ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
IN THE aftermath of the TWA Flight 800 crash, a local official announced that there would be a prayer vigil in the gymnasium where a group of students had attended public school. These young people had been killed in the tragedy.
I overheard a conversation: ``Do you suppose the American Civil Liberties Union is obtaining a court order to get that stopped?''
The answer was more sarcastic: ``Oh, no! When push comes to shove, the ACLU people would probably be there praying like everyone else.''
It's reminiscent of the World War II expression: ``There are no atheists in a foxhole.''
|PATRICIA P. WIDNER |WYTHEVILLE
Productive firms|
support ivory towers|
IN HIS letter to the editor (July 6, ``Bedford job loss: another sacrifice to the god of profit''), Glen T. Martin, a Radford University professor, whines about Bedford job losses as another sacrifice to the god of profit.
I thought the employees weren't willing to make concessions to the company that needed the savings to help finance modernization of the plant. Modernization would make the company more efficient, and more able to continue providing jobs for present and future employees. The employees have since decided that making concessions was in their best interest after all. A job is better than no job.
It's easy for someone perched in an ivory tower, who can't be fired and is completely insulated from the realities of the workplace, to criticize job and tax producers. Where does he think his salary comes from? It comes from Virginia companies and individuals producing goods and services and paying taxes.
I shudder to think of any hard-earned taxes paying the salary of people spouting such unrealistic socioeconomic babble.
|FRED LANDIS |ROANOKE
Subjecting youths|
to harmful views|
THIS ISN'T the first occasion when I have planned to respond to something printed in The Roanoke Times - usually, but not always, on your Opinion page. I have failed to do so in the past because something more important came along or I didn't have the time. Now, there's nothing more important, and I will take the time.
When I initially read Glen T. Martin's July 6 letter to the editor, "Bedford job loss: another sacrifice to the god of profit," I was angry that you would publish such drivel. But I soon realized that I should be grateful to you for making me and others aware of the level of destructive thinking and teaching being nurtured in our educational institutions. I believe wholeheartedly in everyone's freedom to say and write what they believe, even when it's destructive to society and the government that guarantees and protects that freedom. But we have been told that "democracy carries its own seeds of destruction," and I cannot think of a more dramatic example of those seeds than Martin's letter.
Surely Virginia's citizens do not have to employ those who espouse and advocate such fallacious doctrine in any role. But certainly not in our state-supported institutions, and most assuredly not in our educational institutions. I realize that it's necessary for us to consider differing points of view. But to expose our young to the views expressed by one who is in a position of authority - and an associate professor of philosophy and religion is viewed by his students as an authority - is totally unacceptable.
We all know parents who are struggling to send their children to college. Employing people whose philosophy is like that of Martin's is the gravest disservice Virginia can do its citizens. Thank you, The Roanoke Times, for bringing this to our attention.
|JOANN LOWDON |TROUTVILLE
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB