THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 19, 1997 TAG: 9702190010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 112 lines
CONGRESS
Support the balanced-budget amendment
Congress should approve and we all should resoundingly support the balanced-budget amendment. The president's plan to balance the budget by 2002 is admirable. However, we have collectively shown over the past three decades that we cannot maintain a balanced budget.
The time is right for solid public debate on the correct long-term solution for Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. The public understands and appreciates when tough choices are based on sound and rational decision-making, but we resent decisions made for political expediency.
For this amendment to be dismissed as a needless act of rewriting the Constitution treats this whole issue as insignificant. Congress must do what is right for our country and approve the balanced-budget amendment.
Howie Lind
Virginia Beach, Feb. 11, 1997
ENVIRONMENT
Take clean air seriously
Thank you for publishing Bob Herbert's Feb. 11 column on clean air. Hampton Roads civic leaders and city planners need to get serious about promoting measures and finding real solutions to reduce air pollution in our cities. Mass transit must be a focal point.
Our area is blessed with ocean breezes, which clean our air but waft our auto and industry emissions to other cities, countries or that ever-expanding hole in the atmosphere. Rather than allowing our bad air to end up in someone else's back yard, a community of our size should be far along in the implementation of mass-transit measures to reduce the congestion and pollution attributable to our car-burdened society.
If we aren't willing and able to find viable options to our automobiles, then we will leave a legacy of lowered quality of life and health to our future generations.
Mary Ann Welch
Chesapeake, Feb. 12, 1997
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Teen abortion not about ``women''
In a pair of articles Feb. 9 on parental notification, The Virginian-Pilot has once again disappointed me with its lack of journalistic integrity. Why is it that an article on parental notification quotes pro-abortion groups (the Alan Guttmacher Institute and the ACLU) and those who profit from abortion (Planned Parenthood and a local abortionist) but contains no input from a parent?
The Virginian-Pilot has attempted to turn parental notification into a ``women's issue'' when it is actually a matter of parents' responsibility for their minor children. In all other areas, the law holds my husband and me completely responsible for our daughter's welfare. Why is it that she needs our permission to receive a shot from the family doctor but can undergo this particular surgery without our knowledge?
The experts quoted by The Virginian-Pilot state that ``teens can make good choices,'' but a pregnant teenager has already made an irresponsible choice. Of course, a girl in this position will find it embarrassing to admit this to her parents, but seeking their help is the most responsible thing she can do.
While there are aberrations, the truth is that most parents are loving and supportive. Our laws cannot assume the aberration, but must support those responsible parents who are the norm.
Lucy J. Schemel
Norfolk, Feb. 10, 1997
LITERATURE
Proud of Huck and Jim for maturity
Thank you, Guy Friddell, for standing up for Huckleberry Finn (column, Feb. 4) As a child, I moved with my family to California where everything was integrated. Upon returning to Virginia in 1940, it was frustrating to see that even to going in a drugstore a black person had to go in the kitchen door, and would not dare sit down on a bus, though seats were empty, unless it was the back of the bus. Separate water fountains, separate side on the Portsmouth-Norfolk ferry and, of course, separate restrooms.
In the '60s while taking credit courses at William and Mary Extension (now ODU) we were given this book to read in English 101. I can remember realizing how profound and truly religious this book was and received an A in my review because of my enthusiasm. Huck's prejudice reminded me of my own, developed not by parents but by osmosis or whatever causes youth to look to their peers for behavior patterns. My life in California changed all that, just as Huck's running away with a runaway slave changed his.
Blacks should be proud of Jim. Whites should be proud that Huck matured out of his prejudice.
Virginia Hutchinson
Virginia Beach, Feb. 9, 1997
PARENTING
Parents, it's your turn to take charge
The recent announcement that school principals, teachers and central administrators will be held more accountable for low achievement by students is encouraging to those who have long been concerned by the lack of knowledge to be found in high school graduates.
And now, what about making parents more accountable? Many children will not learn and prevent others in their class from learning because the parents failed to train the child properly. Give our teachers good raw material (properly raised children) and they will create a beautiful, learned, mature, responsible individual, but don't expect the teacher to ``make a silk purse from a sow's ear.''
J. R. Merritt
Norfolk, Feb. 11, 1997