THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9504270159
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Consider this my note of appreciation regarding the addition of Damon Tatem's fishing column in the North Carolina News section of The Virginian-Pilot. I live in the Colington area, and my morning ritual is enhanced daily thanks to home delivery of The Pilot. As rituals go, I save the best for last, and the North Carolina section serves nicely.
Damon's column restricts itself to the Outer Banks, which suits me fine 'cause I'm not going outside the area anyway. Plus, his articles are timely and focused. I enjoy reading of what was landed the day or so before while I was somewhere else.
Tom Reed
Kill Devil Hills The violence goes on
Fifty-three years ago, the home in which I lived in the east end of London was bombed. My parents, an older brother and I were in the basement of that house when the bomb struck. We were rescued while the house burned around us and bombs continued to fall. A burning beam fell on us and set fire to my hair.
I spent my early years playing in the debris of corporate-sponsored violence and failed political reason. As I enter my senior years, I am still repulsed by the smell of burning hair, and loud bangs make me cringe in a terror long remembered.
There are those in our society for whom the concept of violence as a means of gaining political recognition is acceptable. These people distort the meaning and intent of our Constitution to their own ends and totally ignore the rights of the majority. Corporate entities create and support quasi-political groups who promote the distorted views of the violent minorities. Individuals cry from the narrow platform of political and historical ignorance for the right to carry guns in defense of individual rights over the rights of the majority. So-called right-wing conservatives preach the dogma of violent retribution for those who do not support their view of the world. Self-styled religious leaders pervert the teachings of our gods in order to line their pockets and promote their own political agendas. And still the violence goes on.
All my life I have been a lover of peace. I have endured insult and personal abuse for the belief that no man has a right to commit violence upon another for the sake of a political difference. But I will spend the rest of my life in defense of that love. No government has a right to commit young men and women to a course of violence in the belief that violence is a solution to poor political decisions. No individual has a right to force violent political views on the majority. No corporate group, however powerful, has the right to force its own agenda on the whole people. No one should suffer violence because of the beliefs of others.
Those in our society who choose to believe that political violence is honorable need to sit for a whiile in the shell of a bombed building and listen to the ghosts. They should hold the hand of a dying child while its mother grieves. They should work with the rescuers in the acrid stench of decaying corpses while they struggle, desperate to find one more survivor. If they did any of these things, then perhaps future generations of children, the children of our children and our grandchildren, will not have to endure the horror of unnecessary violence perpetrated by ignorant, self-obsessed, misguided idealists.
Terry S. Gannon
Kill Devil Hills 'Does not understand'
According to Dare County Commissioner Clarence Skinner, anyone who criticizes the six Dare County officials who recently enjoyed (suffered through?) a sojourn at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, ``just does not understand.''
I hereby confess to being one of those benighted taxpayers who does not understand:
Why six people had to go to the conference. Was the information dispensed there too heavy for one to carry?
Why they had to stay at the Trump Taj Mahal, the conference center, when presumably less costly accommodations could have been found at, say, a motor lodge nearby. If the meeting had been held at the Greenville Econo Lodge, would all six have found it necessary to go?
Why it is necessary for anyone to attend conferences like this in an age of instant multimedia communication? Is the county fax machine out of order?
What could the delegation possibly have learned about hurricanes that justify their junket?
Perhaps the public information officer could spell it out for us a little better next time he's in town.
John Dough
Nags Head Thanks from ECSU
Thank you for your support of Elizabeth City State University's Media Careers '95. The workshop, held for high school journalists and advisers of northeastern North Carolina, was most successful, thanks in part to your support and contribution.
Sue Maloney
Co-chair of Media Careers '95
Elizabeth City State University by CNB