DATE: Friday, October 3, 1997               TAG: 9710020018

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  132 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR -THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

CAMPAIGN '97

Exhibition-ists?

I returned to my hometown for a weekend visit. I have been living out of state for a long time, so I was not familiar with the race for governor in Virginia. It did strike me, however, as selfish, even obscene, to see, repeatedly plastered on large, expensive and wasteful vehicles like the Ford Exhibition, the bumper sticker: ``NO CAR TAX - GILMORE.''

John Marshall

Carrboro, N.C., Sept. 28, 1997

TELEVISION

Put value, not

vengeance, in cartoons

My son enjoys the Sunday-morning cartoons. One Sunday he was watching a cartoon about a group of characters wrongly accused of a crime. Suddenly I heard my husband say, ``Jerkface? Wow, that's something real nice to put on Sunday-morning television.''

At that point, I became engrossed in the cartoon. Much to my dismay, along with the name-calling, there were dishonesty, hatred and avengement.

If everyone is so concerned about youth crime rates, why do we allow this sort of television? Yes, my son is only 2 1/2, but he responds to what he learns. I would like to think that I could let him watch Sunday-morning cartoons without having to worry about him saying to his friend, ``I hate you, jerkface.'' Even more, I worry about any program that teaches that vengeance is acceptable.

We need education and values on television, not hatred, vengeance and violence.

Bonnie Day Greene

Chesapeake, Sept. 24, 1997

VIRGINIA BEACH

Lack of training is

behind police charges

I am writing in response to the unfair (and suspicious) treatment that the Virginia Beach police officers are receiving for a shooting that they were involved in six months ago. The Commonwealth's Attorney cleared all the officers from any wrongdoing, but the city is punishing them to cover up inept training.

I spent 10 years with the Virginia Beach Police Department and just medically retired with honors as a master police officer. In my tenure as a police officer I received only 15 minutes of training on ``Shoot-Don't Shoot'' situations.

One of the charges that the department is making against these officers is the handling of the pursuit. This is yet another area that the department lacks in training. Police officers in Virginia Beach, if they're lucky, have eight hours or less of high-speed police pursuit training in their entire careers.

Another area of concern is that the officers involved in the shooting didn't properly handle the shooting situation. But the fact is that these officers only received eight hours a year of range time to shoot his weapon. Yet the officers are expected to know how to handle these situations as they arise.

Common sense dictates that when you take into account the total lack of training provided to the City's officers that you eventually will have a situation like the one that occurred six months ago. How many more of these situations is it going to take for City Council to open their eyes?

Brendhan B. Harris

Chesapeake, Sept. 25, 1997

HANDGUNS

Let readers arm

themselves with facts

On Sept. 26, Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a California bill that would have banned the manufacture and sale of inexpensive handguns, saying: ``Not only does the bill fail to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, it will deprive law-abiding, legitimate gun users of the needed protection of handguns. Common sense dictates that the best way to prevent gun crimes is by first removing from society the criminals who use guns in the commission of a crime.''

This significant news has been missing from the pages of The Virginian-Pilot, as are most stories or news items that might validate the need of law-abiding people to own and possess firearms.

Give us the facts, please, to form our own opinions.

Robert Marcus

Portsmouth, Sept. 28, 1997

CONCERT

Chrysler Hall milieu

was a disappointment

We were thrilled when our sister, who lives in Virginia Beach, obtained tickets for us to attend the Burt Bacharach concert on Sept. 20. We feel, however, that we must take exception to Sue VanHecke's review of the event (``Bacharach's hit parade pleases Chrysler crowd,'' Sept. 22).

This was our first visit to Chrysler Hall and may very well be our last. The level of performance may have been great but, from our perspective, this could not be ascertained.

Our seats were at the back row of the balcony, affording a panoramic view of the stage and little else. It is generally expected that the cooling system could maintain a temperature in the comfort zone - such was not the case on Saturday evening. As for the sound reinforcement, a 1930s AM radio would seem to be high-fidelity by comparison. The singers and spoken commentary were unintelligible.

In our opinion, the evening would have been much better spent listening to Mr. Bacharach's music from a recording, at home. Surely, Norfolk is capable of providing a facility more worthy of the artists who perform there.

Helen and Goodwin Hart

Hendersonville, N.C.

Margaret Griffin

Jacksonville, Fla., Sept. 23, 1997

LAW & MEDICINE

Don't blame MDs

for legal lunacy

In response to Ann Sjoerdsma's Sept. 22 column regarding the severed-hand case of Thomas Passmore:

Ms. Sjoerdsma implies that the surgeons involved didn't do ``whatever is humanly possible'' to help the patient. She also says, ``The surgeon chose to consider Passmore competent.''

May I remind Ms. Sjoerdsma, an attorney, that competency in this regard is very much a legal, not a medical, definition? She chooses not to even address the responsibilities of the Circuit Court judge who advised the surgeon not to operate, since he could then be legitimately sued for battery, or the responsibilities of the legislators who made and passed the law.

We live in an era when, as physicians, our autonomy and ability to make decisions regarding our patients is being eroded on an almost daily basis in favor of courts, HMOs and insurance companies. So, yes, it is terribly, terribly sad that this man no longer has his hand, but lay the blame where it belongs - not on those of us who chose to devote our lives to healing the sick, but on the idiotic, law-suit crazed legal situation in this country that was created by the American public's personal irresponsibility and greed.

I suspect that in the old days, any surgeon worth his salt would have declared the man insane, reattached his hand and been done with it.

Neil Pugach, M.D.

Chesapeake, Sept. 22, 1997

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