Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 29, 1993 TAG: 9310280312
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Can someone please explain to me what is so wrong about being rich? I'm sick and tired of reading editorials in the Roanoke Times & World-News and hearing politicians say, "we're only raising taxes on the rich." Even if they were (don't be fooled, middle class), would that be OK?
Why has it become inherently moral to raise taxes on a group of people because they comprise only a small minority? Can we now discriminate against gays because they are only 1 percent of the population, or against blacks because they are only 13 percent? What about the handicapped? When was the last time you went out to lunch with a wealthy person and expected him to pay a bigger part of the bill just because he made more money than you?
A person who makes $1 million a year, even if he finds several loopholes to shield his money and pays only 20 percent in taxes (instead of 34 percent), would still pay $200,000 in taxes. A person making $40,000 a year and paying 30 percent in taxes would pay only $12,000 in taxes. The rich person already subsidizes the rest of the population in terms of taxes and hardly uses any of the social programs that the taxes pay for.
I would like to be the first person to thank the rich for all the good they have done.
AL BEDROSIAN
ROANOKE
Maybe it was a borrowed car
IN RESPONSE to Harold Vaughan's Aug. 12 letter to the editor entitled ``Taking groceries home in style'' and his apparent shock in discovering a food-stamp recipient ``loading her groceries into a new car'':
My question: Did Vaughan ask the woman if the car belonged to her? Maybe it belonged to her mother.
PATRICIA C. PFISTER
COPPER HILL
Terry took the right stand
YOUR EDITORIAL on the budget debate entitled ``Profiles in ugly politics'' hit an all-time high for pomposity and arrogance.
I am quite sure that Mary Sue Terry is happy to know that opposing this plan moves her past the nadir of her campaign.
If President Clinton had sought the counsel of moderates and conservatives from both parties in preparing a true deficit-reduction package, he could have had the support you think he deserved. Selfishness, cravenness, egotism, indeed!
Since when in America does having an opinion on an issue that differs from that of President Clinton and the Roanoke Times & World-News make one an ``offender''? If that is the criterion, please add my name to your dishonor roll.
ANNE T. BOWEN
ROANOKE
Increase tax for schools
WRITING to you as a senior citizen, I believe it is time for all citizens of Virginia to realize we need to look at the education of our youth as a problem concerning us all.
We own our home, pay taxes and believed the state, when we voted for the lottery, that it would be used as promised. Now I think, and believe, we should increase our sales tax from 4.5 percent to 5 percent and use these funds for education's needs.
Cast it in concrete so the funds cannot be used for any other reason, period. We all need to insist on this, since our lobby-controlled state government will not.
Again, we seniors will support a true effort to improve our schools through an increase in the sales tax for our children and grandchildren's bright future.
JOHN E. JEUCK
CHRISTIANSBURG
Local problems, global concerns
IT'S great to finally see some recognition and support for our local Native Americans. The turnout at the powwow in Big Island was encouraging. Perhaps the renewed interest is because many of us are now turning to them to help us undo the damage that we've done to the environment.
In the midst of economic development (Appalachian Power Co.'s power line and new development to the Blue Ridge Parkway), maybe we should open our ears and hearts and listen. Take a look around you! We live in some very beautiful country in Virginia. If we don't stand up and say no, then where is it going to stop?
Ask Native Americans and they'll tell you that, from the flood waters of the Mississippi to the Amazon rain forest to the mountains of Virginia, it's all the same. These problems on a local scale are all part of even bigger problems on aglobal scale.
BRADLEY CARR
ROANOKE
Some good came from it
IN TODAY'S society, the trend is to be politically correct. We are expected to be politically correct in not only our actions and speech, but also in our interpretation (or misinterpretation) of history. It is sad to see people today twisting or even ignoring historical facts to advance their own causes, whether right or wrong.
One pathetic example that has been in recent news is Sen. Carol Mosely-Braun, D-Ill., and her ``gallant'' attack on the poor, old United Daughters of the Confederacy. It seems that she wants to eradicate anything that reminds her of slavery (in this case, the harmless symbol of the Confederate battle flag in the UDC's insignia). Talk about beating a dead horse. Hasn't the first elected black woman to the Senate anything better to do with her time?
Are we now to expect book-burning, the rewriting of history, and house-to-house searches by her spineless goose-stepping puppets in the Senate to confiscate such terrible contraband? Apparently, everything is to be her way or no way at all.
Tell me where Ms. Mosely-Braun would be now if slavery had never existed in America! In the United States Senate? Not likely. It is more probable that she would be sitting in a thatched hut on the Congo River instead. If slavery had never existed, there would be very few, if any, African-Americans in this country today. There would be only Africans in Africa and Americans in America. It is true that slavery was an evil institution. Yet, good did eventually come out of it - the African-Americans we have in our country today.
I also wonder why she doesn't want to ban the United States flag, since slavery thrived far longer under that flag than under the Confederate one. I guess in her zeal to force her beliefs on others, she conveniently forgot that glaring fact.
GREG HOBSON
BEDFORD
Assumptions are wrong
I ATTENDED a meeting on Aug. 10 concerning the closing of the First Union Bank on 9th Street in Southeast Roanoke.
I don't think I've ever been to anything that was so biased. Some of the so- called smart people left the impression that everyone in Southeast is on welfare. This is far from the truth. There are a lot of young people buying their first homes in Southeast who are good people and work hard for a living.
I resent being considered a low-class citizen. I'm not on welfare and have never been. But if the time would come when I would need to, believe me, I would appreciate it.
If First Union closes the bank, it will be a mistake because there are other banks where people can deposit their money and pay their bills.
MAE JONES
ROANOKE
Cheap shot at Jordan
YOUR PUBLICATION of the column by Brian Schmitz (``Jordan must face chilling questions'') in the Aug. 15 Roanoke Times & World-News sports section, implying that Michael Jordan might in some way be responsible for his father's death, is a new low for this paper. Schmitz's speculations are crude, show a lack of intelligence and certainly demonstrate that he places hype above compassion.
However, the responsibility for publishing this bit of journalistic garbage is the editor's, not the author's.
JAMES A. HANCOCK JR.
BUCHANAN
That was then, this is now
MARY SUE Terry's concern for removing guns from schools and controlling violence is certainly well-placed. It's curious that asattorney general, the position of chief law-enforcement officer of this state, she was much less overtly captured by the problem, and less aggressive about resolving it than appears to be now that a campaign is in progress. Is this yet another instance of playing to the crowds?
ROBERT M. SMITH
BLACKSBURG
by CNB