ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 29, 1996 TAG: 9611290004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTER
REGARDING your Nov. 20 news article, ``Coyner Springs on trial'':
If it takes a village to raise a child, then our village is failing miserably! There have been, and always will be, teen-agers who become problem children of the family. Without trying to analyze why this happens or putting blame on the system, schools, parents, etc., we need to look at what action we, as responsible, mature adults, are taking to solve the problem.
From time to time, we send a delinquent to a detention facility where the problem child can learn the cold, hard facts of life. Adults - who say mind your manners, be a good citizen, it's wrong to steal, abuse or deliberately injure someone - will teach them just how to do these things. And these adults are being paid by the taxpayers.
The Coyner Springs facility is certified by the state only every three years and checked just twice a year? How many violations can occur between twice-a-year checkups?
And yet, if a parent, a teacher or the system realizes the teen-ager is developing a behavior problem, what avenues for correction are there? Very few, unless you can afford to send the child to a recovery program to the tune of $3,000 per month that has a success rate of 85 percent. What is the success rate of the youth-detention facility, and what does it cost me as a taxpayer to send a teen-ager there?
We as a village, a community, city, state and a nation must take whatever actions are necessary to provide each child the guidance, training and help to become a productive adult. Our present programs are a pitiful excuse for addressing a growing problem, and they are fast creating other problems in the overcrowding of prisons, streets and cemeteries.
JUNE LEE HIGGS
SALEM
Scenic outlook seems to be blurred
WE HAVE read that the governor of our beautiful state scorns the legally authorized agency in charge of clean water and air (Nov. 10 news article, ``Allen, EPA tensions grow''). We have also read that visitors to Roanoke appreciated our scenery after trees were cut down (Nov. 10 letter to the editor by Donna and Nicholas Hober, ``View of star is now complete''). And in our city, displaced deer can go someplace else, presuming there is ``someplace else'' (Joe Kennedy's Nov. 11 column, ``Where the deer and `dozers play'').
What is the matter with this picture?
SUE COLLINS
ROANOKE
Clinton seems bent on revenge
EVEN WITH the campaign over and won, Bill Clinton cannot stop talking out of both sides of his mouth. Your Nov. 9 Associated Press news article (``Clinton to GOP: Set anger aside'') quotes him underlining the importance of ``putting our politics down.''
But the president spoke differently to a group of supporters in Arkansas the morning after his victory. According to the Associated Press, Clinton said that he will devote a lot of time to ``going after'' those who have sought to uncover the truth about Whitewater and other ethical questions.
Clinton called his political opponents ``a cancer,'' and vowed ``to cut them out of American politics.'' Is this the same man who wants to put politics down?
Twenty-four years ago, a man was re-elected president, even though many people had serious doubts about his honesty and integrity. That man interpreted his victory as permission to destroy his enemies. Richard Nixon, however, was the one destroyed two years later.
As the first parts of the Nixon scenario are replayed by Clinton, I can confidently predict that his departure will not take quite so long.
ED LYNCH
HOLLINS
White House exhibit attracted too few
I HAD the opportunity recently to enjoy the exhibition at Center in the Square of objects loaned by the White House. The objects were works of art done in metal, glass, wood and pottery by artisans and given to the White House. The works ranged from interesting to lovely. I spent more than an hour walking from one to another of the objects.
The purpose of my letter is to observe that, for more than an hour, I was the only person there. I am sure it isn't too easy to procure an exhibit like this. We should support these events by our presence.
For those who didn't see it, you missed a great opportunity.
AUDREY WILEY
ROANOKE
Tabloid treatment of a personal matter
YOUR NOV. 17 news article, ``Adoption: `It's a risk they take','' was totally inappropriate. The article, which publicly bashes respected members of the community - Dr. Carey Winkler and his family - had no place in the newspaper, especially not on the front page.
Personally, I found the article offensive, extremely tasteless and blatantly biased. It made the Dulins seem like sweet, kind people who only wanted a child. Well, what about the Winklers?
The fact that the Dulins are going to make a case out of this disturbs me even more. Once Dr. Winkler asked the woman if he could adopt the little boys, he handed the case over to his partner. In doing this, he showed himself to be anything but unethical.
I was very upset when I read the article, as I am sure many others were also. I sincerely hope The Roanoke Times will refrain from printing trash like this in the future. It was the kind of thing a person would expect to read in the tabloids, not a newspaper. People's personal lives shouldn't be used as story ideas in the future.
MICHELLE AMOS
ROANOKE
Adoption story was one-sided
I WAS appalled to read your Nov. 17 news article, ``Adoption: `It's a risk they take'.''
Yes, I feel sorry for the Dulins. It would be very hard to take, thinking that you were going to get a child and then not have it happen. But what people, including the Dulins, need to realize is that adoptions fall through all the time. Also, babies cannot be promised before they are born. Did the Dulins know that? If so, why did they make a big deal of it?
If Dr. Carey Winkler, my father, was in another profession, this wouldn't be a news story. And it shouldn't be one. But since this newspaper is obviously for invading others' private life, it ended up being on the front page. Because of his profession, it's hot material. I think this is total discrimination. I am only 14 years old, and I can see that better than you can.
Who is to say that a doctor cannot adopt his patient's child (or children)? I was sickened by this totally biased news article, and was absolutely blown away by how little you care about others' privacy. Did you mean to slander my father and my family, or do you not care how much you hurt other people?
Also, what did the reference to my sister, Megan, have to do with anything? I alone have been through more ``heartache and sorrow'' than the Dulins probably have. Losing my sister last year to cancer (she was 11 years old) was very painful and hard for me to take. Now that I have found happiness with the twins, why do the Dulins want to give us trouble when we have already gone through too much? It was totally irrelevant and inappropriate.
I give two thumbs down to you for printing this news article and two thumbs down to staff writer Leslie Taylor for not getting the truth. This article has taught me a valuable lesson: Don't believe everything you read.
MELISSA WINKLER
ROANOKE
Editor's note: Dr. Winkler declined to talk on the record to the newspaper.
Pitting the old against the young
IN RESPONSE to Greta McCaughrin's Nov. 12 letter to the editor, ``Welfare for wealthy seniors'':
Perhaps she and others feel the way they do because of the division of groups that's been needlessly created by the entitlement programs of Social Security and Medicare. As she suggested, most elderly worked hard for what they have.
Many of us would like to know the name of the tax expert who can plan for a senior (or anyone) to make $50,000 a year and not pay any taxes. I am sure the Internal Revenue Service would also be interested in that name.
I would also like to see the study that demonstrates ``young people of this country must pay more taxes because the seniors do not pay taxes.''
NOBLE L. MOORE
BLACKSBURG
LENGTH: Long : 153 linesby CNB