Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 6, 1994 TAG: 9401110241
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But have we not already accepted out-of-wedlock sexual activity as a normal part of living? So, if society condones it, how do we explain its wrongness to any post-pubertal girl or her male peers? A popular, current solution is the use of precautions to prevent pregnancy, accepting casual sex as de facto. Therefore, society itself is the ``aider and abettor''! And along with a spate of court decisions, it becomes accepted practice. (Morality is the same for a 15-year-old as it is for an 18-year-old.)
Girls no longer have to suffer the social stigma and shame that was a powerful deterrent in past years. Today's legal system, books, movies, television and art bring social acceptance to deviant and casual sex.
Although I feel we may have passed the point of no return, as did other hedonistic societies of the past that were eclipsed, a possible solution does come to mind: If home, school, community and pulpit take an overtly persistent, aggressive stance against casual sex for the young - as they do against alcohol, drugs and tobacco - and concurrently offer alternatives to channel their energies, it would show the young that we do care about them!
Today's youth are in pain, looking for escape, looking for love and acceptance as worthwhile individuals, whatever the state of their living conditions or origins, and they set out with hopes, ambitions and dreams. Sadly, these are shattered for the most part and an adversarial relationship is created between teens and adults.
The only solution is to turn the situation around. And the effort must start long before the teen years. Are we up to it?
JACK E. BYRD
HARDY
Caseless ammo no cause for alarm
YOUR EDITORIAL, ``Get ready for stealth bullets,'' leads me to wonder why you've taken so long to ``discover'' caseless ammunition. Development of caseless ammunition has been going on for decades, long before this country turned to drugs and murder as we know today. Caseless ammunition has military applications as well as commercial, and it has met with limited success. Development of firearms to utilize this form of ammunition is not within reach to any degree allowing you to sound an alarm.
What is the intent of your term ``plastic handguns''? I assume you have the Glock handguns that are manufactured of space-age materials in mind. Early tests proved these guns are not easily passed by security screening commonly used at airports; trained personnel detect them readily. Would you, dear editor, like to start through an airport check with one in your hip pocket? I think not.
I'm surprised to find Andrew M. Molchan, publisher and editor of American Firearms Industry magazine, mentioned in your editorial. He writes stinging editorials in support of legitimate gun owners, and you only used his name to support your crusade with his statement: ``Without new models that have major technical changes, you eventually exhaust your market.'' This is a statement applying to virtually everything in existence. Suppose our TV sets' development and improvement had stopped at the '50s level? Or our printing methods? You would have a difficult time printing today's Roanoke Times & World-News.
FRANK H. MILES
BEDFORD
More to mounts than the manure
PLEASE explain why staff writer Ron Brown is so fascinated by horse manure! The Dec. 21 photo and headline, ``They're hoofing it downtown,'' caught my attention, but please try to understand my disgust that the article centered on whose job it was to pick up and dispose of the horse manure! Is this the only reason Roanoke has a mounted patrol? To give the officers something to do?
And while the box entitled ``Please don't feed the herbivores'' made three valid points, it also made me think: If all these horses can do is kick, bite, spook and produce manure, why are they there? As a horsewoman, I know these animals and their officers have gone through many hours of training together to provide Roanoke with another means of patrolling the streets. That's what the training is all about: to accustom the animals to all the scary situations they'll encounter. Please ask Brown to write another story, one on how the mounted patrol came to be. It would be a lot more interesting than the last story.
MEREDITH W. WILLIAMS
LEXINGTON
Public should witness executions
HOW IS the death penalty going to be a deterrent to crime for a generation of people who've been raised with the death penalty having no more meaning than having the family dog or cat put to sleep by the vet? Only in this case, the state is the vet.
If the death penalty is going to work, it'll have to be death by hanging, from the gallows in the front yard of the courthouse in the locality where the crime was committed. It should be at 9 a.m. and very public. Make schoolchildren come watch; bring other prisoners out from the jail or make them watch out the window. Bring the convicted person out; family and friends can say good-bye for about 15 minutes. Lead the person up the steps, ask for any last words. Then put the hood on and let the charges and verdict be read. Somewhere in here the preacher can have his part.
Then let the judge, jury foreman or prosecutor who asked for the death penalty pull the lever. Let the body hang all day as a reminder to all as to what can happen to you if you misbehave.
This present sanitized form of death penalty is a farce. If we are going to do it, let's do it right. I guarantee that if it's done this way, there'll be few executions, or little need for them.
GARY MIDKIFF
RICH CREEK
Legalized drugs mean more crime
I HAVE a suggestion for Joycelyn Elders, Paxton Davis, Jackson Decker, Richard Hunter and others who've suggested that consideration be given to making drugs legal to reduce crime.
Do some research on drug use and related crime in the late 1800s and early 1900s that led up to many drugs' being made illegal here. Then read up on Switzerland's recent experiment with opening a public park for unrestricted sales and use of drugs.
Drug-related crime forced closure of that park in 1992 after less than three years of unrestricted sales and use.
Think our drug crime is bad now? Read history to see how bad legalized crime can be.
GEORGE F. SNYDER
VINTON
Hoping for a color-blind future
THIS LETTER to the editor is about racism, which is a big problem today.
I'm 12 years old and being mistreated and made fun of because I'm a different color (tan)! If it's like this now, I hate to see what it will be like in the future. But maybe it will change and the future will have no racism.
You shouldn't disown a person as a friend because he or she is a different race. Tan, black or white - there's no difference. God made men and women in different colors. If everybody on Earth was the same color, nothing would be different. If people can't give someone who's different equal respect, then they're not worth it. They're just wasting their time. In the future, they'll regret their cruelty.
ANDREA VELOSO
VINTON
Some flicks flicker by Roanoke
PERHAPS Mike Mayo can explain to us why ``Schindler's List'' and ``Remains of the Day'' didn't make his best-of-'93 list of movies. Why are Roanokers of the 65-plus vintage apparently not considered mature enough to be able to see these films at any local theater? We must not be ready for prime films!
BOB SHIELDS
ROANOKE
Which is law of the land?
CHRISTOPHER W. Burton's Nov. 23 letter to the editor (``Bible is not law of the land'') raises some interesting philosophical issues.
Jefferson stated that ``we are endowed f+iby our Creatoro with certain inalienable rights'' and that ``to secure these rights, governments are instituted ... '' This clearly states that the authority of our founding documents rests on the fact of God's existence and upon his giving us our rights. These documents merely articulate, and the state exists merely to protect, something that's already there.
To say that the Constitution, rather than the Bible, is the law of the land would seem to make the Constitution a higher, more universal and all-embracing truth than the Bible. This line of thinking dethrones the God of the Bible, who himself claims to be this supreme God of Gods, and undermines the authority of his decrees, upon which, like it or not, the moral fabric of our culture has been based.
Therefore, making the Constitution superior to the Bible, rather than, as Jefferson himself implied, an extension and practical implementation of it, states the case backwards and seems to be a vote for the moral relativism (read ``amorality'' or ``anarchy'') that's now playing havoc with our society.
ALAN DENEKAS
ROANOKE
by CNB