ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996 TAG: 9610290032
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
I HAVE voted Republican in four presidential elections. This year I will vote for the Democratic candidate. Obviously, I do not do this lightly as Bill Clinton isn't an outstanding person for that position.
But I believe Sen. Bob Dole to be even less of a quality person for the presidency. He led the Republican Party's efforts to decimate the Clean Air and Water Act, and to defeat a minimum-wage increase, the Family Leave Act and efforts to help parents afford a college education for their children. While polls showed that up to 80 percent of Americans wanted these programs, Dole and his party fought them.
Dole's campaign is based on being negative about his opponent. This was especially clear in the second presidential debate. Most of his remarks dealt with blasting President Clinton, so he often spent little time answering the questions.
Dole accuses Clinton of having no plan for the future. Well, just what is Dole's plan? When he does announce something, such as balancing the budget while cutting taxes, he gives no specifics as to how this can be accomplished.
Americans aren't so interested in Dole's war record of 50 years ago or that he was for or against this or that program in the past. We want to know what the future might be like.
FRANCIS JOSEPH
BLACKSBURG
Christians have no lock on morality
IN RESPONSE to Elaine P. McCauley's Oct. 8 letter to the editor, "Christian candidates must be elected":
Candidates for the presidency and for Congress should be intelligent, vigilant, have strong leadership abilities and insight, and they must be U.S. citizens. They should have untold qualities to assist them in representing the electorate, but they do not have to be Christian!
It's unthinkable that we, as Christians, could be so egotistical to suggest that our Moslem and Jewish friends and neighbors do not support moral issues and family values.
McCauley lists school prayer as a moral issue. I prefer that my Christian grandchildren pray Christian prayers and that my Jewish grandchildren pray Jewish prayers. And my Moslem friends prefer that their grandchildren pray Moslem prayers.
Who is capable of designing a prayer suitable for the diverse religions represented in public schools?
ELEANOR L. NECESSARY
NEW CASTLE
The declining value of our dollars
PRESIDENT CLINTON remarked that the only reason his budgets have been out of balance is the interest on huge deficits of the prior 12 years. But those deficits could just as easily be laid to the interest on continuous unbalanced budgets for a half century before 1981 and vast shortfalls hidden in the defense budgets from 1965 to 1978.
To go a little deeper, if the national debt is stated not in terms of paper dollars but precious metals, there are only a handful of peacetime years since the mid-1930s when the debt has actually grown. Its apparent growth over the long haul has been simply a result of inflation. Today's national debt would buy about as many ounces of gold - or for that matter, undershirts or monkey wrenches - as in 1983. It's mostly a matter of the dollar being worth less.
The president's statements in this regard are less than honest, and are very shortsighted.
JACK R. PATTERSON
ROANOKE
Correction
IN DAVID A. Worrell's Oct. 26 letter to the editor, ``Radford residents support Covington,'' a sentence should have read, ``I am a lifelong resident of Radford, having lived here for the past 68 years.''
Some Salemites are road hogs
I HAVE lived in Salem for almost six years, and I am still amazed at the people who refuse to use their driveways. Can someone please tell me why this is?
Where my parents live, the people absolutely refuse to park in their perfectly good driveways. Two cars can barely pass on normal days, much less when it snows. Could the people who travel on these roads please have some consideration?
Winter is coming soon. For those who have four-wheel drives, please make room by parking in your driveway so that we can get through to our families!
DIANA SMITH
SALEM
LENGTH: Medium: 89 linesby CNB