ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 26, 1996 TAG: 9601260036
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
REGARDING the refusal to lift the debt ceiling:
House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Armey and his Republican backers are (as of Jan. 22) refusing to pass a simple bill authorizing the federal government to borrow additional funds. Armey wishes to hold the administration hostage to the point of default on debt payment in an effort to extract other fundamental changes, which may or may not be desired by the majority of Americans.
Has he no heart? Blizzards and flooding have caused massive expenditures in many states. Disasters have been declared, and people are suffering. Federal financial assistance is essential.
This isn't a time to play political chess. It's a time to act so that suffering people and local governments can get financial help.
Partisan differences should be left for settlement in next fall's elections.
JAMES W. REYNOLDS
SALEM
But did she have a ghostwriter?
AFTER READING your Jan. 13 news article (``Woolly worms call for a chilly winter'') regarding the wooly worms and farmer's almanac, I thought I would give a different version of our recent Blizzard of '96.
I obtained a copy of ``The Ladies Birthday Almanac'' from my pharmacist, and it so happened that the January storm was predicted by this almanac. It stated: ``Atlantic coast, cold. Severe storm middle-Atlantic states to New England, 8th to 11th, unsettled Midwest eastward.'' Also, for the 16th to 19th, ``stormy conditions move through Southeast up into Virginia-Kentucky region, followed by fair, cold conditions.''
Accordingly, our next storm will be Feb. 8 to 11: ``Severe storms from Pacific Northwest through Midwest. Southerly winds sweep snow through Arkansas-Tennessee and Virginia, rain showers in the lower South.''
Perhaps Mother Nature was the author of this almanac. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
WARREN W. HOLDREN
ROANOKE
Life can't be taken for granted
I CAN only imagine the pain that the family of the four children and grandmother who died in the fire is now going through.
We must remember that neither the firemen, neighbors nor the mother could have saved them. We all have a time on this Earth, and nothing should be taken for granted.
All I can say to this family is to lean on the Lord, and he will help to ease the pain.
WANDA BROADY-QAISER
SALEM
Democrats have lost touch with reality
MARIANNE Means' Jan. 8 commentary, ``GOP's unspoken strategy: put down women,'' illustrates well the extremist ideology of the radical left that has captured control of the Democratic Party. She says the Republican Party is ``putting down'' women because it opposes government-imposed quotas for women workers, government-imposed flexible work-hour rules, government-paid child care, abortion on demand, the Equal Rights Amendment, government funding for students attending college, and government subsidies to unmarried mothers.
If anything is extreme, this laundry list of government spending and power is it. And this is where the left-wing fringe has dragged the Democratic Party. It's no wonder many people are saying that they are no longer members of that party because it has left them.
The ERA was defeated by Republicans and Democrats who didn't support a constitutional amendment requiring unelected judges to create a myriad of important laws. Every year, abortion on demand kills 1.5 million children in their mothers' wombs. Imposing quotas on hiring and pay for women is immoral discrimination, power centralized in government is dangerous - and our federal government is $5 trillion in debt. The extremists who control the Democratic Party are out of touch with reality.
MARY RIGNEY
RADFORD
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB