
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994                    TAG: 9406160005 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A6    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Short 
DATELINE: 940620                                 LENGTH:

RETURN TO WHICH `TRADITIONAL VALUES'?

{LEAD} There is unsettling rhetoric by several politicians about returning to a mythical past and reinstating what is popularly called our ``traditional values.'' To what ``traditional values'' should we return?

Shall we step back just a few short years and reinstate segregation?

{REST} Shall we return to the ``value'' that prohibited marriages between two people of different races?

Shall society once again deny women opportunities based solely on their gender?

Was it our traditional social values that permitted non-Christians to be restricted from so much of what this society had to offer?

How noble were we as a society to hide our handicapped and generally make the world inaccessible to them?

Let us not be too quick to jump back to a perceived golden age of higher social values. At the same time we should not discard ad hoc our historic values. Instead, let us retain the best of what we have learned from the past while making a sincere effort to reject our shameful history of prejudice, mistrust and intolerance.

Let the future find us with a greater and more comprehensive sense of values. Let us find a compassion and tolerance for all people regardless of race, sex, religion or background. Let us not buy into a simplistic feel-good phrase unless we understand exactly what is being purchased.

WAYNE DIZE

Norfolk, May 30, 1994 by CNB