Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 6, 1993 TAG: 9311110408
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In our government are certain overzealous do-gooders who insist that our mission is to spread freedom and democracy all over the world. They insist we have no alternative but to play the role of God, lest the universe descend into tyranny and chaos.
But the United States is no longer manifestly called by the Almighty to a special destiny. The tragedy of the Vietnam War proved this beyond a doubt.
A mindless, impulsive and shortsighted foreign policy is nurtured by a ruthless, callous disregard for military lives and innocent civilian populations wherever our treacherous hand has dealt its blows.
In spite of the bitter lessons of Vietnam, we find ourselves in a quagmire in Somalia and Haiti. Unless certain preliminary steps are taken first, our efforts to restore peace and stability to other countries will be futile ad infinitum.
First, leading powers must stop selling arms for profit. How can you stop the killing when you keep putting guns in people's hands?
Second, fighting nations must be responsible for themselves. They must want peace badly enough, or it will not happen.
Last, tell these nations we will help them help themselves only if they area at peace.
JOSEPH J. ORLANDO
LEXINGTON
Do not devalue gift of sexuality
KRISTINE Gebbie recently addressed a conference on teen-age pregnancy. An Associated Press release quoted her as saying: ``The United States needs to view human sexuality as an essentially important and pleasurable thing.'' I couldn't help but smile.
I don't look upon sex as a ``thing.'' Ms. Gebbie sees it as such, but wants to look at it differently. Maybe this will help her do that.
From our earliest beginnings, we were created male and female. As we grew, we left our mothers and fathers and we held on to one another. We became one flesh, which is a precious creation called a child. Sex is God's gift to the married couple, not a ``thing.'' No one else can give the gift.
Many have said differently, and have taken the gift and used it for their own purpose. Of these, some have felt remorse, and asked for forgiveness. Others have continued, and suffer from disease and death.
MARSHALL TACKETT
BUCHANAN
NRA's role is one of protection
IN REGARDS to your seemingly daily attack on the National Rifle Association, of which I am a proud member:
It is the only national organization in this country that protects the constitutionally guaranteed right of each of us to own and use firearms. It does not promote violence, or the illegal ownership or use of any firearm. As a matter of fact, the NRA has a multitude of programs that instruct gun owners in the safe use of firearms, marksmanship, and protects and teaches children not to touch weapons without adult supervision.
In Washington at the moment, it is politically in vogue to sponsor new and sundry gun-control measures, rather than to enforce laws that currently exist or address the root causes of violence in our society. Gun control presumes criminal intent on the part of honest, law-abiding citizens, while true criminals daily are released from prison after serving a mere fraction of their sentences, only to commit more crimes.
Something must be done to protect each of us from crime, it's true. But the political posturing of gun control is not the answer.
THOMAS C. STUART
FERRUM
County is senator's first interest
REGARDING Alan Sorensen's Oct. 17 column entitled ``Working to grasp the vision thing'':
Sen. Madison Marye is not ``one of the many spokesmen for the paranoia (emphasis mine) surrounding the New Century Council's effort . . . .''
Neither Sorensen nor I is a psychiatrist, but I can read the dictionary. Paranoia is a pathological condition with marked delusions of grandeur and/or persecution. Used pejoratively (and incorrectly, by the way), it becomes an ad hominem for opposing views. If I also wished to play psychiatrist, I could say such a symptom could be of a manic state, but I would have about as much authority doing so as Sorensen had bandying about a medical term.
Perhaps the word he sought was ``paranoid,'' subpathological behavior somewhat resembling aspects of true paranoia, but still not applicable to Sen. Marye. There are other words to describe opposing views that do not brush psychiatry, do not belittle others' views and could possibly be as valid. An editor should know one or two.
Sen. Marye is a respected and beloved long-time representative of Montgomery County, a man of great humor, vision and sensitivity. He is genuinely concerned for the best interests of this county and its people. In being so, he is not required to be always in sync with metropolitan, quixotic, expensive and unneeded ideas.
I and many Montgomery residents support his position on the ``smart'' road entirely because, long before it can be started, the new U.S. 460 bypass will be functioning, a non-environmental-impacting project that can be fitted with smart-road technology, and will make the proposed two-lane, six-minute-saving ``smart'' road a duplication.
LEONARD J. UTTAL
BLACKSBURG
by CNB