ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 5, 1996 TAG: 9611050101
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
MORE THAN 100 miles from Blacksburg, a 35-foot sinkhole opened up on Interstate 81. Your headline on the Oct. 11 news article stated, "Sinkhole may be fixed for game."
What is important here - the fact that a sinkhole occurred, that it had to be repaired or that it might interfere with a Virginia Tech football game? What a sad display of priorities.
If the Virginia Department of Transportation had not gotten the sinkhole fixed before game time, would the football team have been sent to beat, maim, disable and disfigure members of the road crew?
And would it take three months (or at least until after football season is over) to investigate - as it sometimes does in Montgomery County?
There's a lot of sadness in the world!
ROBERT MILLIRON
ROANOKE
VMI still avoids equal opportunity
THE VIRGINIA Military Institute may have found an ideal individual to screen its women applicants (Oct. 12 news article, "Roanoke native up to task of bringing women to VMI"). However, she was "invited to apply" and "the only candidate considered for the job."
How and why did the institute evade equal-opportunity and affirmative-action guidelines designed to guarantee a fair and open search for state-funded positions?
Terri Wheaton Reddings may still have been appointed after such a search, as she seems eminently qualified. But flaunting the process shows that VMI still has a long way to go toward "getting it."
MURIEL LEDERMAN
BLACKSBURG
Lawmakers should probe power issue
WHEN THE Soviet Union was a real bear, the military industries' lobbyists would use the Soviet Union and communism to scare us into building military hardware and software that wasn't needed for the security of our nation. The industries' profits were the same as they would have been on truly needed military equipment and material.
Now, American Electric Power is using the threat of blackouts to scare us into building a power line that isn't needed.
An AEP spokesman has stated that one 500-kilovolt line carries enough electricity to supply the needs of 2.2 million families. We now have connected to the Cloverdale substation one 765-, one 500-, one 345- and four 138-kilovolt lines. These lines can carry enough electricity to supply the needs of all the people in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.
Because AEP has threatened us with blackouts even beyond their own service area, I urge our legislators to launch an investigation as to whether we are in danger of blackouts. If we are, that means AEP has failed to provide a safe delivery system with safeguards that will automatically isolate power failures rather than let them leapfrog over a great area.
I call on the citizens to form their own investigative committee for the same purpose.
JAMES V. NOONKESTER
BLACKSBURG
Do youth have protest rights now?
NOT TOO many years ago, there was a bright, young American scholar whose conscience deemed it necessary for him to boycott and protest a war in Vietnam as morally wrong and inhumane. There were no serious reprisals or reprimands for his actions.
Today, this same young man is president of the United States. He not only stands for but demands our country's active military and financial participation in a European war that has been brewing and active for generations. Somehow, in this bright, young American scholar's mind, there is a difference.
Do the young American men and women of today have the same privilege of conscience as did the youth of yesterday to deem it necessary to boycott and protest a war they consider morally wrong and inhumane without serious reprisal or reprimand? Or am I missing something?
JAMES A. COLLINS
TROUTVILLE
Clinton hasn't earned respect
IN RESPONSE to Kelli Jennings Oct. 8 letter to the editor, ``Don't blame Clinton for others' deeds'':
Jennings needs to study up on the law. A person can be guilty by association. It's called being an accomplice. President Clinton hired Dick Morris, perhaps because he saw in him the same moral standings he upholds. And even though it hasn't been proved that his involvement with Morris wasn't on the up and up, neither has Clinton's involvement in Whitewater been proved - yet. Clinton didn't earn the nickname ``Slick Willie'' without good reason.
Jennings is obviously just another liberal who, for whatever reason, refuses to see the truth. Democrats love to say that Republicans are hateful and critical. Well, Jennings certainly was quick to call Grace Roberson (a person I'm sure she has never met) ``full of hate'' because Jennings felt she didn't show Clinton respect.
I believe respect is earned, and I won't give respect to a draft dodger and philanderer.
SANDY PACE
ROANOKE
One person's view shouldn't dictate
IN RESPONSE to Virginia Richmond's Oct. 11 letter to the editor, ``A principal shields a child from porn'':
I, too, have a child who attends school in Franklin County. I have nothing but praise and the highest respect for those responsible for his education at school. However, I do have a problem with books being pulled from library shelves because of the request of one parent.
As parents, it's our responsibility to assist teachers with the job of educating our children. This means becoming more involved in all aspects of the school day, not just with what they bring home to read. I resent the fact that because one mother found some material ``pornographic'' and ``trash,'' it could be made unavailable to other children whose parents may not feel that way.
Richmond is entitled to her opinion, and made a responsible choice for her daughter. Please allow me that same right regarding my child. Censorship is terrible and a frightening thing.
KAREN E. ST. CLAIR
HARDY
Correction
IN SHARON Eves' Nov. 2 letter to the editor, ``Kids must be warned about drugs,'' the sentence should have read, ``I find it unconscionable that in 1996 - with all we have learned about alcohol and drugs - we have no substance-abuse counselors/educators in our elementary and middle schools, and only one student-assistance provider who covers our two high schools.''
Don't let lawyers hog the business
IT HAS been our experience since moving to Roanoke from Texas that lawyers surely do not know what they are doing when it comes to real-estate closings.
In our case, we were asked to pay an additional $200 in closing costs several days after our actual closing date. I knew this request from the attorney was highly irregular. I held a real-estate-brokers license in Texas. We didn't pay the full amount, but agreed to pay half. We were being nice.
However, this particular lawyer hasn't frequented our restaurant since. Prior to this, he was a regular customer. So much for professionalism. And several of our customers indicated that they had a similar experience with this same lawyer or other lawyers.
The idea that lawyers should be the only closing agents in real-estate deals is ludicrous. I hope this idea is rejected by the legislature.
RADFORD THOMAS
ROANOKE
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