
I think the people, including Judge Richard Pattisall, who disapprove of this lady's grief process are way off base.
VI BURR
ROANOKE
Controls won't kill the tobacco industry
NICOTINE is "the chief addictive ingredient (5 percent) in the tobacco used in cigarettes, cigars, and snuff ... an addictive drug'' (Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition, 1994). Long known to biologists, this fact is found in every authoritative reference.
The Food and Drug Administration is legally required to regulate substances in wide use when found to be addictive drugs. FDA's administrator, Dr. David Kessler, asked the president to help him forge a program. Many tobacco-state Congress members panic over Kessler doing his job, hurl invective and threaten to emasculate the agency. Others, who know well the health facts but who're still in tobacco's political grip, choose to say nothing. Medical and allied professionals, however, are speaking out.
This standoff cannot continue indefinitely. Nicotine is an extremely toxic, addictive drug. You may believe smokers do it for the flavors. But taste is mainly experienced in the mouth, not the lungs. Smoking a plant substance is primarily for getting the effect of the drugs they contain, and a highly effective method at that. The surgeon general's warning required on packaging and in advertising isn't fiction.
The tobacco industry overreacts. Kessler and other health professionals, while concerned that 420,000 people die annually in the United States from tobacco-related disease and that it costs $50 billion a year to take care of tobacco-sickened people, know that they'll never stop tobacco use through prohibition. The failed liquor-prohibition experience won't be repeated. But some control will evolve.
Alcohol control, however imperfectly administered, is accepted by the alcohol industry. Some sort of similar system will eventually be worked out for tobacco, and the industry will survive handily, and be better off since the pressure will be off once the system is operating. The tobacco industry knows this. It's time to bite the bullet, ladies and gentlemen. It won't kill you.
LEONARD J. UTTAL
BLACKSBURG
Immorality must be challenged
OUR COUNTRY has silently witnessed the degradation of moral values for several decades. In so doing, we have deadened our sensibilities to acceptable and proper behavior. As a result, crime and violence have grabbed the headlines with their grim realities. Murder, rape, abuse of defenseless children and women, robbery and weapons in schools have become commonplace.
In such a society, it was surprisingly refreshing to have Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole scathingly denounce the entertainment industry's popular music, films and television as ``nightmares of depravity.'' His chief concern was the impact such entertainment has on children who are so vulnerable and impressionable to what they see and hear. He accused Time Warner Corp. of ``the marketing of evil,'' especially in the sale of violence-based rap music that threatens children's perceptions and overall sense of values. Michael Fuchs, chairman of Time Warner Music Group in New York, responded to Dole's charges by saying: ``Lyrics get out that may cross the line. But that's the price you pay for freedom of expression.'' A greedy and irresponsible attitude, if there ever was one!
Our great nation needs more leaders who aren't afraid to challenge the wrong and the evil that permeate our society in such sickening ways. Our government on all levels and our churches are in a position to speak out and be heard against this existing immorality that is debasing to all, especially to innocent children. We as citizens should prod these leaders into action. Parents should regain their responsibility of monitoring their children's sources of entertainment.
ELEANOR P. YOWELL
BEDFORD
by CNB