Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 8, 1995 TAG: 9508080034
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
On page 1, Judge Clifford Weckstein decided life in prison was sufficient for the murder of five people (``May gets 5 life sentences''). I'm sorry, but five terms doesn't seem more equal than one.
The headline in your Virginia section mentioned that Judge Vincen Lilley ordered three dogs sentenced to death for mauling a woman (```Vicious' dogs sent to death''). At least two of those dogs were juveniles.
Are we to assume that people (Robert May) are less responsible than dogs?
JUDITH N. CATES
BLACKSBURG
Wasena street is not a speedway
TO FREQUENT travelers of Wasena Avenue:
Maybe you've seen me screaming at your vehicle to slow down as you speed through the universe, uncaring of the lives around you. The speed limit on Wasena Avenue is 25 mph. However, local residents swear it's 50 mph due to our observation of your behavior.
Many of us have much-beloved small children and pets who live here. (By the way, I would like to thank the motorist who took the life of my dear cat recently, and never bothered to stop.)
I have requested our city traffic control three times in the past nine months to place a speed trap to catch the offenders, but I have received no support. Do we have to wait until one of our children is struck down before the speed limit is enforced?
This is a neighborhood street, not a highway. As citizens of Roanoke, you need to behave in a more responsible way toward your community.
SUE BRYSON
ROANOKE
Trials as different as day and night
IN RESPONSE to Mary Hollingsworth's July 26 letter to the editor ``A tale of two trials'':
She noted that O.J. Simpson sits at his lawyers' table during his trial, while little Susan Smith was brought to the courtroom in handcuffs and chains.
Hollingsworth's thinking may be clouded by her sympathy for Smith (and I guess she could be pitied). Simpson pleaded not guilty. And in America, a person is innocent until proven guilty.
Smith, on the other hand, had already confessed to the murder of her two young children before her trial started. She was led to court as a prisoner charged with capital murder by her own admission. Her trial was essentially to fix punishment.
There's a big difference in the trials.
JUNE BURD
FINCASTLE
Focus on the troublemakers
THE ROANOKE city school system's code on student dress (Aug. 1 article, ``Code gets a dressing down'') is well enough left alone. It's true students wear garments that reveal too much, or display inappropriate language or artwork that distracts students from learning and cause disruption. But School Board members are wrong in thinking that body piercing, dyed hair and wild haircuts cause classroom disruption.
Instead of focusing on the appearance of students, the School Board should center its attention on students who constantly cause trouble, or those who have low grades and high absentee records. Perhaps the board should focus on fights or weapons on school property instead of students who simply wish to be different and wear what they want.
Piercing, coloring or cutting isn't going to affect the learning environment of schools as much as students who don't want to learn in the first place.
HUNTER ELLIOTT
TROUTVILLE
Flag-gate is not a spending priority
I READ Congressman Robert Goodlatte's July 29 article, ``Don't confuse flag-desecration with freedom of speech.'' A quote from his letter: ``To burn a flag in front of a veteran or someone else who has put his or her life on the line for their country is a despicable act not deserving protection.''
I saluted the flag of the United States and the officers of the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Sea Bees in that order. My government paid me, and gave me the appropriate uniform in all those branches of service, so I suppose I'm a veteran. Was my life on the line? I didn't think so, but we lost a shipmate and several were wounded.
Mr. Congressman, please don't spend my tax money (millions) to debate and pass laws against flag burning for me and my two veteran brothers so that you and your lawyer friends can spend millions to prosecute these poor, stupid flag-burners who only want attention.
Sure, flag burning is despicable, but why do you want to give these specious specks the attention they seek, validating somewhat their cause? You can't even prosecute all the laws you have passed against things that really damage people, property and quality of life. Where is your sense of priority?
Be reasonable, practical, and quit spouting all this emotionalism. Isn't there some kind of ``gate'' thing in government you could clean up? You know what I mean - the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Internal Revenue Service, General Services Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Whitewater, etc.
HAROLD E. BOWMAN
SALEM
House recognized the pro-life view
DEBORAH G. Mayo's Aug. 1 letter to the editor (``Betraying women's reproductive rights'') is a unique combination of factual inaccuracies and anti-Catholic bigotry.
She states that Congress recently voted to end the 25-year-old family-planning program, adding that this program ``does not use funds for abortions.'' In fact, Congress didn't eliminate it, but voted to block-grant the program to the states. Furthermore, her statement that the program doesn't use funds for abortions is questionable. While it may not fund abortions directly, it certainly contributes to them by freeing up the resources of groups such as Planned Parenthood to promote abortion.
Mayo's description of this vote as a ``Vatican-like push to prevent access to contraception'' is in poor taste at best, and bigoted at worse. It's true the Catholic church opposes artificial contraception on moral and religious grounds, but insinuating that the Vatican is engaged in some sort of plot to restrict personal liberty is reminiscent of the charges of papal conspiracies leveled by know-nothings more than a century ago.
She incorrectly states that House Republicans are attempting to restrict medical schools from teaching abortion procedures to students. The Republicans are attempting to prevent a few pro-abortion zealots in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology from forcing their views on everyone else. (The college recently voted to deny accreditation to any medical school that didn't require students to undergo training in abortion procedures. The Republican measure would simply prevent the college from enforcing such an unjust restriction.)
The new Congress is finally recognizing a salient truth: Pro-life Americans have a right to their opinions, and they shouldn't be forced to act in opposition to their beliefs. Is Mayo's position so weak that she cannot afford to grant freedom of conscience to those who oppose her?
STEPHEN J. KONIG
ROANOKE
Don't mess up the wilderness
WHO SPEAKS for the wolf?
There have been several recent articles and commentaries in The Roanoke Times regarding wilderness preservation and land-use regulations. Unfortunately, most of those addressed only issues affecting humans.
In all of our councils, decisions and debates, we often fail to ask: Who speaks for the wolf? For the oak? For the Earth? In the debate over developing wilderness, we must ask these questions and consider the interests of the nonhuman parts of our community. We must protect what's left of the wilderness so that it can carry on the important work of evolution.
As Theodore Roosevelt said, "Leave it as it is. You cannot improve upon it. Man can only mar it."
BOBBY BURSEY
VINTON
by CNB