ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604230004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
ANNETTE Meyer (March 12 letter to the editor, "Overhaul law to protect species at risk") is mistaken in several of her assertions regarding endangered and threatened species.
The bald eagle, now down-listed from endangered to threatened because of increasing numbers, was banned from hunting by the Migratory Bird Treaties and Acts of 1916, 1918 and 1936, and the Bald Eagle Act of 1940. It wasn't "banned from hunting'' or ``increasing in population before" the federal Endangered Species Act. The eagle continued to decline until 1973, mainly because of chlorinated hydrocarbons like DDT being passed up the food chain and destroying its eggs. DDT, banned from use in the United States in 1973, is still manufactured here to be shipped to Third World countries. It was the Environmental Protection Agency of Richard Nixon's time that banned DDT the same year the Endangered Species Act was passed.
Using the wood duck, turkey, bluebird, ruffed grouse as examples of animals that were "voluntarily saved" by private landowners prior to the passing of the Endangered Species Act is a red herring. None of these species was rare enough, even at its lowest numbers, to fall under the law's definition of endangered or threatened.
We should be proud as Virginians, however, that under this law two of America's rarest plants have been brought back from extinction. The Virginia round-leaf birch, found only near Sugar Grove in Smyth County, has been down-listed from endangered to threatened because of action by state and federal agencies and by private landowners. Likewise, the Peters Mountain mallow, from near Narrows in Giles County, has profited from the enlightened interests of both public and private sectors.
I agree that "neither scientific nor historic facts should be ignored'' when making a decision about the law. However, we should make sure that these are truly facts, and not merely opinions. No one is going to throw Meyer's 8-year-old in jail for picking a sun-facing coneflower, although that possibility remains for someone who deliberately destroys a population of this endangered species. A number of plants and animals are endangered or threatened in Virginia, as are many rare habitats. As humans, we have an obligation not to ignore them. The best way is to continue the Endangered Species Act as presently written. Meyer should read it; she'll find that there are "incentives for private landowners to manage for endangered species rather than being penalized for doing so."
DUNCAN M. PORTER
BLACKSBURG
Girlfriend's reaction was commonplace
I THINK your March 26 headline (``'He didn't deserve to be shot like that,' girlfriend says'') was a cheap shot at the police.
Responding to domestic-violence calls is a thankless, dangerous business. The Edwin Plunkett-Billie Patton incident is all too typical. He beats her up; she calls the cops. When they arrive, she sides with him against the outsiders. Anyone with experience in a city newsroom must know this.
Her reaction to the fatal shooting of her lover was highly biased and completely predictable. Its news value was therefore marginal. So why did you elect to give her statement star billing?
If the departmental investigation finds the officers culpable, running the article at the top of the front page might be appropriate. But if, as is likely, they're vindicated, where will you print that article?
MONTE D. WRIGHT
BEDFORD
No apologies owed for public's attitude
I HAVE read several commentaries on "Diversity Enriches" published in The Roanoke Times, including Cody Lowe's on March 24.
Lowe interviewed experts - a gay lawyer, a sociologist, a minister and a billboard researcher - to find the answer to: ``Why did these two words cause such an uproar?" Summarized here are some of the insightful answers.
The lawyer: The rantings of a vocal few.
The sociologist: The season, the weather, even politics.
The minister: The Bible condemns the practice.
The billboard researcher: Visibility, size - works fine on the bus.
We grass-roots types weren't included in Lowe's research, and his question wasn't answered. We simpler souls could have explained the public's reaction without comparing theologies, making moral judgments or blaming the weather
If the query had been put to us, we would have said: Most of us don't hate and certainly don't fear homosexuals, but we do experience a natural revulsion to their sexual activity. We don't "choose" this reaction. It was thrust upon us at birth by nature. We need not apologize about it.
Equally disgusting acts occur in the heterosexual community, but none of their practitioners has sought public acceptance or approval of deviant behavior. They don't advertise on billboards. If they did, public reaction would be quite similar.
ROBERT F. ADAMS
ROANOKE
At Ferrum College, old values endure
IN VIEW OF recent articles about Ferrum College in your newspaper (March 23 article, "Professors slam boss" and, March 24, ``President of Ferrum renewed''), I write as an alumnus and senior member of the faculty. Someone needs to affirm the enduring worth of the Ferrum College experience. It would be tragic if a present or prospective student would interpret recent events as a reason not to enter or stay at Ferrum.
The lamp of learning still burns brightly here. There are competent and caring teachers and students who are engaged daily in the exciting process of academic discovery. If students are the heart of a college, then faculty members are the soul. Many professors and staff members have been at Ferrum from its days as a junior college through its transition to a four-year school.
There are men and women who continue to perceive their work here as a divine calling. Most persons in this community of scholars still respect the values of religious faith that brought the school into being. There remains a vestige of the Ferrum family paradigm. It's true that families sometimes have their differences.
I believe that with an informed Board of Trustees, the renewed support of the church and the cooperation of all persons on campus, the current tensions will be overcome. We shall see some healing of the heart and of the soul.
JIM ANGLE
Professor of English
Ferrum College
FERRUM
Executive's smile was untimely
PRINTING the smirking, smiling photo of the chief executive of DynCorp Inc., Daniel R. Bannister, with his wife, along with the article (``Change of mind saves Virginia executive's life'') about his ``backing out'' from the trip with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, seemed to be very bad timing after such a terrible tragedy.
DIANA P. CHURCHMAN
ROANOKE
Sexual orientation isn't a choice
I BEG to differ with Michael Cooper (April 4 letter to the editor, "Yes, gays do have a choice").
I'm not a lesbian or bisexual, but I have friends who are gay or bisexual. I've asked them if they "choose" to be that way or is it the way they were born. All of them have answered that it's the way they were born. I believe that.
Cooper didn't choose to be straight. He was born straight, as I was. He's very wrong in bringing up the Bible regarding this subject. We say that the Bible teaches us about homosexuality and how it's wrong. But the Bible also teaches that having sex before marriage is also wrong. Why is it that homosexuality looks worse than sex before marriage? They're both in the Bible, and are both wrong. The difference is that one chooses to have sex before marriage; one doesn't choose to be a homosexual. Yet having sex before marriage, which is a choice, isn't as big a deal as homosexuality.
I think it's the uneducated and closed-minded people of this world who believe that one chooses to be homosexual. If anyone has this attitude, it will not get them far in life. And they'll have a difficult time in the future dealing with homosexuals.
MELISSA MARSALONE
ROCKY MOUNT
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