ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 15, 1996 TAG: 9612170021
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
I FEEL the smoking age in Virginia should be lowered because kids are going to smoke if they want to. It should be lowered to age 16 because that is when most young adults start driving and when most people start smoking anyway. That would be the most convenient age for everyone. It would keep most people from trying to sneak and buy the products.
I never understood anyway why the smoking age is so high. It isn't a federal law, but a state law. What does it hurt the state to let a 16-year-old buy cigarettes? Now, most 16-year-olds smoke all the time.
JEFF RILEY
SELMA
Paying dearly for the sound of music
THE PRICES of compact discs are outrageous nowadays. It takes less than $1 to make a CD, yet they are sold for at least 15 times that amount. There is no reason for the price to be so high. CDs do not cost more to make than a cassette tape. However, they are at least $4 more expensive in stores than are tapes. This isn't fair.
The CD companies raise the price because CDs are more popular and people will pay more for them. This seems similar to a monopoly. Once one company lowers the price, other companies will have to do the same. The companies are being completely unreasonable. They can still make a good profit, even if they lower the prices considerably. Unless the companies change, charges must be brought against them.
DAVID WILSON
ROANOKE
Abortion must remain an option
IN RESPONSE to Judith C. Clayton's Nov. 24 letter to the editor, ``Four more years of awful killings'':
How many children have you personally adopted, served as foster parent or intelligently taught sex education to? If you don't want an abortion, then it's your choice not to have one.
I am proudly pro-choice, and would like nothing better than there to never be another abortion, never the need for another abortion. That would mean that we had all taken accountability for ourselves. It would mean that we had been taught the difference between sex and love, and learned the moral responsibility of bringing another human being into this world. It would mean that we would live in a world where every child was wanted, as it should be.
It isn't up to the Bible beaters or governmental officials as to the options given us. We must police (for the lack of a better word) ourselves. Education is our only hope. Abortion isn't everyone's answer, thank God. But, unfortunately, it must be allowed to be one of our choices.
M. KATHERINE HUGHES
ROANOKE
School lacks recycling bins
I AM A 10th-grade student at Cave Spring High School and have recently noticed a lack of recycling bins at our school. In elementary school, recycling was emphasized countless times. At the high school, recycling has dropped out of being an important issue. With today's economical problems, we should be more concerned than we are.
At the high school, recycling bins are set up for aluminum cans. These are very proficient and most students use them properly. Aluminum is only a small component of recycling goods that we have at Cave Spring. Many plastic items are sold in the cafeteria lines and could easily be recycled by placing a bin for them to be thrown in.
So far, paper and aluminum cans are the only items that are recycled at school. Most kids would rather toss a plastic bottle in the garbage can than carry it home. A bin for these products and others would cut down considerably the amount of recyclable items that are thrown away.
If we make recycling a bigger issue at school, more people will become knowledgeable on the subject and they will think twice before they toss another recyclable item in the trash. Recycling may be the key to the survival of our community, and it's essential to get the leaders of tomorrow more involved in trying to save our environment.
DAVID KEISER
ROANOKE
When animals are raised as meat
KAREN Davis' Nov. 21 commentary (``Turkeys suffer mistreatment from birth to death'') on the treatment of commercially raised turkeys was painful to encounter, especially since I already knew more than I wanted to about the cruel and unnatural practices by which we, as Rousseau saw it, turn nature into artifice in the service of our appetites. For instance, what we do to calves and chickens in our quest for ever more tender meat is sickening.
The problem for some of us is not that we kill them, but that we allow them no normal life before their slaughter. From birth, we treat them as meat in preparation. And thus, they're permitted almost no freedom of movement or natural animal sociability.
I read the responses to Davis' commentary, and one of those stood out for its stupidity, insensitivity and smug pretentiousness. Casey Hash (Nov. 26 letter to the editor, ``Hey, mashed yams have feelings, too'') doubtless believes that he has charmed and regaled us with his wit when, in fact, what his ugly letter revealed - aside from his shallowness - is that empathetically he is severely challenged.
Most of us often prefer ignorance and denial when it comes to how some of the food we like reaches our table. That's pretty natural. However, Hash's cruelly childish mockery of Davis' concerns is repulsive.
Having observed Hash's level of human sensitivity, I can certainly understand his ability to identify with the cranberry and yam. At the same time, applying a different but equally apt metaphor, I hope Hash might remain unfazed by this letter - that at least at one level Walter Gross (Nov. 27 letter, ``Raising turkeys with tender, loving care'') will prove accurate in his wishful belief that ``turkeys do not perceive pain.''
ARTHUR R. POSKOCIL
BLUE RIDGE
The mentally ill are not violent
I AM INVOLVED in advocacy for persons with mental illnesses. People will ask if the mentally ill are dangerous. I tell them no and that mental illness doesn't make people mean. The medical symptoms have never included violence.
Three million persons with disabling mental illness live in the United States. In spite of torment in mind and emotions, they struggle to make the best of each day like the rest of us.
THEODORE D. ALLEN
President, Alliance for the
Mentally Ill-Roanoke Valley
ROANOKE
Who gave rescue squads the right?
IN RESPONSE to your Nov. 23 news article (``Rescue squad: thanks, but no thanks Carilion'') regarding the Botetourt County Rescue Squad and the captains' refusal of Carilion's offer to provide free mutual aid for the county:
I have a few questions:
* Who gave the captains of the county rescue squads the authority to make decisions for the citizens of Botetourt County? * If the rescue system works as well as the captains claim, why does it take members from several different squads to answer a single call (if it gets answered at all, in which case - thank God - for the paid personnel of Roanoke County stations No. 5 and No. 2)?
* If the captains are so worried about the free service, why do they ask for donations every time we turn around? The county gives the rescue squads additional funds each year.
With the rapid growth in Botetourt County, I think Capt. Penny Firestone needs to get off her high horse and realize that the rescue squads are well past the point of needing help.
The county needs to rethink its decision and do what is best for the citizens instead of the inflated egos of a few volunteers.
TINA B. REYNOLDS
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Long : 143 linesby CNB