Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 24, 1995 TAG: 9508240022
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Recently, however, there have been a glorious change of events. She's no longer there. Staff writers have used the term ex-cadet to describe her. In my opinion, she was never a cadet. First-timers at an institute such as The Citadel are known as knobs, plebes or rats. You must prove yourself worthy of being an honorable cadet. I think we know where that leaves Faulkner.
I don't believe she's being honest with herself and everyone involved. Why doesn't she come forward with the four simple words to describe this whole situation - ``I couldn't do it.'' I'm tired of her excuses. She describes the emotional stress of the 2 1/2 year court battle crashing down on her at once. She didn't seem to tire during the long duration of judicial fighting, did she? She said, ``It's not worth killing myself just for the political point.'' She sealed her own fate with that one quote. Everyone knows it was all political.
Faulkner may be a hero to the feminists, but for all single-gender education advocates and students at The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute, we thank her for her departure.
CHARLES KIRK SALEM
Hope for future came from disaster
NOW THAT the last of the 50th anniversaries of World War II are behind us, it seems even historians have decided that it was a necessary, therefore "good," war except for lingering questions concerning the use of atom bombs.
Given the atavistic nature of humans, wars have always brought forth man's most heinous behavior. Technological improvements from the bow and arrow to fission have never raised questions as to whether to use; only whether it works, and how to get it into the field as fast as possible. Certainly there have always been people, but such thinkers have been a small minority, easily brushed aside by the emotional horrors of wars. Hence, I have no doubt that any country getting an A-bomb into the field first would have used it.
However, my hypothesis seems to be different from most I've read. I believe that the most vivid, horrifying knowledge of what bursting atomic bombs do to humans never could have had the impact that Hiroshima and Nagasaki provided to mankind.
As a survivor of that brutal, bloody war, I'm still amazed that since August 1945, no atom bomb has been blown for the primary purpose of killing humans. And recall those very frightening times when the Chinese forced us back across the Yalu river during Korea, and the extremely nerve-racking Cuban missile crisis. Since the world had by then become so inured to the high probabilities of atomic war, why did neither launch atomic bombs?
I think that the '45 cataclysms had been etched into the world's consciousness as no demonstration-target explosion or anything else could have. Without those etchings, either event might have set them off.
Our propensity to mass killing preceded the atomic era and continues unabated today. But I do believe those two bomb detonations may have already and may yet again prevent full-scale atomic wars and, at least, allow our grandchildren's children a hope for some semblance of a civilization. I cross my fingers every day.
ARTHUR E. SACHS ROANOKE
Citizens rally for Madison Marye
MANY 39th District citizens are giving enthusiastic support to returning Madison Marye to the state Senate in the fall. Judging by his record, they know they can depend on him to subordinate special interests to the needs of the people - to education, the environment and adequate support for needed public services.
There are others who aren't so much interested in issues as such, but who are strong for Marye because they think of him not as a politician running for office, but as ``one of us.''
DONALD R. FESSLER BLACKSBURG
Mouthpiece for the liberals?
SINCE MOVING here last summer, I've been surprised by how liberal your newspaper is - almost socialist, really. I didn't expect that in this area. The Washington Post and New York Times seem moderate by comparison.
That's because, even though their staffs are liberal, they understand that most of their readers are not.
Your local columns and editorials seem to start out with the assumption (wink) that we're all Democrats, and that (as we all know) Republicans are out to get the poor, destroy education, etc. You're welcome to try to make that case, but you have to prove it. I don't start out with those prejudices.
CHRISTOPHER O. BIRD RINER
Culture captured in a courtroom
THE O.J. trial is better soap opera than anything anyone could write. For me, it has come to represent our country and culture.
We are on trial and center stage. We are Asian, female, black, Hispanic, white. We are attorneys, judges, reporters, guards, citizens. We are prosecuting, defending, objecting, recusing, listening.
There is drama and television cameras. There is racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, misogamy, misology. There is celebrity, infidelity, notoriety, implausibility. There are two sides, two views, too few jurors, two people murdered, two children left behind.
We drink our O.J. every day.
DOUG LOTHES ROANOKE
\ No credit given to rescue squads
I MUST take issue with the Aug. 14 news article, ``Boiling bus sends 20 to hospital.'' The emergency pre-hospital care and transportation for 20 band members was the combined effort of four local volunteer rescue squads - Fort Lewis, Catawba-Mason's Cove, Cave Spring and Salem.
I did a slow burn when, as I read the article, these four professional organizations weren't even mentioned by your newspaper as being the primary caregivers in this mass-casualty incident, each exhausting their personnel and resources to ensure the safety and well-being of the students.
Since February, I've read with considerable interest lengthy articles itemizing every conceivable shortcoming but rarely itemizing achievements and contributions made by the Roanoke Valley's rescue squads.
I'm going to presume this latest oversight is simply an error, and that your staff writer didn't intentionally fail to acknowledge these dedicated professionals.
HOWARD HARTMAN Chief, Fort Lewis Volunteer Rescue Squad SALEM
Others are already at home base
I JOIN in welcoming Radford University's resident four-year degree programs to be taught on the campus of Virginia Western Community College (Aug. 19 article, ``4-year degrees offered'').
It's significant that there's now one more choice in an already long and time-proven list of local options regarding pursuit of a four-year degree. How newsworthy the addition of just one more option to that list is, of course, is itself a matter of judgment.
Charles Downs, president of Virginia Western, is to be congratulated and commended for the work that went into creating this arrangement. I'm sure his enthusiasm overcame his sense of history and knowledge of educational opportunities in the Roanoke Valley when he made the statement so prominently featured in the article: ``At last, folks in Roanoke are going to have an opportunity to pursue a bachelor's degree at home base.''
``At last,'' indeed. Hollins and Roanoke colleges have been educating students in the Roanoke Valley since 1842. Roanoke College granted its first four-year degree ``at home base'' a mere 142 years ago. Hollins College followed two years later, in 1855.
By those standards, National Business College is a newcomer. We've only been around since 1886, and have been offering a four-year degree approved by the State Council of Higher Education since December of 1994.
PHILIP R. BREEZE Director of Marketing National Business College SALEM
by CNB