ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050070
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
IF BOB Dole can lower everyone's taxes 15 percent, balance the budget, and not touch Social Security or Medicare, then I am the tooth fairy and there will be a dollar bill under everyone's pillow tomorrow morning.
VIRGINIA CURRIE
BLACKSBURG
Noise, smell issues are exaggerated
MY SENSE of smell is unusually keen. In riding by the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (at least four times a week, in an open air vehicle), I have never smelled a foul odor - which cannot be said for some neighborhood backyards or the food places along U.S. 460 East emitting old cooking-oil fragrances. How far will the smell of cooking asphalt travel? Would the SPCA be welcome if it were a large tax-revenue-producing corporation?
As for noise, U.S. 460 traffic makes more. Are asphalt trucks quiet? Are children at the day-care center quiet when playing outside?
FRAN A. BARNETT
ROANOKE
Dole's right: It's time to grow up
BOB DOLE, of course, was right on target when he admonished this self-indulgent me-generation - the ones who have squandered the inheritance of the Dole generation. Indeed, grow up, America, as this is the only way to go. We'll hit rock bottom unless there is a change of direction from the top.
I hope this me-generation will choose not to believe a lie. As Elizabeth Dole stated, ``This election is more about us than it is about the candidates.''
My generation always looked up to authority - men like Dole for whom character is everything. His dedication to duty, integrity and experience makes him well-qualified to lead this country as president.
MARGARET ALEXANDER HIGH
ROANOKE
Take aim also at alcohol's dangers
I THINK most everyone now realizes the dangers of smoking to your health. I am not questioning that or taking up for smoking. However, I question why we pick on the tobacco industry and not the alcohol industry.
What about the dangers of alcohol to users' health, not to mention the safety of others? I would much rather meet a person on the highway with a cigarette in his or her hand than a bottle!
You never see an ad on television about cigarettes, but one of the catchiest ads there is is the one with little frogs saying "Bud-weis-er.'' Children really stop and pay attention to that one! So, with all the negative attention to tobacco, are we trying to tell our children and grandchildren it's not OK to smoke but it's OK to drink? How many homes has alcohol affected?
I would like to have a nickel for every time I've said in the past few years that the whole world has gone crazy!
JUDY HUDDLESTON
ROANOKE
Many GIs suffered more than Dole
WHEN REPUBLICAN presidential candidate Bob Dole learns the art of speaking without snarling, he may begin to improve in the polls. I guess he learned his snarling techniques while being the junkyard dog of the Senate all those years.
Maybe he should consider giving his speaking chores to his wife Elizabeth. Sure wouldn't hurt anything.
And, Mr. Candidate, please knock it off concerning your war injury. It must have been a harrowing experience, but consider the thousands of GIs who are 6 feet under, those who were blown to bits, and those who fill our veterans hospitals. These soldiers didn't get the chance to stick their snouts in the congressional money trough like you did for 30 some years. Please use some other method to attract voters.
This is from an ex-GI-Joe who served his tour of duty in the jungles of the Pacific and has never been compensated one penny for three-plus years of military service.
JOE LOCKHART
ROANOKE
Whatever the age, drug use is stupid
REGARDING teen-age drug use:
Why not call a spade a spade? All news media should preface teen-age drug use with the word ``stupid.'' Smart, law-abiding teens shouldn't be tarred with the same brush.
Anyone, teen or otherwise, who uses a controlled drug when it isn't needed or prescribed by a doctor is demonstrating the ultimate in stupidity. Give them a distinct aura that fits them.
THOMAS M. MARTIN
BEDFORD
Repeal archaic sodomy laws
THE LATEST turn of events regarding Sharon Bottoms' case should be a cause for alarm to all Virginians.
The original court ruling, which denied her custody of her biological child, and the latest ruling - adverse to her petition - were both based on antiquated sodomy statutes.
Unfortunately, these statutes are still on the books in this state. It isn't widely acknowledged, but it's very clear that these statutes apply to acts commonly committed by consenting heterosexual couples, married and unmarried. It's time to remove these archaic laws from the books in this state.
Since it's clear that thousands of heterosexual Virginia couples violate sodomy laws and yet are not deprived of their children, the Bottoms case becomes one of simple injustice: a capricious application of an old law in one particular case, suiting the politics and sensibilities of a particular judge.
The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Colorado Amendment 2 case made it clear that states cannot single out any class of people - in that case, and in Bottoms' case, gay people - for a denial of rights. One hopes that Bottoms might ultimately prevail in her pursuit of parental rights relying, at least in part, on this and similar legal precedents.
In the meantime, it is to be hoped that Bottoms and her broken family have the sympathy and support of all Virginians who are concerned with their own rights to privacy against an invasive state, and who have a real concern for equal justice under the law.
MARK MARTIN
ROANOKE
Workplace prayers are common here
SOMETHING'S right in the Roanoke Valley (Aug. 28 article, ``Yokohama break time is prayer time''). Praise the Lord!
We used to have many organized prayer groups meeting during lunch at General Electric. There are ordained and lay ministers there. I was one of them. Singer Furniture had an organized prayer group a few years back. I'm sure there are others.
There are similar things going on all over the valley. No wonder our valley is so blessed.
JOAN K. SHANNON
ROANOKE
Recyling should mean `help yourself'
WHILE MAKING my weekly dumpster run recently, I couldn't help but admire the facility I had at my disposal. There were multiple recycling bins, a compactor, and a trailer-size dumpster for household waste. An attendant was there to operate the compactor and maintain the area.
I do have one comment about the sign on the household-waste dumpster. It states that the dumpster is for large, bulky, household items, and that it's illegal to remove anything from the dumpster.
It shouldn't be a crime to remove items from it. The way I see it, if someone removes an item, it's not going to the landfill. The directive is contrary to the spirit of recycling.
Frequently, many of us who use these facilities discard still useful items that we no longer need. If others can use them, why should retrieving them be criminal?
Thank you, Bedford County, for the facility.
BILL MILLINGTON
MONTVALE
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