THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410130010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Your recent letters and editorial comments regarding Oliver North are quite enlightening and should perhaps have been moved to your front page.
I am a Republican and a military officer, but you would never find me voting for the likes of Mr. North.
Are people aware of his backing by the big machine and that his blue-jean-good-ole-boy ads are a ruse?
Do your readers know of his opportunistic values, that he puts self above country and that he dumped his integrity as an entrusted public servant in the military, willfully breaking the spirit and the letter of the law?
Nuremburg taught us that Nazi officers could not use lame and spineless pointing of blame toward superiors. Mr. North never had what it takes to be leader enough to stand up and admit to his wrongdoing.
Many people trusted North and subsequently paid dearly; do unaware Virginians also want to trust such a person?
Ask Anglican envoy Terry Waite.
Ask families of the 269 Marines killed in Beirut.
Ask Father Jenco.
It makes me sick to see North declare his integrity in the media, using military-fitness reports as support; military officers know the absolute value of these reports, and that they serve as a relative competitive comparison only.
It embarrasses me to hear of some of my military compatriots naively considering a straight-ticket vote. As much as I would like to see a Republican Capitol Hill, I could not vote for a criminal who abandoned his office for selfish advance. Military and civilian residents alike should closely research the records before they knee-jerk a shallow charismatic into office.
I know that the alternatives are difficult, but think about it.
TOM BUTTE
Norfolk, Oct. 10, 1994 by CNB