ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 5, 1997 TAG: 9702050052
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
Ethical abuses aren't all Newt's
IN RESPONSE to your Jan. 28 editorial, ``Gingrich denies responsibility'':
You are right - Newt Gingrich is responsible for the college course to which you refer. I found it very interesting and informative.
You refer to it as a political operation, but I found it no more political than a number of courses that I have taken at Virginia Tech and other educational institutions. If you consider quotes from the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy as political, I guess it was.
I am tired of you and others accusing Gingrich of great moral and ethical abuses. At the same time, you say nothing about the actions of Congressmen Jim McDermott and David Bonior. They apparently were not only involved in a very serious ethics violation, but perhaps even a serious felony. Apparently so were some fellow travelers from Florida, who just happened to be tuned in to Gingrich's telephone.
I haven't even opened up the can of worms involving President Clinton's administration. When you talk about ethics and law breaking, this administration compares in many ways with the Nixon administration.
Incidently, how many of your editors even listened to 30 seconds of Gingrich's course, let alone a minute? That same thought applies to McDermott and Bonior, as well as to the group that gave us the House post office and House bank scandals, and couldn't even successfully operate a cafeteria.
RAYMOND D. CAMPER JR.
ROANOKE
Abortion doctors are contemptible
YOUR THOUGHTFUL editorial (Jan. 23, ``Abortion is a right, and so is protest'') on abortion rights is correct in what it says. Left untouched is a problem with the abortionist.
When I began the study of medicine in the 1950s, an abortionist was held in the greatest contempt by the medical profession. Illegality wasn't the question. In 1973, the Supreme Court decided abortion was legal, but so what? Abortion remains contemptible, and so does its practitioner.
A woman may elect to kill her unborn child; she can discuss this with God at a later time. But the doctor who performs the abortion is anathema. The abortion problem should never have been in a court of law.
J. MICHAEL BESTLER
MARTINSVILLE
Leave discipline to parents
IN RESPONSE to Ocie C. Jones' Jan. 24 letter to the editor, ``Coaches should be disciplining kids'':
I am a parent who believes children should be disciplined, but I am also a parent who wishes for no one else to discipline my children for me. No one else brought my child into this world but her father and me.
Jones says teachers and coaches should discipline children. But he should know that even parents cannot discipline their own children without someone crying child abuse. For the most part, teachers and coaches aren't there to do what parents fail to do at home. They are there to teach, and nothing more.
It isn't that parents fail to discipline their children. It is that they just cannot. A judge would rather put a parent in jail if the child didn't show up for school. Or if a child gets out of hand outside of school, it is up to the courts because it is the parents who go through hell.
It takes more than discipline for children today. It takes love, attention and being there for them. School is for teachers to teach and children to learn, and nothing more.
KIM GORDON
ROANOKE
Hunters, fishers deserve respect
AT A time when those who enjoy fishing, hunting and trapping are catching it from all sides - animal-rights groups, anti-gun groups and President Clinton - is there not one Virginia legislator who will submit legislation for those who fish, hunt and trap since they are the only ones who pay their own way? (No tax money is used to run the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.)
Let the bill be drafted to say:
*No person, no department of the Virginia state government, not the governor nor a legislative branch of state government, shall have the right to remove money from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. This money, derived from the sale of fishing, hunting and trapping licenses, and the Pittman-Robinson fund shall be used only by the department as it so determines.
*No person shall be appointed or approved for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' Board of Directors (game commissioner) unless his or her background shows that he or she enjoys fishing, hunting and trapping or intends to enhance the views of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
West Virginia and, I believe, Nevada have already passed such a bill. Eleven other states have such a bill due for consideration this year. Don't Virginians who fish, hunt and trap deserve the same respect?
RONALD L. TUCKER
LYNCHBURG
LENGTH: Medium: 94 linesby CNB