ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9604010001
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTER
CAL Thomas' column is the only redeeming feature of the Commentary page.
His March 13 column (```Right' to die is first step to euthanasia'') expressed exactly what an insidious disease this thing called euthanasia is. It will creep into society exactly as abortion has done, using all the politically correct terminology to worm its way into acceptance.
Let's call a spade a spade. Abortion is the murder of unborn children. Euthanasia is the murder of the elderly or misfits in society.
Your newspaper doesn't hesitate to call fundamental Christians right-wing religious fanatics. Why not describe other things exactly as they are? JANE LAM ORANGE BOONES MILL
Police were too quick on the trigger
YOUR NEWSPAPER ran an article on March 25 (``Police kill man at door'') on the death of Edwin Plunkett. He was my best friend. He had a great big heart. Deep down, he never intended to harm anyone who didn't hurt him.
But Plunkett was sick. He was a chronic alcoholic. And try as he might, he just couldn't understand why God saw fit to take his loved ones away. He watched helplessly while his uncle, father and brother died - seeming to him as if right before his eyes. He went through two marriages that didn't work out, and he had three kids from these unions. I'm sure he loved all three kids, and wished that he could have spent more time with them.
I lost contact with my dear friend, vowing that one day we would renew the friendship that we once had. That day will not come now. I loved my friend, and I will miss him more than I can tell you, even if I, too, let him down.
Please explain to me why the Roanoke police saw fit to kill him, in his own house, clutching the gun that he had every right to have in his hands in his own house. Make me and everyone else understand why he had to be killed like this, and why one more split second wasn't taken before lethal action was executed. BARRY W. MARTIN SALEM
Schools' problems won't just disappear
DOUBT shouldn't remain in any person's mind that Roanoke County citizens are divided on the April 2 bond-referendum issue.
My hope is that we Roanoke County citizens don't get so carried away by the rhetoric that we forget the real issue and what we're voting for or against. The School Board is faced with solving a two-fold problem in the Cave Spring area: The high school is overcrowded by today's standards (which require extra space to educate the handicapped and learning disabled), and the junior-high school needs some major renovations. What the School Board is asking voters for is an alternative means to fund the solutions.
Should they fail to receive the approval of that alternative funding, what next? Do we think a no vote will make the overcrowding at Cave Spring High School disappear or that it will magically renovate the junior-high school? The problems will still be there. needing to be answered.
In the administration's long-term plan for improvements, there are things included that many schools feel are long overdue. Will these improvements have to be put on hold until the problem at Cave Spring is solved? I would think so. Just as you must schedule home-repair projects by need and available funds, so shall the administration do for these projects, thus delaying these other much-desired improvements.
Of course, students and parents from other areas have a feeling of resentment that such a large chunk is going to one school. But, just as in your family, when one child needs braces, you concentrate on that need - not on how you can even out the score for the rest of your children.
We cannot change the past, but on April 2, we can change the future for our county. REBECCA WALTER ROANOKE
Accusations can't be whitewashed
AFTER reading William B. Hopkins' March 5 letter to the editor (``The falsehoods about Del. Cranwell''), I think the accusations against House Majority Leader Dick Cranwell of Vinton are valid.
I wonder if the ex-majority leader of the Virginia Senate got the letter that we got last month from Trigon? Cranwell is mentioned as one of the lawyers who will take our proxies on the changeover (from nonstock to stock) for Trigon. This month Trigon increased our health insurance 25 percent because of age.
Cranwell helped handcraft the legislation on ethics, but this is just another political veil for state politicians.
We live outside his district, where he's probably known as ``honest Abe'' Cranwell.
Cronyism marches on! GRANT A. HALLOCK CHECK
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