ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606170003
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
I WANT to thank Festival in the Park leaders for banning political communication on public property (June 2 article, ``Judge says no festival fliers''). After all, if we let Libertarians leaflet on the streets near the festival, then other political parties or environmentalists might follow, or worse.
The "ideas" these people try to spread just end up confusing the public and causing unrest. Sometimes they even question the priviledges of the elite and then try to hide behind the First Amendment, claiming it gives them "rights" or something. Imagine the nerve.
What we need is order and discipline in America today, and we can't have that if people question authority, can we? Thank God most malls, schools and other places where people congregate are closed off to new ideas. But there are still a few loopholes. Until recently, the festival was one.
Thanks to festival leaders for understanding how dangerous and upsetting freedom can be. Now, if you could just organize a bonfire for subversive books. BILL KOVARIK RADFORD Let the star burn red
BEING a proud citizen and lifetime resident of the Roanoke Valley, I'm in favor of the Mill Mountain Star burning red because of driving-under-the-influence fatalities (June 4 article, ``Council OKs star to shine blood red after DUI fatalities'').
The star is a symbol of home to my family, and it's a welcome site when traveling back home from out-of-town trips. Many years ago my father proposed to my mom on a warm summer night in front of the star. After the birth of my son, I could see the star at night from my hospital window. As I lay there holding my baby, it was as though the great star was looking over us.
I think it's a wonderful proposal to let the star shine red over the valley due to death from a drug- or alcohol-intoxicated driver. The red star can cry out to the valley, and families and friends of the victims. It can be a vivid reminder of the blood shed due to the reckless regard for human life. It could make this type of driver think twice before deciding to get behind the wheel.
We should all do our part and rally behind the support of the red star because the next victim could be your loved one. JOYCE FAYE JENKINS VINTON Where does the money go?
STILL REELING from the aftershock of having paid my income taxes, I wonder where my tax dollars are going. In the scheme of big government spending, my dollars are as inconsequential as the proverbial grain of sand. Yet it's my grain of sand, and I would like to know its destination.
Did my money help pay the $107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail? Maybe I helped pay for the $57,000 gold-embossed playing cards on Air Force One. Maybe it helped finance the $150,000 study of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Surely, my money wasn't included in the $19 million spent to investigate gas emissions from cow flatulence. Could I have helped build the $2.4 million 200-space parking garage at the federal office in Burlington, Iowa? (There are 18 federal employees at that facility.)
Since I have no interest in soccer, I hope my money wasn't included in the $8 million spent to promote the 1994 World Cup Soccer Tournament and the 1996 Summer Olympics. I could go on and on. But if I get into the grants for the National Endowment for the Arts with its obscene and sacrilegious productions, I begin to simmer.
While President Clinton is making an effort to cut the deficit by cutting the military and defense systems to a dangerous level, he ignores this blatant display of frivolous waste and shameful pork-barrel spending - all while our government continues to go into debt at the rate of $1 billion a day.
I wouldn't begrudge my grain of sand supporting a sensibly and frugally operated federal government. However, since I'm being forced to tighten my belt, it's time the federal government did the same. CHANCES VARSON POUND School money isn't used appropriately|
SCHOOL BOARDS don't need new powers to tax. We believe the schools already have too much money to play with.
School money must be better directed. Too much is already spent on unneeded projects, supplies, field trips, etc. RONALD and BONNIE LANKFORD MEADOWS OF DAN Support for Virginia craftsmen|
IT WAS WITH interest and sympathy that I read about Kevin Riddle and the struggles of Virginia craftsmen to get their work before the public (May 26 article, ``Crafters' complaint''). That's exactly what our organization does, and I'm surprised and distressed that Riddle didn't mention our gallant and successful efforts.
For 11 years, the Alleghany Highlands Arts and Crafts Center in Clifton Forge has presented the juried work of Virginia craftsmen for sale with great success.
We proudly carry his work and the work of 300 other craftsmen and artists. Pottery, jewelry, needle arts and woodwork are presented in our crafts gallery, and paintings in all media cover our walls. Our brochures are in every welcome center in the state, for which we pay a substantial fee. Our brown signs on the highway directing visitors to our facility required much documentation and also cost us a fee. We need 200 volunteers plus a professional executive director to run our center each month, and we do it.
Organizations like ours should reinforce for Riddle and the state officials he has contacted that support for Virginia's craftsmen is a grass-roots effort that people of Virginia heartily endorse. ELAINE FINESTONE President, The Alleghany Highlands Arts and Crafts Center Inc. CLIFTON FORGE The tiger and the teddy bear
WHEN I heard Bob Dole deliver a speech recently, he sounded so stern. The more I think about it, when Bill Clinton gives a speech, he sounds soft and gentle. I have come to the conclusion that this year's presidential campaign is between a tiger and a teddy bear.
Unfortunately, teddy bears are more popular than tigers. And I worry that this teddy bear might get re-elected, due to his soft and gentle manner of speaking.
We really need a tiger in the White House, however. I just hope Dole's roar doesn't keep voters from casting their ballots for him. RONALD R. HILL ROANOKE The use and abuse of Scripture
KATHERINE Griffith's response (May 30 letter, ``Scripture doesn't justify abortion'') to David Nova's comments (May 2 commentary, ``Legal tampering with personhood'') about abortion and Scripture illustrates a number of errors in thinking and reading.
For example, Griffith's reading of "born prematurely" (from whatever translation or paraphrase) is not only a unique rendering; it also illustrates lack of historical perspective. It's very doubtful that 3,000 years ago a baby more than a couple of weeks premature could survive. Incubators and advanced medical care are products of the 20th century.
Griffith says, "Nova cannot pull two Scripture verses out of the Bible and try to use them in his quest to prove that a fetus isn't a person." From there, she tries to invoke all of Scripture to argue God's "high value" on human life. However, passages surrounding the one Nova cites imply that God's value on human life varies - killing a slave, for instance, incurs fines rather than the death penalty. She says rightly that Nova errs in interpreting Scripture to support his ultimately political/social position, but then Griffith immediately falls into the same trap.
Scripture can be used to support almost any earthly, political view. The whole point of the Reformation and translating the Bible into the language of the people was to prevent any one person or group from imposing one interpretation of Scripture on others.
This isn't to say that all interpretations are equally valid, nor that Scripture is so pliant as to be useless. Doubtless, we're all a bit wrong and God will have to straighten us out some day.
But for now, we who call ourselves Christians should look to Scripture to guide our own lives, not to usurp God's gift of freedom and enforce our interpretation on others. TOM and CATHERINE CARTER ROANOKE
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