ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 24, 1997 TAG: 9702250002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
Mentally ill are still being mistreated
AS AN ADVOCATE for persons with mental illnesses, I read with dismay a statement by Marilyn Vos Savant in the Feb. 16 issue of Parade.
She said, ``In an ideal world, I would be opposed to capital punishment. The mentally ill would still commit some heinous crimes, and the rest of us would lock them away where they would do no more harm.''
Violence isn't a symptom of mental illness. Sociopaths and normal men in mobs commit heinous crimes.
In an ideal world, ``the rest of us'' will stop committing heinous crimes against persons with mental illness.
Let's look at what the rest of us have done to the mentally ill all over the world: We locked them up, chained them, beat them, castrated and sterilized them, and sawed holes in their skulls to rip at their brains. During Hitler's reign, the Germans, French, Poles and all occupied countries turned their mentally ill over to the military for execution.
We're still at it. One-third of the homeless are mentally ill. We stigmatize persons with mental illness. Our elected representatives provide token medications because we consider persons with mental illness worth only token help.
In an ideal world, the rest of us would treat the mentally ill as though the rest of us were human beings.
THEODORE D. ALLEN
President, Alliance for the Mentally Ill of the Roanoke Valley
ROANOKE
Yet another trial for O.J.?
I HAVE one question: Why has O.J. Simpson not been tried under the federal civil-rights violation law?
KURK MATTHEWS
ROANOKE
Debate over song is just silly
THE POLITICAL cartoon on your Feb. 5 Opinion page is funny but true. I envision the General Assembly going after the companies that make lawn-jockey statues next year in the name of political correctness.
My tax dollars pay for this? Hey, wait a minute, it isn't so funny now!
Stop wasting my money on something so silly as a song that makes reference to our state history. How about "Sweet Virginia Breeze" by Robbin Thompson and Steve Bassett for a state song? Maybe that's just too clean and too much fun!
By the way, I've heard the state song at least twice a year at the Martinsville Speedway. It is played right before the national anthem.
WAYNE HALL
RADFORD
Petersen creates masterpieces
IN THE MIDST of all the news, how nice to be momentarily blessed by the stark and singular beauty of Don Petersen's ``Don't fence me in'' photograph on your Feb. 15 front page.
It's a masterpiece of photographic composition, and bears Petersen's inimitable stamp.
He has an ``eye'' that captures a moment so that it isn't just a photograph, but rather a work of art that says look again and enjoy the power and elegance of that image.
``Snowmen'' on the front page of the Virginia section was a similar art lesson to be enjoyed.
Thank you for sharing and encouraging Petersen's talent.
WILLIAM KINZIE
ROANOKE
Cultural symbols aren't the evil
THE NEW York Times news article in your Feb. 9 edition (``Symbols of Old South split races'') says that white Southerners base their identity on ancestry. Black Southerners and Northern whites and blacks should also have been included.
Let's take it further. American Indians base their identity on ancestry, as do the Chinese and Japanese. We all do, and we should. And people who want to know their heritage shouldn't have anyone breathing down their necks with bigoted opinions. There is good and bad in any heritage, if you look closely enough.
No one - not politicians, not any ethnic organization - has the right take away one's heritage or ask that it be forgotten. You can be sure people won't forget, but will only hold it closer to their hearts and defend it. One race forcing another to rid itself of its symbols will never bring the races closer together.
It would seem those who are determined to destroy symbols of Southern history do not have in mind the good they profess, but are bent on prolonging a situation from which they profit. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has to keep driving home the belief that the South fought only for slavery and would have kept it in force had the South won the war. The NAACP survives on this. That's why it ignores historic facts that don't leave all grudges at the Southern doorstep.
Publish the names of blacks who owned slaves. Find out where their family tree is in 1997. Then proceed to pound away at them for 100 years. Draw a line between them and other black Americans. We don't want to hear that there were only a few of them. After all, a ``few'' means a majority in the NAACP's dictionary.
PEGGY ALDHIZER
GOODVIEW
Food Lion lawyers scored a coup
I WAS intrigued by the ease at which Food Lion's attorneys were able to pull off the old con of ``bait and switch.''
The case against ABC News was, as I understand it, that Food Lion's quality of products and sales practices in 1992 were fraudulently misrepresented on the Prime Time program. The damages sought were based upon this illegal action.
Food Lion's attorneys were successful in persuading the jury that Prime Time team members fraudulently represented themselves in applying for jobs at the chain's stores. I don't remember hearing that this lesser crime was the subject of litigation.
It further seems that the customary penalty for misrepresentation on an application is dismissal from employment.
TIMOTHY WILDER
ROANOKE
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