ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604120013
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
SO, AT last it's settled! The Montgomery County School Board got its way. It will get its 40 acres of farm land for a new school complex, and the community is left to heal its wounds from this conflict (April 3 article, ``Montgomery Board will vote April 18'').
How might all of this been avoided, and how can we keep from having similar problems again? The citizens of our county ask only that our governing boards be ``C'' students. If each board, as well as Congress, would follow the four Cs, many of our problems could be handled intelligently and with compassion.
Communicate, and stop meeting in secret! Let people know what you plan to do so there's time for opinions to be voiced.
Comprehend, or at least try to comprehend, the will of the people. Don't just listen to those who say what you want to hear.
Compromise, so that as many citizens as possible don't feel disenfranchised.
Cooperate. When all government bodies are striving to do what's best for the county, it would behoove each to know what the other is planning, and to see how they might help or improve on the proposed action.
We in Montgomery County have so much going for us. It would be to the advantage of all not to let a fiasco such as the one over the Salmon property occur again. Become good, average C students so that the fifth C - criticism - doesn't raise its ugly head.
KITTY BRENNAN
RINER
Don't force-feed students evolution
YOUR MARCH 14 editorial, "Teach kids real science," was a typical liberal view, as often seen in this newspaper.
As a student at James River High School and as a Christian, I hate to read about evolution as the only theory credibly presented in a biology textbook. While I understand that evolution is the theory widely accepted by nearly all scientists today, I also understand, in the spirit of fairness, that if the theory of evolution is presented in a secular textbook, so should be any other theory - including creation. Neither evolution nor creation should be force-fed as "fact."
Isn't one of effective education's objectives to teach a person to draw his or her own conclusions? If so, how can that goal be accomplished if only one view is presented, and presented as virtual fact?
KERI KAUFMAN
FINCASTLE
Gun control won't stop the horrors
I WILL venture to answer Madeline Love's letter to the editor, ``Scotland horrors pose questions.''
It didn't happen. Scotland has one of the strictest gun-control laws in the world. Ergo, it couldn't and obviously didn't happen.
In the United States, Washington, D.C., and New York have strict gun-control laws. Care to live there?
Stricter gun-control laws may be found in such people's paradises as Cuba, Vietnam and slave China. Want a one-way ticket to any of those places?
A government that takes away, or feels the need to take away, the right of free people to own a gun is well on its way to tyranny.
DICK LAMBERT
EAGLE ROCK
Goals 2000 leaps toward communism
IT IS unfortunate that people don't do any research before they begin throwing stones at one great governor, George Allen, and take the word of school boards whose only interest is the mighty dollar. I suggest that Gary Whiting (April 1 letter to the editor, ``Allen's posturing hurts schoolchildren''), with his misguided opinions, and others research Goals 2000 on the Internet.
The stated purposes of Goals 2000 will bring about national reform under the strict mandate of a national council. States' rights and parental rights will be limited, and massive social programs are outlined. The most shocking statement is that principals, teachers and students will receive rewards and punishments according to compliance.
Does this sound like a republic's agenda or that consitutional rights will be regarded? I think not. It's a leap toward totalitarianism otherwise known as communism. To top off this monumental program, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer can empty their pockets because money has yet to grow on trees for federal programs.
ROSALYN C. HARRELL
ROANOKE
Local theater is making the big time
AS I watched the Oscars, it was particularly rewarding to see Stephen Schwartz win two Oscars for his work on the movie "Pocahontas." Many Roanokers will remember that he spent time here with Mill Mountain Theater working in the 1989-1990 season with "Magic To Do," his musical revue. In the 1992-1993 season, Schwartz was again in Roanoke for the American premiere of his musical, "Children of Eden," which had only been performed previously in London.
Most Roanokers aren't aware of the national reputation Mill Mountain Theater has achieved. Donna McKechnie, whose musical, "Inside the Music," was on the main stage during the 1994-1995 season, appeared on CBS ``Sunday Morning'' promoting her current appearance on Broadway in "State Fair." The Sunday edition of The New York Times ran a long article on her in its entertainment section. If you remember, she chose Mill Mountain Theater to begin work on her one-woman show, which she hopes to take to Broadway.
Next year, Mill Mountain Theater's own Jere Lee Hodgin will become president of the Southeastern Theater Conference, one of the largest and most influential theater organizations in the country. This is quite a coup for Hodgin and Mill Mountain Theater.
With this nationally known gem in our midst, it becomes ever more critical that local organizations and individuals continue to support it. Federal and state funding are disappearing. The quality of life here would be greatly reduced without our high-quality professional theater.
JIM CARTER
ROANOKE
Guns are freedom's insurance agents
YOUR MARCH 13 editorial (``A right to bear arms - to work?'') had some good points. However, there are many other means of killing if one has the desire and lacks self-discipline. I believe most have a desire to kill another person sometime in their lifetime.
Would you feel the same if those who are against guns were in an area where someone had lost self-control and started shooting co-workers or patrons?
I went to my first gun show a few months ago and, while there, I didn't see any madness. It gave me a great deal of satisfaction to know that so much firepower was available to me and others. All of the ammunition and other supplies reminded me that I had best be careful how I throw my weight around because I could very easily bite off more than I can chew. While I respect the law when the law functions in a respectful manner, it might be well for a certain segment of law-enforcement people to become aware of this, too, before they ignore laws guaranteed to citizens.
Sen. Arlen Specter said during the investigation of the militia movement that ``we are sitting on a keg of powder in this country.'' I agree, because a few times within the past several years I've seen the justice system perform in a most hypocritical manner. When it happens to others, we pass it off with a shrug. But when it involves our loved ones, we take notice.
As a young man, I had two friends, a German and a Japanese, who told me that things had changed in their homelands so that their freedoms were gone before they realized it. Guns - the ones at the gun show, those in others' homes, as well as my own - reassure me that what happened to my friends in the '20s and '30s will not happen to us here in the United States.
EARL BOWYER
VINTON
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