DATE: Saturday, March 15, 1997              TAG: 9703150006

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  136 lines

LETTERS TO EDITOR -- THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

LEGISLATORS

3 left out

in funding quest

Your March 3 editorial, ``Hard-earned money,'' gave credit to several area legislators for fighting for and getting increased funding for Old Dominion University.

However, I was surprised to learn that Del. William P. Robinson Jr. of Norfolk, a member of the House Appropriations Committee; Del. Jerrauld Jones, a member of the House Finance Committee; and Sen. Yvonne Miller, all Democrats and members of the Norfolk legislative delegation, did not enjoy the accolades bestowed upon their fellow colleagues. Are you saying that the trio made no contribution to ODU's success in this year's General Assembly session? To omit their names was a slap in the face to the African Americans in the delegation.

Willie L. Brown

Chesapeake, March 7, 1997

EDUCATION

No funding equity

for Norfolk State

Last Saturday evening I viewed a General Assembly wrap-up on Cox Channel 11.

Host Irvine Hill's guests were House Speaker Thomas W. Moss Jr. and Del. George H. Heilig, both Norfolk representatives. Much praise was given to Old Dominion University and its president by Mr. Moss. He also told how he and Mr. Heilig had assisted the Norfolk campus of Tidewater Community College gain additional funding. They explained that although Eastern Virginia Medical School and Chrysler Museum are not state agencies, they were being assisted by the state.

I am quite amazed and disturbed that not once did either man mention what had been done to assist Norfolk State Unversity this year. For the past several years, NSU has appealed to the state for equity in funding. The same plea was made this year and only $300,000 of the $2.6 million needed was awarded.

Meanwhile, Mr. Moss and Mr. Heilig reported that ODU received more than any other school, including over $1.4 million.

Why wasn't Norfolk State, which has been seeking funding equity for years, considered in the same manner as ODU? More importantly, why is it that NSU is not even mentioned by local legislators in the same breath as ODU, the community college, EVMS and Chrysler Museum?

Eleanor Bell

Virginia Beach, March 10, 1997

TRANSPORTATION

Why Average Al

won't ride the rails

The people sitting on the boards of Conrail and Norfolk-Southern have no identification with ``Average Albert.''

Average Albert leaves his house, his screeching wife, his whimpering kids, gets in his car and drives proudly and assertively to work. His car is not transportation to work. He can ride the train, ride the bus, commute with a carpool, if all he wanted was transportation.

Average Al is the king of his car! He feels a tremendous surge of freedom as he backs out his driveway. He sets his route, he sets his speed. He picks his road, he chooses his lane. He berates the slow dummy in front of him and, with a tremendous sense of personal power, he whips around him (her) and roars down the road. He is the boss!

Average Al can go fast, he can go slow. He can drive in the slow lane or the fast lane. He can demonstrate his manliness by courteously yielding to that old lady (or that sexy girl). He can decide when he'll arrive, where he's bound.

What is jamming every street in America? What is dangerously congesting every road and highway? It's Average Al driving alone by the millions.

Poor Al. He takes orders from his boss and his wife. He is well aware that life is a burden; paying for his house, paying for that car, paying for his kids' education.

But it all goes out the window when he revs that sweet motor, rips out his driveway and takes off on his freedom trip and power-drive.

Do the light-rail promoters think they'll get Al out of his car?

Harry Luman

Virginia Beach, March 7, 1997

ROAD SAFETY

. . . and don't block

the left lane, either

I read with great interest ``When Talk's Not Cheap'' (editorial, Feb. 15) and agree wholeheartedly. It's not that cellular phones don't have their place within a vehicle, but that place isn't while the vehicle is in motion.

Plenty of drivers on our highways have a hard enough time paying attention to what is going on around them without the added distraction of a telephone conversation. There isn't anybody whose schedule is so busy they can't take a few minutes to pull off to the side of the road and converse on their phone, if that's their desire.

As an added note of fairness, it isn't always a cell phone talker who is holding up traffic in the fast/passing lane. A number of people think that lane is theirs alone. The last I knew, the left lane was to be a passing lane unless there wasn't approaching traffic from behind. If there was, then the driver was supposed to move to the right and let traffic pass.

There is a popular song being played around Tidewater at the present time called ``Here's Your Sign.'' Plenty of drivers need a sign reading, ``Hey, dummy, move over. You're holding up traffic.''

Bill Brewster

Virginia Beach, March 6, 1997

HEALTH

Breast-cancer views

are a setback

The March 10 column on mammograms and breast cancer has probably negated much of the work done over the past 10 years by volunteers like myself, breast cancer survivors, who are attempting to spare their sisters and, yes, brothers, from going through the rigors of treatment for advanced breast cancer.

If Ms. Sjoerdsma finds the thought of examining her own breasts so repugnant, perhaps she could persuade her ``significant other'' to undertake the task for her - ``SOs'' often do find lumps for their partners. The statistics quoted are quite accurate, as are the statements that breast self-examination and mammograms are not fool-proof. But for the time being, they, along with yearly clinical exams by a physician, are the best we have.

I wish that I and my physician had been armed with the knowledge I now have 12 or 14 or 16 years ago. Perhaps if we had known, my disease would have been caught eariler, the treatments I had to undergo would have been less drastic. I was 48 when I was finally diagnosed with breast cancer, which had probably been present for eight to 10 years.

Maybe we should also throw out PAP smears, HIV testing, TB testing and testicular examinations for men - the incidences of the diseases found through those tests are far lower than breast cancer. Or am I missing some logic here? Of course, we could always just hide in the closet and hope that the bogyman won't find us.

Betty Busciglio

American Cancer Society

Regional Breast Cancer CORE

Team leader (volunteer)

Virginia Beach, March 12, 1997

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