Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 13, 1995 TAG: 9501130059
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Long-time House Speaker Tom Foley's annual pension is $122,478, 70 percent of his pay. And he can expect to collect $3.2 million in lifetime benefits.
Illinois' former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, defeated after serving 36 years in the House, is fighting a criminal indictment for misuse of public funds. Even if convicted, the 67-year-old ex-chairman of the Ways and Means Committee will continue to collect a pension of $96,462. Former Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Texas, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee ousted after 42 years, is entitled to the same annual benefit.
Former Sen. Jim Sasser, D-Tenn., 59, who was scheduled to become the Democratic leader but lost his re-election bid, is now drawing $53,289 in pension benefits, and can expect to draw more than $2 million in payments over his lifetime.
Vice President Al Gore's father, who left the Senate in 1970 at a salary of $42,000, now receives a yearly pension of $102,000, thanks to unbelievable annual cost-of-living-it-up adjustments fattening his check on a regular basis.
These are merely examples of how congressmen have taken advantage of their position and the American people over the years, while at the same time insisting that something must be done to reduce our entitlements. It also illustrates why term limits are overwhelmingly favored by the electorate. Just think how much money taxpayers would save if that should become the law of our land!
CLAUDE E. STEWART JR. VINTON
Jargon suggests inferior citizens
REGARDING upper class, middle class and lower class:
To which class would you like to think you belong? Isn't this a demeaning way of putting citizens in their ``place,'' according to their financial status?
This is a democratic nation and should, therefore, not class its citizens as was done in the old days of England when there were lords, earls and such.
My husband and I were raised to be good, hard-working citizens. We raised our children the same way, and our grandchildren are also being raised with a sense of hard work, truthfulness, and justice for all.
Now that I'm a widow and my income has dropped drastically, by the American government I'm now termed a lower-class citizen, Yes, it's demeaning and unfair.
Isn't there anyone within the political network who can get this injustice deleted from the governmental jargon?
GLORIA FISCHER LEWIS SALEM
Anti-abortion's inconsistency
HOW CAN Donald Spitz, director of Pro-Life Virginia, commend the greatest sin known to men - murder? It's beyond me how he and other (but not all) anti-abortion activists can find any justification whatsoever to ``thank'' John Salvi III for the brutal murders he committed outside an abortion clinic in Massachusetts.
It's your right to protest outside abortion clinics, but for an anti-abortionist to commit and/or commend the crime of murder - that they allege an abortion is, and supposedly are totally against, spending their free time protesting it - is preposterous.
It's time for Spitz to get his thoughts straight. Murder is murder; it's illegal. Abortion is abortion; it's legal. And until the day that law changes, live with it peacefully.
MARK O. WATERS ROANOKE
U.S. values lost in the political shuffle
WHAT HAS happened to the American people's psyche? This nation used to be considered a haven and refuge for the oppressed and those less fortunate. Our religions are based on forgiveness, redemption and rehabilitation. But now all a jack-leg politician has to do to get elected is to promise more prisons and more executions, and the religious right (so called) is leading the charge.
There are three cliches we hear every day: You can't fool the American people, you are innocent until proved guilty, and all men are created equal. Hogwash and balderdash!
JOHN W. SLAYTON ROANOKE
Radford University: ship of fools?
WHAT'S GOING on at Radford University? Am I the only one appalled at the commentary (Nov. 28, ``Seeking diversity in the back country'' by Justin Askins) coming from its faculty? I refer to the professor who went to a national park and, not seeing enough blacks working there, concluded that the National Parks Service is racist. And this latest abomination from Glen Martin, associate professor of philosophy at that school (Jan. 7 letter to the editor).
Martin's diatribe entitled ``Global interests of the rich dictate U.S. foreign policy'' isn't only sophomoric, but is also sadly out of date. Where has he been for the past 10 years? His themes of America-bashing - we're warmongers, corporations are evil, white American males are our enemy, etc. - are all part of the failed '60s ideology, the objective of which was to drive a wedge between people and their government and create social unrest. The American people have already passed judgment on those ideas; they don't want them.
What bothers me is: Why does Radford University want these anachronisms on its faculty? I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Martin's favored philosophers were Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Nietzsche. These guys gave the world such swell ideas as God doesn't exist or God is dead, and there's nothing greater than the mind of man. Martin's attack on the rich man is right out of Marx and Engles.
My daughter is a graduate of Radford University. However, if I were contemplating sending her there now and I judged the university on the writings of these professors, I doubt I'd spend my money at their store. I wouldn't knowingly wish to expose her malleable young mind to such propaganda. I would wonder if Radford was a '90s university, or merely a ship of fools!
J. RICHARD BROWN ROANOKE
TAP's valuable work must survive
MY THANKS goes to Edwin R. Feinour for helping area citizens to better understand the tremendously valuable role which Total Action Against Poverty plays in the valley (Jan. 5 commentary, ``Imagine the valley without TAP''). We need TAP to continue its critically important work. Let's hope that Feinour's commentary will generate more public awareness and support for TAP and its mission.
Adam Smith said it best in the ``Wealth of Nations'': ``No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part are poor and miserable.''
GREGORY W. FELDMANN ROANOKE
Living on welfare is no cakewalk
REGARDING Pamela Mitchell's Dec. 27 letter to the editor, ``Welfare `trap' has lots of amenities'':
Ten years ago, welfare was $231 a month. Today, it's $231 a month for one child. That money is only for children whose father is gone and pays no child support.
Most have worked before signing up for welfare. What if they have bills - rent, car payments, bank loans, electric bills, etc.? These bills were there when they worked - in some cases, before the fathers walked out. Bills don't disappear.
As soon as you report that you're working 15 hours a week, welfare workers terminate the $231. Why? The fathers didn't come back with a wallet full of money to pay day care, rent and the rest of the bills. Where are their brains?
The problem is that women are scared to step out, because there isn't a door. They're scared their kids will go hungry and get sick, and have no Medicaid.
Could Mitchell make it on $130 a week and pay $125 in day care? Could she pay rent and all her bills with $231? Can she believe that people work part-time and are still hungry? Would she watch her kids not eat because she makes too much money with a part-time job? This is America?
TERRI BISHOP SALEM
by CNB