DATE: Tuesday, November 4, 1997             TAG: 9711040009

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  111 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

EDUCATION

Taxpayers shouldn't have to support colleges

I don't understand why so many people are crying about the cost of colleges in Virginia and Governor Allen's efforts to reduce the growth of taxpayer-funded school subsidies.

I graduated from Virginia Tech in 1994 and am now in graduate school at ODU. I had to work hard to go to college; now I have a decent job and am paying off my student loans. College is a choice, not an inalienable right.

Taxpayers are already overburdened, when one figures income tax, sales tax, Social Security tax, property tax, excise tax, phone tax, meals tax, fuel tax, etc. Why should taxpayers be expected to foot the bill for the schools?

Let the schools compete on the free market and charge what they will. When given the choice to sink or swim, the good schools will find a way to swim.

The efforts of the Republican Party to provide tax relief to the citizens of Virginia, while at the same time asking colleges to learn a few lessons from the free market, should be applauded.

Chip Piller

Yorktown, Oct. 19, 1997

NO APOLOGY

Jews and Farrakhan, Farrakhan and the Klan

Louis Farrakhan says he is willing to talk to Jewish leaders, but expresses an unwillingness to apologize for the untrue and hateful statements he has made about Jews and other whites.

Ku Klux Klan leaders have a history of making disturbing statements about blacks.

Is Farrakhan also willing to sit down with an unapologetic Ku Klux Klan leadership to iron out their differences?

Gaylord Swersky

Moyock, N.C., Oct. 16, 1997

NATIONAL OUTHOUSE

This is commitment to family values?

1. The government closes a Navy chapel (Chapel in The Woods) to save $9,000 annually.

2. The government builds an outhouse in Delaware National Park; cost, $330,000.

3. Most election campaigns appear to be based on the nominees' views on abortion.

4. Vice President Gore praises Ellen for coming out of the closet, saying, ``It forces us to take a look at our own sexuality.''

We know ours!

Where is the administration that spoke so highly of family values during the past presidential campaign?

We are Christians - attend church - oppose most abortions and know that homosexuality is a sin.

May God have mercy on our country and its people.

Ed and Sharon Alderman

Virginia Beach, Oct. 17, 1997

VIRGINIA BEACH

Vision for the future requires plan, action

The Oct. 25 Pilot heralds the City Council's new plan for the city of Virginia Beach. The article quotes a planning expert who warns that without a plan, future councils will face hard times.

Does the current council care what future councils will face? Has it cared about the past? A case in point is the foot-dragging over the dredging of the Western Branch of the Lynnhaven River, where we are taxed at the deep-water rate as the waterway silts at an annual rate easily seen by the eye. Where is council's concern for our property value and its very own tax base? As we prepare to pay $12,000 to $22,000 per household for our own dredging, the city is in a dispute with the commonwealth after years of work obtaining federal approvals for the dredge project.

Another case in point has to do with poor planning, development and maintenance of the Owls Creek-Rudee Inlet area. City dredge equipment numbers one unit, and it has maintenance problems. Where is the planning?

I challenge City Council to prove the seriousness of its new intentions and to implement a logical and comprehensive plan.

Peggy Reagan

Virginia Beach, Oct. 26, 1997

MILITARY

Undies photograph insulted military women

I am delighted with the opening of the Military Women's Memorial and that women service members are finally getting the recognition they deserve.

However, being an Army veteran and a woman, I was insulted by a photograph in the Oct. 19 Daily Break showing women's underwear in the article titled ``Women on Board.''

I understand that privacy is an issue in the military - it always has been. If I had wanted complete privacy, I would not have joined the military in the first place.

There are so many other wonderful and inspiring aspects of being a woman service member that you pictured, but this specific photo was just another slap in the face. Thanks a lot for continuing to stereotype women and for leaving us ``hung out to dry!''

Marilyn Y. Green

Virginia Beach, Oct. 20, 1997

CRIME

Thanks for the primer on antifreeze murder

I thought your Oct. 23 article on the antifreeze murder case was irresponsible. Now the whole Hampton Roads area knows how to poison someone with antifreeze.

What about when kids get ahold of that information and use it on other kids or adults they don't like? My point: Think before you print. The general public did not need all the specifics of that case.

Helen Hawk

Virginia Beach, Oct. 24, 1997

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