Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 20, 1993 TAG: 9310280345
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I don't care about 1992, but please check 1993. My 9-year-old niece and brother-in-law were victims of a drunken driver in February 1993. My sister survived the accident that wiped her family out. The drunken driver also died.
Tell victims of drunken drivers that arrests are down! It makes me very angry to hear such a statement. Along the way, our laws have gotten away from reality.
What's so ironic: How does our government go to Somalia and feed the starving and give them guidance toward their government when we cannot keep drunken drivers off the roads in the United States? It's costing us millions of dollars for us to be in Somalia, and to beat it all, our service folks are being killed and held hostage. Why not use that money to hire people to keep drunks off the roads? I really do not care to hear such bragging that drunken-driving arrests are down.
By the way, Oct. 12 was my niece's 10th birthday, so we put balloons and flowers on her grave.
GAIL WILLIAMS
McCOY
It's time for a change
WITH THE November elections fast approaching, the electorate should consider something I once read: ``Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed. And for the same reason.''
JOE LOCKHART
ROANOKE
It's not the party, it's the person
I FIND myself in disagreement with those political experts cited in the Oct. 5 news article in the Roanoke Times & World-News by staff writers Dale Eisman and Rob Eure (``Party ties hurt Terry'').
It seems to me the principal reason the Democrats are unable to raise any enthusiasm for their ticket is simply the fact that they have a weak, uninspiring candidate for governor.
About the only thing going for Ms. Terry is the Republican candidate, who is even worse.
BILL WOODS
BEDFORD
GOP group are sore losers
THE SO-CALLED GOP group founded by ``Jinks'' Holton and Bill Crutchfield to support Don Beyer should be viewed by true mainstream Republicans as a childish tantrum by a few elitists who are accustomed to always getting their way. I'm sure that if Ms. Holton's candidate, Bobbie Kilberg, had won the nomination, she and her group would have accepted, and probably even sought, the support of Pat Robertson. (I'm equally sure that Robertson would not have given support to the extreme liberal views espoused by Ms. Kilberg.) The innuendos in the Holton-Crutchfield group's advertisement are all baseless, as any Republican who is really involved can determine.
I know that my party, the Republican Party, has the ideology of mainstream Virginia and America. True mainstream Republicans are keeping the pledge they took when they became delegates to the party's state convention. They are supporting all three candidates - Allen, Farris and Gilmore. These candidates are all in agreement on the issues, and their election - with or without the Holton-Crutchfield votes - will bring about changes this state so badly needs.
MITCH RATLIFF
BEDFORD
Write-in vote may be best option
AS A SENIOR citizen and resident of Roanoke city, I have been very concerned about the upcoming election for commissioner of revenue. With Howard Musser as a candidate, I felt confident in his maturity and experience. But since his illness, I've wondered if he could physically fulfill his duties if he were to win.
If I feel that Musser cannot fully take on the task of commissioner, I will select the option to write in my vote for David Anderson, a long-time resident of the city who has maturity, experience and good health. I supported him at the Democratic nomination in May and I can support him again on Nov. 2.
ROSA S. CARROLL
ROANOKE
God's word isn't campaign fodder
IT'S a very sad day in America when Don Beyer can use his opponent's Christian affiliations and high moral standards against him. And what's even worse is that Beyer will probably win.
But God's word is going to stand when most politicians are forgotten and in hell. God's word says, ``Woe to men when they say good is evil, and evil is good.''
There's a mighty woe on America today, and I'm just glad I don't have to die lost with her. God said, ``the soul that sinneth, `it' shall die.''
LONNIE W. MALCOMB
HILLSVILLE
by CNB