ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 12, 1996 TAG: 9610140012
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
ABORTION HAS been much in the news recently. Our local newspaper rises to the occasion with urbane sophistication. One day it recommends exterminating possible people with the human pesticide RU-486. Upjohn didn't make enough money with Xyclone B, and we're only dealing with unwanted vermin in both cases.
The next day it asserts that gut-wrenching child abuse is wholesome medical care as long as the child is one minute and 3 inches away from birth. After all, we can always find a Dr. Mengele to assure us that it's an ethical procedure for medical reasons. Who better than our journalists to teach us po' unlettered rednecks proper newspeak? Repeat after me: "It's not a baby, it's a choice!"
Ah-ha! A light goes on for this poor, rustic dim bulb. I see what our instructors on the editorial staff are trying to teach us - namely, that socialists are socialists, whether they are national or local socialists. In both cases, the position is advanced that some people are expendable for the benefit of other people. Human problems need efficient, technological solutions, not human solutions. Progress is all that matters if we want to be progressive, no matter if we're progressing along with a holocaust that has already claimed five times as many lives as the Nazi final solution.
Now, all together, let's kiss humanity goodbye and follow our newspaper's lead into the brave new world of better living through technology for death. Which inconvenient folks should be next on our list? The mentally ill, the disabled or maybe just the old?
We await the guidance of this newspaper's editorialists with bated breath! Lead us on into the world of greater convenience for all of the beautiful, desirable and wanted people. Oh tell us - who should we throw to the wolves next?
THOMAS C. SMEDLEY
VINTON
Why didn't Dole pick Bono for veep?
DESPITE ENDLESS Republican investigation, all of which has proved to be about as substantive as Sonny Bono's brain, the goofy little congressman from California came to Roanoke to emphatically state that President Clinton is a criminal (Oct. 1 news article, ``Rep. Bono: Clinton's a crook''). Of course, Bono mentioned no specific proof or any specific crime.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte should be ashamed to have had this classless clown in town.
On the other hand, I'm surprised that Sen. Bob Dole, with his 1976 accusation that the Democrats started World War II and his 1996 fantasy of reducing taxes to balance the budget, didn't pick Bono for a running mate.
JAMES SOLOMON
BUCHANAN
`Grease' sends kids a bad message
I SAW the revival of the play ``Grease'' at Burruss Auditorium on Sept. 23. Good music; wrong message. The boys who smoked, drank and had their way with the girls were portrayed as cool role models, as were the girls who smoked, drank and accommodated them.
The one girl, newly arrived at the high school who didn't smoke, drink or accommodate even the coolest of the boys - the Sandra Dee type - suffered scorn until she did a 180-degree turn and did all those things, even punching a rival girl on the jaw. Marvelous.
What about the only boy who seemed scholarly? Don't ask. You could recognize him immediately. He wore glasses and was a complete nerd. At one time, they told him to go back to his bookmobile. Har, har.
This play amply illustrated an old song's definition of a cigarette - a fire on one end, a fool on the other. Unless you esteem ``Grease's'' role models, you might not want to take your adolescent to see the play.
F. DONALD BLOSS
BLACKSBURG
Sink Clinton in his immoral morass
SO FAR, Congress has seen fit to probe into several goings-on within the Clinton administration. These have included Travelgate, Whitewater and Filegate. Add to these the supposed suicide of Vince Foster and the bed (oops) judgments of Dick Morris. It appears more on the Paula Jones episode won't be known until after the November elections.
Attempts by Congress to bring to light questionable behavior by those at the Clinton White House are quickly labeled as "just attempts to embarrass the president." I remember Watergate and the Nixon administration. No such excuses were attached to that. Instead, the cries were: "Impeachment, impeachment!"
Alas. Have our morals sunk so low that all we can see is that the emperor has on a new wardrobe? I think not! Character does matter.
Let's vote for Bob Dole and help restore some dignity to the office of president of the United States.
ILEADA RIBBLE
SALEM
LENGTH: Medium: 91 linesby CNB