ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 26, 1996 TAG: 9608260092
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
I RECEIVED a letter recently (supposedly from Bill Clinton) inviting me to serve on the Virginia Citizens for Clinton/Gore re-election committee.
My mother's first ancestor arrived in this country in 1637 as an indentured servant. My great-great-great-great grandfather on my father's side was born in Bedford County in 1763. He was in Grayson County near Buffalo Mountain, which is now Floyd and Carroll County, by 1810.
My great, times four, grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War. My great-great-grandfather and five great-great-uncles, and three great-great-uncles on my father's side, fought in the Civil War. Four of the nine died in that conflict.
My family members have fought in every war and conflict this country has been involved in.
I will decline Clinton's invitation to be on the side of someone who refused to take up arms in service of his country but wants to take them from the ones who did.
Many families just like mine, with roots deeply implanted in this country's soil, aren't going to stand by and let Clinton drive without looking in the rearview mirror. To know where you're going, you have to know where you've been.
Many families just like mine made it possible for Clinton to be where he is. There's no way I could vote for him.
GARY K. SPENCE
CHRISTIANSBURG
Not a ride to get on
LET ME see if I have this straight: Bob Steele, who hopes to revive the Hunting Hills Stables by starting a riding program for disabled and sick children (Aug. 10 article, ``Riding idea reveals a past''), is charged with 14 counts of animal neglect in Florida. He strapped monkeys to the backs of horses and raced them around a track, and used wild cats to promote automobile sales.
Is this really the sort of person that parents want their young children exposed to, especially sick or disabled children?
LYNDA JOHNSON
ROANOKE
Don't be fooled by GOP rhetoric
THANK GOD it's over. Republicans had their convention. Boy, can they make the promises. Even a snake-oil salesman would blush.
Butch Johnson (Aug. 9 letter to the editor, ``Pat Robertson has Dole on a leash'') and Tim Austin (Aug. 12 letter, ``Goodlatte serves the special interests'') addressed their concerns of a sycophantic Congressman Bob Goodlatte. They failed to mention his comrade in the Senate, John Warner, who has been reduced to a whipped puppy by extremists in his own party. We need to send both of them home on Election Day.
Let's not be fooled by Republican spin-doctor phraseology about conservative, Christian, family values, etc., extolled by arrogant, big-mouthed pitchman Rush Limbaugh. Don't be lured into believing they will stop at abortions and prayers in school. This bunch wants to control every phase of our lives.
LLOYD M. HOLFIELD
ROANOKE
Convention news with a liberal slant
FOR THE first time in many an election cycle, I watched some of the Republican convention. I was enlightened by the emotion, respect, dignity and ethics on display, and by the honor of the speakers I saw.
Unfortunately, the coverage displayed by the press was in total reverse of the activities I saw. This nation's print and network reporting is totally biased toward liberal failures. The media have abdicated their constitutional responsibilities to simply report the news.
When The Associated Press reported that the Republicans delivered a scathing critique of President Clinton, I couldn't remember from the coverage I watched any such thing, even though the lack of ethics by Clinton and his cronies are displayed manifold times. When Rep. Susan Molinari commented that a Clinton promise doesn't last long and will sound like a Republican talking, this wasn't a scathing attack on Clinton. The comments were true.
It's my firm belief that the media don't like Boy Clinton either, but despise the idea of a Republican president more.
THEODORE N. OUIMETTE JR.
MONETA
United Way picked the wrong partner
ONCE AGAIN, the United Way campaign is under way with Planned Parenthood as a partner agency. This is particularly distressing due to the decision by Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge, a long-time advocate of abortion rights, to actually start performing abortions.
United Way of Roanoke Valley has justified keeping this controversial agency as one of the 25 agencies it supports through various rationales. These are nothing more than a smoke screen. The rationales include:
* United Way funds go only to teen-pregnancy prevention and not to support Planned Parenthood's abortion advocacy. This is a smoke screen because money is fungible. To the extent that United Way funds the teen-pregnancy program, other undesignated funds are freed up to go to abortion advocacy.
* A contributor can choose to exclude Planned Parenthood from the list of agencies his or her contribution will be given to. This is a smoke screen because 14.9 percent of each contribution goes to the United Way in administrative costs - 6 percent for ``raising money'' and 8.9 percent for ``managing resources'' (source: United Way brochure). This money is used to raise funds for all agencies, including Planned Parenthood. So, even if you choose to exclude Planned Parenthood when you contribute, 14.9 percent of your contribution will go to United Way, a fund-raising arm of Planned Parenthood.
I hope all who opposes abortion will choose not to contribute to United Way of Roanoke Valley, but will, instead, contribute directly to the agencies they support. I also hope that the other worthwhile partner agencies in the United Way will demand that Planned Parenthood be dropped as a partner agency.
G. DAVID NIXON
ROANOKE
The economics of tax-slavery
WHAT deceptive economics are our children being taught?
On Aug. 14, you published a well-thought-out and intelligently prepared letter to the editor on budget deficits (``A positive look at budget deficits'') by Paul Caldwell, a Blacksburg High School student. Sadly, someone had left out some major information in his education. Let's try again:
The national debt is what we owe. The national deficit is the amount by which it is increasing. Somehow we have raised our debt to more than $5 trillion. That's $4,000 per every soul in the country - and up from $100 billion a third of a century ago. (Pause for a moment and check who controlled Congress, our taxing and spending authority.)
Families and businesses do not operate that way. Asking your bank for another loan because your spending, including your loan and interest payments, has been exceeding your earnings by an ever-increasing rate will get you a lot of laughs and an escort to the door.
Money is flowing toward ``the top'' because an obscene amount of our production is consumed in interest payments. The interest part of our national expenditure buys nothing - no highways, bridges, dams, parks, schools, defense, etc. We built almost all our existing infrastructure on the budgets of the previous third of a century with, comparatively, little debt. Now we can't afford to repair it.
Money and power corrupts? Absolutely right. Look at Congress. At least, in private enterprise hands, money creates real jobs that produce the nation's capital goods. No organization is perfectly efficient, but economic waste in private enterprise isn't a fraction of the more than 50 percent in mismanaged government.
Even this administration's accountants have conceded that by the time Caldwell is grown almost all his earnings will be taxed just to feed the interest monster. Now that's a slave economy!
ROBERT S. TERRY
BEDFORD
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