Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 3, 1993 TAG: 9311040250
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
This story includes sweeping generalizations insinuating that Hurt Park parents are neglectful. Ms. Williamson wrongly equates lack of money with lack of love: Renting a home or owning a car or phone do not make one a good parent! Statements such as ``some [children] leave for school .. . without so much as a hug or kiss goodbye'' are not fact, but purely prejudices of the reporter.
If she had not just been focused on the negative to support her bias, she would have noticed a community that works hard together, despite obstacles and tough times, to give our children the best. What Ms. Williamson succeeded in overlooking is this: Hurt Park has a strong and loving support network of individuals who look out for one another (we may have ``patchwork and partial families,'' but so does every neighborhood in the United States!); parents who work with the schools, the housing authority and area agencies to sponsor recreational and educational programs for our youth; and residents who join together in a residents' council and who volunteer hours of time to promoting community pride and organizing positive activities.
We are proud of the accomplishments of our residents, and we are sick and tired of the press giving public-housing communities (we are not projects) a bad rap. Please, don't judge us by where we live. We may be a low-income neighborhood, but we are rich in our love for our children, one another and our community.
DONNA JONES
President, Hurt Park Resident Council
PATRICIA HANCOCK
Corresponding Secretary
ROANOKE
Good point blurred by scribe's offenses
REGARDING Randall McMillan's Oct. 10 letter to the editor entitled ``Health plan: social program that will fail'':
I agree with him. This latest social program proposed by Hillary and her husband will be paid for by the producers in our society while nonproducers benefit.
However, I was very disturbed when reading about ``thousands of women who are too lazy or ignorant to use birth control to prevent pregnancy that will most likely be aborted at taxpayer expense.'' McMillan's obvious disregard for women and gross misunderstanding that a woman is the sole party responsible for conception are sad because his very good point - abortion that is by choice, not necessity, should not be funded by a national health-care plan - gets clouded by his presentation. It's difficult to maintain the credibility of an argument while being ignorant and offensive.
CHERI REED
ROANOKE
At FBI, WASPs need not apply
WHY DOES being a woman, black, or a Hispanic qualify you for a high post in the Federal Bureau of Investigation? Were these people the best-qualified to fill these posts? FBI Director Freeh says so, but I doubt it. In this new era of politics, qualifications for a job seem to run second place to a person's ethnic group or gender.
ROBERT BROWNING
SALEM
Newspaper is not as remembered
BEING a native Roanoker and proud to call it my home, I visited this fair city recently.
It was with utter surprise, disappointment and disgust that I read the Roanoke Times & World-News. What's happened to this newspaper that I had always read with such interest and respect? Has Roanoke become an ultra-liberal city, or is it just the newspaper? It bears no resemblance to the paper I once knew and loved. A more appropriate name for this paper would be ``The Far Left Liberal Gazette.'' I'm inclined to believe Roanokers still have their conservative philosophy and are God-fearing people.
Thinking back with nostalgia to the way things used to be, with much sadness, I left Roanoke to return to my present home. To see this newspaper do an about face was almost more than I could fathom.
LOUISE H. ZIRKLE
KNOXVILLE, TENN.
'Sex statement' not official position
THE ASSOCIATED Press story ``Lutherans issue sex statement,'' in the Oct. 20 edition of the Roanoke Times & World-News, included lines from a Lutheran Church study group's sexuality document. Some reading the story might suppose the quoted views to be an official position of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Careful reading of the story is required to determine the document's status as a proposed statement. In fact, it is a draft proposal from a task force of 17 persons, and not an official ELCA position. Lutheran congregations, local ones included, are now responsible for discussing and shaping a statement that will represent the wider church.
When this church has spoken on homosexuality, what has it said? Please read on:
``Married ordained ministers are expected to live in fidelity to their spouses, giving expression to sexual intimacy within a marriage relationship that is mutual, chaste, and faithful. Ordained ministers who are homosexual in their self-understanding are expected to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships'' (Visions & Expectations of Ordained Ministers, ELCA).
``We, as the Conference of Bishops of the ELCA, recognize that there is basis neither in Scripture nor tradition for the establishment of an official ceremony by this church for the blessing of a homosexual relationship. We, therefore, do not approve such a ceremony as an official action of this church's ministry ... '' (fall 1993, Conference of Bishops).
MARK S. BRIEHL
Pastor, Our Saviour Lutheran Church, ELCA
CHRISTIANSBURG
by CNB