Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 23, 1993 TAG: 9312230294
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I'm 17 years old, pregnant and not married. I'm still in school and attend church every Sunday I can. I'm not proud about my pregnancy, but everyone makes mistakes. To those critical of teen-agers who get pregnant: Did you ever stop to think it could be your daughter, your son who gets someone pregnant, or someone else in your family? Would you be so judgmental then?
Everyone seems to think that all teen-age girls who are pregnant are on welfare. No one will pay for my bills, my clothes or my food, but my parents, me and my boyfriend (who's still with me).
Please don't criticize or put down a pregnant teen-ager. You never know when someone close to you will go through it.
AMANDA SAUNDERS
SALEM
Big Apple gets its comeuppance
I READ James Lileks' Dec. 6 commentary, ``Supreme Court lets gang of 9 rob New York.'' It concerned the New York subway mugger, shot by police while fleeing, and his successful suit against New York City for his crime-related injuries.
I really can't understand Lileks apparent outrage against the New York jury for making this award. As I recall, a few years ago an innocent citizen by the name of Bernard Goetz, while riding a New York subway, pulled a gun and shot four muggers (all with criminal records) who were attempting to make ``steak tartare'' (Lileks' words) out of him. New York City responded by arresting Goetz (not the muggers) and proceeded to try him repeatedly in their courts of law until he was finally convicted of criminal charges and ruined financially.
So, I'd call the multimillion-dollar award to this injured mugger ``poetic justice.'' It couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch of left-wing bureaucrats.
RAYMOND A. SIMMONS
ROANOKE
Minnix trivialized a serious problem
IT'S REGRETTABLE that H. Odell ``Fuzzy'' Minnix, chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, should publicly try to trivialize as important a social issue as gun control (Dec. 12 commentary, ``With guns now gone, let's impose a bat ban'').
By his sad attempt to poke fun at what a majority of concerned citizens consider a major problem in social policy, Minnix joins the ranks of the misguided few who condemn attempts at gun control because ``it won't solve the crime problem.'' Of course, gun control alone will not solve the crime problem. But surely, it's an important first step in that direction.
NAT BACK
ROANOKE
Show compassion for teen mothers
REGARDING Mary Taylor's Dec. 7 letter to the editor entitled ``Leaders need to speak up'':
I'm very proud of Ms. Taylor and her husband for raising five children on $98 every two weeks.
I'm the mother of two teen-age daughters who are mothers also. My daughters do not receive all the free things that she described (only WIC, Medicaid for the babies and a few food stamps). I'm the sole support for everything else.
I also was a teen-age mother. I successfully completed my education and am gainfully employed. I have two sons who graduated and have served time in the U.S. Army.
I'm not ashamed of my grandchildren. Each of them has their father's last name (for whatever it's worth). But, if they didn't, I still wouldn't be ashamed of them.
The word Ms. Taylor was so nice not to print is not a nice name to label anyone, especially with a baby. I hope she returns to her church and talks to her minister again, because she needs some love and understanding in her heart for these young people for what they will have to go through.
CATHERINE S. FERRELL
ROANOKE
If SPCA has money, put it to good use
TO THE ``continuing'' board of directors for the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals:
If, according to President Steve Davidson, the SPCA has ``a half million dollars in assets,'' where is it? The shelter is in need of repairs, the staff makes minimum wage, and people donate food and supplies for the animals.
My vote for the recent election was one of the ``invalid'' proxy votes not used so the board could use one of the ``valid'' proxy votes to cast a vote for themselves. The ones who really lost in this manipulated election were the animals.
SUSAN CORRIGAN
ROANOKE
Making a mockery of Mother's Day
BEFORE MOVING here from another state with equal epidemics of unwed-teen pregnancy, my husband supervised a number of young men who declared the first of each month as ``Mother's Day'' - a day when they visited the six (or more) single girls to collect (and often create another little bundle) their share of the welfare check from the girls they'd proudly impregnated. The girls also lived in subsidized housing.
Let those bleeding hearts, who advocate and support this decadence, pool their own salaries to pay for those programs. Relieve the hard-working taxpayers, who exist on their earned meager paychecks, from supporting immorality.
JEAN DYMOND
ROANOKE
by CNB