THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996 TAG: 9610240145
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letters
LENGTH: 71 lines
Election balloting is approaching and it is time for the individual voter to choose his or her version of the good guys. In our local Congressional race we have an incumbent who has a good record of constituent responsiveness, however electing someone to Congress should mean more than that. Mr. Pickett's voting record has been very liberal and partisan. In addition, he identified himself as a ``blue dog'' Democrat supporting budgets that would reduce or eliminate COLA benefits to military and federal retirees. If you belong to this community, as so many of us in Virginia Beach do, then give John Tate a chance.
On the national front, we have a question of character and if you support the traditional moral values of God, home, family and country then the choice should be obvious. The incumbent has been branded a great liar by a leading member of his own party.
Our country has been described as suffering from social rot and to prevent it from becoming terminal we should elect only people of high principles to office. The Clintons fail this test.
C.W. Carr
Oct. 4 Strawbridge says thanks
Upon attending ``Open House'' at Strawbridge Elementary, I learned that 17 of its wonderful teachers are no longer a part of the Strawbridge family. I want to bid farewell to those who have, to my surprise and dismay, transferred out of Strawbridge Elementary School.
Special heartfelt thanks are extended to Marilyn Jernigan. Your dedication and hard work have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. You have touched the lives of many students who will continue to reap benefits for many years to come.
Fondest wishes also go out to Ms. Acey, Ms. Bridge, Ms. Felch, Ms. Fulton, Ms. Girard, Mrs. Knowles-Cass, Mrs. O'Brien-Lee, Ms. Mason, Ms. Poranski, Mrs. Riley, Ms. Scerbo, Ms. Smith, Ms. Stiles, Ms. Tobin, Ms. Ware and Ms. Wooten. Their contributions and commitment to Strawbridge students will be sorely missed.
Ellen L. Zeltmann
Sept. 29 Animal rights overblown
This is in response to Bobbi A. Hoffman's letter (the Beacon, Oct. 11) who apparently cannot, like so many animal lovers, accept the fact that we humans are also animals and are overwhelmingly carnivorous by nature.
I think the cruelest, most sadistic humans on this planet are the vegetarians. Examine their behavior, their lifestyle. They tear potatoes, carrots, peanuts, etc., out of the ground while they are still alive, much like prematurely tearing a child from it's mother's womb. Then they scalp them by cutting off their green toppings while they are still transferring chlorophyll and all the other ingredients required for the plant to flourish.
If this isn't bad enough, while these traumatized vegetables are still alive they actually skin them. Even the juices, the life's blood of the plants, that run down the fingers of these insensitive brutes doesn't give them pause. Next, probably the worst of this debacle, they boil them alive. If they had vocal cords the screams of these defenseless vegetables would shatter glass.
So what is the end result? The dreaded vegetarians sit down to a table full of dead vegetables and eat them as though there were nothing wrong. Have these people no sensitivity? Don't they care? I think not! But this is not the most wretched part of this debacle. The most depressing part of all this is that when this letter is read by persons like Bobbi A. Hoffman they will more than likely start to imagine the vegetables' pain and begin to believe even this preposterous idea.
Walter S. Ingram
Oct. 11 by CNB