ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 26, 1995 TAG: 9512280004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
NO STATE or nation can realize its full potential without an adequate supply of electrical power at reasonable rates. Therefore, we must guard against unnecessary cost increases.
Increases such as the proposed new power line from Coal Mountain, W.Va., to Cloverdale will involve can and should be avoided.
The numbers make it abundantly clear that the market to be served is in the Roanoke Valley community, which is the only growing market this proposed power line would touch. The power line would cross five counties to reach the Roanoke Valley.
The 1980 Census, updated to 1985, and the 1990 Census show that during that period those five counties had a loss of 17,000 in population.
During that time period, Roanoke and adjoining counties of Montgomery, Botetourt and Bedford gained 57,000 in population. Clearly the market is here.
What sense would it make to generate electric power in Wyoming County, W.Va., to be used in the Roanoke Valley, and to transmit that power over a cost-prohibitive power line that will lose 10 percent of all the power that it carried over that 115 miles from generation point to distribution point?
If justice is served and economic good sense prevails, the needed power will be generated in the Roanoke Valley where it will be used.
This would prevent an increase in the cost of electricity and stimulate business in our area.
JAMES V. NOONKESTER
BLACKSBURG
A century of Hokie cheering
THE ANSWER to the often-asked question "What is a Hokie?" dates back to the year 1896. That year, the Virginia General Assembly changed the name of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College to Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
The late O.M. Stull, then a senior, won first place ($5) in a contest for his Hokie Yell, a new cheer.
Through the years, when asked if Hokie had a special meaning, he replied in his quiet manner: "Just a product of my imagination." However, it soon became a nickname for Tech students and fans.
Those of us throughout the Shenandoah Valley who were privileged to have known O.M. Stull very sincerely revere his memory and the Hokie tradition.
EMILY P. BARLEY
ROANOKE
The government gets its share
THE EDITORIAL "What's their excuse?" on Dec. 19 was informed and calm, but your insistence that the proposed Republican budget is a reverse Robin Hood, that it takes from the poor and gives to the rich, is misleading.
You "commend" Clinton for "his criticisms of the redistributive consequences of the GOP plan." But you fail to suggest how the redistribution takes place.
Are the poor taxed in order to line the pockets of the well-off? Most Republicans are not well-off, and they would really appreciate your spelling out in straight figures how the tax and social-services laws work to strip moneys from those without much money to give to those who just wallow in the stuff.
I had always worked under the assumption that through taxes, especially income taxes, government redistributed money from those who had more to those who had less, without taking any of the money for itself during the transfer, of course.
And also, of course, without using political muscle to take or give money unfairly.
AVENT CHILDRESS BECK
GLASGOW
Drugging kids to keep them quiet
I SAW a show about the repercussions of Ritalin that is prescribed by our well-meaning pediatricians for hyperactive children.
It seems the school systems desire to keep these precious little ones quiet, and physicians comply by prescribing this horrendous drug.
I shudder to think of the children who will be hurt by taking this drug.
MARGARET A. HIGH
ROANOKE
Don't legalize gay marriages
I AM sick to death of the bleeding hearts and the whining and whimpering of those who would try to influence our local, state and federal governments to support laws that gives gays and lesbians the rights to sanctioned marriage. The gays' and lesbians' actions are an abomination to God.
ADELLE E. WALKER
ROANOKE
The sage separation of church and state
AS A former missionary and former religion professor, I would like to challenge views expressed in Matthew J. Franck's Dec. 16 letter to the editor, "America's founders preferred religion to irreligion."
On the basis of some arbitrary definition of religion, Frank would divide people into first- and second-class citizens. Despite the ambiguous history of religion in the United States and elsewhere, Franck has an unstated assumption that only those who claim to be religious are worthy of full citizenship.
Such a view can be held only through a severely edited treatment of history. Even at the time when the Bill of Rights was being debated, less than one-fifth of the U.S. population held membership in a religious organization.
Here in Virginia especially, we ought to be skeptical of attempts to use government to promote religion.
Thomas Jefferson thought that civil power should neither support nor restrain religion, and James Madison believed that religion has flourished most where it has had no public support whatsoever.
Separation of powers in the United States has helped to produce some of the strongest religious institutions in the world, whereas civil support of religion in Europe has produced empty pews.
Separation, too, has enabled us to avoid the religious strife found in Bosnia, Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Max Weber was right when he warned that "he who seeks the salvation of souls, his own as well as others', should not seek it along the avenue of politics".
WILLIAM WINN
MARTINSVILLE
Loaded words were unnecessary
I FIND it most interesting how a few words can change the entire slant of an article.
Regarding Kathleen Wilson's Dec. 14 article (``Poor Ken will just have to go stag'') about Holiday Barbie: I count the word scalping three times.
Scalping. Sounds terrible, doesn't it? Mean, evil, and wicked.
I consulted Mr. Webster to make sure I understood the word correctly. He said: "To make quick profit in buying and prompt reselling."
The word ``selling'' could be used in place of ``scalping,'' but it would so plain, so boring.
Black market? Back to Mr. Webster: "A clandestine market for the sale of goods whose distribution is regulated and which are not on free sale."
Pop quiz, Ms. Wilson. Pick the one that does not fit: a) cocaine b) plastic explosives c) Barbie dolls.
Twice ``black market'' appeared. Never mind that there is no black market, but a secondary market. Again secondary is such a plain and boring word.
So thank you, Kathleen Wilson, for an exciting article. Throw reality to the wind because it's excitement that scalps - oops, make that sells - newspapers.
JEFF FRIEND
ROANOKE
Oil companies are the villains?
YOUR DEC. 5 Opinion page political cartoon by O'Brion left me in a state of total confusion. It said:
Over the river and through the woods,
To grandmother's house we go!
They repealed ``55,''
Hope we make it alive,
As oil companies rake in dooough!
How are those terrible, old oil companies - ``the bad guys'' - going to benefit from the repeal of the federal 55 mph speed limit?
ELAINE R. GRESHAM
MONETA
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