DATE: Thursday, October 16, 1997            TAG: 9710160007

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B14  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  114 lines

LETTERS TO EDITOR -- THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

PROMISE KEEPERS

NOW makes noise,

doesn't understand

I am an Episcopal priest and a Promise Keeper. I was at the Stand in the Gap Rally in Washington Oct. 4. I subscribe to ``A New Man,'' the PK magazine, and I attend a PK Bible study.

And I want to say that NOW hasn't a clue what it is talking about. I have noticed, however, that it has a small presence at nearly every rally. For example, in St. Petersburg, Fla., four NOW members were there with banners; there were over 49,000 men, yet they got nearly equal press coverage. In Dallas NOW hired a plane to fly over the stadium with the following message: ``Promise Keepers, Whiners and Weepers.''

Promise Keepers is all about spiritual revival. It identifies spiritual leadership with servanthood and not power. It has broken down many walls between denominations and races, and it is leading to a deeper understanding between the sexes, to more effective communication and, above all, to reconciliation. It is bringing families back together again.

If it continues, it will bring about such a profound change in our society that those who use their rhetoric to generate hate, suspicion and misunderstanding will find themselves out of a job; this, I believe, is what NOW fears.

The Rev. Brian C. Hobden

Saint John's Episcopal Church

Portsmouth, Oct. 8, 1997

What is NOW

doing for women?

In response to the Oct. 6 letter from Mary Roberson of the National Organization for Women: The jury is still out on the Promise Keepers organization, although I have not yet been offended by anything I have read. The same cannot be said for her organization, I'm afraid.

As a woman of this nation, I have some questions for NOW: Who are you? What percentage of your membership is rich, white and lesbian vs. the nation's average woman? What do you do for elderly women, who are daily subjected to physical and financial abuses? What do you do for welfare recipients, mostly women, who are scrambling to become self-sufficient?

Never mind Promise Keepers, which seems only to be a huge support group for Christian men trying to improve themselves. What have you done for me lately?

Jennifer J. E. Gaissert

Virginia Beach, Oct. 8, 1997

FIREARMS

Police `training''

a scary example

On Oct. 7, you had a very informative and unbiased article about concealed weapons and the weapons law in Virginia. The article quoted Alice Mountjoy, president of Virginians Against Handgun Violence, as saying she would like a return to the old law and that police officers get extensive and ongoing training in the use of their firearms (unlike private citizens, I suppose).

Then, in the Oct. 8 article about the shooting of Bruce Quagliato, a Virginia Beach police officer is quoted as saying, ``It was a total mess. We're lucky we didn't shoot each other.'' One officer shot the car he was hiding behind four times, and others sent bullets whizzing past officers in front of them.

Let's hope that the 8,500 concealed-permit holders in Hampton Roads don't go to the same school where Virginia Beach sends its officers. Now that is a scary thought.

William C. Rushing

Portsmouth, Oct. 8, 1997

Gun control isn't

an antidote for crime

After reading the blatant misrepresentations of Alice Mountjoy (``The Second Amendment protects the gun lobby,'' Another View, Oct. 10), I had to respond.

Handgun Control and other such groups have a not-so-hidden agenda: to ban all firearms. Since the truth doesn't usually support their goals, they stoop to ersatz studies and biased polling.

``Dangerous consumer products'' is the newest catch phrase of these organizations. Firearms manufactured and sold in this country work the way they are designed and with an unusually high degree of quality. Automobiles are much more dangerous, but the danger has been greatly reduced through education. If Virginians Against Handgun Violence were so worried about firearm safety, it seems to me that they would join us in our educational programs. Instead, they vehemently oppose us.

A good rebuttal to Ms. Mountjoy's article came from The Virginian-Pilot on the same day. In every state that has adopted concealed-carry laws similar to ours, violent crime has dropped. With other crime-control measures like community policing, truth in sentencing, three-strikes you're out and the death penalty, ordinary citizens are starting to feel safe again.

Thomas W. Reilly

Chesapeake, Oct. 10, 1997

TAX DEPT.

New phone system

helps us serve more

I read with dismay Andrew Kline's Sept. 23 Another View regarding the erosion of customer service in state agencies. One of the examples cited was the Department of Taxation's telephone system. As Virginia's tax commissioner, I take strong exception to Mr. Kline's remarks.

Excellence in customer service has been a focus for this agency, and we have made substantial progress. The installation of our automated system to route telephone calls, combined with better training for our staff and better management of our call center, has enabled us to serve a much larger number of customers. Between 1994 and 1996, we increased the number of walk-in customers served by 27.4 percent, we responded to 8.3 percent more pieces of correspondence and we handled 46.8 percent more telephone calls.

The automated call-routing system to which Mr. Kline objects is a staple of nearly every large organization's call center. This system is not designed to ``filter out as many people as possible'' but rather to improve service efficiency by directing calls appropriately.

While I regret that Mr. Kline's experience was not satisfactory, I strongly believe that he is the exception.

Danny M. Payne

Norfolk, Oct. 1, 1997

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