ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601050001
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on January 6, 1996. A sentence in Bud
Santoro's Jan. 4 letter "Congress deserves public's contempt") should
have read" "While he collected his $11,000 for the month, plus all the
nice little extras Congress has provided for itself, thousands of
federal and nonfederal employees had to explain to their kids that Santa
Claus was only for politicians that year."
RECENTLY, I was pretty rude to someone who telephoned me at home around 9 p.m., saying I was "pre-approved" for a credit card issued by some obscure bank - just one in a series of such calls.
Almost daily, junk mail with the same credit-card offer arrives. I answered a classified about working at home and subsequently received numerous schemes: Stuff envelopes for $2 each. Mail $2 (cash) to these five names and within weeks you will get $50,000 in the mail.
The past several years I have marveled at the computers that take away so much clerical drudgery or compile detailed sports results or allow you to tap your bank account while in a distant city.
It seems, though, that these amazing inventions to speed and spread information make it easier for your addresses and phone numbers to be used for whatever. They also allow information to be sent impersonally, while pretending to be personal, like the sweepstakes mailings that insert your name in strategic spots.
Anyway, I've gotta go. Have to stuff 20 more envelopes before going to bed.
JIM MANUEL
LEXINGTON
Bikers can look out for themselves
WHEN YOU wrote "Gear up for safety's sake" (Dec. 8 editorial), you used the word "estimates" frequently. The fact is that in the 25 states that have a helmet law, the death rate per 100 accidents is higher than that of the 25 states that do not have a helmet law - 2.98 to 2.90. There is very little difference between the two.
All of the statistics say that helmets do not reduce the number of accidents, deaths or the cost of getting well after an accident. The California death rate has gone down 43 percent from 1986 to 1991 without a helmet law. California, however, does offer a rider-training program that works where helmets never have and never will.
Virginia bikers don't need or want the government looking out for their safety. Don't try to force your un-American views on the rest of us.
RICK TAYLOR
ELLISTON
Stop coddling young lawbreakers
I WOULD LIKE to briefly call your readers' attention to the untimely death of Bonnie Kitts of Christiansburg (Dec. 16 article, ``Teen arrested in death''). To be more exact, to the young man who allegedly caused her death.
His attorney has already begun the usual steps to paint this young man as a victim himself. He is an honor student, well thought of in his community, and he just displayed a little poor judgment. He will begin rehabilitation classes.
Well, let's examine that. He is of average intelligence so I am sure he understood the perils of drinking and driving, as described by the Department of Motor Vehicles when he received his driver's license. If he chose to climb into his vehicle under the influence, he was saying, in effect: "I don't give a damn if I hurt or kill somebody; it's my car and I am going to drive it!"
Where is his honor in this? He should be put on trial as an adult for the senseless death of a loving mother and wife whose only crime was to go for a walk with her husband. To add even more to the grief of her family, the court allowed him to leave the confines of jail so he could be with his family for Christmas. The victim's family will never have that privilege again. What about their rights and feelings?
The justice system in this state has got to quit coddling accused lawbreakers and start slamming the doors shut on offenders. Teens choose to commit adult crimes, so judges and jurors should give them adult sentences and see that they serve every day of them. Unfortunately, it is not happening today, and the rise in crime among our young people is the result.
GEORGE GUY
EVINGTON
Congress deserves public's contempt
THE NEXT time you get the snake-oil pitch from an incumbent politician hustling for your vote, remind him of Christmas in '95.
While he collected his $1,200 for the month, plus all the nice little extras Congress has provided for itself, thousands of federal and nonfederal employees had to explain to their kids that Santa Claus was only for politicians that year.
The public-be-damned attitude that Congress is displaying in the budget squabble is truly disgusting, and shows the true measure of senators and representatives whose sole motivation is the pursuit of money and power. With its disregard for the welfare of the people it professes to serve, Congress has demonstrated that it well deserves the cynicism bordering on contempt that much of the public feels.
Yes, Virginia, there was a Santa Claus in '95, but his largesse was limited to so-called public servants in Congress.
BUD SANTORO
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Medium: 100 linesby CNB