---

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993                   TAG: 9304020455
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

---

`HEROIC' HAS BEEN GARRISON'S STRUGGLE

WHAT PROVOCATIVE juxtapositions: Wild, irrational spitting on the car window in Wasena Park on one side of the March 24 Virginia section, and the mean-spirited endorsements of long-outmoded stereotypes regarding homosexuality on the other side.

I have known Sam Garrison since his days as Roanoke commonwealth attorney. "Heroic" is not too strong a word to describe his long, and finally successful, struggle to rebuild his life. I am proud to call him a friend.

I read Ed Shamy with alternating pleasure, amazement and dismay. For the most part, I resonate to his reactions to the disorder, injustices, ironies and numbing trivia of much of human life. So I was not prepared for what was uncovered in his column. I pray for his recovery, nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the attitude exposed by Roanoke lawyer William Poff in the story, "Garrison reinstated as lawyer," remains all too predictable, distressing and familiar. JOHN A. SABEAN CHRISTIANSBURG

---