Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995 TAG: 9511130004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
What a vivid indictment of boxing. Why do we allow two men, even in controlled circumstances, to try to beat each other into unconsciousness or render him unable to continue the contest? Brain damage is inevitable.
Fighting in public is illegal. Boxing should be placed under the same prohibition. This form of human brutality should no longer be given public sanction.
EDWARD F. LOVELL
ROANOKE
Dangers lurk on the net
I FEEL that the Internet and electronic bulletin boards should be censored. It's unbelievable what you can find on the information superhighway. Right now, on some local bulletin boards, you can find pornographic pictures, instructions on making bombs and various drugs, and purposely uploaded viruses. On one, I found a file showing you how to make LSD, napalm, pipe bombs and other explosives, including fireworks
Another problem with the net is the people on it. Ninety-nine percent are nice law-abiding people, but the other 1 percent are pedophiles, perverts, hackers and others that you don't want to meet up with. The pedophiles will try to pick up kids and meet them in person, which sometimes leads to very bad situations. Hackers are, and probably will always be, a part of Internet. They have many programs that will hack mainframe computers and allow them access to names, passwords and other information on that computer.
Software pirating also runs rampant on the net. There are numerous places where, if you have the right software, you can get almost anything you want. The Internet should be censored because of the danger to the younger generations who are gaining access it.
EDWARD DALE
ROANOKE
Bennett is too smug to spend time with
IF I HAD to decide between spending five years on a desert island with Geraldo Rivera, talk-show king, or William Bennett, czar of Western civilization (and so the natural enemy of talk shows), I'd have Rivera in my boat before you could say ``great books.''
Imagine landing with Bennett and his trunk full of family values, canonical texts and smug prescriptions about living his good life: what you should think about, how you should act, what you should value, who/what you should not fantasize about, and what you should wear while on a desert island in his company.
On the other hand, Rivera would likely accept you as you are, unless you happened to be a fascist, and give you a warm hug as soon as the two of you stepped off the boat. He'd talk about anything under the sun - at least any subject you could cook up. And, for his part, you could count on him coming up with some doozies. Rivera wouldn't blanch at any of your fantasies, and wouldn't shame you every day for five years if you happened to be homosexual, bisexual or transsexual, or even just liked to study nontraditional literature in college.
Bennett would find the highest point on the island and set up his own, exclusive camp, while Rivera would insist on communal living. At the end of five years, Bennett would have long since snubbed you for failing to live up to his high standards of goodness, while Rivera would occasionally show his undying affection for you, his fellow castaway, by jumping up onto your lap and smiling infectiously.
Rivera or Bennett? It isn't even a close call.
THOMAS C. KERR
RADFORD
Environmental ideas are ludicrous
I AM APPALLED to learn that Gov. George Allen is censoring the environmental publications of nonpolitical government experts to fit his fanatical anti-environment agenda. To add insanity to injury, he has directed his secretary of natural resources, Becky Norton Dunlop, to strive for a reduction in environmental regulation while energizing "citizen involvement" in environmental protection.
The hypocrisy would be insulting were it not so laughable. How many citizens are going to be energized to take action on a problem that, according to his revised literature, doesn't exist?
The whole approach is reminiscent of his ridiculous plea to churches - already overburdened - to take up the slack left behind by cuts in social programs benefiting the poor. It's apparent that church and reality are two places in which the governor spends very little time.
DIRK MOORE
EMORY
by CNB