Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509140021
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Jesus vehemently turned down the people's offer to be king, choosing instead to do his good works out of the spotlight and his praying ``in secret.'' How far those who claim to be his special disciples have strayed from that ideal! Here is the so-called Christian Coalition (though I have a feeling that Jesus would have some rather unflattering things to call them, as he did the earlier Pharisees), strutting its piety and purported political clout before the clamoring crowds, seeking to become, if not king as Robertson has previously tried to do, at least kingmaker of the upcoming presidential election. (And of lower-level elections, especially for school boards, according to Ralph Reed, executive director of the coalition.)
The most disgusting display of all was to see the various Republican presidential hopefuls toadying and genuflecting to these supposed power brokers, trying to outdo each other in ``I'm-more-conservative-than-heism'' so as to get Robertson's and his flock's blessing. They must think the American people are totally stupid not to recognize those who would sell their souls, not to mention their personal integrity, for a mess of votes.
Reed says the question is: ``Who will endorse our agenda?'' And what is that agenda? It appears to be elitist exclusivism of the ``saved;'' Big (Christian) Brother control of moral and ethical decisions of the American people; a mostly white, mostly male dominance of the seats of power; and the continuing victimization of women through forced childbirth, which is the other side of the anti-abortion coin. (Who will they force to adopt, love, support and educate these coerced children?)
The Christian Coalition and Republican wanna-bees just don't seem to get it. Our founding fathers came here to escape the kind of religious control of people's lives they're trying to sell. America wasn't founded to be a theocracy, ruled by ``high priests'' of any religion. The right may seem to be in the ascendancy now, but I remind Robertson and his associates of one of Arnold Toynbee's pithy summations of history (which I believe he paraphrased from an old Chinese proverb): ``Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make drunk with power.''
HERB DETWEILER
ROANOKE
Put their labors to better use
THERE is much frustration, anger and resentment within the tobacco companies because of President Clinton's honest concern about what nicotine has done and is doing to destroy the health of the American people, especially our children's lives.
We're being warned by many about the jobs that will be lost in farming and in the industry. They fail to add the jobs that will be lost in hospitals - doctors, nurses, etc. - if tobacco companies are forced to discontinue the growth of cancer.
I believe the very same warnings were given when the slaves were liberated, when civil rights were given to all, when women were given the right to vote. Such warnings also came with humane working conditions, child-labor laws, accepting women into the business world, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.
But there's no concern about the enormous health problems that cigarettes are causing, especially to children.
When will we learn to seek and find solutions as to how to help those who are growing tobacco - a drug that kills - to put their knowledge and skills into a more fruitful, wholesome and salubrious product that will help put an end to disease and early painful death? The same applies to those working in the manufacture of cigarettes.
JOE LIPTON
ROANOKE
No accountability for the end product
IN RESPONSE to recent letters and commentary articles regarding the pros and cons of tenure in colleges and universities:
I would argue that the problem isn't the tenure system. It's the traditional and total lack of accountability of those who teach - accountability not to tenure-referee administrators, but to those taught.
What we have in universities is a pseudo-business atmosphere at the administrative level, but with no assessment of its ultimate performance: the quality of its graduates as measured by their successes or failures in the marketplace. The result is a set of artificial procedures and systems not affected at all by industry's perception of the graduate. Some course plans are designed with the help of industry, but who evaluates the results? (Oops! Please forgive me, professors. I used the R word.)
After I graduated from college, there was no follow-up with my employers by my educators. They considered their jobs done and took my tuition to the bank, not having the least care about my job performance.
As a person who runs his own business, I get no tenure. If I screw up after seven years, seven months or seven days, I get fired and my customers find another supplier. Tougher yet, if I don't provide timely, positive, profitable results, the game is over and I starve. What edict from on high exempts college professors and administrators from this basic principle? I had only a few professors who cared about students, worked with them personally, and strived to convey their own industry experience. I hold them in high esteem to this day. The rest delegated the dirty task of talking with students to graduate assistants, also with no industry experience.
I assure you that tying professors' salaries to those of their students' first year in the marketplace would result in a lean educational system where the best teachers would be rewarded, and others would be left to whine in letters to the editor about the intellectual inequities of free-market education. Then, criticism leveled at professors and administrators would be the justified, firsthand opinion of the student (like this one) who has the right to fairly evaluate each teacher he pays.
HANK WALLACE
FINCASTLE
Of heroes and hackers
I WAS shocked to unfold my newspaper on Sept. 8 to the startling headline, ``WSLS reverses field, will broadcast Redskins game.'' Meanwhile, the article about how two Roanokers saved a man's life (``Pair breathes life into driver'') is quietly placed on the bottom of the front page.
In a society that dwells too much on sports and its players (idols), why would a computer hacker receive prime exposure in your newspaper concerning a subject so inconsequential to the majority of your readers? Is your newspaper trying to convey to readers that a football telecast is more important than being a true hero or heroine in our society? What was your staff's intentions for making this the lead article that day?
The actions of Tywanii Hairston and John McKee should have been treated with more respect than the bottom of the front page.
Let's not give oceanfront property to a criminal who was seeking attention for his exploits in the first place. The front page has enough negative news. In the future, why not showcase prime real estate with human-interest stories that allow your readers the chance to begin their day in a more positive manner?
CHERYL HOLCOMB
ROANOKE
Adults are too quick to stereotype teens
WHY DOES everybody have to blame everything on the teens downtown? There might be one or two who ruin everything for everybody else, but the adults who are trying to take away a place for us to hang out and have fun are ruining it for teens who do nothing wrong.
They say we're scary because of our piercings, wild hair and colors. How about the adults who come out of the bar on the corner of Market Square drunk? If that isn't scary, think about how it feels having to worry if you're going to run into them driving on the way home.
In reading letters to the editor recently, it seems apparent that those complaining about us today may be the same people adults were complaining about years ago when they were teens. Therefore, it should be somewhat easier for them to understand where we're coming from today.
Why can't those who are prejudging us look at how we feel inside? Have you made an effort to talk to us to see how most of us are, and to understand our feelings about the situation at hand? Just let us be the responsible teens that most of us are!
E. RENEE WRIGHT
ROANOKE
by CNB