Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 7, 1995 TAG: 9508070017
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Now, don't get me wrong, it wasn't the wild hair colors or strange body piercing that caught my eye. These are encountered by young people daily, and are simply accepted as another form of ``expression.'' I just thought it very odd that a dress code is more important to a contemporary high school than the huge amount of drugs circulating the hallways, illiterate high-school graduates, guns in a student's backpack or even the apathy that has infiltrated Generation X. I guess as long as the student body is well-dressed, all the other problems will just hide themselves.
It's funny, but this concept is also very common with the government. Politicians wave platforms about one reform or another. Sure, they debate the issues a bit, but somehow these reforms are never accomplished as promised. Instead, Washington gives America the Whitewater hearings, Waco hearings and the Packwood scandal. I'm sure these concerns are really significant to a person trying to support a family.
If people, especially those in charge, would stop hiding behind inconsequential nothingness, perhaps more energy could be focused into solving real problems, saving minor details until the end.
REBECCA CUNY
LEXINGTON
The lobby for higher taxes
DID SOMEONE say partisan politics? Democrats have raised the specter that a former state employee may have used his contacts obtained while employed by the state to advance his private business interests after he left state government.
Have Democrats also raised the question of how Howard Cullem, former secretary of health and human resources (under a Democratic governor) was able to amass a list of 200,000 names of Virginia residents in less than a year? He'll use that list to lobby the state for increased funding for needy Virginians through his Human Services Political Action Committee. HUSPAC has also announced that it will endorse political candidates in this fall's statewide elections. Two hundred thousand names represent a sizable number of Virginia households, a rather significant grass-roots lobby. Where did all those names and addresses come from?
The questionnaire recently sent out by HUSPAC to political candidates across Virginia was all about the need for more tax dollars to support services. What do Democratic candidates for state office (the Senate and House of Delegates) have to say about this? The taxpayers/voters deserve a response. In the meantime, more pork anyone?
ANNE W. GRAVES
LYNCHBURG
Botetourt shouldn't be a bedroom
I WOULD like to offer my thoughts about Botetourt County's recent purchase of land for the future development to be called Botetourt Center at Greenfield.
While Botetourt County is blessed with rich history, culture and scenery, I cannot help but comment that I and the vast majority of our residents must commute elsewhere for employment opportunities. This is especially unfair to those in our county's central and northern portions.
To remain strong, offer employment for our sons, daughters and other family members. To maintain a strong tax base of which we can be proud, I feel the county Board of Supervisors has taken the proper step in purchasing the Greenfield site to plan for our county's future.
I feel that professional-development parks can be done correctly, and can enhance our image. Botetourt County's vast land area provides ample room for a mixture of land uses, including the opportunity to provide our own residents with jobs. The county can and must be more than a bedroom community. Our future demands it.
DENNIS A. MULLINS
CLOVERDALE
Let's mainstream mental-health care
IN RESPONSE to Diane Kelly's July 20 letter to the editor, ``Mental care faces new challenges'':
As she pointed out, mental-health managed care is certainly uniting providers and consumers of mental-health care in an ongoing effort to ensure appropriate access to care and treatment for patients with mental illness. Providers are faced with daily concerns and ethical dilemmas to ensure adequate treatment and follow-up care of our patients with often complex symptomatology. At the same time, we must meet often overly rigid, cost-based requirements of managed-care companies.
Unfortunately, this only adds to the stigma associated with mental illnesses at a time when many more treatments are available to patients.
While we're in support of containing costs and providing cost-effective treatment, the dilemma and challenges created by managed-care companies cause serious concerns about conflicts of interest in such unregulated and for-profit agencies. Clearly, mental-health providers are stuck in the middle.
Especially as Medicare and Medicaid move toward managed care, it's our hope that managed care can move from the current for-profit, cost-containment model to a model ensuring equal access to care, destigmatizing mental illness, using quality-outcome measures and allowing for equal coverage with other medical illnesses. The time is now to truly mainstream mental-health services.
I applaud Kelly's letter, and certainly believe the Mental Health Association has support, from consumers and providers alike, in this matter.
DAVID B. TRINKLE
President
Psychiatric Society of West Virginia
ROANOKE
Memo: ***CORRECTION***