Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 25, 1995 TAG: 9510250017
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I recently went to a hardware store on U.S. 419 to purchase nails for some construction at my home. When I went to reach into the nail bin to pick up the nails, I was met by the very anxious owner of the store directing me to let her (a woman nearly twice my age) pick the nails out of the bin for me.
Initially, I was quite perplexed, but I then came to realize that she was doing this to protect herself. I was quite taken by her offer, and asked her why she wanted to provide this service for me. I asked her if she was doing this because of her fear that I would injure my hands and ultimately sue her. She responded that this was indeed the case.
She also told me that she frequently loads many of her patrons' cars for fear that consumers will injure their backs while on her premises, which could ultimately result in litigation. Needless to say, I told her I would assume 100 percent responsibility for my own actions, and I got my own nails.
I think we, as a society, need to examine the issue of personal responsibility and accountability. We're no longer willing to assume responsibility for our own actions. It seems more commonplace to look for the easy way out by placing blame on others.
We'll continue to see an erosion of our society and of our values until we begin to hold ourselves accountable.
LEONARD E. GOLDSTOCK
ROANOKE
Botetourt needs a crime fighter
THANK GOODNESS we don't live in California. We in Botetourt County are able to think clearly and keep our eyes on the evidence.
We know that the incumbent commonwealth's attorney is telling us that crime is down 40 percent since 1991. What he's not telling us is that this figure doesn't include drug-related offenses, which are overwhelming, and forgery and uttering crimes, which are significant.
He also doesn't mention that aggravated assault, motor-vehicle theft and even murder have statistically risen dramatically in our county during the past year. To be fair, larceny has decreased in frequency, but that has skewed the overall crime index.
As a matter of fact, the index the incumbent uses shows a 32 percent decrease in crime in Roanoke city, and a statewide decrease in crime since 1991. If what he's saying is correct, why are we building all these prisons?
The incumbent told the Board of Supervisors in February 1993 that ``the drug trade has firmly established itself in Botetourt County. Indictments in the county in the past year represented a figure more than double that of 1980. Arrest figures for the sheriff's department shot up in several categories. The presence of drugs in the county has increased.''
Which is it? Are crimes up or down? He can't have it both ways.
Ask yourself this question: Do you feel safer now than in 1991?
The crime index the incumbent touts shows that Joel Branscom has tried more than twice as many cases as his competitor. Vote for Branscom for commonwealth's attorney.
DALE WILKINSO
ROANOKE
Democrats made a mess of it
House Majority Leader Dick Cranwell's recent radio ads on educational disparity do not tell the whole story. After all, it's his Democratic cronies who created the funds disparity in the first place.
After 130 years of a Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature, he and the Democrats are creating our state's problems, not finding solutions. It has taken Republicans like Gov. George Allen and candidate Trixie Averill to stand up to the Democrats' business-as-usual attitude. Now faced with the facts, Cranwell and the Democrats are claiming an interest in fixing the problems they have caused.
Instead of shallow promises of change, it's time to elect people with new ideas. The Democrats had 130 years to ``fix'' Virginia. Now let's give Averill and other Republican candidates a chance to do it right.
DAVID R. JONES JR.
VINTON
Time to turn out Madison Marye
MADISON Marye has a radical-left voting record in the Virginia Senate. That's why, on Election Day, we'll replace him with Pat Cupp, a mainstream candidate.
Consider Marye's own words: "I've stuck it to the veterans, I've stuck it to the rifle association, and I'm gonna go and stick it to the teachers." And he did.
He stuck it to many other people, too. He stuck it to families. He opposes requiring state agencies and boards to consider the impact of proposed policies and regulations on families. That's ultraleft. And Marye opposes permitting doctors to notify parents when doctors learn children are infected with the AIDS virus. That's dangerous and absurd.
Marye stuck it to parents. He opposes an amendment that states: "The rights of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children shall not be infringed." To him, state power is evidently more important than parental responsibility.
He stuck it to Americans who love and respect our flag. Marye opposes a constitutional amendment to protect the flag from desecration. It's illegal to desecrate the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier or the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, but it's legal to walk on, urinate on or hatefully burn the American flag, which is the symbol of our nation. That makes no sense. Marye ignores pleas from the American Legion to support the proposed amendment.
Virginia's 39th Senate district has been represented far too long by a far-left senator who brags about the people he "stuck it to." We should have changed senators a long time ago. We'll do it on Nov. 7, when we elect Cupp as a mainstream senator.
HAROLD E. DUDLEY
BLACKSBURG
Democrats helped deliver for Allen
DOES IT strike anyone as unusual that after the Democrat-controlled General Assembly passed the new welfare bill, Gov. George Allen went on national television, via Oprah Winfrey, and took 100 percent credit for the country's most progressive welfare-reform law? He also took 100 percent credit for truth-in-sentencing legislation and the abolition of parole.
Where were Democrats the day these votes were taken? Seems they only get credit for what they voted against.
If Democrats are obstructionists to Allen's plans, then just how did he manage to get his top three campaign promises enacted? Perhaps he has selective memory when it comes to just how all these changes came about. I believe the record will show that Democrats and Republicans voted to pass these.
Allen seems to want all the credit, and wants to put all the blame on the other side.
WAYNE D. FOSTER
VINTON
He's right on bad architecture
AMEN! Thank you for a good piece of writing by Mitchell Mendelson (Oct. 14 letter to the editor, ``Is Roanoke the Bad Architecture Capital of Virginia?'').
His final paragraph about the public space - the City Market - was a beaut.
Your editorial (``Looking beyond Monday's march'') on the same day is also to be commended.
JOAN K. SHANNON
ROANOKE
Don't obliterate Bedford County
WHEN CONSOLIDATION was first mentioned by Bedford County to Bedford city, the city's officials said no way. They would never join the county. After talking with the county, they found out it would be mutually beneficial.
The city could annex, with no legal hassle or expense. That means new population for the city and higher taxes for those annexed. The county could set a meals tax, which has, thus far, been rejected. The county could also float bond issues with no necessary citizen approval. Anita and H.F. Garner (organizers behind the consolidation petitions) of Forest promise no increase in taxes. Ha!
The so-called consolidation is clearly an agreement between two governing bodies designed to enrich their coffers. Bedford County has been here 241 years. Let's keep it, not consign it to oblivion.
The Garners are NIMBYs - let people be annexed and suffer a rise in taxes, but "not in my back yard."
Help preserve Bedford County from actions of the shortsighted few. Please vote no on consolidation.
THOMAS M. MARTIN
BEDFORD
by CNB