Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 26, 1993 TAG: 9310150328
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Who oversees and evaluates the effectiveness of these large expenditures?
Do the magnet programs successfully deliver the promised educational opportunities promoted in the brochures?
How soon will the schools be ready? Are new teaching positions being created? Does the federal grant provide for teacher salaries, or must these funds come from an already strained local-school budget?
How do teachers feel about the magnet programs? How many federal tax dollars trickle down to them? How many students have benefited? How (if at all) have such programs affected the dropout rate? How well are the magnet programs being implemented?
How many students are, in fact, being attracted to the Fleming-Ruffner Magnet Program who otherwise would attend county schools? (Is this really the most effective way to achieve the racial balance intended?)
As one who has seen the system from the inside, I urge a more thorough and reasoned investigation of this entire educational approach.
ELLEN A. BROWN
ROANOKE
Women need medical data
AS A WOMAN with breast cancer in her family history, I am grateful to Mike Farris for informing me of the possible link between abortion and breast cancer. It is not, as Don Beyer said, ``Grabbing at straws,'' or a ``political extreme to impose one's religious views on all women.'' It has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with giving women all the information possible to help them make wise, personal health decisions.
It seems that in every other area of health, great pains are taken by doctors (partly because of malpractice concerns) to give every scrap of information and risk involved to the patient. For example, during my last pregnancy, I was informed of a 1 percent chance that my baby would have Down's Syndrome. (That's 99 percent chance that it wouldn't!) If the medical community is going to inform patients of that kind of data, should it not also reveal data from 20 separate studies (some as early as 1960) showing at least a 50 percent increase in breast cancer among women who have had abortions?
I appreciate Farris' respect of women, in that he actually believes women are intelligent enough to process medical data themselves and come to their own conclusions.
EMILY HAMILTON
ROANOKE
Theater reviews lack depth
MANY CITIZENS depend upon the Roanoke Times & World-News for accurate and prompt reporting of news, commentary and entertainment. In nearly every department, I would give the paper an A+.
In particular, I speak to your arts-and-entertainment reporters. I have found most of them to be right on target most of the time.
Mike Mayo is, obviously, well-qualified to present accurate insights in the film industry (although I have enjoyed some of his ``dogs''). A rave review by Dolores Kostelni guarantees a visit to that restaurant, and Seth Williamson's music reviews are helpful in understanding the music scene. Ditto with your pop concert reviews, art critiques and book reviews.
Theater reviews, however, are a different story. This summer, I read, with great interest three reviews by Karen Davis: ``42nd Street,'' ``Foxfire'' (Mill Mountain) and ``Follies'' (Showtimers). Only in ``Foxfire'' did I get a glimpse of the nature of the characters. In each review, I read a synopsis of the story (two of which I already knew, and the other I would have preferred to see unfold before me).
Those many elements that constitute good theater were totally missing. How convincing or engaging were the actors? Was the show cast well and balanced? Was it paced well? Did the jokes fall flat? What about costuming, lighting, sets, props, special effects, blocking?
And what about the music? Two of these shows are among the greatest musical hits of this century. The music, which is the vehicle for these shows, was not even mentioned!
Was there an orchestra? A chorus? Dancing? Were the singers great or awful? How did these performances compare with the Broadway production, the road show or a dinner theater in Des Moines? Was the performance riveting or dull?
Should I spend an evening and good money on these shows? I haven't a clue.
It seems to me that most of your reviewers get to the heart of the subject. Their expertise extends to technical, historical and aesthetic matters.
Such wisdom comes only from deep immersion in a field and deep commitment to the artistic standards of that field.
I, along with many others, hope that theater reviews can be brought up to those same standards. Our local theater deserves better.
FRANK WILLIAMS
ROANOKE
The banner of lynchings
JOAN LOGAN Brooks' apologies for the United Daughters of the Confederacy sound like ``the lady doth protest too much'' (Aug. 9 commentary, ``Daughters of the Confederacy a victim of politics''). She might inspire me more if she announced that the UDC would commemorate the hundreds of Southern blacks lynched between 1866 and 1965 by whites waving the Confederate flag.
Where were the United Daughters of the Confederacy when vicious Southern whites adopted the ``secession banner'' as a symbol of racial violence and murder? If the UDC and other white Southerners had diligently denounced the lynchings done in the name of that flag, Ms. Brooks' argument might be more credible.
One hundred and thirty-three years ago, the flag was simply a symbol of treason against our government. After the war, when the flag acquired a more negative connotation, the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy kept their silence. Let them keep silent now.
TED DeLANEY
LEXINGTON
Revise state's demerit system
REGARDING Keith D. Frazier's letter to the editor (July 28, ``End the demerit system''):
To recap, he said, `` ... drivers are accumulating too many points and losing their permits. Excessive demerits from minor traffic violations are the culprit ... ''
At the very least, the demerit system needs to be revised - to concentrate on serious offenses instead of nit-picking the general public to death. There is abuse of the system as it is now.
HAROLD BOWMAN
SALEM
Biased cheers for a fiasco
YOUR EDITORIALS have no credence. This trait is epitomized by your Aug. 11 editorial (``Clinton must reach out to GOP'') in which you lament the opposition to the recent Clinton budget and tax bill. Where was your sense of biparti- sanship during the years of Democratic control of Congress when these budget deficits were being accumulated? The present Clinton tax-and-spend budget will be a fiasco as far as the United States economy is concerned.
In the meantime, we can always count on your biased, partisan editorials. You are totally predictable.
G. WAYNE FRALIN
ROANOKE
Allen too cozy with gun lobby
HAVING marked my ballots in the Republican column for the past 45 years, I am saddened that I cannot support the GOP gubernatorial candidate in 1993.
Until such time as George Allen renounces all linkage with the National Rifle Association and other gun lobbyists (who wrap themselves in a controversial, fraudulent interpretation of the Second Amendment) and returns such funds already covertly received, totaling more than $45,000 according to a report in the Roanoke Times & World-News, he does not deserve the vote of clear-thinking Virginians.
In a related matter highlighted by an Aug. 12 news story, datelined Washington by an unidentified Los Angeles Times reporter (``Clinton outlines anti-crime plan''), it is stated that in Clinton's introductory anti-crime proposal ``the so-called Brady bill, which calls for a waiting period for gun purchases ... faces a filibuster from Senate Republicans, who have vowed to fight it.'' An unsupported statement such as that requires identity and authority of the person or persons who allegedly made such a vow or an apology for the newspaper's contribution to political counterfactualism.
KIRK LUNSFORD JR.
ROANOKE
by CNB