ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 24, 1996 TAG: 9611250036
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
IN RESPONSE to your Nov. 14 news article, ``VMI: We don't need federal chaperone'':
THE U.S. Department of Justice has sent its attorney Judith Keith to Roanoke - at taxpayers' expense - in what appears to be an effort to micro-manage the Virginia Military Institute. In spite of possessing no qualifications for such a momentous task, she more than likely will find sympathy in the court.
Keith has questioned VMI's honor code. Although my ties with the Lexington institution are nil, I can save the court and her much time and money when I tell her that the mysterious code simply requires that one doesn't lie, steal, cheat or condone those who do. Any female cadet can surely live with this. It's my fervent desire that Keith take the astounding information gathered from the code back to Washington. It will stagger her friends that such a thing exists.
Keith also wishes access to the ``alumni network.'' She can visit the latest ``Register of Former Cadets'' in the public library. She will find the names of all VMI men, both the living, men whose corporations provide thousands of jobs for the citizens of this commonwealth, and those who died protecting this nation in the most critical of times. The vast majority of those individuals who now live constitute the VMI network.
Addressing the effort that the law-abiding, honorable individuals who administer VMI have made to recruit women, one would have to be deaf and blind not to see the endeavor. It has been more than conspicuous in the media for weeks. It's evident to me that VMI has gone out of its way to expedite a circumstance it loathed in the first place.
I suggest Keith return to Washington to gather her bureaucratic friends and enter mass-therapy sessions for the treatment of paranoia.
MALCOLM W. BRYAN III
ROANOKE
Four more years of awful killings
WOE UNTO the unborn and the partially born. Bill Clinton has been re-elected to the White House. Remember that he is the president who vetoed the ban on the horrible Nazi-type partial-birth abortion. Abortion of any type is murder, but this type of abortion is absolutely unbelievable in the United States.
If people can wantonly kill their own flesh and blood in this country, who will be next - the mentally ill, the retarded, Jews, Catholics, homosexuals, dwarfs?
I live for the day when a Republican president takes office and will appoint Supreme Court judges who will overturn Roe vs. Wade.
JUDITH COMPTON CLAYTON
ROANOKE
A patch to prevent kids' smoking?
THERE are news article in your newspaper every day about tobacco. A lot of doctors, lawyers and judges all hope to somehow get big cash from tobacco farmers, merchants, etc., since Bill Clinton started this stink.
I am 71 years old and have seen medicine prescribed for kids and adults. We now advertise Nicotrol and about six to eight other remedies to break the smoking habit. While professors and doctors play with rats and mice (I've never seen either smoke), why can't they come up with a ``stop smoking'' program for kids they claim to worry about? Parents would buy this.
THOMAS E. ASH
ROANOKE
Send teachers back to Breckinridge
CAN ROANOKE schools' Superintendent Wayne Harris explain why Breckinridge Middle School's displaced teachers won't be allowed to return to their home school following renovations?
Had The Roanoke Times published a photograph of Stonewall Jackson Middle School's undefeated girls softball team, you would have seen a proud and smiling Coach Moier Hill, who led these young ladies to victory. He taught at Breckinridge for 34 years before coming to Jackson while his home school was receiving a much-needed rebuilding. With next year as his last before retiring, he will not be allowed to return to the only school where he ever taught.
None of Breckinridge's teachers will be allowed to return. Why is this? Who cooked up this policy?
Something like this could be expected of Frank Tota's regime, but I expected more of Harris and the current School Board members.
I think this policy should be stopped. These teachers suffered through the years of deterioration at Breckinridge and they should be allowed to return to the newly remodeled school next year - with no exceptions. They deserve it.
BURMAN C. SNIDER JR.
ROANOKE
Cloth diapers have a lasting appeal
SINCE I use cloth diapers on my 18-month-old daughter, I read your Nov. 3 Extra section article (``Convenience, at your disposal'') on diapering options with interest. One major benefit put forth as a result of using disposables is time savings. I find this factor unimportant since using automatic washers and dryers is now the norm. Just how long does it take to start a load of laundry? Probably less than a minute. You can do any number of other things while the load is washing and drying.
The argument by disposable-diaper companies that washing and drying cloth diapers causes equal environmental damage as the production and disposal of their products is absurd. If this were the case, environmental advocates would have started pushing for the use of disposable clothes years ago. Think about it. Instead of ``reduce, reuse, recycle,'' we would say, ``save the environment, do less laundry.'' In addition, cloth diapers rarely wear out. They can be passed down through multiple children in one family and then on to other families.
One issue not addressed in your article is the expense of disposable diapers (and wipes). I don't know any family that couldn't use the extra $6 to $10 per week ($300 to $500 per child per year) in some other way.
In the old days, everyone used cloth without thinking about it. In present days, I feel most people opt for disposables without thinking about it. Once you get a system down, cloth diapers are no more difficult, are less expensive and are better for the environment. If your readers have pin phobia, waterproof pants with Velcro fasteners are available.
I urge readers to consider the cloth-diaper option for their children. Give them a future not burdened with landfill waste.
JENNIFER B. LEWIS
CHRISTIANSBURG
Police, too, should obey speed limits
WELL, IT happened again recently, but this time with a different twist. While commuting to work in Roanoke from Bedford on U.S. 460, I was passed by an official-looking vehicle (unmarked, dark brown, antennas, blue light in the back window) going approximately 65 mph to 70 mph. The occupants were obviously not responding to an emergency nor were they in pursuit of another vehicle since they were chatting and appeared to be pointing at something in the distance. They maintained this speed until they were out of my sight.
The thing that gives this a different twist is that within a couple of minutes after passing my car, the official vehicle went through a State Police radar setup about a mile east of the new Montvale school, and it wasn't stopped for violating the 55 mph limit. It's to be hoped the driver did slow for the school zone.
If this had been the only time I was passed by a speeding official vehicle, I wouldn't be writing this letter. However, it seems that almost every time I am passed by an official vehicle - be it State Police, city police or deputy sheriffs (any city or county, not just Bedford), marked or unmarked - the driver is ignoring the posted speed limit. Does putting on a uniform and/or driving an official vehicle give someone the right to violate the posted speed limits? I was under the impression that we're all subject to the same laws. And if we choose to violate them, we can be punished.
I have all the respect in the world for our law-enforcement officers, and appreciate the fact they risk their lives daily to protect us and our property. I only ask that the laws that apply to some apply to all.
NELSON E. LEFTWICH JR.
BEDFORD
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