ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 24, 1996 TAG: 9609240021
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
YOUR SEPT. 18 editorial (``We can't add lanes forever'') was an accurate description of what is happening today on Interstate 81 and other roads due to the ever-increasing number of motor vehicles - especially trucks - using our highways.
As you suggest, the need for increased use of our railroads for cargo and passenger service is one of the steps necessary to address this problem. But how do we do this when there is no Amtrack and there appears to be no state support for the proposed rail-passenger service between Bristol and the Richmond-Washington area?
Why not? Well, because everyone shies away from the necessity for providing subsidies until such time as this passenger service can become profitable, as studies suggest it will.
Amtrack is under a lot of pressure from Congress to eliminate dependence on all subsidies and become profitable in the near future. As a consequence, it has reduced service in a great many geographical locations nationwide. Amtrack is running scared - fearful of survival in the face of a hostile political environment. We can expect no help from that quarter, although Virginia Sens. John Warner and Chuck Robb seemed very supportive in their letters to me.
In his letter to me, Robert Martinez, Virginia's secretary of transportation, suggested that the rail-passenger project would have to get any required subsidy from Amtrack. Meaning Catch-22, all over again!
PATRICK J. TRAVIS
PULASKI
Prejudice rubs off, too
REGARDING Kenneth E. Vaughn's Sept. 9 letter to the editor (``Integration hasn't promoted tolerance'') in response to your Reader's Forum question, ``Are this region's schools racially integrated enough?'':
Vaughn's response and views show an obvious intolerance for anyone who is different from him. What makes him so special that everyone should be modeled after him?
He commented on the changes that "Negroes must make in order to be acceptable to the white majority.'' He shouldn't be speaking for all of us in the "white majority,'' and no one ever said that African-Americans want to be accepted by anyone.
He said that "high morals, standards and values do not rub off on others by association." Intolerance, racism and bigotry stem from ignorance, fear and pure hatred. We know that no one is born a racist - racist feelings are taught. So his ignorance on the subject stems from someone else's ignorance.
Vaughn says that "it would be much better to teach them what we expect in a civilized society." I don't know what society he is referring to, but our society is far from civilized or ideal. We have rapists, murderers, embezzlers, drug dealers and so many other terrible aspects in our society (including people with beliefs like Vaughn) that we have no right to feel superior over anyone.
Noticing differences between people isn't wrong, and we can be proud of our ancestry and race without being against another group. But ultimately, we all belong to one race - the human race. Until we can teach our children those values and the ability to have an open mind, we cannot progress as a "civilized society.''
JAMIE LESH
RADFORD
Dole's campaign is short on virtues
SURELY, Carolyn Green (Sept. 9 letter to the editor, ``Clinton has not earned voters' trust'') cannot be serious when she touts Bob Dole's ``virtues.''
I believe it was Dole who selected a running mate who espouses the same supply-side economic philosophy that Dole himself once described as economic suicide. I believe it was the ``virtuous'' Dole who equated cigarette smoking with drinking milk, and who thinks Americans will naively buy into the simplistic tax-cut scheme that he offered in a desperate attempt to try to win votes.
A Dole White House would gut federal support for education, the environment, the arts and humanities, health care and a wide range of vital social programs and services that millions of children, the elderly and the physically and mentally challenged depend upon every day of their lives.
That, I believe, would qualify as ``debasing'' (Green's term) the office of the president. And that's why Bill Clinton and Al Gore will be re-elected in November.
ALAN GLICK
BLACKSBURG
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB