ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
IF THE incumbent president of the United States seeks re-election, campaigning should be neither a necessity nor his prerogative! He already holds office because he convinced the majority of the voting public that he would serve our great country as best it might be served.
He has had four years in which to substantiate his promises and prove his capability in handling national and international affairs.
He is no stranger; the people are well aware of his identity and accommplishments.
Let him rest on his record and allow us, not him, to weigh his worth. Campaigning denied. This applies to any president of the United States.
JOAN S. HOWE
UNION HALL
The ultimate abuse is abortion
CONGRATULATIONS! I read your Sept. 25 editorial, ``Parental rights can't be absolute.'' I am excited that a minor liberal newspaper has not only found sweeping federal legislation it opposes, but it has also realized the moral crime that results when the rights of someone too weak to defend himself or herself are abrogated by a stronger individual under the pretext of individual rights.
Obviously, in addition to condemning the reported abuse of 565,000 children every year, you will logically also condemn the slaughter of 1.3 million children aborted annually under the guise of the ``right'' to choose. Can there be anything more clearly linked to increased child abuse than the cult of convenience that dictates those children are utterly disposable, based on the whims of the mother and possibly the father?
Unfortunately, I doubt you have made that moral and logical leap. No doubt you are just demonstrating classic liberal situational logic in order to prevent some parent from obstructing the vital work of one of our fellow villagers. Rather than saying, ``Remember Valerie Smelser,'' it would be much more accurate to say, ``Remember Valerie Smelser. Do not make her mistake and wait 12 years and 3 months too long to make your `choice' to kill your child.''
JOHN P. KEMP
ROANOKE
Clinton has America on the right track
I AM somewhat insulted by William Vassallo's ridiculous letter to the editor (Oct. 9, ``The dumbing down of the electorate'') regarding his take on President Clinton. Does he really believe that Clinton would rather raise taxes than lower them? I don't believe it for a minute. If nothing else, Clinton knows that's political suicide. You have to get your budget and debt in order before you start handing out massive tax cuts; that's a no-brainer. Clinton's targeted tax cuts (for education, etc.) make more sense.
We elect a president to make the hard, courageous decisions that need to be made. Clinton inherited a staggering debt from three Republican administrations, a debt load that drives up interest rates. In other words, a hidden tax. Was he wrong to address health-care reform? Maybe his style was too aggressive, but 40 million or so people who do not have health care probably wished his reforms had passed.
When I look at Clinton, I see a bright, ambitious, youthful man: Rhodes Scholar; governor at age 30; a president who has personal flaws like most people I know, but who is trying - and succeeding in many instances. Yes, he avoided an unjust war like millions of others (including prominent Republicans Dan Quayle and Phil Gramm), but no one can dispute that the president is in the line of fire every day of his term. It also makes me wonder how many other bright, ambitious young men died needlessly in Vietnam, but that's another story.
I can distinguish right from wrong, Vassallo, and we are on the right track to the 21st century.
GENE MARRANO
ROANOKE
Netanyahu is given rude treatment
THE CARTOON on your Oct. 2 Opinion page is really unbelievable. The people of Israel didn't vote Netanyahu into office to make Israel secure. The way I see it, they were tired of the left-wing liberals giving in to every demand made by Arafat.
How about the fact that Israel has giving them weapons to kill their own people? The left wing in this country has taken the side of Arafat, and I think the liberal talking heads in our media have been very impolite to Netanyahu.
HARRY E. MARTIN
ROANOKE
Dole's photo didn't
match his words
REGARDING THE photographs of the presidential candidates on the front page of your Oct. 7 newspaper:
It was a lovely picture of Bill Clinton, but the one of Bob Dole was a blatantly underhanded way to make your readers think that Dole is untrustworthy. The quote used under the picture, "If I could not cut taxes and balance the budget at the same time, I would not look you in the eye tonight,'' didn't correspond to the straightforward look he portrayed as he actually made that statement.
I believe most people realize that you're extremely liberal, but you should be fair to all. Just because you had two photographs the same size on the front page doesn't mean you were being fair. You do your readers a disservice if you really believe we're made up of a multitude of idiots. Unfortunately, you have an uncanny ability to slant the news to the way you would like for us to perceive it. I believe that's called subliminal editorialism. I keep wondering what happened to the honest, unbiased newspaper I remember of years past.
I believe Republicans and Democrats alike want the truth. You will be a better newspaper if you try real, unbiased reporting for a change.
JUANITA O'NEILL
ROANOKE
Don't let Democrats
retake the House
NINTH District voters should take into account the possible consequences of having a liberal president and a liberal, Democrat-controlled Congress. Without a Republican-controlled legislature to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in check, no telling what liberal programs may be proposed, passed and signed.
If re-elected, Rick Boucher will support the Democrats in the House of Representatives. He will vote for House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, House Minority Whip David Bonier and the rest of that crew who gave us the House bank, the House post office, a vote against a balanced-budget amendment, and a vote to sustain the partial-birth-abortion veto.
Elect Patrick Muldoon to help ensure that the Clintons have some restraints on them.
WILLIAM E. JOHNSON
SALEM
Which parents can keep their children?
JOHN P. Ryan's Oct. 5 letter to the editor, ``Take the baby from unwed teen parents,'' was truly frightening. Yes, there is a teen-pregnancy problem. But infringing on a person's civil rights by taking away that person's child doesn't appear to be the solution.
If a teen-ager has an unplanned pregnancy, why punish the teen and her family? Many parents of such teens undertake raising the child themselves. To make a blanket law that would remove any offspring from a teen mother is cruel to the mother and child. Many young women work, finish school and raise their children with little or no help from the state, relying on family and other resources.
Ryan mentions the teen parent's ability to provide a financially stable, two-parent environment in which to raise the child. Would this mean those who are single through divorce or death, and those who are married but have only one income due to downsizing or disability, should have their children removed?
Ryan seems to assume that all teen mothers are "single parents, ill-prepared educationally or financially to care for or support him or her without depending on the state.'' Females from well-to-do families get pregnant just as do those with fewer advantages. And just what is considered a "proper household''?
My children are healthy, happy and well-educated. We moved to this area to raise our children in a safe environment. But due to the local job market, my husband doesn't receive the pay normally expected by his position. I am disabled due to a medical condition that is irreversible. We aren't wealthy, but we provide an excellent home and lifestyle for our children, as best we can within our means. Following Ryan's thinking, we should have our children taken from us because we do not fit his unrealistic view of what a family should be.
TERESA MEDINA-CASTILLO
BLACKSBURG
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