ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997 TAG: 9704070001
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
Not all pregnant teens are so lucky
WHILE IN no way meaning to trivialize the grueling experience of any young woman facing an abortion, it seems the featured teen in your March 24 news article (``No simple answers: The story of a teen-ager's abortion") was as close as one comes to easy answers.
The scenario - an open, supportive household; financially secure parents; and a boyfriend who stuck around - is certainly a more serene one than many teens face. What about young women impregnated by their brothers, fathers, uncles? Imagine their asking for parental consent, after telling mom just what daddy has done. Or consider teens whose physical safety may be at risk should they inform their parents or boyfriends of their pregnancies.
To paraphrase columnist Anna Quindlen, parental-notification laws presume an ideal world, one in which communication flows freely between teens and parents, young women and their partners.
The problem is that such an ideal world is hard to find. And if the upper-middle-class suburban kid who can tell her parents has a difficult time, imagine how things go for young women who have been raped, who will be beaten into miscarriage if they tell, or who want to preserve a hard-won peace with parents.
Abortion is never easy, but you managed to put the prettiest possible face on an ugly issue. You found a poster child - the good girl, the Christian young woman who did all the right things - and you give people an idea that, frankly, doesn't match well with reality. Glossing the issue oversimplifies it, and makes it a lot easier to jump on the parental-notification bandwagon. Let's not forget the young women who aren't so ``lucky."
KATHRYN MARLOWE
SALEM
Money oils our government machine
IT SEEMS that every time I watch the news or read the newspaper, the media and others are complaining about large campaign contributions. Don't people realize that it takes a huge amount of money to keep elected leaders in power?
It's very costly to get all of their propaganda out. The Third Reich could have learned a whole lot from these guys! Who knows? Maybe Hitler would still be in power!
Also, it isn't a cheap undertaking to be able to destroy anyone who gets in your way.
So the next time you hear of China, the sugar or tobacco industries, the National Education Association, the American Association of Retired Persons, etc., making large campaign contributions, rejoice. They're doing their part to maintain our system of government.
ROBERT B. HURT
SALEM
Lincoln deserves no White House shrine
I DISAGREE with William D. Stallard's outrage (March 12 letter to the editor, ``Clinton has sold Lincoln's great legacy'') over President Clinton's use of Lincoln's bedroom.
I find Lincoln to be offensive and would ask that his homely face be removed from Mount Rushmore, that his monument be razed in Washington, D.C., and that his likeness be removed from coin and currency.
Because of him, six of my great-great-grandfathers had to leave their families and go to war. Some contracted disease, others were wounded and several were imprisoned. Lincoln's actions caused every American, from the North or South, to live with the oppressive boot of the federal government planted squarely on the back of his or her neck.
So I cannot share Stallard's anger with the desecration of this shrine to Lincoln. It wouldn't bother me if Clinton turned the bedroom into an opium den for his big-contributor Chinese guests.
JOHN L. SCOTT
CALLAWAY
Law will lead to garbage cleanup
DARRELL Lee Croson's letter to the editor (March 20, ``What do they mean by `garbage'?") needs a response.
He says that the new Rockbridge County ordinance doesn't define ``garbage'' and could be used to condemn mulch or manure piles. He claims the new law is frivolous and could be used as a tool against the community's poor farmers or country folks.
I must come to the defense of the Board of Supervisors in this case. As a landowner and a geologist, I fully support this new ordinance as a public-health measure.
The aquifers that supply drinking water to county residents are quite vulnerable to pollution from the land surface. The karst nature of the terrain, with its many solution openings, allows polluted water to enter directly into the limestone aquifers without any filtration whatsoever.
It has been the practice for many years by some county residents to dump waste materials - including garbage, tires, dead cattle and old appliances - in convenient depressions in the land surface or in sinkholes. This new ordinance, it is hoped, will lead to a cleanup of those garbage and waste piles.
Recent well-water surveys in the Shenandoah Valley, including Rockbridge County, show that 50 percent of water samples were contaminated by coliform bacteria. The new ordinance pertains directly to public health. It isn't at all "frivolous."
FRITS VAN DER LEEDEN
LEXINGTON
Keep school year as it now is
I DO NOT think that kids should go to school year-round.
If a family wanted to go on a trip for a month in the summer, a child would miss about a week of school. And he or she would be behind and have to make up a lot of work, and the child's parents wouldn't like that. So we should keep it the way it is now.
ZACK CLAYMAN
VINTON
Quoting Jesus out of context
IF LINDA H. Oliver wishes to let us know that she supports the death penalty (March 12 letter to the editor, ``Killers must pay for their crimes''), that's her privilege. But her attempt to surround this belief with a superficial skin of Christianity is laughable at best.
She quotes the Apostle Paul and Jesus Christ out of context to make her point. According to tradition, Paul was executed by the state just outside of Rome. Jesus was given the death penalty, with the support of the religious establishment and the state.
I find it quite odd to quote those who spent their lives proclaiming forgiveness, grace and mercy to the most despicable of humanity as a source of support for the death penalty, especially since those quoted knew firsthand about its brutality and injustice.
EDWARD C. WOODARD
ROANOKE
Parents should lay down the law
REGARDING your March 25 Associated Press news article, ``Get-tough laws have fine print: Use, and the whole family loses'':
I concur with the law, its intent and the actions of the insurance companies.
I think the father's closing comment would have had more impact if it had been stated thus: "If I ever catch you using alcohol or drugs, I will take your permit away. As long as you live in my house, under my roof, you will walk!"
ELMER S. MAYES
SALEM
LENGTH: Long : 138 linesby CNB