ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996 TAG: 9604040018
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
WHEN LOCAL government abdicated its responsibility to the county, and the county abdicated to the state, and the state to the federal government, much of the original intent of the Constitution was lost. Along with it were lost many individual freedoms.
Now Congress is about to abdicate its responsibility for the purse strings of America to the executive branch in the form of the line-item veto. It's said that every president since Thomas Jefferson has wanted that authority.
We may need to remember that one American president actually got the line-item veto. In February 1861, the Confederate states of America met in Montgomery, Ala., to adopt a Constitution and elect a president. Jefferson Davis got the line-item veto, the only American president to ever get what it is said they've all wanted.
What good did it do him?
WAYNE POUCHER
BUCHANAN
Yes, gays do have a choice
IN RESPONSE to Larry Bernath's March 7 letter to the editor, "Gays aren't gay as a matter of choice":
He asks who would choose to be homosexual and risk the rejection of family and the loss of a job, home and children. He uses this to try to prove that gays cannot "choose" to be straight any more than people can choose to be gay.
There are a lot of things people choose to do every day that leads to rejection of family and the loss of jobs, home and children. For example, some people choose to commit crimes such as murder and rape - choices that lead to being rejected by a moral society.
To say that a person hasn't chosen to be gay, I believe, is a lie. I have a clear choice when it comes to this issue. I can choose to either be gay or straight. I choose to be straight because of my belief in what the Bible plainly teaches us about homosexuality.
MICHAEL COOPER
ELLISTON
Hockey playoffs need more planning
IN HIS March 20 column (``Express must hurdle roadblocks''), Jack Bogaczyk questioned how a gun show was booked the first weekend in April, excluding the opportunity for The Roanoke Express to host a playoff date on this weekend.
The gun show, a Civic Center event for 24 consecutive years, was originally booked for early March. At the request of the Express, the date was moved to April to accommodate its regular-season schedule.
Accommodating the playoff schedule is difficult at best, because the East Coast Hockey League has no solid playoff plan. Most ECHL host facilities share in this quandary, because we cannot afford to hold dates for six weeks on the chance that our home team will continue throughout the playoffs. We're very careful to provide sufficient dates for each potential playoff series. However, we have a responsibility to maximize facility activity for the entire community. League owners need to develop a plan that will identify potential playoff dates for each facility at the beginning of the season.
The Express, as our prime tenant, is very important to us, and we want to provide it with the very best schedule possible. If it is successful, then we're also successful. We also have a responsibility to provide a rounded schedule of events for the entire community. Hockey requires 10 percent of our available dates. We must maximize our usage of the other 300-plus dates to meet the objectives for which this facility was built.
JAMES M. EVANS
Assistant manager
Roanoke Civic Center
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB