ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 13, 1996 TAG: 9608130033
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
IN HIS July 27 letter to the editor, ``Mass transit needs public support,'' Mitchell Mendelson argues that buses and all ``essential services'' require public funding. There are serious problems with his reasoning.
The notion of ``essential services'' is an inadequate basis for determining the proper scope of government. Surely, Mendelson doesn't mean that government should subsidize every service that modern society depends on. But that's where his logic inevitably leads.
He sees bus service falling under the more general category of mass transit. But if the goal is to have government serve the public interest in the most general way possible, then subsidizing even broad categories of services is inadequate.
Reasons for travel are as varied as the travelers themselves. How are we to know that buses are the most efficient means for achieving the particular goals of the riders? We cannot know, of course. But by subsidizing, we have already skewed the market in the buses' favor. Subsidizing any service creates an unfair advantage over competing services that aren't subsidized.
There is no way to know if other innovative forms of mass transit (jitneys, for example) are being kept out of the market. We can, however, be certain that public buses are competing with nontransportation services (such as computer networks) that do not have the benefit of subsidy.
Government would serve a broader public interest by not meddling in the market where it has no need to.
ANDREW AKERS
SALEM
Black churches must rescue kids
AMEN, hallelujah and right-on, sister, for LaVerne Dickerson Basham's Aug. 2 letter to the editor, ``Too many young lives are wasted.''
The African-American community in Roanoke is passive and lethargic. How many children have to die before we get involved in the ``silent war'' of the streets? How many agencies and people from the other side of town will it take to do our job before we decide to heal ourselves? How much longer will our traditional, business-as-usual black churches continue to play church and not live church Sunday through Saturday before we take a consistent role in the process?
We have gotten too comfortable, complacent and self-satisfied with our almost-paid-for homes, watching the day's events on our large-screen television sets, shopping at the finest stores and eating out. When will we wake up to the fact that the healing we need comes from us?
When will you make an effort? When it's your son, daughter, niece, grandchild or nephew? The problem with that is you'll be too late!
Get involved. You can:
* Start a weekly, monthly, neighborhood youth club.
* Help church groups provide outreach to communities and families in trouble and in need.
* Be a listening ear.
* Provide youth with ``a consistent calendar'' of activities.
* Sponsor children and teens to attend camps, programs and other activities.
* Hold education workshops on dating, hygiene, nutrition, spirituality, etc.
* Open those ``locked'' church doors during the daytime.
* Begin a Scout troop.
* Use skills and talents to teach youth about cooking, carpentry, child care, finance and budget, etc.
CARLEEN JOHNSON-ALLEYNE
ROANOKE
Other schools await VMI's state funds
REGARDING the current dilemma in the Virginia Military Institute community on whether to go coed:
I went through some of the same emotions when my college (Mary Washington College, Class of 1960) went coed back in the '80s. I, too, felt that young women would lose the ``unique'' experience of an all-female college. But economics and fairness prevailed.
I applaud the VMI alumni's efforts to stay single-sex. Get out your pens to sign those pledge cards and checks. The other state colleges will gladly divvy up your state funds.
NANCY E. HAMLIN
ROCKY MOUNT
Voodoo economics for the newspaper?
I WANT to say thanks to The Roanoke Times for its very insightful Aug. 5 article in the Extra section titled ``Unconsciousness raising'' by Bob Condor from Knight-Ridder/Tribune.
Interpreting dreams to guide our daily affairs and business decisions is a brilliant idea for me. It perfectly complements my own occult, knowledge-gathering portfolio of shrunken heads, UFO watching, tarot cards, psychic discernment, spirit guides, palm readings, seances and chicken bones.
Further, Carl Jung is a wonderful New-Age teacher, and I recommend trance channeling with him at your earliest opportunity. I'm amazed that Hillary Clinton chose Eleanor Roosevelt over him. I'm sure he's next on her list.
I hope your newspaper will practice what it ``preaches,'' and implement dream analysis into its business plans immediately. You simply must eliminate what little remains of the ``left-brain'' rational-thought process.
And may I recommend a couple of future subjects of similar high quality for your readers - voodoo and witchcraft.
SCOTT MARKWELL
ROANOKE
Air-crash priority: Prevent repetition
FOLLOWING any disaster, the first priority is to rescue the survivors. No one debates this. After the destruction of TWA Flight 800, the rescue phase was indeed brief. In the next phase - determining the cause - the same priority holds: protect the living. If it was an accident, we must know what went wrong. If terrorism, we must know how it was perpetrated. Either way, the motive is to protect ourselves against repetition.
When the evidence is in the ocean, time matters. Bomb traces may be washed away. The search for bodies may alter locating pieces of the aircraft, making reconstruction of the explosion impossible. Perhaps the grieving brother who said, "The black box does not matter for us" (July 26 Associated Press article, ``What's more crucial: bodies or evidence?'') may be excused, although he may also be infected with the major disease of our times: an unrelieved self-centeredness.
But federal officials who say that recovery of the bodies is their first priority may not be excused. Leaders are supposed to make hard choices. They're supposed to lead. That involves speaking the truth, even under difficult conditions - especially under difficult conditions.
MONTE D. WRIGHT
BEDFORD
Bureaucratic block to the power line
WHAT RIGHT has the National Forest Service to say to a public utility, ``No, you cannot cross our land anywhere''? The Forest Service is making it virtually impossible to reinforce our electricity-transmission system from east to west and vice versa.
American Electric Power's generating plants in West Virginia were constructed in large part to serve our area, as well as West Virginia. These plants are some of the largest and most economical power-producing facilities in the United States. If this power cannot be transported to us, the plants that were built to serve us all cannot run to their full capacity, and we cannot get the least expensive electricity.
We here in Central and Southwest Virginia are physically separated from our chief power source by a mountain range principally owned by the Forest Service and the National Park Service. Without this power, future plans for healthy, balanced, industrial, commercial and residential growth for our part of Virginia is definitely in jeopardy.
This is a much larger issue than a very vocal minority handing us our heads on a platter. We need access to this needed power through one of the routes studied and proposed by the experts, even if it means crossing federal lands.
ROBERT A. WAID
FINCASTLE
LENGTH: Long : 145 linesby CNB