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

DATE: SUNDAY, July 4, 1993                   TAG: 9307070430
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

NATIONAL TRAIT: SELFISHNESS

YOUR COLUMNIST Paxton Davis will never achieve popularity with Virginia's blue-nose reactionaries. But he was right on target with his June 25 column, " `Taxophobia' is not a national virtue."

Greed and selfishness have gained respectability in this country. Attitudes that we should be ashamed of are proudly proclaimed by those complaining of having to pay taxes.

Naturally, it's their own taxes these folks are mostly complaining about - I suspect they're much less concerned with the other guy's. Of course, our less scrupulous politicians are quick to make hay of what appears to be a national trait.

Meanwhile, farmers must have their subsidies, veterans and old folks are protective of their benefits, business and industry wrangle government contracts, Texans promote their space station and super-collider, and we all demand better schools and highways, more police and bigger jails.

Plus, there's a little matter of a multi-trillion-dollar debt we've managed to run up recently.

Very perceptive column, Paxton. But don't expect unanimous acclaim from this constituency. BILL WOODS BEDFORD

by CNB