DATE: Monday, March 17, 1997                TAG: 9703150024

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  150 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

VIRGINIA BEACH

Give us a park,

not a parking lot

The 24th Street Oceanfront Park has been described as ``the jewel'' of Virginia Beach. It is sought after for all kinds of events, and people flock there in or out of season. It is often pictured by Virginia Beach promoters in publicizing the amenities of the Beach.

It would not be there if a group of citizens had not banded together in 1987 and convinced the City Council, through fund raising and lobbying, that Virginia Beach should have some public area on its waterfront. Now the city has another opportunity to have a second significant public area on the waterfront, and probably its last.

The area at the foot of 31st Street is occupied by a portable skating rink. Our understanding is that the rink is to leave by April and plans are to pave this oceanfront area with asphalt and turn it into a parking lot. Imagine an unattractive parking lot on the beautiful Virginia Beach oceanfront!

This area too should be a public park with grass, trees, shrubs, walks and maybe a fountain. What will a parking lot draw? Just a few cars. They should be parked in a much less visible area. Don't waste the oceanfront.

Maurice B. Jackson

Virginia Beach, Feb. 27, 1997

ABORTION

Convenience: our

guiding ``principle''

I don't understand all the uproar about the numbers or the policies associated with partial-birth abortion. Abortion isn't about a woman's right to control her body, governmental invasion of privacy or right vs. wrong. It's about convenience.

If it's too inconvenient to use birth control, it's obviously too inconvenient to have a baby. It's even more inconvenient to have a deformed or mentally retarded child. And it's unreasonably inconvenient to give birth to a child which is the result of forced sex.

I'm also confused about everyone's surprise that youths who have grown up in this convenience-oriented society are now killing anyone who becomes an inconvenience to them - including their own children, parents and siblings. Isn't that the message we've been sending? First, we legally sanction getting rid of an inconvenient pregnancy. Then many in society are fighting for the right to end a life that has become inconvenient due to illness.

Let's admit that the guiding principle in American society is convenience. Then let's all hope that we never become an inconvenience.

Jean H. Ozouf

Virginia Beach, March 8, 1997

ANIMAL RIGHTS

Roast duck is

cruelty, too

Last fall, when three ducks were shot with darts in Virginia Beach, The Virginian-Pilot ran a photo of one of the ducks with the dart still penetrating the head. It accompanied an article that focused on the neighborhood's reaction to the incident and was followed by letters to the editor asking, ``How can people be so cruel?''

Yet a photograph of a whole roasted duck fresh from the oven, with a hook around the neck, is published in your paper twice on Feb. 23 as teasers for the article that appeared on Feb. 24, where the photo ran again, enlarged and in color. This time the duck is not the subject of cruelty but is simply an illustration of the ``goods'' offered at a market.

Could someone please explain to me the difference between the ducks that are roasted and sold at the market and the neighborhood ducks that are fed, loved and spoken up for when they are harmed?

Lois R. Johnson

Virginia Beach, Feb. 25, 1997 HIGHER EDUCATION

Who fights for NSU?

Your editorial of March 3 (``Assembly treated ODU well - Hard-earned money'') cited three local legislators and two others for assisting Old Dominion University in getting 20 percent of the nonsalary operating funds this year, although the university serves only 5 percent of the state's public higher-education students.

Does this mean the other members of the Norfolk delegation - Sen. Yvonne B. Miller, Del. Jerrauld Jones, Del. Thelma Drake and Del. William P. Robinson Jr., who is a member of the House Appropriations Committee - did not fight for ODU?

Two questions come to my mind: Why aren't the legislators who are doing so much for ODU also fighting for Norfolk State University? And who in the Virginia General Assembly is fighting for Norfolk State University in Richmond?

Albert G. W. Avery

Norfolk, March 7, 1997

SHELTERS

Homeless kids

need our help

This is in response to the March 5 article concerning the boys' shelter in Creeds. I have seen children from wealthy, poor, religious, alcholic or abusive homes go either good or bad. How can society not provide a place for a child who does not have a home for whatever reason?

A neighborhood is worried about its quiet world being invaded by crime. Wake up! Crime is everywhere. These kids need organizations that care enough to help, not paranoid neighbors and home owners who only care about themselves.

I hope the Judeo-Christian Outreach and others like them will find a suitable place for these children.

Sandra Brady

Portsmouth, March 5, 1997

EDUCATION

Increased Beach

standards lauded

I agree with Craig Campbell who wrote on ``Lagging students need tough love'' (letter, March 4).

I give Virginia Beach public schools a lot of credit for raising the grade-point average to 2.0 for athletes to compete in any sport. When athletes apply to go to college, they usually require you to have a 2.0 grade-point average or better to be accepted to that school.

Raising the grade-point average, I think, gives a student a sense of stability in school, knowing that that person can work hard, make good grades and play sports at the same time.

I believe you have to work hard to get to where you want to be in life.

Tenisha Pugh

Chesapeake, March 4, 1997

ENTITLEMENTS

Cost-of-living

adjustment needed

Your editorial on March 7 about adjusting the consumer price index is way off-base. It proves once again that you people who sit behind your desks making big salaries do not know what is going on in the real world.

My Social Security check was increased by $21 this year. Yet every item you can think of is going up all the time - rent, groceries, etc. In fact, even your paper goes up from time to time.

Joseph Kull

Virginia Beach, March 7, 1997

CRIME

Build more jails

Early releases from prison, reduced sentences, plea bargains, ``community service,'' ankle monitoring devices, so-called residential treatment centers in our neighborhoods - these all add up to an alarming number of lawbreakers on our streets. The reason most often cited is overcrowded jails and prisons.

``What do you expect us to do, build more prisons?'' ask our federal, state and local leaders. I say ``Why not?''

As one taxpayer, I would willingly pay the extra taxes to build whatever jails, prisons or detention homes (operated by the appropriate government - not some ``contractor'') are necessary to get these offenders out of our free society. After all, we're probably paying just as much for the increased police and court services to keep hunting them down and repeatedly processing them through ``the system'' anyway.

Don Vtipil

Norfolk, March 10, 1997

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu