ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 10, 1996 TAG: 9612100059
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
ONE YEAR ago, three U.S. military personnel were tried and convicted of raping a young girl on the Japanese island of Okinawa. Rising sentiment to expel the American forces from the island has forced U.S. military leaders to seek a new location for artillery practice. However, the new site offered by Japanese officials in the northernmost parts of the main Japanese islands has, itself, become a scene of anti-American protests.
Whether or not these feelings represent those of the Japanese people as a whole, there is no American interest in continuing U.S. troops on Japanese soil. The only plausible reason for being there is to further the improper goal of using U.S. military to police the world. Japan should be informed that it's well past the time that she should create and pay for her own defense forces.
America is already wallowing in enormous debt, and continuing to force Americans to shoulder the burden of Japan's defense bill makes no sense whatsoever.
Our troops should be brought home from Japan, and also from South Korea, Germany, Bosnia, Italy, the Middle East, and wherever else the globalists in our government have sent them. Our troops should never be placed under international command - whether it be the United Nations, NATO or any other world-government organization. America's armed forces should be employed only to protect the lives, liberty and property of the American people.
GEORGE KELLY
BEDFORD
A pill to end all the troubled?
I DON'T want to sound harsh about the adventures of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, but he is raising our consciousness about suffering and death.
I can't help but wonder: Since the majority of us seem to accept the idea of snuffing out new life with a pill (RU-486), how much longer will it be before the logic of that gets extended to the suffering and/or the elderly among us? I see it coming now.
WOODROW RILEY
ROANOKE
Keep Internet free of contamination
WE HAVE a wonderful system of highways in America. You can get almost any place you have the urge to go from where ever you begin.
Just like an actual highway, the Internet is open to all kinds of travelers. People utilize roads to go to the movies, shopping malls, banks and libraries. They journey to worship, to socialize, to comfort. Others use highways to transport drugs, to race drunkenly about, and to search for places to commit fraud, robbery and murder.
An open road is both a challenge and a responsibility. Those who use it determine whether blessing or cursing is found there. The Internet is the same. The question isn't whether the Internet is good or evil: it's morally neutral. The problem is that some of the travelers in cyberspace contaminate the way with their lies, fears and perversions.
If we closed down our roads, it would reduce crime phenomenally. But only a simpleton would choose this route. The same applies to the Internet. We need to find other ways to keep evil from spreading. That would leave both the interstate and the Internet open and safe to travel upon.
KARLEEN E. WICKHAM
CHRISTIANSBURG
Hooters isn't in the sleaze league
IN RESPONSE to Carole Breedlove's Nov. 23 letter to the editor, "City businesses invite trouble":
I have to question whether she has been a patron of Girls, Girls, Girls and Hooters when she call them both sleaze bars. I admit that Girls, Girls, Girls is a sleaze bar. But Hooters is a restaurant, not a bar.
My wife, daughter and son-in-law have been with me in Hooters in other cities, and now we can enjoy oysters, wings and other food and drinks right here in Roanoke. On opening day, I observed ladies up to 70 years old in Hooters enjoying themselves.
I saw a different crowd when I went to Girls, Girls, Girls a couple years ago. I have no family or personal friends working at Hooters, nor do I have any financial interest, but I believe comparing these businesses is very unfair.
GEORGE HENRY
SALEM
Disconnecting satellite-TV viewers
IN 1985, we moved to Botetourt County on the north side of Tinker Mountain. There was no cable opportunity for us at that time, and local CBS and NBC reception in our home was less than acceptable with ``rabbit ears.'' We had no PBS and no ABC viewing. Cable was coming, but no one seemed to know when.
We opted in 1986 to purchase a satellite dish so that we could have access to quality television viewing. We paid for that purchase then and continue to pay for that viewing capability. After considerable delay, cable finally arrived in our neighborhood. But by then, we had already made our purchase.
We have watched local stations using inside antennas in our home and the reception, while not great, has improved in 11 years. But action is now being taken through our satellite subscriber to eliminate some of our network viewing opportunities because of where we live.
In the notification letter we received from the subscriber service: ``Under the Satellite Home Viewer Act, you are not eligible to receive satellite-delivered network programming if you can receive, through the use of conventional rooftop antenna, an over the air signal of grade B intensity (as defined by the Federal Communications Commission).''
WDBJ has taken action to terminate our access to CBS within 14 days of Nov. 22 because they want us to only view their station. By eliminating our access to a network affiliate which we receive as a satellite feed and for which we pay, the network itself is being eliminated from the viewing opportunities of satellite dish owners. We made the purchase in the first place because we had poor local reception and no cable access.
Either way, we're being told we have to spend more money to receive network programming. In order for us - and perhaps many others who have or are considering a satellite viewing system - to receive a signal for local viewing, now we must purchase an outside antenna or subscribe to a cable company. It certainly sounds like double expense.
``WDBJ, Your Hometown Station'' is hardly a slogan that would evoke warmth and friendliness when what I see now is ``hometown station.''
SUSAN S. KNIGHT
DALEVILLE
Restore parade's original name
REGARDING the Grandin Road Christmas parade:
I have lived in Roanoke 65 years, and was one of the persons who helped get the people living on Grandin Road to have a parade. What I do not understand is that now it's called the Greater Raleigh Court Christmas parade.
Raleigh Court starts at Windsor Avenue and goes out to Brandon Avenue. Most of those who started the parade are in the 1300 block of Grandin Road. That was why we called it the Grandin Road Christmas parade. But it's in Virginia Heights, not Raleigh Court.
Let's keep it the way it has been for years - the Grandin Road Christmas parade.
NORMAN A. WOODS
ROANOKE
Yelling doesn't instill respect
DOES THE Virginia Military Institute conduct any classes for its students? The only thing shown over and over on television news is hair cutting and the "rats" being yelled at by upper classmen. Perhaps pushing people against a wall and shouting in their faces is supposed to instill respect for superiors.
As a combat infantry veteran, I respected my commanding officers on the front lines and had been trained without being yelled at.
BING GRINDLE
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Long : 142 linesby CNB