ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701240019
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
It pays more to lobby than to legislate
REGARDING your Jan. 4 news article, ``City weighs funding hired gun in Richmond'':
I find it ironic that Roanoke city is willing to pay a lobbyist $21,000 to lobby for the 45-day General Assembly session when our state senator makes $18,000 and our state delegates gets $17,600 for the whole year!
Obviously, public service is no cash cow.
Given the low pay our General Assembly members work for, who could blame them if one day soon they gave up on public service in favor of more lucrative-paying lobbying work?
WILLARD TOMLINSON
ROANOKE
Coaches should be disciplining kids
IN RESPONSE to the episode of football coach Keith Gaines (Jan. 14 news article, ``Coach acquitted in cliff-hanger''):
I would take the coach's word above all others. Apologize? Never!
If you're given responsibility, you must also be given authority. One without the other is futile. Just what authority should be given our teachers while they are trying to educate our children?
Teachers are not groups of Simon Legrees out to beat and maim students. In most part, they are there to do what parents fail to do at home.
I've often heard from school systems that they have more problems with parents than the students.
For argument's sake, let's say Gaines tapped a kid to restore control and order. I admire him. To me, discipline is part of growing up. In this way, he has probably earned respect for himself while trying to prepare the students for the future.
Gaines should pay no attention to the bleeding hearts who, for whatever trumped-up reasons, wanted to get rid of him as a coach. We need more like him so that maybe our nation will not end up with generations of unruly children.
OCIE C. JONES
ROANOKE
Government breaks its own laws
THANK YOU for helping raise public awareness regarding the plight of wild horses by publishing ``Profiting from preservation'' (Jan. 6 Extra section article). I hope other localities are doing likewise.
Sadly, the ``adoption'' program was initiated as a means of subverting the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act passed by Congress in 1971. Using ``overpopulation'' and ``overgrazing,'' as defined by powerful cattle ranchers who profit from low grazing fees, the U.S. government breaks its own laws.
Before this act was passed, ranchers indiscriminately rounded up wild horses for slaughter or shot them on sight.
As a taxpayer, I object to subsidizing the raising of cattle on public lands. And I am appalled at the funds required to conduct these horrible roundups and subsequent sales to slaughterhouses. The government has even managed to override its own injunction against using helicopters that cause untold injury and loss of life among the wild horses, particularly foals.
PAT PRATALI
SALEM
`Not as bad' is not good enough
REGARDING YOUR Jan. 5 news article, ``We still don't know where cash goes'':
The article spoke of rottenness in the General Assembly. Credited with notice were House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, former Sen. Brandon Bell and state Sen. Steve Newman. These are only three in a system that is rotten to the core.
Still, I cannot condone the questionable doings of politicians who are less than honest in their dealings, not only with their beneficiaries - political-action committees and contributors - but with Virginia's citizens. They do not belong in the Virginia General Assembly.
It's unfortunate that the excuse given is that Virginia politicians are not as bad as their contemporaries in other states. Disclosure is the only way the populace can know their representatives, whether senators or delegates.
I hope that Cranwell, for one, can look in the mirror at himself and say that he's honest, honorable and imbued with integrity. He is the judge of himself. But we also are the judges of what he and his colleagues are.
I, for one, am appalled.
H. BERNIE LINDSTROM
SUGAR GROVE
Punctuality was not that critical
YOUR JAN. 19 news article on Sen. John Warner's role in the inauguration (``Weight of ceremony rests on Warner, aide from Roanoke'') reports that the senator believed that he had to get Bill Clinton to the inaugural stand exactly on time so that Clinton could take the oath of office precisely at noon, avoiding a lapse during which the country would be without a constitutional president.
Actually, it's likely that the president can be assumed as already in office at noon, whether or not the oath is taken on time.
Although the Constitution says that ``before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation,'' the ``he'' clearly refers to the president. Thus, once the hour of noon strikes, the president, not one who is to become president, takes the oath as his first act.
While we must admire Warner's diligence in carrying out his inaugural duties, being a bit late would have upset the planners and the networks - but not the continuity of presidential authority.
CHARLES GOODSELL
BLACKSBURG
LENGTH: Long : 105 linesby CNB