DATE: Thursday, May 29, 1997                TAG: 9705290012

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  102 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR -THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

TRADITION

At U.Va. rite,

a right to safety

Tradition. A word too frequently invoked to defend a bad idea with some age under its belt. Fraternity hazing or keeping females out of Virginia Military Institute are both examples of denying people a safe rite of passage; proving that when idiocy endures for a sufficient period of time, it comes to be sanctioned as a tradition.

Instead of trivializing the death that resulted from the balcony collapse at the University of Virginia's commencement ceremony by writing if off to an ``unfortunate accident,'' it should serve as a warning. Everyone should be able to enjoy a safe rite of passage without having to endure a dangerous tradition.

As an attendee of the ceremony on The Lawn, my opinion is that the tradition of herding some 25,000 onlookers through single doors and alleys to occupy a space entirely unsuited for such a purpose is asking for an accident of even greater proportion. The Lawn is surrounded by antiquated buildings. There is no way to evacuate or control the crowd in the event of necessity to do so.

Perhaps the ceremony on The Lawn was a nice idea in Jefferson's time, but the recent incident portends greater danger.

Charles Frazier

Virginia Beach, May 22, 1997

ELECTION

Virginia needs a

pro-labor candidate

Oh, no! Could it be that Sen. Mark Earley doesn't fully support Virginia's right-to-work (for less) law? If so, then Senator Stolle is right that he ``ought to get a backbone'' and admit that being pro-labor is in the interest of the majority of voters.

Most of us who vote work for a living. Most of us would like to have good-paying union jobs with benefits and a grievance process. It's sad that in our state candidates compete to be the most anti-labor. It's no coincidence that we live in a low-wage state. The right-to-work law undermines the strength of organized workers in trying to negotiate fair wages, working conditions and benefits for our employees.

It's time we had a candidate who would stand up for the interests of the working majority instead of standing for the same old corporate special interests. That candidate would have my vote.

Al Markowitz

Facilitator

Virginia Wageworkers Agenda

Norfolk, May 20, 1997

REGIONALISM

Change railroad

name to HR & Western

In spite of the efforts that have been made to make Hampton Roads a recognizable name throughout the country, it is still virtually unknown beyond Eastern Virginia and the local television market area. The 14-year-old Hampton Roads postmark evidently has gone unnoticed.

Consider: Norfolk Southern railway has 14,200 miles of track running through 1,905 cities and towns in 20 states. The railroad operates 2,158 locomotives over these lines, all of which bear the name Norfolk Southern. These are traveling billboards advertising the city of Norfolk.

I suggest to the politicians and business leaders who are committed to making Hampton Roads a household word that they persuade Norfolk Southern to change the name of the railroad to the Hampton Roads and Western.

James W. Griffiths

Norfolk, May 16, 1997

EVOLUTION

Only creationism

is well-documented

Your May 16 editorial, ``A plan evolves,'' regarding the creationism-evolution debate, gave a definition of what a ``theory'' means according to the National Association of Biology Teachers. It states: ``In science, a theory is not a guess or an approximation but an extensive explanation developed from well-documented, reproducible sets of experimentally derived data from repeated observations of natural processes.''

If this is the case, then evolution is not even a theory! It has not been observed, repeated or experimentally derived and therefore is not well-documented. How the earth and mankind were created is a historical event. No one observed it, so it is not science.

Creationists, on the other hand, have a well-documented account of creation by the one who performed it - and that is God and it is recorded in the Bible.

Jonathan D. Hagberg

Portsmouth, May 20, 1997

MERCHANT MARINE

A cadet to remember

on Maritime Day

Not intending to sound like a hair splitter, but David Guernsey's Another View (May 21) regarding the history behind May 22 as National Maritime Day contained a minor factual error. There are state maritime academies in New York (Fort Schuyler) and Michigan (Traverse City) in addition to the academies in Maine, Massachusetts, Texas and California, which Mr. Guernsey mentioned.

Since National Maritime Day is dedicated to remembering merchant mariners who lost their lives afloat, it should be noted that the Edmund Fitzgerald went to the bottom of Lake Superior with a Great Lakes Maritime Academy cadet on board.

Neil McNulty

Virginia Beach, May 21, 1997

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