Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 16, 1995 TAG: 9508160052
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Recently, President Clinton signed into effect an executive order concerning under-age smoking. Only words would be allowed in cigarette advertising, no pictures, not around playgrounds, and not in children's publications. The intent is to isolate children from any advertising directed at them by cigarette manufacturers. This isolation means that fewer children will smoke and live longer, healthier lives. This will control health-care costs quickly, cheaply and effectively.
Since HIV lurks as the No. 1 killer between the ages of 23 and 42, why were no executive orders issued to isolate our children from pictures, movies, videos, magazines and television sitcoms that sell sex and violence to our youth? I think Clinton agrees that something has to be done about that which promotes promiscuity and premarital sex, but it has proved impossible to isolate our youth from sex vendors' First Amendment rights.
If this executive order concerning cigarette manufacturers and ``Joe Camel'' works, and if government can regulate advertisers with such orders, then the same thing will work with sex on television, in movies, books, advertising and all places - like the classroom - where our youth could be exposed to it. Such isolation would reduce the number of abortions; reduce, if not eliminate, HIV; and truly curb health-care costs for generations to come. If the tobacco industry would roll over on this issue, for the good of all, the entertainment industry could be next.
Our freedom of speech is a treasured liberty. When it's used without ethics, without morality, with only the idea of making a buck - at the expense of many lives - then it becomes a corporate right, not an individual liberty. In this way, it should be regulated in the entertainment and tobacco industries by a government instituted to secure the rights of the governed - like the right to life of all between the ages of 23 and 42.
MARSHALL R. TACKETT
BUCHANAN
Hospital wards could be revived
I HAVE been on Medicare from age 65, and on Medicaid for the past several years. Medicare left me with some big bills to pay. Medicaid is better for those like myself on a low income. I've never had a ``private'' doctor in all my life. I'm now 84 years old. I'm not worried about that. What does concern me is the prospect of no doctor at all!
What folks like me need isn't so much ``private'' anything, but the assurance that we can get treatment without big cost, and receive hospitalization when needed. This doesn't necessarily mean a big, fancy two-bed facility with television and phone. I suggest that we go back a bit (even back would be better than nothing) to a ward system with multiple beds and one head nurse, doctors making rounds once daily and students doing the chores. It's what we had back in the '20s, and the only thing I ever had. The beds were endowed by wealthy patrons. Yes, it was charity. So what? Better than suffering long.
Perhaps we could have a lower level of medical service for those like myself. I would be satisfied with less. It's so easy for the more affluent persons to criticize, but I don't hear any practical solutions coming from them.
LENORE MICHAELSON SALEM
Did personal bias sway his decision?
IN READING the news account of the capital murder charge in ``May vs. the People,'' the records indicate a long-standing history of anti-social behavior terminating in the New Year's massacre of five people - the last two shot in the head, execution-style, in a premeditated fashion for witness prevention.
It's abundantly clear that Judge Clifford Weckstein had a personal bias against capital punishment prior to being seated on the bench. The question now arises if his personal feelings influenced his decision, contrary to law?
JOHN JOFKO ROANOKE
Spare voters the campaign gimmicks
I AM already disgusted by this year's local and state elections, and it's more than two months until the election. I won't accept the kind of narrow, divisive thinking and activity that has no place in a world where people ought to shake hands, hug, and work together for the common good.
But enough complaining. Let's discuss alternatives.
In local and state elections: No more signs on lawns. Candidates need to work with a neutral source, like the League of Women Voters, to deal with issues in local forums. Greet me at a shopping center or at my house. Spend $1,000 maximum. Be more creative with fewer resources.
In national politics: Grow up, Democrats and Republicans. We need statesmen and -women, not self-righteous vote seekers run by lobbyists from all sides. The media need to print a summary that we can understand on the status of national decision-making. Don't highlight House and Senate battles and Clinton's comebacks, but print what's going on with issues, the projected schedule, what appears to be the truth and what appears to be lies or just self-interest.
As for me, I won't look at state or local candidates' signs, and won't vote for those using gimmicks. Tell me the truth and what you're about. I'll give the League of Women Voters a donation to sponsor candidate forums. I must not sit on the sidelines, but get in there with ideas and ways that people can work together. I must scale back my wants and work for a sustainable society, and a sustainable and just world. I shouldn't complain, but laugh and enjoy this world, listen to and try to understand ideas that make me cringe, and hug a lot of people (strangers included).
ROBERT L. ROGERS BLACKSBURG
Conflict of interest is questioned
DOES Congressman Tom Bliley's single-minded defense of the tobacco industry have anything to do with the fact that his family business is a mortuary?
EUNICE C. HUDGINS SALEM
Vibrant youth help make market great
ARE NOT the ``young people sporting purple and green half-shaven hair and multiple body pierces'' (Aug. 9 letter to the editor, ``Young people are a tourism turnoff'' by Susan S. Shortridge) part of what makes our City Market one of America's Great Public Places? Aren't such places ``where we share life with strangers and learn from that experience not only the confidence and tolerance that are necessary for civil society, but also the sense of mutuality and shared responsibility that define a community'' (Aug. 8 editorial, ``The City Market's slice of fame'')?
My husband and I spend many evenings on the market. We find these colorful young people not menacing, but rather an interesting fragment of the sparkle and energy of this great public place.
Take away the vibrant youth, as we're taking away the Capitol Restaurant, and we lose another piece of the diversity that is the source of Roanoke's national recognition.
DOROTHY S. CLIFTON ROANOKE
Suspicions about funds confirmed
REGARDING the Virginia State Police Association (Aug. 7 article, ``Operation suspected of `deceptive' business tactics''):
I was quite interested in your article concerning this telemarketing group's deceptive practices. For years, I've thought this organization wasn't what it was purported to be, and that the funds weren't getting to the state police. Your article confirmed my suspicions.
For many years, my husband, now deceased, gave to this organization, believing that he was contributing to a worthy cause.
As it would happen, I was contacted by a gentleman recently who identified himself by name and said that he represented the State Police. I knew immediately what he was going to say (from previous years). When I informed him that, after reading the article, I wasn't interested in what he had to say or sell, he immediately became hostile. He likened your newspaper to a tabloid, and then hung up before I could further discuss the issue with him.
I believe your addressing this issue is in the best interests of the consumer, and I commend you for it.
FRIEDA A. WALKER BLACKSBURG
by CNB