ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 6, 1996 TAG: 9608060021
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
IN RESPONSE to a July 26 letter to the editor, ``Delivering first-class mail service,'' from Billy Martin, postmaster of the Roanoke post office:
He mentioned modern multimillion-dollar equipment, and how it has improved service. Slightly more than 50 years ago, I mailed a letter from Seoul, Korea, to Blue Ridge, Virginia - an approximate distance of 11,000 miles. The letter arrived in six days. On July 25, 1996, I received a letter that was mailed in Roanoke on July 16. Nine days! I live approximately five miles from Roanoke's main post office.
I have experienced, and heard from others who experienced, four- or five-day delays in mail delivery from within Roanoke to other parts of the city.
There are two sides to every story.
RALPH W. FOSTER
ROANOKE
Roads near lake need upgrading
SUDDEN DEATH has struck once again on a Franklin County road - Virginia 122 through the Smith Mountain Lake area. A severe accident was caused by one driver's excessive speed and the deep rut that often separates the asphalt from the shoulder of the road. This dangerous condition exists on many Virginia roads. The combination of high speed and a driver's attempts to correct his course often results in a head-on collision with an oncoming vehicle or a violent encounter with a tree.
The Virginia Department of Transportation and the Franklin County engineering department should recognize this problem, and, perhaps by working together, eliminate some of the more dangerous ruts and thus save many lives.
Maybe a hot line to VDOT or your county engineer would put the focus on some of the more obvious rut problems on our roads, and then some corrective action could be taken.
ED WHITE
SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE
Polls show what fools mortals be
AFTER learning about the Antichrist - his rise to power and world dominance - I've often wondered how one man could fool so many people. (The world?)
Now, after three-plus years of Bill Clinton and family, and Clinton's lead in voter polls, I don't have to wonder any more. It's possible!
CHUCK JARRELL
DUBLIN
Show the flag more respect
THE FRONT-page picture on July 29 - of spectators watching the Olympics through holes cut in an American flag - was a travesty. Those people have no idea of the disservice they do their flag, but, believe me, I and others do.
It is apparent from their lack of regard for the national flag that they have never had one lesson in the correct way to treat our country's symbol. According to the flag code, which was passed by Congress, the flag ``represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing.'' The code goes on to state that no part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen and members of patriotic organizations.
Is it any wonder that others have no respect for our country and its symbol when they see that our own citizens don't? Why should they?
ROBERT E. MAXWELLL
ROANOKE
Give us the keys to the White House
I AGREE with Lemon Hileman's July 26 letter to the editor, ``Missing the point of the VMI decision.'' The point was that it's unconstitutional for discrimination to occur when government funding is used to support an activity or facility.
Now I want to see if she will agree with me. Since all government buildings are supported with government funds, why should any citizen who visits Washington, Richmond, etc., have the expense of staying in a motel or hotel? He or she should be able to sack out in any government building, including the White House, the governor's mansion, the Justice Department, etc.
Silly? Think about it.
JAMES B. EARLY
ROANOKE
An attempt to gag Christian voices
AS A CRUCIAL presidential election approaches, the silencing of the conservative Christian voice has shifted into high gear. That the tax status of the Christian Coalition (July 8 article, ``Religious or political advocacy?'') is jeopardized by virtue of political views founded on faith is an example of not-so-subtle threats of censorship. This attempted silencing of a Christian voice is ironic, since the very Constitution that supposedly lends support to separation of church and state is a document explicitly crafted by Christian men and based on biblical principles.
Noah Webster - author of the dictionary bearing his name, contributor to the Constitution and father of American education - wrote powerfully of the relationship between the Constitution, civil order and the Bible: ``No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. It's extremely important to our nation, in a political as well as religious view, that all possible authority and influence should be given to the Scriptures, for these furnish the best principles of civil liberty and the most effectual support of republican government. The principles of all genuine liberty, and of wise laws and administrations, are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority. The man, therefore, who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that book may be accessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer.''
Webster properly understood that the destruction of internal social controls provided by the Christian faith and morality would of necessity result in increasing internal controls by the state. ``There are two powers only which are sufficient to control men and secure the rights of individuals in a peaceable administration. These are the combined force of religion and law, and the force of fear of the bayonet.'' (I.e., a moral education based on Christian faith, or more police on the beat, the national guard to patrol streets, midnight basketball and curfews.)
Such writings were not from the charter members of the extreme Christian right, but were common among the founding fathers and the framers of the Constitution. This country's peaceable future depends not on silencing its heritage of faith, but on a return to its heritage.
LARRY W. McCOY
PILOT
Lofty ideals won't solve our problems
REGARDING Peter Fosl's July 28 commentary, ``The rights of property can't be unlimited'':
Who can argue with the author's goals for an enlightened citizenry: ``decent employment for all, safeguard[ing] the planet, a more equitable distribution of wealth''? Making it happen, aye, there's the rub!
Motivation is all. Even the well-intentioned Jefferson, with his political insights, couldn't live up to the standard that decrees that persons shouldn't be used as property. Slaves enabled him to maintain the style of living of an educated landowner of his day. To suggest that ``civic duty, commitment to the well-being of our democracy'' or even ``a sense of responsibility to our children'' might begin to instigate a property-rights revolution in America is to stare naively into the 20th-century face of human selfishness and greed.
Establishing lofty ideals is only a bare beginning. Recognizing spiritual frailty and weakness, even among those with the best of intentions, may be the next step, for such an epiphany brings with it humility in the wake of powerlessness. ``Who can save me from myself?'' cried out the apostle Paul (Romans 7:24). And his powerlessness drove him to his knees in prayer.
But today, prayer - which is simply a dialogue in the quiet of my soul - has been castrated by formalism or eradicated by the time crunch. We don't need institutionalized prayer. We need individuals who are desperate enough to look into their hearts and begin the dialogue. Only the spirit of the Lord can work the miracle that will turn us into people who live by the creed, ``I am my brother's keeper.'' Living unselfishly is exceedingly unnatural. Only faithfulness to prayer nurtures charity, which is of God.
An antiseptic civilization will not save us from the chaos we are witnessing in the Third World. Perhaps it's time for us to attempt solving some of these problems on our knees.
ELAINE C. LANDRY
ROANOKE
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