Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 28, 1995 TAG: 9508280130
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Our concern is why Kent Willis, executive director of Virginia's American Civil Liberties Union, thinks this is a dangerous trend. Willis is quoted as saying that had he known of the lawsuit, he might have been able to intervene because Whitmore had a right to make a complaint against a public official without having to worry about a lawsuit.
Willis seems to forget that the complaint Whitmore made against Jackson proved to be false. Based on his quote, we must conclude that the ACLU will willingly assist anyone who makes a false claim against a public official.
Willis also forgets that public officials are humans first, citizens second, and public officials third. Seemingly the ACLU doesn't want to protect the rights of all citizens, only those who are not public officials. He doesn't understand that when one citizen's rights are in danger - in this case the public official's rights - then all citizens' rights are in danger.
GILLIAM M. and DORIS P. LEWIS
ROANOKE
Tobacco farmers can switch to hemp
ON MY way to work recently, I listened to a story regarding President Clinton's ideas to stop minors from taking up the tobacco habit. As a former smoker, I know what he's doing is right. Most of these kids will want to quit using tobacco at some point in their life, and it's very difficult to quit.
As a Virginia resident, I also understand why tobacco farmers want to stop laws that would discourage smoking. The lack of sales of tobacco products would devastate our economy.
As a solution to this dilemma, I propose that tobacco farmers grow hemp rather than tobacco. Tobacco has only one use, to smoke. Hemp, on the other hand, makes some of the finest rope and paper you can find. There would have to be strict regulations due to the narcotic property.
Some questions to be considered are: How many people get lung cancer from smoking marijuana, and which is more addictive? Does marijuana cause emphysema or has it been linked to asthma? I'm not suggesting that marijuana be made legal. I pose these questions because even if the plant is regulated, someone will be getting by the rules.
Virginia's economy will be adversely affected by eliminating tobacco products. We need to find an alternative, and this could be it.
ALICE FREEMAN
MONETA
Help! Send in the swat squads
THE HUMAN imagination often reaches beyond the pale of fiction. We need only think back on recent tales of the army of tiger mosquitoes in Western Virginia.
It isn't enough that the critters have been reported among us in hordes greater than those of Genghis Khan, but victims of the Asian mosquito saw everything but the whites of the enemy's eyes.
Recognizing the species may be possible if the tiny winged tiger is flying around in some glass enclosure on hand for easy identification. But seeing the stripes on the legs while the enemy is playing kamikaze pilot is going a bit far.
Dealing with mosquitoes is much the same as scratching an itch. It's all a matter of reflex motion. The tiger, apparently a recent arrival, hasn't become a household pet or pest, so we don't know too much about its modus operandi.
Now the female of the Aedes family is another matter. When on the attack for blood, this aggressive little lady (males favor only plant juices) has been known to fly in the face of a 30 mph head wind to feed.
If the attacker is Aedes, you know who came to dinner. Under the blitzkrieg by an unknown Asian intruder, who has time to hear the hum, feel the sting, slap the attacker and scratch the itch - all the while conducting an autopsy on the extremities of a mutilated skeeter? Or did the critter make a clean getaway?
CLAYTON BRADDOCK
NEWPORT
What moves Cranwell
IN YOUR Aug. 20 ``Citizen's Agenda,'' Republican Trixie Averill included me with Del. Dick Cranwell and Sen. Hunter Andrews of Hampton as part of the ``Democratic leadership.'' I don't know whether to be flattered or amused, for I hold no leadership position in my party's caucus or in the House of Delegates. I do speak my mind occasionally, but that's no crime in Virginia - at least not yet.
Although I've never met her, I must assume that Averill, like Republican candidates across Virginia this year, has been carefully coached, scripted and even brainwashed to give standard partisan answers to questions asked. I'm advised that she's under the sway and control of Boyd Marcus, the Republican political guru known as the ``Prince of Darkness.'' Perhaps her comments are the puppetmeister's.
While I'm fond of the Roanoke Valley - my wife is from Salem - my district is the city of Petersburg and parts of Chesterfield and Dinwiddie counties. I doubt that many of your readers are familiar with its conditions and problems. No responsible legislator of either party, representing my district, would have supported the type of wholesale butchery of public education, local law enforcement and local human services that the current administration proposed this year. I'll always oppose any effort to harm the citizens I represent. This is the truthful reason I give when people ask why I vote as I do. It's the same answer I gave in previous years when I opposed measures sponsored by Democratic governors.
Am I partisan? You bet I am, and proud of it. It isn't a perfect system, but partisan politics is America's system for nominating and electing those who govern. Is Cranwell partisan? Yes, certainly. As our majority leader, he was elected by Democrats to be so. But partisanship does not control him. Legislators from all across Virginia will tell you: For Cranwell, the citizens of his district have come, do come, and will always come first.
Is Averill partisan? Three words: pot, kettle, black. Oh, and M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E.
JAY W. DeBOER
Member, House of Delegates
PETERSBURG
The South is stereotyped
REGARDING your Aug. 16 article, ``Breaking fertile ground'': Jefferson Davis stated that if the South lost the war, the North would write its history. So it was, and so it is.
Our Southern schools dutifully teach the whole Yankee version, to the detriment of the memory of thousands of our Southern patriots. Historically, if not politically correct, these patriots were black as well as white. One has to search for the true history, but it's undeniably there, a witness to contradict the brassy, self-serving Northern brainwash.
I noted with interest the celebration of the glorious rebuilding of Japan, only 50 years after total devastation, with the assistance of many U.S. dollars, including Southern dollars. Why then is the South still economically second-rate? We're taught that it's to be so in penance for slavery. But if slavery is what the Yankee historians say it was, why didn't a brave race of warriors rise up against the masters while the strong and mighty Southern white men were away at war? Who or what kept them on the plantations during much of the war, along with the white women and children? Could it be that we are not taught the whole story?
Neither Gen. Robert E. Lee nor Stonewall Jackson would have rebuked the Arthur Ashe monument, nor would they have exploited him. Their greatness and Christianity were profound, the likes of which we wouldn't recognize in the shallowness of today. Truly, the black race has a noble and heretofore untold legacy in Southern history. It isn't a story of racism and separation. We owe that shame to the hypocrisy of today.
JANICE C. KELLY
VESUVIUS
Lacking in good manners
SEEING THE picture of Shannon Faulkner driving away from The Citadel, with cadets chasing and yelling at the car, I could come to only one conclusion: They may be taught the very best in warfare tactics, but their education is surely lacking in good manners and compassion.
MARY HOLLANDSWORTH
SALEM
by CNB