ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604120011
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
I AM CONVINCED that most readers of The Roanoke Times believe in free speech, but they also insist on being told the truth. This reader finds articles and editorials in the Times filled with half-truths and blatant lies every day.
In the March 11 commentary by Joseph V. Julian (``The backlash to market economics''), Bill Clinton's labor secretary, Robert Reich, is quoted as saying: ``American businesses have been transformed ... into bloodletting gladiators.'' Where's the quote from Clinton saying that he has created 7 million new jobs? Clinton also says he has downsized the number of government workers, so these new jobs must be in American businesses. So which story is it?
The commentary also advocates communism at the expense of America's free market. If America is so bad, why do millions of people around the world want to come here for our state-of-the-art health care, employment opportunities and the highest quality of living in the world?
In the same newspaper, an article, ``Social Security?'', states that Congress didn't deliver on its promise to reverse Clinton's tax increase on Social Security benefits. Where was The Roanoke Times' reporting on the largest single tax increase in the history of the United States, which included an increase in the amount of Social Security benefits that are taxed? In 1993, all I heard from the newspaper was the need for an increase in my ``investment'' in this country, and an increase in the taxes of all those greedy rich people. And Congress did deliver a reversal that passed in both houses, but Clinton vetoed it - several times. Where's your journalistic integrity or is there such a thing anymore?
STEVE MUNRO
ROANOKE
Student lounge can honor benefactors
REGARDING Virginia Western Community College's new student lounge:
Many years ago, the bookstore at VWCC ended each year in debt. Finally, Marion Bratton took over running the facility, assisted by Frances Meador. At that time, the bookstore was approximately $400 in debt.
When Bratton retired 20 years later, the bookstore was more than $1 million in the black, and a resounding success. Recently, $1 million was donated by the bookstore to the building fund for the new student lounge, which is presently under construction.
It would surely be appropriate now to suggest that this new lounge be called Bratton Hall, the Bratton-Meador Lounge or something similar, as a gesture on the part of VWCC's faculty to thank these leaders for their many years of hard work, tireless effort and great charm.
ROSEMARY DUFFEE
ROANOKE
Don't let a minority decide the elections
AS ELECTION season comes around, I hope voters in the Roanoke Valley will come out in record numbers. Study the candidates, and make the best choice for the job.
I may be naive, but I still feel that each individual's vote counts for something. Each vote is a person making a statement of his or her beliefs.
It's my opinion that only those citizens who make the effort to vote deserve the right to criticize or praise the elected officials after the election.
Why should we let a minority (the people who actually vote) make important decisions that affect all our lives? Take a moment and express your opinion on an issue or candidate. Vote!
CRAIG J. BRADLEY
SALEM
Teachers are paid at retirees' expense
CONCERNING the March 16 letter to the editor by William Carter, ``Base assessments on selling price'':
I share his disappointment and disapproval of the method of assessing property taxes. My wife and I are 70 years old, both in bad health. Like Carter, I'm also a disabled veteran.
I resent seeing schoolteachers getting raises every year at my expense, when their salary in Virginia is more than $33,000 a year for 10 months of work. It has been many years since we had children in school.
CHARLES R. HAYNES
RADFORD
Maybe it's best to let Henry Street be
THE RESPONSES in your March 17 Horizon section concerning Henry Street were excellent (``What should happen to Henry Street?).
Who are ``the people'' most mentioned in the responses? It sounds very segregated, not integrated. Under those circumstances, leave it alone. I am one of the people. I am white.
JOAN K. SHANNON
ROANOKE
Officer's actions were appropriate
REGARDING the March 24 shooting incident on Cherryhill Circle:
I've known Officer G.F. Bingeman for most of his life, and have watched him grow from a delightful little boy into a fine young man. Upon his graduation from the Virginia Military Institute, his entire focus in life was going into law enforcement. He has proved to be a dedicated and conscientious officer.
I wonder how many citizens of the Roanoke Valley are aware of that element of society that the police must deal with on a daily basis. Also, are they aware of the number of police officers who have been gunned down in cold blood just because they didn't draw their weapons immediately upon confrontation?
SARAH M. YEAGER
ROANOKE
Level-headed leaders needed
CARROLL Swain, candidate for Roanoke City Council, has my vote. Not only was he a leader in the operations of our school system for many years, he achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army, serving his country for more than 20 years.
He will add a great deal of wisdom and strength to City Council, and I know he has the best interests of all the citizens of Roanoke at heart. Swain is a moderate and a thinker. We need good, solid, level-headed citizens like him on City Council, and I encourage the voters to consider him.
AUDRY M. WHEATON
ROANOKE
Officials erred in bond's packaging
WITH THE defeat of the $37.4 million bond referendum, I sincerely hope the message is clear. This was not a defeat for education, but rather a defeat for the manner in which the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors and the Roanoke County School Board orchestrated the structure of this referendum.
The interest of Roanoke County as a whole should never be underestimated. Evaluating the educational needs of all county students should be included whenever a study is done.
We are ``one'' Roanoke County. Let's get together. We - North, South, East and West - can accomplish great goals.
JANE GILBERT MILLIRON
ROANOKE COUNTY
Force is sometimes the only option
ALL CITIZENS should be aware that when they draw a firearm on a law-enforcement officer, they very likely will get hurt.
Once the police identify themselves as police, they command our respect for both moral and pragmatic reasons. They risk their lives daily on our behalf, answering our calls of emergency immediately. They're trained to recognize deadly force in a split second, and meet it with deadly force. That's the only reasonable choice they have.
Second-guessing the police who shot Edwin Plunkett was possibly a part of the grieving process by those who were close to him. They include his girlfriend, who made the emergency call, and who was interviewed in the newspaper - March 26 article, ```He didn't deserve to be shot like that,' girlfriend says''; and friend, Barry W. Martin (March 30 letter to the editor, ``Police were too quick on the trigger''). I sympathize with their loss, but not with their comments regarding the police.
DOUGLAS ROSS
BUCHANAN
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