ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, January 6, 1996              TAG: 9601100016
SECTION: EDITORIAL                PAGE: A-7  EDITION: METRO 

BRIEFLY PUT . . . WHY NOT THE 51ST STATE?

ROANOKE city's and Roanoke County's recent repartee over the possible shape of things to come, local governmentwise, still has us pondering.

If the city of Roanoke, as its leaders have discussed, were to surrender its city status, and Roanoke County, as its leaders have discussed, were to become a city, why shouldn't Salem, aloof from all such bother, become a state?

But how, you ask, even if Congress would approve it, could you have one state entirely surrounded by another?

Well, in Virginia a city can be surrounded by a county, so why not a state? Statehood would underscore Salemites' sense of self-sufficiency. We might even have militias in the valley.

Ah, but symbols and senses don't always reflect reality. Not even states are self-sufficient, not even nations. Better to ask, instead, local and Virginia leaders to reform the local-government system to encourage rather than impede regional cooperation.

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