Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 1, 1995 TAG: 9511010017
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I drive past Justice House daily, and I've noticed the disrepair it has gotten into over the past several months. I've often wondered why that big church on the corner didn't do something to spruce up the place. But I'm new to Roanoke. I guess I'm not very good at understanding the politics and prejudices of systems and people.
What I do know is that Hayden did things nobody else would do for the folks at Justice House. He touched many lives - who knows why? Perhaps he, too, was a bit homeless, and felt the pain himself. I wonder how he feels - to give years of your life to a dream, only to see it die and fade away, left only with the stern judgment of strangers.
I say thanks to Hayden for making a mark in Roanoke, for raising awareness and changing some of our perceptions. May others follow his courage.
SUSAN HOFFPAUIR
ROANOKE
Falkinburg works tirelessly for others
ON BEHALF of my friend and all-around good human being Newell Falkinburg, someone needs to set the record straight (Oct. 23 letter to the editor by Janet Niles, ``Voters should reject Falkinburg'').
For all registered nurses and board-certified physicians who want to sling a little mud at Falkinburg: I've witnessed his efforts and successes to help nurses and physicians who have lost their licenses or hospital jobs regain them. This man works tirelessly for the good of others, and it's time to stop the back-stabbing.
VICTOR S. SKAFF JR.
VINTON
Where was Bell when needed?
JOHN EDWARDS' radio ad contrasting his Republican opponent Brandon Bell's thin legislative record with his own extensive record of accomplishment was humorous. More importantly, it made a valid point: Bell's ineffectiveness as a senator for the Roanoke Valley.
Bell attempts to hide behind the fact that he's in the Republican minority to explain having only four bills passed in four years. But look at the record of his fellow Republican, Sen. Bo Trumbo, who had 17 bills passed in four years.
It was Trumbo who was the chief sponsor in the Senate of a budget amendment restoring funding for the Virginia Tech Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement, which is the key to the success of the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center. Where was Bell? He should have been the chief sponsor. It wasn't until the train was leaving the station that he snuck his name in as a co-patron. He provided no leadership at all.
And where was he when Roanoke needed a sponsor in the Senate for Virginia Western Community College to expand its two-plus-two program and build a higher-education center at a Norfolk Southern building? He failed to sponsor this important budget amendment.
Even Bell's effort to restore funding for Roanoke's cultural agencies was tied to cutting funds for Martinsville and Staunton agencies.
As Edwards' radio ad colorfully notes, Bell's thin legislative record cannot stack up to Edwards' record as U.S. attorney and vice mayor, not to mention his many accomplishments as a civic leader. The Roanoke Valley needs a new senator who will be an effective leader.
KATHY WILSON
ROANOKE
Cranwell has been an embarrassment
DURING the past year, major emphasis at state and national levels was to reduce the scope of government and the burdensome overregulation imposed by an increasing bureaucracy. In keeping with this theme, Gov. George Allen has launched an aggressive agenda to accomplish that - an agenda on which he campaigned and was elected.
Del. Dick Cranwell has attacked each measure of reform proposed, instead opting for the status quo in an attempt to protect his and other special interests, and totaling ignoring the voters and taxpayers. His behavior during the vote on the Allen budget during closing days of this year's legislative session was a disgrace to the state and an embarrassment to citizens of the Roanoke Valley who elected him.
KENNETH M. PEARSON
ROANOKE
Public doesn't know whodunit
EVERYONE has an opinion, and that's all it can be. O.J. Simpson was acquitted by a jury of his peers. They heard nine months of testimony. The prosecutors didn't prove their case, and they still decline to accept their failures. The case started with police and coroner mistakes, and no one else was even looked at. They had their man, and they dug their heels in on Simpson.
I believe people have human frailties and, yes, they can change. No reports of abuse from 1989? So, suddenly out of thin air, he's ready to murder? Regrettably Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman are dead, but what part did she play in the one-to-one with Simpson? Why did she stay? What was her agenda? Could she have put those pictures in a deposit box for blackmail, to ensure that one day she could bring Simpson down and sell the pictures for publication? Goldman worked as a waiter, and belonged to an upscale fitness club. (Simpson was a member; Brown was in and out.)
What do we know? Are you looking at both sides fairly? I think not. The National Organization for Women wants Simpson to be the poster boy for spousal abuse. It's not right for a man to hit a woman. Could she also have hit him? Think!
I felt Simpson wasn't guilty from the start. A killer goes to a fast-food place, eats, and then murders his ex-wife and Goldman? Wake up, people. We don't know who killed them.
DONNA L. MILLER
ROANOKE
Keep the GOP philosophy at bay
ON NOV. 7, Virginia voters will consider whether to vote Democrat or Republican. In 1994, on a national level, voters elected a Republican majority to Congress. Since then, that majority has tried to force through a more costly version of Medicare, with fewer benefits. That majority is also trying to give a tax cut to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and poor. It is also kowtowing to the radical right wing of the party.
Virginia Republicans want to bring this same philosophy to our state government by advocating further education cuts and the mandatory Republican droning for a tax cut. They have a Republican governor who wants to grin and ``aw shucks'' everyone while trying to influence local politics by advocating a rubber-stamp candidate with no independent ideas against a longtime representative who has done much for Southwest Virginia.
The Republican leadership has even stated that it will ``punish'' Democratic legislators by relegating them to insignificant positions and committees. If you don't want your state legislature to become an instrument of paybacks by Republicans, vote to keep a Democratic majority in Richmond.
TIM AUSTIN
ROANOKE
Hoover's mind-set is alive and well
FOLKS, get ready, a miracle is about to happen. Some people believe the year 2000 is it, but Republicans say it will be 2002. This miracle will be greater than that performed by Jesus beside the Galilee Sea. The Scripture says that he took seven loaves, a few small fish and fed 4,000 men all they could eat. Women and children also ate. After the meal, there were seven baskets of food left over. Truly, a miracle.
Republicans are going to do better than this. They'll cut Medicare by $270 billion, give more choices, better care, more money per capita for each person than is now being spent, higher deductibles and premiums, and much more. After doing all this, they swear by their anointment of new power that no senior citizen will be harmed, and the debt will be wiped out.
Some will profit from all this legislation - lobbyists, wealthy investors, party faithful and insurance companies. The funeral industry will improve due to a lower life expectancy brought on by a lack of proper and decent care.
One thing left for seniors is the right to vote, and vote we will. These young ``boomers,'' so now enamored with Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole, don't remember the Great Depression ushered in by Republicans in 1928. During that time, President Herbert Hoover said, ``All a working man needs is three meals a day and a new pair of overalls each year.'' This mind-set still prevails in the Republican leadership.
BOB MARTIN
ROCKY MOUNT
by CNB