ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 17, 1996 TAG: 9608190007
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
I WAS VERY disappointed to read the articles concerning life on Mars (Aug. 7, ``Researchers say the red planet once sustained life''; Aug. 8, ``Life on Mars? `Wow!'''; Aug. 9, ``NASA future may be held by Mars' past'').
The articles made it very clear that the chemical traces on the meteorite Allan Hills 84001 proved that life had once existed on Mars. However, even at age 18, it's very clear to me, for several reasons, what nonsense this is.
Antarctica was once a thriving center for biological activity, supporting life ranging from dinosaurs to various plants to, yes, even bacteria. A meteorite slamming into Antarctica 13,000 years ago would at least pick up particles from the vast fossilized wealth of Antarctica, if not from actual, living organisms. (The Bible only records an approximate 10,000 years.) It should be fairly obvious, even to such a liberal newspaper as yours, that the traces of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, magnetite and iron sulfide came from Antarctica, and not Mars.
Do you realize the massive amount of energy a collision would have to have to launch a rock into space, especially when it needs to overcome the planet's powerful gravitational forces? Anything big enough to do this would most likely blast away a good-sized portion of the planet, if it didn't destroy it. I would like to see further proof concerning the origin of this meteorite before I can believe that it even came from Mars.
But yes, Virginia, there is life beyond our puny little planet. However, it doesn't lie within the soils of a neighboring planet, or even in our galaxy. It lies in heaven where the creator of the universe resides. God is the only being worth searching for, and he dwells inside each of us.
JOSHUA DOBBS
CHRISTIANSBURG
Deputy's killer is no innocent child
REGARDING your Aug. 7 news article, ``Wytheville boy convicted in deputy's death'':
That deputy was my father. There is a lot about this case that my family doesn't agree with.
First of all, we cannot believe that Christopher Shawn Wheeler was charged with second-degree murder and not capital murder, as he should have been. Judge Colin Campbell has obviously been sympathetic to the defense in this case - one reason being Wheeler's age. He, at age 15, would have been the youngest person in Virginia to be charged with and convicted of capital murder.
Judge Campbell has this perception that Wheeler is still a ``boy,'' and headlines like the one on your article do not help the prosecution's cause.
Headlines like this tend to make the judge believe that he's correct in his way of thinking. It also suggests that the community as a whole still feels that Wheeler is a boy. On Dec. 6, 1994, he gave up his right to be a boy when he knowingly and willingly killed my father - shooting him not one time but a second time with my father's own gun. Does that sound like the actions of a boy?
Also, Wheeler has been tried and convicted as an adult, not a juvenile. He will be sentenced as an adult, and will serve time in prison as an adult. That alone proves that the judicial system as a whole doesn't view him as a juvenile. One lone judge thinks that he has to champion the cause for ``this poor little boy.'' In my eyes, that doesn't make the judge sympathetic, but plainly pathetic.
I request that you no longer refer to Wheeler as a boy. Call him what he is - a cold-blooded killer.
KARLA D. TURMAN
ROANOKE
And just wait for the movie version
GOV. GEORGE Allen recently related the following to talk-show host and former Nixon White House operative G. Gordon Liddy: ``If anybody has bothered to read the Republican platform, it's a small novel.''
The third edition of the American Heritage Dictionary defines novel as: ``A fictional prose narrative of considerable length, typically having a plot that is unfolded by the actions, speech and thoughts of the characters.''
As usual, Allen is exactly right.
DAN SMITH
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB