ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608270049
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
AS I read your Aug. 11 news article (``Consultant: Libraries need work'') on our public-library system, I became rather steamed, to say the least. I worked at the Main Library from 1981 until the birth of my son in 1983. I watched our downtown library's renovation. We were told that it would be the library to beat all libraries in Roanoke, and would be far superior to any other in Virginia. Now I read that it's a dysfunctional library.
Why was it necessary for someone from Texas to come into our city to make such a disparaging comment? Is he the same consultant who suggested the changes made less than 15 years ago? Apparently he isn't aware of the staff's courage during renovation of our Main Library. Working in an unheated building in the winter, we endured the cold. Ill and uncomfortable, we kept the library open for the public most of the time. It might have been dysfunctional then, but the present library is so far superior to the previous one that it's much too early to be throwing away money spent on it at that time, and spending $24 million more.
It seems to me that Roanoke city has an insatiable desire to spend money. When there are no projects on which to spend, someone calls in an unknown ``expert'' from outside of Virginia to recommend spending money on something that isn't broken and doesn't need fixing. How do the libraries in Texas stack up against the Roanoke Public Library?
I know for a fact that Roanoke has the best library staff a city could have. We might need to spend more money on books for the library, and to give our staff better support. Our present library, with a good supply of current and vintage books, will be far superior to a magnificent edifice with no books!
NANCY G. HALEY
BUCHANAN
An odd ruling on frivolous lawsuits
REGARDING your Aug. 7 news article (``Frivolous suit, serious discipline'') about a federal judge who fined a developer and her two lawyers severely for filing a ``frivolous'' lawsuit against three law firms:
While the article didn't provide enough information for an objective reader to determine whether the Blacksburg developer's claim had or lacked strong merit, it's of interest to note U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson's punitive sanctions against this person and her attorneys.
Whether this case was based on legitimate or frivolous concerns is irrelevant, immaterial and beside the point. With the rate of one lawsuit being filed in this nation every 30 seconds (94 percent of all the world's lawsuits are filed in America, many indeed frivolous), it's simply inconceivable this was the first factually inadequate case tried in the presence of this federal judge. From all the lawsuits for personal injury, sexual harassment, wrongful death, workplace discrimination, wrongful termination, defamation of character, etc. - many of which request outrageous damages - readers would certainly find Wilson's ruling odd and inconsistent.
Why when a lawsuit is filed against attorneys, suddenly this judge wants to take a stand against frivolous lawsuits by assessing an astronomical fine against the plaintiff? Perhaps his intention is to get across the notion that attorneys have immunity from lawsuits, even though businesses and individuals are constantly afflicted with them.
Wilson's arbitrary and hypocritical actions illustrate why bar associations or their members shouldn't be involved in the judge-picking process. It represents too much of a conflict of interest.
HARSHA SANKAR
COVINGTON
Listing leftward toward Clinton
YOU HAVE done it again, and just when my daily reading of The Roanoke Times indicated it to be less predictably left-leaning. In the box on the front page of your Aug. 15 issue, you published ``Data on Dole'' in which all three items are negative.
Oh, well, the Democratic Convention is coming. I look forward to reading ``Billet-doux on Bill,'' in which you publish three (or more) positive items. Where will you find them?
MARYLOU FISCHER
CLIFTON FORGE
Carl Jung's work wasn't tabloid fare
IN RESPONSE to Scott Markwell's Aug. 13 letter to the editor, ``Voodoo economics for the newspaper,'' and his attempt to discredit the life's work of Carl Jung:
Jung was the product of a time in which many scientists were experimenting with new philosophies. He did, indeed, have an interest in the occult, UFOs, tarot, synchronistic events, parapsychology and spirituality, among other things.
He was also a medical doctor who served as a senior staff physician at the University of Zurich (1905-1909). While there, he established an experimental psychopathology clinic. Jung was presented honorary doctorates from Harvard, Oxford, Allahabad, Benares and Calcutta universities, and was a respected associate of Freud and Bleuler, early giants in psychology.
From 1933 to 1944, he taught at the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, and was chairman of psychology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He was president of the General Medical Society for Psychotherapy, an international professional body based in Germany.
Jung was author of at least 150 publications, including his principal works, many of which were translated into English in Princeton's Bollingen Series, sponsored by the Mellon family.
To the rigid conformist, his writings may sound strange indeed. He should be read with an open mind and the desire to stretch one's personal horizons. He doesn't translate well to talk radio.
Jung, a biblical scholar whose religious preference was ambiguous, wrote in 1958 (three years before his death), ``My raison d'etre consists of coming to terms with that indefinable Being called God.'' That isn't the ignoble quest Markwell suggests of Jung.
BRENDA COLLINS
ROANOKE
Clinton message is an easy sale
I WATCHED the Republican Convention infomercial, and saw little to make me, as a middle-boomer-aged family man, consider the Dole-Kemp ticket.
Tax cuts across the board? No plan for how it would work without increasing the deficit was presented. Increase defense spending? Preparing for what? Why waste limited resources on another war-machine buildup?
A woman's right to choose, a very private and personal matter, is targeted to become illegal by people (mostly older, white, Christian, conservative men) who have no right to make this decision. I like President Clinton's viewpoint on abortion: safe, legal - and rare.
Let's talk about education opportunities, and creating better cities and more jobs, as Clinton promised in '92 and has largely delivered on, as the way to lessen illegitimate birth rates and reduce crime. Enough about building more prisons! Dole says criminals are the ``root cause'' of our society's ills. Wrong! Attack the reasons why people commit crimes - as we punish those who deserve it, of course.
Clinton needs to stay ``on message'' at the Democrats' convention. Talk about steady growth without inflation, which holds down interest rates, and economic-growth rates not overinflated by war-machine buildup as in the early '80s. Talk about targeted tax cuts for the middle class - for education, child care, privatized retirement savings, etc. Let's worry about tax cuts for the rich once the deficit is gone and a sound plan to balance the budget is in place.
Talk about luring manufacturers back to inner cities and giving tax breaks to companies that make sneakers or electronic components here - not in Malaysia. Talk about high-tech opportunities ahead; government downsizing in the past four years; how to balance the budget; and eliminating welfare with compassion.
Remind people why the Democrats were the majority in Congress for 40 years. They are the party of the people. Clinton-Gore is the ticket for the intelligent, compassionate working family.
GENE MARRANO
ROANOKE
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