ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602020040
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
WHEN A problem has already been solved, one doesn't normally need to spend a great deal of time reinventing the wheel. If Virginians look to the north, south and west, they would realize that other states had the foresight to increase their sales tax by either 0.5 or 1 percent. These states aren't experiencing the major problems that Virginia is facing in supporting public schools and higher education. Isn't it time that Virginia learned from the experience of its neighbors?
As a general rule, average parents in Virginia have bent over backward to provide for all their children's needs. Will our students end up unable to compete with the work force from neighboring states in coming years?
RODERICK W. YOUNG
BLACKSBURG
Power line is for profits only
ONE MAY well say that the proposed 765-kilovolt power line that American Electric Power Co. (formerly Appalachian Power Co.) wants to build is an inevitable part of modern life. After all, virtually all homes consume electricity, so why the fuss over a line that will ensure that we have power in the future?
The short answer is that the proposed power line isn't necessary to provide us with power, but is needed for AEP to sell power to neighboring states. If the line is built, many Virginians will lose their homes, not to mention the loss of national forest land.
Even the State Corporation Commission, which usually gives utility companies whatever they ask, is raising questions about the need for this power line.
It's up to Virginians to resist an unnecessary and destructive project such as the proposed 765-kv power line. This isn't a case of eminent domain, but a case of profiteering.
DOUGLAS CLOUD
BLACKSBURG
Is cartoon relevant to the real world?
YOU HAD a political cartoon on your Jan. 12 Opinion page depicting two men in an old pickup truck with Confederate flags all over it. One man asked the other if there would be peace in Bosnia. The other man replied, ``No, they will never get over their tribal and ethnic hatreds.''
Ironically, on the same day, there was an Associated Press article about 19-year-old Michael Westerman who was white. He was riding in his pickup truck when gunned down, in front of his wife, by four black teen-agers. This happened in Springfield, Tenn. The reason the teen-agers gave for this man's murder was that he was flying a Confederate flag on his truck. Tribal and ethnic hatred?
THOMAS N. HUTSON
SALEM
Prison life should be a deterrent
YOUR JAN. 14 Associated Press article, ``Prison offers no heat, no hope,'' really stirred me up. I congratulate Peru. It's nice to hear now and then that at least some countries treat criminals as criminals. It's hard for me to believe your newspaper and the liberal media continue to have sympathy for those who commit treason, murder, rape and robbery.
Let's face it, in America when you go to prison, you have an opportunity to get an education, get three meals a day, an exercise program, television, and are able to make money, etc. What other country in the world offers this, and what other country in the world has a higher crime rate?
My point isn't that we need to treat criminals like dogs, but we do need to make them not to want to come back to prison.
Those of us who try to make an honest living and support our families shouldn't have to keep paying for those who, at a rate of 70 percent, return to the penal system. That should tell us something is wrong.
We should institute the basic-training approach for all criminals in all institutions. The biggest problem in our country today is there is no basic training.
MIKE COX
ROANOKE
`Family Circus' needs new acts
WOULD someone inform Bil Keane that it's time to fold the tent at "The Family Circus"? I don't think there's been a new idea in this comic strip in 10 years.
Let me guess an upcoming theme that he'll use for a week. Will it be Billy drawing the strip in his father's absence, or will it be Jeffy wandering the neighborhood followed by - wherever he goes? Will it be the twin sprites "Don't Know" and "Not Me" running away from some accident, or perhaps - as offered yet again recently - the dead grandfather hovering over with a benign smile on his face?
May I suggest a replacement and something equally as funny - like ``Nancy''?
J. SCOT FINLEY
BOTETOURT COUNTY
Family bonds aren't of monetary value
REGARDING D.J. Tice's Jan. 15 commentary, "The family's economic obsolescence":
Tice targets the economic disadvantages of maintaining a traditional family structure in American society. He states that the monetary worth of family members, specifically children, in this modern age is largely responsible for family disintegration. Or, in other words, people can't afford children.
Likewise, the government is generous toward welfare recipients and retirees to the point where family members aren't really needed in these recipients' lives.
Tice fails to realize that in rich and poor families, past and present, that maintain strong moral values and exercise unconditional love, the monetary worth of the human being isn't even considered. All children, no matter what economic status or situation, are precious commodities with talents and abilities that we adults must help develop. Likewise, rich or poor, our parents and other family members are our responsibility as well. Under these criteria, the worth of the human soul is great. Just ask your maker.
SUSAN M. HOWELL
MONTVALE
Double trouble in Roanoke County
THE ASSESSMENT on my house and lot rose $8,000, an increase of more than 7 percent. This is more than double the predicted increase.
I am a retiree, and I have no children in school. If this rate of increase continues along with the proposed bond issue for the $33 million Cave Spring High School, how are retired people and others going to retain their homes in Roanoke County?
You may rest assured that my vote for the bond issue will be a resounding no, especially considering the token amount to be given the other schools as a bribe to get votes.
ROBERT J. LOVELACE
ROANOKE
Regulations on tobacco go too far
I VOWED I wouldn't write any more letters to the editor, but the Jan. 14 cartoon on your Opinion page caused me to write this.
Pray tell, how much power do you folks want the Food and Drug Administration to have? I can't see where the tobacco industry is trying or has tried to force children to smoke. There's already a law that says you have to be 18 years old to buy cigarettes. And tobacco is still a legal product, just like whiskey.
Why not let the FDA control automobiles, knives, electric blankets or anything else that can be harmful to our society?
HARRY E. MARTIN
ROANOKE
Blaming males for teen pregnancy
I WANT to complain about the sexist public-service announcement currently appearing on WSLS-Channel 10. The sexist line contained in the ad is this: "If he loves you, he'll wait."
The commercial is aimed at young girls, to keep them from having sex and babies at a young age. Now, I have no problem with telling kids that we don't want them having kids, but since when did all the blame for this problem lay on the boys? Are they predators roaming the halls of our nation's high schools? Are all teen-age mothers poor little lost souls who were seduced by some evil boy? I don't think so, and the insinuation is insulting. There were far more trollops in my high school than guys pressuring girls for sex.
This latest attack on males is just another example of women pushing the blame for female-male or solely female problems onto the males of the population, because females are oh so oppressed. Give me a break. Get off the pedestal, and take responsibility for your own actions, ladies. It takes two to tango, and two to make babies.
BRYAN S. SLICK
BLACKSBURG
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