ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601260111
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
THE ROANOKE Valley has many unsung heroes. Their lives are not celebrated. They live almost unnoticed. Their numbers are great. The Jan 9 death notice of Harry William Vest reminded me of one of those heroes.
Vest was a neighbor and friend of mine for 26 years. We attended the same schools, and saw each other every day. We knew each other better than our parents knew us.
During the time I knew him, he became interested in the workings of radio. He was 13 years old when he ordered simple parts from a Radio Shack in Boston, the only store at that time. He became a very skilled radio technician.
When Vest joined the local National Guard unit, he was placed in the Sigt and the 29th Division is well known.
While overseas during World War II, Vest married a charming English girl. They returned to Roanoke and raised three girls. Vest continued working in radio and communications.
He died after a prolonged invalidism. During his life, he did those mundane and wonderful things: serving his country, working patiently every day, raising a good family and being a good citizen.
Vest is a hero. I thank God for him and the other heroes whose quiet lives uphold that which is good. They make this valley, Virginia and this nation great.
ROBERT BONDURANT
ROANOKE
Coverage focuses on the irrelevant
I SAW about the last half of President Clinton's recent news conference, and I was very disappointed at the Associated Press article on your front page of Jan. 12 (``Hillary Clinton to reply'').
The important facts that people should be informed about weren't even mentioned. Most of the part I watched was about differences in the two budget-balancing plans, and the effects of cuts on social programs, the environment, the economy, education and on the future of the country.
This kind of news coverage, dwelling on the alleged misconduct of Mrs. Clinton, and the Paula Jones affair, makes your newspaper sink to the level of most English newspapers. Just as in past elections, reporters want to make everything into a horse race (Clinton vs. Gingrich), rather than take the time and trouble to learn about the issues and write about them intelligently. While we have come to expect this kind of superficial coverage on television, we should be able to get the facts in a fair and unbiased way in the newspapers.
ANNA B. MITCHELL
BLACKSBURG
The GOP priority is big business
REPUBLICANS believe citizens shouldn't look to government to solve problems, and would like to follow President Calvin Coolidge's policies.
He opposed government programs or regulations that controlled business or the economy. He pursued a hands-off policy that often rewarded big business, and he believed that ``business principles'' promoted individualism. The Revenue Act, endorsed by Coolidge in 1926, slashed taxes for those with high incomes. While his policies produced an economic boom, it was short-lived and contributed to the stock market crash in 1929 - one year after Coolidge left office.
When Herbert Hoover succeeded Coolidge, Hoover also pursued a hands-off policy that led to the Great Depression in 1931. What was ironic was that Hoover saw the Depression coming, but believed it was a good thing and thought it would make people work even harder. In fact, he and an aide proposed a trickle-down theory, believing that solving the problems of business would mean benefits would trickle down to ordinary people. (Sound familiar?)
If Coolidge or Hoover had installed a wage standard or sought to protect people's savings, economic catastrophes may not have occurred. President Roosevelt did, and his policies caused this nation to flourish. However, for the past 25 years, Congress has represented the interests of minorities, and the average citizen has been made to pay. So Republicans are proposing a change, but their proposals are a facade.
While pretending to represent interests of the average people, the Republicans' priority is representing big business. Good examples are their tax-cut proposals and attempts to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency.
JOSEPH MAYS
LYNCHBURG
Community grieves for `Ginnie Mae'
MANY THANKS to Richard Foster and The Roanoke Times for the article (Jan. 19, ``Bedford still mourning loss of `Ginnie Mae''') about Virginia Crawford. Yes, our saddened and stunned Bedford community still grieves the tragic death of this good lady.
For those who knew and loved her, the article is well-deserved recognition of her life. Those who didn't know her now have some understanding of the white ribbons decorating all of the Bedford Federal Savings Bank offices.
MARION L. AVERY
BEDFORD
Is America headed to World War III?
I BELIEVE anyone with even half a mind shouldn't send our troops to the Balkans on a so-called peace mission under the conditions our troops were sent. Over the years, it has been an honor for elected officials to have served in the military with pride and dignity. What we have now would make George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower turn over in their graves.
It's atrocious for our servicemen to be sent into the cauldron in Central Europe where they've been fighting for more than 500 years. They don't want peace, and will never accept what our troops were sent there to do. Let them get themselves out of their own debacle.
Our president rared up too quickly to send troops into such a den of lions, saying that America would lose its leadership in world policy-making if he didn't send them. He failed to see and reckon with what the loss of many of our troops would bring. Seems that he may be headed for World War III. Roosevelt got us into World War II in that area, and Wilson got us into World War I.
We need our troops to control the crime that's rampant in our streets! We can't control every uprising and dogfight that occurs in the world, and Washington needs to realize that. We surely fizzled in Haiti, and Vietnam was a disgrace. Won't we ever learn from experience?
GERTRUDE MITCHELL
ROANOKE
Eiffel, the awful eyeful is not
IN HIS JAN. 13 letter to the editor, ``Could the bridge become Roanoke's Eiffel Tower?,'' architect Leonard J. Currie displays the embracement of mediocrity that, sadly, we have come to expect and accept from architects. Plus, he shows us an amazing amount of elitist snobbery.
His contention that those ``unschooled in the subject'' of architecture are unqualified to offer valid criticisms ignores the fact that a sense of aesthetics, the sensitivity to design harmony and intrusion, and a sense of the quality of an urban space often predate and transcend any formal training.
Would he have us believe that only those with ``at least a modicum of training and practice in the subject area'' be allowed to voice our opinions on the merits of Michelangelo's Sistine ceilings or the Notre Dame cathedral?
Does he want us to be impressed that ``big city journalists'' have mentioned (not praised) the bridge? Roanoke may not be New York City, but we're not ``Petticoat Junction.''
He moans and fantasizes that ``the Virginia public might be moved by architecture!'' He accuses us of responding with ennui, then has the temerity to compare the bridge to the Eiffel Tower and Sydney Opera House! Please, Mr. Currie, a bridge is to the Eiffel Tower as you are to Phillip Johnson.
The bridge is wrong in that it's the most unwelcome and intrusive design-element into what was once a little gem of an urban space. At $7 million (or was it $10 million, $20 million or a gazillian dollars?), it's a hermetically sealed, overdesigned solution to what should have been seen as a simple problem with a simple solution. And now architects are telling us that ``Oops! We forgot to vent that thing. Darn! That'll be $5 million more, please.''
It's sad that taxpayers have had this glass, white elephant shoved down their throats. And even sadder that a hack architect has the nerve to submit such a lame public defense.
DICK HOWARD
SALEM
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