DATE: Wednesday, November 26, 1997          TAG: 9711260002

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letters

                                            LENGTH:   99 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

ANIMAL WELFARE

Humans can help reduce overcrowding in shelters

Your Nov. 13 article, ``Beach shelter finds itself awash in unwanted pets from all over,'' is very sad but highly preventable.

All of the shelters are extremely crowded, full of unwanted and uncared-for companion pets. Please get your pets spayed or neutered.

Stop feeding strays. If you can't bring the stray animal in as a pet, then help it by getting it out of the cold and away from traffic; call Animal Control.

Help the pet by getting it to a shelter so some caring person may adopt it. The pet can't find a home on the street. Do something good for the pet instead of keeping it on the street.

Visit the animal shelters in the area. Adopt a pet for life. Volunteer your time if you can't adopt.

Keith Jeter

Executive director

Portsmouth Humane Society Inc.

Portsmouth, Nov. 14, 1997

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

Equal justice for female sex offenders?

About the schoolteacher in Washington who raped a 12-year-old boy and became pregnant (news, Nov. 15):

Question No. 1. Will her name go on the Sex Offenders Registry?

Question No. 2. If it were a man who raped a 12-year-old girl, would he have received only 180 days with 100 days time served?

K. E. Blair

Virginia Beach, Nov. 17, 1997

No equal justice in these 3 cases

A man is sentenced to five years in prison for throwing a rock. Another man is charged with rape, forcible sodomy and abduction for an alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl. And a 35-year-old teacher is given six months for being impregnated by a sixth-grade boy.

Where is the justice in our society when these three articles can appear in the same paper? I wonder, had she been a man, would Mary Kay LeTourneau have gotten off so easy? The answer is no.

One aspect of our legal process that is designed to create a fair trial is that the jury is not informed of the defendant's past. This is done so that they are not biased in their decision. I ask you, was this done with the trial of Mrs. LeTourneau? Again, no.

As a society, we need to take a hard look at our legal system when we let this kind of injustice be carried out.

Janae Boucher

Virginia Beach, Nov. 15, 1997

GULF STANDOFF

Reconsider ``blowing'' Iraq off the map''

In response to Randy Chandler's Nov. 17 letter advocating blowing Iraq off the map: I understand his desire to quieten Iraq since I lived in Kuwait for 10 years and my husband was a P.O.W. for nine months in Iraq during the Persian Gulf war. However, caution should be exercised.

We do not have the right to go in and take over the oil companies, as he suggested. Maybe we showed them the technology, but we were well-paid for our efforts.

Blowing Iraq off the map is also not a good alternative since the majority of Iraqi people do not support Saddam Hussein; they are forced to show support or face death. Do you really want all these innocent people killed?

Removing Saddam from power appears to be the appropriate solution, yet there are few alternatives for leaders who could hold the various factions together. Also, a leader must be strong enough to keep Iran from making aggressive moves in the region.

I do not agree that Iraq is making a mockery out of America. Our moves are carefully planned to stabilize the entire region, not just to flex muscle. It is preferable to be diplomatic rather than barbaric, regardless of your opponent.

Tami Al-Hazza

Virginia Beach, Nov. 17, 1997

HEALTH CARE

Dock the doctors in parking lots

OK, I think I've figured out how to start solving the health-care crisis.

This crisis of ours is really nothing more than a parking problem. That's right, a parking problem.

You may have noticed that, at your hospital of choice, the doctors get all the good parking spaces, while the rest of us, the sickies, have to park many steps from where we're going.

Now don't tell me the doctors are the only ones in a big hurry - I've seen too many of them shooting the breeze in the parking lot while the patients are limping in to the hospital, where they can wait eons for the doctor while reading his out-of-date magazines.

What other profession treats the provider like he's some kind of royalty? Do your barber, your waiter at a favorite restaurant, your caddy at the country club get all the good parking spaces? We can start solving the health-care crisis by taking away the doctors' parking spaces and giving the spaces to the customers.

Let me hasten to add that my personal doctors are just great and deserve any and all privileges they desire. See you in the examining room.

Mike Beckett

Virginia Beach, Nov. 15, 1997

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