THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 4, 1996 TAG: 9610030179
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letters
LENGTH: 129 lines
Coming around the curve on Great Neck Road, going toward Virginia Beach Boulevard, I find a compact car, engine ablaze! It's parked alone in front of a convenience store with customers and employees watching anxiously from inside.
I pull into the parking lot, jump out and hand motion to those inside to see if they had already phoned for help. ``Yes,'' they nod.
Approaching the car apprehensively, I dart inside to check with the car's owner to see if the car is set in park. (To roll it away from the building.) Of course, it is.
A few seconds later one of Virginia Beach's ``finest'' pulls into the parking lot and I'm forewarning him he'll need a fire extinguisher. Moments later, a second officer arrives, and I advise, ``a second extinguisher would probably be helpful!''
Two fire extinguishers later, the fire is still going strong and I'm thinking. . . ``fuel lines'' and take off running to find a third fire extinguisher at a nearby restaurant.
Another empty fire extinguisher and the fire is no less out.
Running toward the gas station on the corner, I holler for a fourth extinguisher.
One of the mechanics replies, ``We've given out two or three fire extinguishers in the past and not gotten them back. What do you want me to do?''
My reply, quite urgently, is: ``Give me an extinguisher! Unless you want to be a part of something worse happening!''
His reply. . . ``I'm sorry, unless you can guarantee it (the extinguisher) will be recharged, I can't give it out.''
Meanwhile, back at the parking lot, the officers are reassuring bystanders, ``The fire department will be here shortly.''
This isn't about me. It's an example of the non-involvement, attitude-driven obnoxiousness we are faced with daily in our society!
I only hope that the guy at the corner never needs help from some stranger.
Fortunately, the fire department did take care of the fire and nobody was hurt.
Ed Kroft
Sept. 25 Pennies can go a long way to help the needy
In testimony before a Congressional subcommittee on July 16, a Government Accounting Office representative reported on the ``Future of the Penny: Options for Congressional Consideration.''
One of GAO's interesting conclusions was that the penny ``is used mainly to make change in our monetary system and generally is not returned to circulation after its initial receipt by the public.'' The GAO's analysis shows that over 65 percent of pennies given in change are not put back in circulation and as a result the government ultimately spends about $106 million annually to produce and circulate an additional 13.5 billion pennies. Washington needs to decide what to do about the penny and its future is unclear.
Well, for the last few years, the Virginia Beach Department of Social Services has been raising funds through bake sales, flea markets and raffles to assist low-income persons needing medical prescriptions. Funding for prescriptions comes from two primary sources: donations and fund-raisers. One of their fund-raisers includes the collection of ``Pennies for Prescriptions.'' Many local organizations and churches have helped by setting up large jars to collect pennies and then turn them over to the Social Services staff.
I think that one way we can help locally is for more of us (and our groups and associations) to set up a collection jar for Pennies for Prescriptions and get those pennies back in circulation. If enough of our citizens help with this effort, we may even eventually reduce the national government's need to replace some of those sitting around in desk drawers, in penny banks and weighing down pocketbooks. Let's all help in this worthy campaign. It just takes pennies.
Laurence E. Moulis
Sept. 27 Cruelty to animals found in various forms in our community
We haven't seen Moose lately - a large, handsome black Muscovy duck who ``adopted'' our neighborhood. Hand raised by a wildlife group volunteer, he is quite docile and receptive to us humans. Moose fits the description of ``Elvis'' as noted in your article ``One Really Lucky Duck'' (The Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 27). Being sociable, he's the kind to waddle up to anyone. . . even someone with an arrow gun.
Your writer refers to a ``chain of cruelty'' with the evil acts at Linkhorn and King's Grant. Often people shake their heads and say, ``Oh, gotta be kids.'' But the chain of cruelty to animals is often more subtle and we send out these messages in various ways:
Like the guy who kicks his dog; the individual who shoots mallards with a BB gun because they foul his swimming pool; the young boy driving with his father who runs over a cat and leaves it writhing in agony in the street; the couple who trap a raccoon and drown it in retaliation for supposedly killing their pet rabbit, which freely roamed their back yard; the family who doesn't take their beagle to the vet for treatment of a broken leg after it falls out of a second-story window; the bumper sticker ``Missing your cat? Look under my wheels.''
Public outrage against these malicious duck attacks demonstrates that our community still maintains a level of decency. But, let's not overlook the less obvious forms of cruelty to animals which can occur on a day-to-day basis.
Caroline S. Oliver
Sept. 27
Abortion vote exemplifies how far we have fallen
Today, Congress failed by nine votes to repudiate President Clinton's veto of Late Term Abortion Prohibition thus allowing the ``Abortion OK in the Ninth Month Even if the Baby is Alive and Well Policy'' to stand.
Our senators split along moral lines, predictably Robb agreeing with sleazy Bill, and Warner voting to override the veto.
Today, it is official that the home of the free and the brave has become the capital of Sodom and Gomorrah, thus further vexing mainline Americans.
In 1973, the Supreme Court decided that life did not start at conception and that even if it did, it was not meaningful and was, therefore, expendable. Since the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision we have terminated the lives of over 30 million babies. Their sacrifice has been unwarranted, but women of choice have consistently justified their acts and pointed out that rape or incest may have occurred, thus dulling society's senses.
Today, we have absolutely no justification or excuse for our acts because we are assisting a pregnant woman's primitive right to take life on the very day of delivery. We are ordaining and giving our approval to legalized wholesale murder of viable human life, not at conception, but at the time of life.
We are proving to all that the most dangerous place for a baby to be in America is in its mother's womb. So much for the sanctity of motherhood, and the grace of God that used to cover our land.
Annabell Ruffin
Sept. 27 by CNB