ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190022
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
IT IS with some trepidation that I write this letter to the editor knowing that it isn't politically correct to criticize Salem City Council. However, it bothers me to think that Mowles Spring Park could be destroyed to build a golf course (May 29 news article, ``National promoters tell Salem it's time to tee off'').
Councilman Alex Brown is quoted as saying: ``We can know pretty much to the penny what a golf course is going to cost us.'' It seems this is what we heard concerning the cost of the baseball stadium, and it appears the golf course is already a done deal.
It also says in the article that Salem is paying $35,000 annually to maintain the capped landfill. Anyone care to guess what it will cost Salem taxpayers to subsidize a golf course? Mayor Jim Taliaferro was quoted as saying that maintaining the land as a park would only increase the city's maintenance costs. I'd be interested to know what those costs are. He didn't say. He did say he doesn't believe in referendums. In his words, ``I don't believe in the mob rules.''
I always thought of mob rule as being associated with anarchy. A referendum is simply submitting a question to the voters. I thought this was how democracy worked.
I'm a ``federally subsidized retiree'' and I'm confused about Salem City Council. If it's neither an autocracy (absolute ruler) nor a bureaucracy (government by officials), then perhaps City Council should listen to the concerns of the people. If an overwhelming majority of voters approve a golf course, then I, too, will. But give us a chance to express our views. If the ``mob'' says ``yes,'' then so do I.
I hope the people will have a voice in Councilman Harry Haskins.
MARION D. LONG
SALEM
Dispensing with polarization
ALAN SORENSEN'S brilliant column (June 2, ``The other side of political and moral certainty'') was a plea to dispense with polarized ideologies and with our tendency to engage in the shoot-from-the-hip, ad hominem attacks so prevalent in our society, such as it is.
Those of us who are Christian can take notice of the abundance of collective pronouns in our Lord's Prayer, i.e., ``give us this day our daily bread'' or "lead us not into temptation.'' This 2,000-year-old prayer was first uttered in small groups of believers whose cohesiveness against brutal adversity developed over the years into a major world religion.
Instead of saying, ``Seeing is believing,'' as our brilliant Unitarian friends are inclined to do, instead we say, ``Believing is seeing.'' Get it?
BOB SHIELDS
ROANOKE
What's garbage got to do with it?
I WAS alarmed to read advertisements in your June 13 newspaper purporting to be concerned about our children's education. The ads said that the city could afford greater education spending if it saved money by contracting with a private company for trash disposal.
The ads aren't being run by any group of teachers, parents or education advocates. They're paid for by the company that wants the garbage-disposal contract.
I support the ideas both of saving money and of improving education, and I urge Roanoke City Council to consider the best ways of doing both. I also urge citizens to always consider the source of the information they use to make their decisions.
ROBERT STANLEY
ROANOKE
Enough about Dole's suffering
I CAN'T believe that it has taken 50 years to learn that only one soldier won World War II. It seems like every speech Bob Dole has made either bashes President Clinton or tells of Dole's suffering from World War II.
On Memorial Day, President Clinton thanked and praised all veterans who died or are suffering from the wars that saved our great country, but Dole only said what he went through from the war.
I think he has been very fortunate. A number of other veterans are in much worse condition than he is from the war. But they have had to work a 40-hour week or more, and pay the taxes to meet the salary Dole has raked in for 36 years for doing nothing but voting against every bill to help the worker - even the minimum wage.
OPAL A. PRICE
BLACKSBURG
Better to use it than to lose it
IN RESPONSE to Robert K. Egbert's June 3 letter to the editor, ``Now it's logging without laws'':
I agree with him concerning the use of ``riders'' by Congress. This process has been used by Democrats and Republicans for decades. In fact, this is how many objectionable pieces of legislation are passed and made law. This process has been used many times by environmental preservationists and other special-interest groups.
I disagree with the charge that the salvage bill was bad. This bill was needed to enable forest managers to salvage a valuable resource that is dead or dying from insects and disease. There's no rational reason to let this wood, which is in high demand by citizens, be wasted.
Large areas of dead and dying timber have been burned in large forest fires out West over the past few years. Much of this could have been salvaged and put to use rather than allowed to go up in smoke. Close to home, we have the gypsy moth, which is the cause of thousands of acres of dying and dead oaks and hickories. The dead and dying timber adds to the fuel load in the forest, and makes wild fires much worse and harder to control.
Many times over the years, individuals and groups in the environmental movement have delayed and/or stopped salvage of timber through frivolous appeals of the environmental documents. When the delay lasts long enough, the wood loses its value and potential for use in wood products. It is left to rot. The bill that Egbert referred to only eliminates appeals of the environmental documents that still must be prepared.
DANIEL B. DEEDS
Chairman
Appalachian Forest Management Group
COVINGTON
Natural resources are to be enjoyed
I WAS appalled and angered by the lead in to the June 5 news article, ``Women's slayings strike fear on Appalachian Trail.'' The author wrote: ``Books have been written, warnings sounded and criminals convicted. But murder along the Appalachian Trail deters few.'' The author thus implies that such vile acts as the murder of two young women near Luray should give us pause to consider our use and enjoyment of these natural places.
The Shenandoah National Park and the Appalachian Trail exist for the enjoyment of all decent, law-abiding people. The perpetrator of this crime is nothing more than a wild dog, and should be dealt with as such. If we're not able to enjoy the beauty and solitude these places afford - and, just as importantly, to willfully assert our rights as lawful citizens to do so - then I suggest that we ought to simply turn them into shopping malls and put our tax dollars to another use.
MIKE GENTHNER
BLACKSBURG
It could have been built smart before
SEVERAL years ago when I first traveled east on the newly opened four-lane U.S. 460 on top of Brushy Mountain, I could look to the right and see where the road made a big swing to the right, west and south of Blacksburg, to get to Roanoke. I wondered why it didn't go nearly straight - to the north of Blacksburg, coming out on Interstate 81 near the Ironto exit. That would have been smart.
Since then, the state has sought to build a road sort of in the same direction to the tune of $100 million. And its supporters want to call it a ``smart'' road.
Several years ago, the people in and around Ellett Valley wouldn't have been so opposed to a sensible, big new road going through the area. Now they're against this new crazy road. I don't blame them. I would be, too.
RALPH JOHNSON
WYTHEVILLE
LENGTH: Long : 148 linesby CNB