Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 10, 1993 TAG: 9310150377
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Why has tobacco been singled out for a "sin tax"? I've never heard a doctor say that alcohol was good for a person's health (nor sugar, caffeine, etc.). It was also very slick how Clinton stuck guncontrol into this health plan.
I work hard to earn a living, and one of my benefits is health insurance at a reasonable rate. I wouldn't mind paying a tax or a higher premium to help the elderly, or someone who has lost a job, especially if they have children. What I don't like is that every deadbeat will also benefit from this, as well as thousands of women who are too lazy or ignorant to use birth control to prevent a pregnancy that will most likely be aborted at taxpayer expense.
All in all, this is going to be just another social program that the working class will have to finance. And, most likely, it will fail.
RANDALL McMILLAN
PEMBROKE
Serving children and families
CONGRATULATIONS on your Sept. 25 editorial, "The rising costs of foster care." You are on the mark when you note that prevention and early intervention must become the strategy of the future.
I was disappointed that we have begun to identify "new suspects" like private agencies to explain the high costs of care. At a time when we need all the creativity, trust and collaboration we can muster between public and private sectors to reverse the tragic trend for children and families, finding new suspects and finger-pointing will not serve the best interests of those children and families. For this part of your editorial analysis, you missed the mark.
As executive director of a private, non-profit, statewide social-service agency who has worked closely with public and private sectors, many public and private agencies have worked hard for several years to establish trust and collaboration to improve the system that serves high-risk children and families.
Politicians' motives and the size of our staffs have not been the primary agenda. The agenda has, for the most part, focused on how to best serve these children and their families' needs. If we stay focused on this target, we will do much better by them in fulfilling our public trust and ethical responsibilities of service.
RONALD L. HERRING
Executive Director
Lutheran Family Services of Virginia, Inc.
SALEM
Moral degradation
AFTER MY first reading of the Roanoke Times & World-News' Sept. 26 article by staff writer Warren Fiske ("Religion new dividing force in politics, life"), I was impressed by his attempt to handle the topic in an even-handed manner.
Upon rereading the article, however, the writer's premise became clear and again reinforced the subtle nature of the liberal media's agenda to revise history and promote political correctness.
The article stated, "At issue is whether conservative, biblically based beliefs of evangelicals should become the laws of the land." Should? Judeo- Christian principles are the basis of our judicial system!
It's only been in the past few decades that man has positioned his knowledge above the self-evident truths of our Creator, resulting in the moral degradation that has numbed our sense of what it means to be human and mocked the fear of God. When men turn to men for answers, they will get the answers of men. When men turn to God for answers, they will get divine guidance.
NORMAN HAWKS
DUBLIN
'Something to do' for Roanoke kids
ROANOKE city has many successful endeavors for our youth of which we can all be very proud. Two of these, which are little publicized, are Youth Support Services and the Office on Youth.
Youth Support Services Inc. is a totally volunteer support service of the city's Juvenile and Family Court. Its objective is to counsel juveniles who have been arrested for the first time, with the hopeful goal of guiding the offenders to understand their obligations as citizens to follow rules and laws.
This summer the case load was significantly down. Patty Stillman, director of YSS, and six volunteers attribute fewer juvenile crimes partly to the outstanding summer programs offered by the Office on Youth, under the leadership of youth planner Marion Crenshaw.
Roanoke's Office on Youth coordinated the summer job-training camp program, which provided opportunities for youth, ages 12-17, to learn about the world of work through classroom training. This included, but was not limited to, role playing, speakers, career exploration, writing of resumes, goal setting, leadership-skills enhancement, public speaking and attitude adjustment.
Because of these programs, there was more involvement in positive activities during the summer for these youth, who otherwise would not have "anything to do."
Many acceptable and ethical activities with excellent results are taking place in Roanoke. The dedicated city staff and departments, along with private businesses and volunteers, are improving the quality of life for our city.
MARJORIE SMITHEY
ROANOKE
Sympathy for a burglar?
REGARDING the Sept. 28 news story by staff writer Ron Brown, entitled "Slain burglary suspect `desperate''':
Police say "he's a kid who fell through the cracks." But records show he was a career burglar driven by a lust for cocaine, with half a dozen burglary convictions in three years and serving only less than a year of an 81/2-year sentence. He was a heavy drug-user who stole other people's things (that they worked and paid for) to support his habit.
Jim Crooke, a Franklin County investigator who knew him says, "He wasn't a bad person." Now we're wondering what constitutes a bad person. Surely, we all have the option to do the same. We also have the option to do things that are right, to spend our time well, complete school, work at a profit-earning job, obeying and honoring our parents instead of burdening them, caring for and helping others and trusting God for the strength, guidance and help to do the above.
Yes, it was a bad person who stole for years to buy dope.
VELMA BROOKMAN
ROANOKE
On a nasty show, a political ad
I WAS RECENTLY assigned to be a monitor to screen the advertisers for the very controversial television series "NYPD Blues." All advertisers of this series were national, except for one.
In the middle of the show, Mary Sue Terry placed one of her political advertisements. This is quite disappointing, as the values portrayed by this series are certainly not the average American family values we know and love. For a woman with such political and legal experience in her background, I could not imagine that she would permit her campaign advertisement to run during this premiere.
The initial episode was poorly written, hard to follow, predictable and filled with extremely bad language. It had two semi-nude scenes, one involving fornication with a prostitute and the other involving adultery. Throughout the one-hour show, there was violence, particularly with guns, something that Ms. Terry supposedly is against.
I'm very disappointed that gubernatorial candidates would permit campaign advertising to run during the premiere episode of this most controversial television program.
WAYNE L. BRACKENRICH
RICH CREEK
More taxes, more problems
ALL GASOLINE prices increased recently by 4 cents or more. Was this the middle-class tax cut that candidate Clinton promised? This means not only less money for our families, but possibly more harmful, more power in the hands of the government.
The deficit grows ever worse, and every year tax increases are offered as the only solution. This tax will not be the last, nor will it help the deficit. But it will hurt the economy. That means fewer jobs and lower paying ones.
Each year we turn over more control of our lives, more of our wealth and more power to special interests. Government programs always cost more than they deliver.
Our representatives never seek our interest and never improve our lives. They are only available to the lobbies in Washington. They insult us with their empty promises and laugh at us while they wine and dine with their rich friends.
Will the next tax be a gun, cigarette or national sales tax? Is there no end short of destroying our economy?
Rep. Rick Boucher's vote made this and other taxes possible. Does he worry? No! He voted himself a big pay raise that he thought we would all forget about. Southwest Virginia deserves a better representative.
EDGAR A. HOWARD
ABINGDON
by CNB