ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTER
IN RESPONSE to your March 14 editorial (``Teach kids real science'') regarding evolution in education, let us consider the following points:
Our country was founded by God-fearing people who believed the Bible.
Most scientists of renown in the past 300 years were people of great devotion to God and the Bible.
Biblical creationism has been around for thousands of years, while evolutionary dogma is less than 200 years old.
To believe the Genesis account of creation is to believe an eyewitness account of the six days of creation. Whereas, to believe the evolutionary dogma that man evolved from ``non-man'' lower life is to propose a theory involving no eyewitness. Hence, this rules it out as scientific. It comes down to faith vs. foolishness.
nMost parents, if really given the choice, would prefer their children to be in a traditional, well-disciplined learning environment in which the values and ideologies that America was built upon were honored and taught, not ridiculed and supplanted. I know, because I am a high-school science teacher. DAVE GROVER ROANOKE
Santa Claus won't come on April 2
DO YOU remember when the Roanoke County supervisors put out the word that the Spring Hollow Reservoir wasn't going to cost us anything (just a $60 million bond issue)? Our water rates have tripled since then, and are going to double again. So much for that fairy tale.
Now we're being told (by some of those same supervisors) that the $30 million bond issue for the schools isn't going to cost us anything. I got an education, not in Roanoke County, and I no longer believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. We're being told how great the county's education system is. If taxpayers approve the bond issue, then I have to conclude that the improved education hasn't spilled over to the taxpayers since there is great trust in the Tooth Fairy.
Also, there's no evidence of correlation between the amount of money spent on education and the effectiveness or excellence of that education. Some schools getting excellent results spend very low amounts per pupil, while the District of Columbia (we're told) spends the highest per pupil in the entire United States and has the country's highest crime rate.
Ho! Ho! (Is that Santa Claus or just building contractors drooling at the possibilities?) WENCIL M. STANEK ROANOKE
Do not disregard work-place injuries
IT IS MOST unfortunate that the state Supreme Court has denied workers with carpal tunnel syndrome benefits for their work-related injuries. This decision, however, was much to the delight of the Allen administration and the Virginia Manufacturers Association. To many companies, workers are like disposable razors - use them, then just throw them away.
This decision will affect thousands of workers throughout Virginia - carpenters, sewing-machine operators, computer operators, food-service workers and others. Right now it's a struggle to gain benefits for workers who get carpal tunnel syndrome. Companies spend millions in Virginia every year trying to prove that these injuries are from "off-the-job activity.'' Maybe the court's justices or members of the General Assembly should actually observe working people on various jobs to see how repetitive-motion injuries occur.
We should be ashamed to be Virginians if we allow this to stand. The General Assembly should take immediate action to protect Virginia workers and provide compensation when they're injured. Anything less is unacceptable.
Employers who don't want to treat injured workers fairly, don't celebrate too soon. You haven't heard the last on this issue. PETE D. CASTELLI III Union representative Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees RINER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB