THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 23, 1996 TAG: 9609210004
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 90 lines
A lasting peace in the former Yugoslavia is still a long shot. But elections held last week offered a glimmer of encouragement.
Before the fact, it was predicted that the hastily organized elections could be accompanied by bloodshed, elect war criminals and extremists to office and generally demonstrate the hopelessness of democracy taking root.
Instead, the elections were peaceful, the turnout was large - by some estimates as high as 80 percent - and the results unexpectedly benign. In many races ultranationalists were abandoned for more moderate choices. But Muslims gave a candidate the edge to become the chair of the three-man presidency who favors the establishment of an Islamic theocracy.
The Croatian member of the triumvirate, Kresimir Zubak, was unbeat: ``I think that we will bring the Bosnian crisis to an end in the next two years.'' That was the clearly expressed desire of the people in these elections, but the leaders they have chosen may not share their views. If NATO doesn't maintain a presence, this could prove to be a democratic interlude between bloody civil wars. Mothers against crime
Mothers Against Crime, a grass-roots group numbering perhaps 30 members, wants Norfolk City Council to erect a ``Homicide Wall'' memorial to children slain in the city and elsewhere in Hampton Roads. MAC's favored location for the memorial, which would list young homicide victims' names, is near the City Jail.
Whatever comes of the MAC proposal, conspicuously placed municipal and regional memorials to slain young Americans might comfort grieving parents and other loved ones while reminding passersby of the toll exacted by violence, much like signs in some communities inform motorists of the numbers of people who have perished in traffic accidents.
If such memorials to slain youngsters were put up in Hampton Roads, the names of infants, toddlers and other minors killed by abuse would be on them, along with the names of children slain in other ways. On any such memorials, the names of young ones felled deliberately, inadvertently or accidentally by gunfire would predominate.
Among Hampton Roads youngsters killed this year by gunfire is a 14-year-old Virginia Beach boy by a playmate, a 3-year-old Norfolk girl who was struck by a bullet that entered her bedroom window, a 14-year-old Portsmouth lad shot to death on the street, a 16-year-old Newport News boy shot in the back while bicycling. . . .
Communities that memorialized young victims of violence might - we say ``might'' - be sobered by contemplating ever-lengthening lists. And the communities might - we say ``might'' - become somewhat safer. Lights, cameras, inaction!
The situation is not crystal clear.
State officials say that they asked federal officials about closing northbound I-95 for five hours to make a movie but never seriously planned to do so, even if permission was obtained, which it wasn't.
The plans, which the state now says weren't serious, called for closing northbound I-95 near Kings Dominion theme park from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. last Wednesday.
Roberto Fonseca, the Federal Highway Administration's top official in Virginia, said he was notified by a letter from state officials that they planned to reroute traffic - estimated at 70,000 vehicles during the five hours - onto U.S. 1.
The Federal Highway Administration warned that the closing would cause massive traffic backups along the East Coast's busiest north-south highway. Presumably southbound lanes would have slowed as rubbernecking drivers watched.
The Associated Press reported that the request to close the highway came from the state film office, on behalf of Universal Pictures, which is doing a remake of ``The Day of the Jackal.'' It will star Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and Sidney Poitier, though not, apparently, on I-95.
On a scale from one (kind of stupid) to 10 (stupid beyond belief), the idea to close I-95 during five busy weekday hours ranks as an 11. This is ``Prenatal Tap''
Rob Reiner's film career has taken a sharp turn toward reality since his rock 'n' roll spoof, ``This is Spinal Tap.''
The director was in Hampton recently to see the city's ``Healthy Start'' program which targets low-income pregnant women for an innovative prenatal program.
Reiner plans to make a one-hour, prime-time television documentary about the program, which began in 1992 and was the brainchild of a William and Mary professor.
Healthy Start workers visit pregnant women in their homes where they instruct them on nutrition and help the women set long-term goals. by CNB