ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609250008
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
PRESIDENT Clinton's family-leave bill is being cited as one of his major accomplishments during his first term in office. Time off, up to 12 weeks, for family situations ranging from child birth to death, including all family concerns in between. Sounds good, but let's take a look at some of the facts:
*Only employees of companies employing more than 50 people are eligible. This bill obviously discriminates against more than 50 percent of the population working for small companies.
*For those who are eligible, it's time off without pay. Low- to middle-income people normally cannot afford to take any unpaid time off, much less 12 weeks.
*An employee affluent enough to take advantage of this highly touted law should be aware that it doesn't protect a person's job status should he or she abuse the privilege as viewed by a company's management.
Politicians, especially the president, aren't in touch with reality concerning the paycheck-to-paycheck living that most American workers contend with.
In general, the larger companies affected by the family-leave legislation weren't overly concerned because they are fully aware of the cash-flow problems faced by most employees.
President Clinton continually cites Republican tax-cut proposals as benefits only for the rich. Without question, his family-leave bill offers the well-off a benefit that most employees cannot afford to accept. Every person, meanwhile, would realize a benefit from a tax cut.
What does the family-leave bill do for you?
JOHN ARNESEN
MONETA
Don't second-guess school-closing calls
SCHOOLS have started, winter is coming, and I feel the need to address the public criticism made this past winter by politician Nelson Harris.
It concerned the Roanoke city school administration's decision to close schools on days when Harris felt the weather wasn't severe enough to warrant that decision.
I am aware he is no longer a School Board member and is now on Roanoke City Council. In his new position, I feel that he wouldn't hesitate to politically criticize school officials again.
After investigating how this city's school administrators and other school administrators decide whether schools should be closed or open, I find that it's decided by dedicated professional people. Sometimes they stay up all night, half the night or get up very early in the morning to get information on weather and road conditions from street departments, the police and television reports. Often they use their own vehicles to drive bus routes before they make their decisions to open or close the schools. Decisions are based solely on the safety of the schoolchildren.
Dedicated professional people will never be able to make the right decisions with people like politician Harris around.
EARL LONG
ROANOKE
Borrowing from other musicians
ACCORDING to staff writer Madelyn Rosenberg (``Fran couldn't blow off 300 ardent Kiss fans''), the band Kiss was an inspiration for the seminal, pioneering, greatest band of all time, Nirvana.
I had a hard time believing that until a friend reminded me that Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder is always ripping off the angst of David Cassidy during his "Partridge Family" days.
Party on, Madelyn!
DALE BIVENS
ROANOKE
Messages litter our roadways
I DON'T disagree with anything Gene Osborn said in his Sept. 8 letter to the editor (``Don't make it an All-America dump''), but I would like to expand on some of his statements.
He asked: ``How can we citizens of this beautiful area allow it to be deluged with trash and garbage that's scattered all along the roadways?''
The most noticeable things I see scattered all along the roadways are government signs such as the ``Governor's Clean Highway Award,'' ``Ice Damage Area - No Burning,'' ``Littering Is Illegal,'' ``Adopt A Highway.''
Now with this type of government signage, we wouldn't expect to find litter, would we? But if we walk among all these signs, we see there really is litter.
What? Don't those signs work?
We need a new program? ``Snatch the Trash''? These new government signs would fit neatly among the others.
Where can I go to buy stock in government-sign material?
Also, since the ``No DUI'' signs worked so well, we should put up more government signs reading, ``Don't Drive on a Suspended License.''
HAROLD E. BOWMAN
SALEM
Playing the bully on the world scene
IF THE news reported on Sept. 8 (``Iraq foiled U.S.-aided dissidents'') and on previous days is correct, and I assume that it is, it appears that Saddam Hussein ordered his troops north in a Kurdish affair not only to offset Iranian help to one Kurdish group but also to eliminate a CIA-backed effort to start a Kurdish revolt by the so-called Congress group in Irbil. The result was elimination of the CIA group, which had been quite active against Hussein.
As much as one despises the Iraqi dictator and his methods, it now seems that the missiles President Clinton ordered to be fired against installations in the South were more in retaliation for the destruction of leaders of an American-backed revolt against the Iraqi government than for any perceived danger to our allies in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
It's impossible to read the United Nations' resolution as supporting this unilateral action on our part in sending America's armed forces into harm's way to "punish" the dictator, as Clinton has claimed. There was no danger to our allies in the Middle East at the time and, as bad as Saddam Hussein and his government may be, they certainly have the right to resist an externally sponsored attempt to harass and overthrow a duly constituted regime.
As one of the founding members of the United Nations, we are certainly bound to act within the bounds of our obligations to that body. In the past, we have done so, which is precisely why President Bush limited our action in Desert Storm to removing the Iraqis from Kuwait, and did not extend it to removing Saddam Hussein. However unfortunate that may seem to some, it was beyond the bounds of the United Nations' resolution then in effect.
The present administration seems to consider itself above the bounds of international law, and therefore has made us, internationally speaking, a big bully. If we say the end justifies the means, then we are no better than the Iraqis. It's a sad commentary on the present state of our nation.
CABELL F. COBBS
ROANOKE
Clinton's ideas are what voters want
BOB DOLE'S slogan, "A better man for a better America," highlights the fact that he is running against President Clinton's character, not his ideas.
No one cares that Dole nearly died in World War II while Clinton dodged the Vietnam draft. No one cares about Filegate or Whitewater. As recent polls prove, character isn't important to American voters. Ideas matter.
Clinton knows that Americans are embarrassingly undertaxed. In 1993, despite Republican obstructionism, Clinton gave us all a much-needed but too-small tax increase on wages and Social Security benefits. Dole bows to our greed and suggests a tax cut. Clinton will continue to raise taxes until we all pay our fair share.
Republicans defeated nationalized health care by claiming that it limits choice and rations treatment. Stripped of ugly spin, these effects are, indeed, the benefits of efficient socialized medicine. Europeans taught Clinton that we need not fear such a system. He will renew the fight for just, socialized health care.
Without adult supervision, the biggest kid in the family is bound to bully smaller children. In the world family today, the United States is that bully. Only Clinton has the character to protect the world's smaller nations by submitting U.S. troops and foreign policy to the command of the United Nations.
Clinton and Dole are running for president, not parish priest. Ideas matter, and trustworthiness is irrelevant. Clinton's ideas are best for us, and we can trust him to implement them.
MATT PETHYBRIDGE
BLACKSBURG
LENGTH: Long : 152 linesby CNB