ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160006
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
EIGHTY YEARS ago today, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, opened the first family-planning clinic in America. The clinic was raided 10 days later by the police. Sanger and her colleagues were imprisoned for the crime of dispensing information about contraception, a violation of the Comstock Laws of 1873.
Today, contraceptives and family-planning services are widely available. Ninety percent of Americans support access to family planning, based on a national poll conducted this spring. With fourscore years of progress, so much has been gained. So much could be lost.
The recently adjourned 104th Congress attempted to roll back many of the gains of the past 80 years. The Communications Act of 1996 contained portions of the 1873 Comstock Laws that would have criminalized discussions of abortion on the Internet. Funding for international family-planning programs in 1996 was slashed 87 percent from the previous year.
In 1995, the House of Representatives came within 10 votes of eliminating Title X, America's family-planning program. Title X provides contraceptive services, annual exams, treatment of sexually transmitted infections, mammograms and cervical-cancer screenings for more than 5 million uninsured women and their families each year.
It's difficult to find a Congress more hostile to contraception in the latter half of this century than the 104th. Unless Americans can make their voices heard over the shrill din of religious political extremists, the 105th Congress may be just as hostile.
AMY HASELTON
President, Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge
ROANOKE
Ban Alomar forever
I IMAGINE some people who read this may dismiss me as another WASP bigot, but I am not.
It seems to me that if you are a famous black or Hispanic athlete in this country and are paid millions of dollars more than you are worth, you can get away with murder and spitting (literally) in the face of society.
Roberto Alomar should be banned from baseball forever! A person paid the millions he's paid had no right to spit in an umpire's face, even in the heat of a game.
This is just another sad commentary of how wealth (and unscrupulous lawyers) can spit in our collective faces with impunity.
SAMUEL C. PALMER JR.
ROANOKE
Robb forgets his Virginia constituents
IT IS outrageous that Sen. Charles Robb sided with President Clinton and other liberals, and voted against the override of Clinton's veto on the partial-birth abortion ban.
I wish Robb would remember that his constituents in Virginia are not liberals. We value the sanctity of human life. I'm appalled at the murder of innocent babies, which is exactly what happens in partial-birth abortions. I hold human life to be sacred and not to be ended for convenience's sake.
Robb is the one who will have these babies' deaths on his conscience, and he'll have to answer to God. He'll also have to answer to us voters, should he have the gall to run for re-election.
LESLIE COTY
ROANOKE
Goodlatte works to solve problems
WHEN VOTING times come, some vote straight Republican or straight Democratic tickets, right or wrong. We should vote for the candidate who works for the good of all, not just a few.
We have a man like that - one who has proved that he will help the little guy. He's Congressman Bob Goodlatte
I called his office a year ago just to see if he would help me with a problem I was having with a new well that was contaminated with petroleum. I had contacted the state's Department of Environmental Quality for more than three years. No help. Five days later, I heard from Goodlatte saying that he had contacted Richmond about my problem. Three weeks later, I received another letter from Goodlatte and I heard from the DEQ. I qualified for help under a cleanup program. I now have good water.
Without Goodlatte's help, I don't think this would have happened. He works for everyone, not just a few. Let's keep him in Washington for the good of all.
EARL C. STANLEY
ROANOKE
Clinton and Dole avoid major issues
HERE WE go again. The major media are hiding the fact that the presidential election had been ``fixed'' by the Eastern Establishment, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg. Most people in the media have never heard of these groups or don't know what their agenda is.
But journalism just ain't what it used to be. Nowadays journalists only consume what comes down the wire. Those at the top are painting a picture designed to deceive the people into continuing the Republican/Democrat facade and continuing the status quo. With the help of the media, the masses will remain asleep to the truth.
Clinton and Dole are great entertainers, speaking lofty and idealistic rhetoric, careful to stay away from issues of relevance: globalism, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, communist confiscation of our national sovereignty, the privately owned ``federal reserve'' bank, foreign aid, government complicity in drug smuggling and terrorism, and our rapid descent into a global socialist police state in which we'll all be monitored and controlled throughout our daily activities through microchip technology.
The election is already won by the wealthy world elite who control both major political parties, financial institutions of the world, multinational corporations, and the pundits and think tanks that try to tell us what to think.
George Wallace once said, ``There is not a dime's worth of difference between the two parties.'' At least he escaped with his life. Many did not.
I already know the outcome of the election and the face that fronts the facade makes little difference. The new millenium is at hand, and the global masters are very near their goal. See you in the New World Order!
JOEY ZAMORSKI
SALEM
If character counts, vote for Dole
REGARDING Roger Shelton's Sept. 21 letter to the editor, ``Don't buy into Dole's desperation'':
Does Shelton have some special power for predicting the future, or does he have some inside information from the candidate? His prediction that Bob Dole would only serve a year or two as president is quite remarkable. I feel quite sure that after his years of service as a distinguished senator, Dole's retirement check would be enough to afford him a comfortable retirement right now - without additional service as president.
Dole is a distinguished war veteran unlike the incumbent who:
Evaded the draft.
Joked on MTV that if he had to do it again, he would inhale.
Lied about a middle-class tax cut.
As best as I can tell, Bill Clinton has no clear-cut agenda other than his re-election.
If character still counts for anything in this country, Dole is the only choice for president.
DAVID CALDWELL SALEM
Stop the rantings against Clinton
HOW DID this happen? A man who never served in the armed forces of his country and who was highly vocal in his protests against his government, especially concerning an unpopular war in a distant land, is elected president of the United States.
Well, it happened. His name was Thomas Jefferson.
My letter to the editor is in protest of people who mindlessly parrot accusations like the above against the current president, thinking the drivel they squawk is new, important and true, when it's none of these. It's also in protest of newspapers that print their unsupportable rantings.
Bill Clinton didn't dodge the draft. He avoided participation in an armed conflict that he didn't support by perfectly legal means. So did thousands of others.
Whether I personally support Clinton for president is immaterial. Let us please ignore the persistent but ignorant ravings on this nonissue and get back to the serious business of electing a president.
STEVEN E. BROWN
CHRISTIANSBURG
LENGTH: Long : 159 linesby CNB