ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 29, 1996 TAG: 9601290063
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
I WOULD like to illustrate the ``homosexual lifestyle'' that David Goff (Jan. 20 letter to the editor, ``Not all diversity enriches'') finds so morally offensive.
As a gay man, I wake up Monday through Thursday at 4 a.m. to go to work. While there, I work a 10-hour shift, then return home to run four miles with my dog, make dinner, spend a few hours with my partner, then go to bed. On Fridays, I teach classes as a volunteer at my daughter's school. I spend Saturdays with my partner and children, doing such immoral tasks as housecleaning, playing in the park, riding a bicycle, watching movies or eating out. And yes, on Sundays, my partner, my children and I attend church.
I don't drink, smoke or use illegal drugs. I raise my children in an environment that promotes responsible and moral behavior. In my view, this includes tolerance, fairness and justice, even in the face of oppression by those who claim a moral superiority that's patently false.
With amazing audacity, fundamentalist literalists continue selectively to use biblical texts in the oppression of people due to their differences - a practice with a long history, having played a role in maintaining the institution of slavery and the oppression of women in earlier eras.
Jesus suggested that we pluck out an eye if it offends. And while I see very few one-eyed Christians who have taken this instruction literally, many of them seem to have extremely limited vision.
MARK MARTIN
ROANOKE
The system often pushes dads aside
DEADBEAT dads - is there any wonder?
When the court system, Social Services and attorneys fail to do their jobs efficiently and accurately, the results are devastating for parents, and particularly for the children.
Children are often forced to live in volatile, dangerous and undesirable circumstances because of the neglect and inefficiencies of our system.
Well-meaning individuals who aren't aware of situations in the home but only informed by one parent or the other, and who then present that parent as a shining example of parenthood, do a great injustice to children. It's an injustice that follows that child the rest of his or her life.
Dads who try to make a difference are often shoved away by the courts and the custodial parent. They exhaust their financial, mental and emotional resources fighting this injustice. They're painted as drunks, abusers and generally as scum of the Earth. They're branded as deadbeats.
There are a lot of deadbeats out there, but the majority of divorced or separated dads do try to do the right thing until they're forced through the cracks. Is there any wonder there are so many deadbeat dads?
JESSE WORKMAN
ROANOKE
City has no reason to feel ashamed
I AM very upset with the negative comments I've heard and read in reference to how Roanoke city handled snow removal, and with William Clark's comments to the effect that the city could have done a better job and mistakes were made.
Clark and the Roanoke Valley need to wake up. Our state was declared a federal disaster area. In 72 hours or less, 24-plus inches of snow fell and high winds caused snow drifts up to 5 feet.
State and local police departments asked motorists to stay off the roads, and some didn't listen. Motorists were all over the roads, and some were stranded. These problems made snow removal impossible. Parking on streets in residential areas and downtown Roanoke has been a problem for years. Use common sense and your streets would be cleared quicker.
Instead of pushing the snow to make more areas passable, most of the private contractors hired by private businesses and individuals to remove the snow pushed it into the streets. Your tax dollars paid to have this snow removed from the streets.
I'm very proud of my husband, a Roanoke city employee. I have compassion and respect for him and for each person who gave countless hours, without hesitation, to deal with the snow while we were home safe, sleeping or complaining.
Be proud, Roanoke city. You did a fine job.
DOROTHY CATRON
HOLLINS
Country doesn't need a dictatorship
IN REFERENCE to an Associated Press article in your Jan. 8 newspaper, "Another shutdown possible":
This article exemplifies how dangerous the Republican philosophy can be when Congressman Tom DeLay, the House whip, says:
"We are going to fund only those programs we want to fund. We're in charge. We don't have to negotiate with the Senate; we don't have to negotiate with the Democrats."
DeLay seemed to be setting the stage for a congressional dictatorship.
Lower- and middle-income Americans had better wake up and get rid of these power mongers who will eventually eliminate the middle class and create an even larger class of poor. Then we won't have to worry about living with our children because we'll all be out on the street.
ROBERT and BARBARA CRAWFORD
ROANOKE
Welfare reform long overdue
IN RESPONSE to your Jan. 8 editorial, ``Congress has its priorities'':
I find it sickening that your newspaper would deliberately try to misinform its readers. The time for welfare reform has come.
Since 1965, the ``war on poverty'' has cost the United States $5.4 trillion. Yet since then, crime rates have increased, dropout rates have ballooned, public school test scores have plummeted and the number of children on welfare has more than tripled.
We know something is fundamentally wrong with welfare when the lines on a graph showing illegitimacy rates and welfare-spending rates run nearly parallel to each other. Welfare is clearly undermining the American culture.
By the way, the statement in your editorial asserting that the welfare-reform bill cuts EITC [earned-income tax credit] spending is totally false. Under the Republican plan, EITC spending increases by 131 percent, and so does spending for Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
RYAN BOYD
COVINGTON
Purple Heart was deserved
HOWARD Kleinberg's commentary on Jan. 10, ``Values take a double hit,'' stirred a memory with me. He disapproved of the Purple Heart award to the victim of a land mine.
In May 1945, I was a sergeant in the 11th Motor Transport Battalion taking part in the invasion of Okinawa. One day, Pvt. Herbert Leaming staggered up to me, clutching his right chest. He told me that he had been shot. The bullet appeared as a dark spot under the skin. I hurried him over to the sick bay and then to the hospital, where the bullet was removed. It proved to be a
At this time, heavy fighting was going on a few miles away at Shuri Castle. Also remember, if Leaming, a volunteer, hadn't been taking part in the invasion, he wouldn't have met up with that stray shot.
The same thing applies to the American soldier in Bosnia. The crucial point is that both men were in a combat zone, under orders, and when bullets or shrapnel flew, they caught it. Both men deserved to be awarded the Purple Heart.
ROBERT C. QUINN
RADFORD
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