ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 22, 1997 TAG: 9701220013
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
Attention should be on the child
THERE has been tremendous coverage regarding the 8-year-old boy charged with killing his stepfather. I have heard and read what a wonderful person the stepfather was, how devastated the mother is, and how upset the community is regarding this incident.
I have also heard: Will he be tried as an adult? Where will we put him if or when he is convicted?
I have yet to hear or read one comment expressing concern for the child. This is an 8-year-old sitting in a detention home, wondering if anyone is going to think about him.
Obviously, there are children with no discipline problems, and there are those who seem to be in trouble all the time. I have to believe that there was something going on in this child's life that would lead him to such violence - if he did, as is only alleged, kill his stepfather. Has anyone looked into that? I have heard nothing about the child's emotional status and what he must be going through.
A woman in your Jan 17 news article (``Mother gets own attorney'') said that the boy acted up often when he was in a second-grade class last year with her daughter at Gretna Elementary School. What is that comment supposed to prove - that a young boy acted up in school and was always in trouble, so that means he committed murder? I would be ashamed.
I think the media and the public should be ashamed. We should be seeing what we can do to help this child, whether or not he committed this crime. And if it's proved that he did, find out why.
GAIL M. LEE
SALEM
Stock market is no cause for concern
REGARDING Ellen Goodman's Jan. 14 column, ``Playing the stock market with Social Security'':
People who write columns should confine themselves to subjects they have some knowledge of, not just feelings about. One's feelings, combined with a loose tongue, will make you look foolish and may get you in trouble. Goodman should look at stocks as one looks at people.
From time to time, there have been catastrophic events in the world that have caused population declines for a short period of time. But the general population has always gotten larger. As it gets larger, the marketplace and the degree of profitability also increases. Hence, there is no gamble in the marketplace when the money is spread out and the time factor is allowed to work.
If an event so catastrophic as the elimination of the bulk of the population were to occur, there would be no need to be concerned about Social Security.
NORRIS D. BUNN JR.
MONETA
Drawing the lines on freedoms
YOUR JAN. 16 editorial (``Celebrate freedom - not Flynt'') leaves me with some questions about freedom and censorship in America:
If Larry Flynt can print anything, this is freedom?
This is freedom - when a woman in America can kill her unborn and precious baby? How can our Supreme Court decide that a woman can do this horrible act? It is her right? Strange, I never read this in the Constitution. Americans are being duped and misled. Whatever the court says, murder is murder. Right?
Another thing: Do we have a free press in America or not? Does it give you the right to print anything and everything?
Your editorial said that censorship can do the nation more damage, and be more corrupting of our values (note: what are our values?) than anything pornographers can produce.
Agreed, freedom is great - no doubt about it. But censorship is always bad. Right? Then why do you practice it?
C. GLEN STINNETTE JR.
HUDDLESTON
Hollywood will be stalking Beagle
GO, BEAGLE, go!
As an avid fan of Ben Beagle's for many years, I urge him to immediately begin writing as he did on Jan. 15 regarding Pamela and Dave (``Here's a tip, fellas: Vacuum your way into her heart'').
Wow! Danielle Steele will be forced into retirement.
I envision agents, script writers and producers swarming in Southwest Roanoke County. Beagle will generate more excitement than the grand opening of the new Harris Teeter store. Think of it: No more lying awake listening to his furnace. The worry about his county water bill will cease, and, at the pinnacle of his success, there'll be a new Cherokee in his garage.
BETTY GRAHAM
ROANOKE
Putting police to the test
IT WAS interesting to read your Jan. 15 news article (``Wanted: 8 police applicants'') regarding the use of a polygraph test in recruiting and evaluating candidates for entry-level police positions in Roanoke city. The comment about the test eliminating otherwise promising candidates ``by leaps and bounds'' makes one wonder a couple of things:
Are the appropriate questions being asked relative to requirements of the job being filled?
Are the questions negatively biased toward certain ethnic groups, particularly African-Americans?
At $24,000-plus per year, can one really expect to find people who can walk on water?
How many current officers and employees of the Police Department could pass the same test being administered to the applicant candidates?
I wonder if the people administering the test could pass.
MIKE BOND
SALEM
Of Darwin, truth and confusion
IN HIS Jan. 9 commentary (``In which the Lord creates confusion along with the world''), Tom Taylor lamented that Pope John Paul II now believes that ``Darwin's theory of evolution is scientifically sound as long as the creation process is attributed to God.'' Said Taylor: It ``was upsetting, indeed, to see him endorse evolution, which I believe to be the ultimate lie.''
And speaking of Jesus' resurrection, Taylor states that ``in so doing, he proved forever who is telling the truth about it all; and it isn't Darwin.''
Will Taylor, in his next cute commentary, substitute the name Copernicus for Darwin? For, as caretakers of the Holy Church teach, if it be found that the Earth revolves around the sun, our faith is false and will not stand. This could lead to the belief that the Earth is not the geographical center for all seven heavens.
Moral: Beware when conservatives inform us of the limits to our faith. Usually, (God's) scientific truth marches on, leaving our friends muttering something about the ``ultimate lie.'' Oh, if only we could get a good Scopes monkey trial going in Virginia. That would be entertainment indeed.
FRANK D. WILLIAMSON
ROANOKE
Dads don't divorce their children
TO BE DIFFERENT can be good. And I am happy to be different from the writer of the Jan. 13 letter, ``Joint custody is not good for kids,'' by Anne Stuart DeFoe.
Unfortunately, in marriage, parents may not ``get along.'' Thus, there may be a divorce. But why, except for special cases, divorce the children from parents? Why should big government have the right to marry itself to mothers and the children, and divorce itself from fathers?
The parents still have something joint - the children. And, most important, the children have something joint - the parents. Parents should be allowed to jointly love their children.
Defoe needs to get her nose out of the air and come down to reality. If one advocates ``proper'' compensation for the mother, that person also advocates denying fathers the right to be with the child in a loving and healthy manner. The current system doesn't allow one without the other. It promotes shock therapy by making fathers and children to feel like strangers or visitors with one another, and making mothers feel like, as they become, owners of the children.
It's sad to say, in case after case, that children's lifestyles usually do not include fathers of divorce. What a big price to pay for such counsel and a lifestyle that children usually have a hard time getting along with.
BARRY CARTER
ROANOKE
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