DATE: Friday, November 21, 1997             TAG: 9711200011

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  110 lines

LETTERS TO EDITOR -- THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

ANIMAL RIGHTS

Where the dear play

and the city folk spray

While visiting Yorktown in the late afternoon, I noticed the deer and rabbits come out of hiding and roam throughout the town and park.

One of the local residents said the town wanted to thin out the deer population for safety reasons. Rogaine might handle the only thinning problem I saw.

The population of honeybees and mosquito-eating bats has been decimated by Virginia Beach's indiscriminate spraying for mosquito control.

If we do find life form anywhere else in the cosmos, I hope the colonel's secret recipe isn't suggested.

Bill Early

PETA member

Virginia Beach, Nov. 4, 1997

CHILD CARE

Industry badly in need

of regulation

I agree completely with Kerry Dougherty's concern about the au pair industry.

In the 15 months that my husband and I had au pairs, we encountered falsified applications, lying, irresponsible child care, reckless driving of our cars and all-night partying. The so-called ``child-care training'' by the agency consisted of several hours of group instruction given in English. Many of the girls were not fluent enough to understand what was being said (mine included).

The young Europeans are recruited by agencies advertising the chance to visit America, travel extensively while living with an American family - a little baby sitting required.

American host families are recruited with promises of affordable, quality child care by experienced baby sitters, here to care lovingly for your children in your home while sharing in the American culture, not told that they will provide a youth hostel for roving young adults from abroad, here to party and keep an eye on the children if it doesn't interfere with travel and social plans.

The industry badly needs regulation. Perhaps the only good that has come out of the trial is to focus attention on a serious symptom of a growing but ignored problem - that of monitoring who will help us to care for our children.

Susan M. Kaplan

Norfolk, Nov. 8, 1997

ELECTION `97

Filipino paper

backed all 3 winners

I still cannot get over the history-making Republican sweep of the statewide offices. More surprising was how a local community newspaper successfully endorsed the winning candidates.

The Filipino Chronicle, a bi-monthly newspaper of this area's Filipino community, did the gutsy move of endorsing Gilmore, Hager and Earley as early as two weeks before the Nov. 4 elections. The founder/editor of The Filipino Chronicle is Pura O. Molina, a woman of Filipino heritage.

Ironically, The Chronicle even recommended that readers turn to other media for more information. It singled out your newspaper and stated: ``The Virginian-Pilot in particular provides extensive coverage about candidates. . Earley. Among the three, only Earley won!

Better luck next time.

John Easterling

Virginia Beach, Nov. 10, 1997

EDUCATION

Want good schools?

Make them a priority

Northampton County (pop. 13,000) has four schools: two elementary schools, which opened five years ago and a middle and a high school, each of which have had upgrades and additions over the years.

The community has saved money in every way it could, including using citizen volunteers for moving. The middle and the high schools recently were named Presidential Blue Ribbon Schools by the U.S. Deptartment of Education.

If the poorest county in the state of Virginia can have good educational infrastructure, any community can. It is a question of priorities, leadership and community commitment.

If Norview High School is as bad as The Virginian-Pilot recently reported, the deterioration did not start yesterday. Maybe the city fathers of Norfolk should have thought about it before they built Nauticus.

If classroom computers are needed, maybe they should have bought a few hundred before $300,000 was spent for Hooters.

Our communities make choices and have to live with the consequences. Do not expect the rest of Virginia to cheerfully pay for the consequences of Norfolk's or any other community's decisions.

But not to worry. If Norfolk schools are shut down by a judge for safety reasons, as recently happened in our nation's capitol, the kids will have a nice, new downtown mall to ``hang out'' in.

Colin Cowling Jr.

Eastville, Oct. 30, 1997

COMPETITION

Kodak job cuts

tell us: Buy American

Reading the Nov. 12 headlines, ``Kodak to cut 10,000 jobs,'' made it very clear to me (and I hope others) that we Americans should ``buy American'' whenever possible, even if it costs a little more. Kodak's market share of domestic film sales has fallen while Fuji's has risen, cutting deeply into Kodak's profits.

We all need to support American-made products and American businesses, and help our fellow citizens keep their jobs - not lose them to overseas companies, as all too often happens. Buy American, and be proud of it.

John O. Parmele Jr.

Virginia Beach, Nov. 12, 1997

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu