DATE: Sunday, November 23, 1997             TAG: 9711210008

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letters

                                            LENGTH:  181 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

WHOSE VERDICT?

Foreigners meddle in U.S. justice

The pope intercedes on behalf of an American convicted of murdering another American and, when he is executed for his crime, the Italians give him a burial fit for a national hero.

An English au pair gets her sentence reduced to time already served after being convicted of murdering a baby entrusted to her care.

Just who is in charge of our judicial system here in America? Are our American judges, lawyers and prosecutors in charge, or are foreigners who choose to meddle in our legal system?

I am a black American. If I go out and rob and murder another American, will I get off after being found guilty due to the intercession of Rwandans, Ugandans, Congolese, Zairians or other black African citizens? Will so dignified and famous a personage as Nelson Mandela persuade our American judges to be more lenient with me?

Or, failing this, can I expect a hero's burial in my ancestral African homeland after the death penalty has been carried out against me here in America?

How would these countries take it if we Americans chose to meddle in their judicial affairs?

Benny R. Foster

Norfolk, Nov. 10, 1997

EDUCATION

Now TCC needs Assembly's support

Tidewater Community College enters the new millennium focusing on what we can do better, and we are well-prepared. The past investment in infrastructure by the state, municipalities and private contributions has made us a strong and vital part of Hampton Roads. For the 1997 fall semester, enrollment increased by over 10 percent - the largest per-student increase in the community-college system.

The formation of a strategic alliance with the Virginia Beach school system to joint venture a new state-of-the-art vo-technical center is a wonderful example of cooperation that is not only good for the college and the city but clearly benefits all of Hampton Roads.

Now, as the newspaper so aptly pointed out, Tidewater Community College needs everyone's support to obtain the remaining funding from the General Assembly for this regional educational project.

Robert J. Keogh

Chairman of the board

Tidewater Community College

Norfolk, Nov. 6, 1997

HUNTING

During the season, disappear - or duck

Thanks for the informative and timely article on hunting safety (``Hunting safety is no accident,'' Nov. 4). The only thing is, you left out some important safety advice for nonhunters.

Don't venture out into your yard wearing a pair of white gloves. A woman in Maine did this and was shot to death by a hunter who mistook her white gloves for a white tail.

Don't amble out to the mailbox or birdfeeder beyond a few hundred feet of your home. Lawrence Tufts of New Hampshire was shot within 500 feet of his house. He should have taken the advice of rural Virginia resident Eric Seaborg, who wrote in The Washington Post: ``On the days designated, `either sex,' when hunters don't even have to pretend to see antlers, we go to the movies.''

Don't be a dog, horse or cow. Animals in a variety of shapes and sizes are frequently shot ``by mistake'' during hunting season, including an Olympics-bound Belgian draft horse named Big Foot.

Don't sit or sleep in bed during the hunting season. The bullet that killed Big Foot followed another that went through two walls in a nearby house and landed above a bed. A 4-year-old Maryland boy was struck by a hunter's bullet as he lay in bed sleeping.

Don't stand near a window. A New Jersey couple has had two windows shot out by hunters in the past eight years. You can bet when they hear gunshots, they duck!

Don't stop to fix your car. Another New Jersey couple was ``accidentally'' shot by deer hunters while tending to their disabled vehicle on the side of a road.

Alisa Mullins

Norfolk, Nov. 4, 1997

GPA VS. SPORTS

Don't let grades alone measure success

GPA or grades alone do not measure success. Educational success is seen by attitude as well as aptitude. So why all the importance of grades? Aren't athletics and extra-curricular activities part of the educational program?

Perhaps students should get grades and class credits for their participation in sports. They work hard in training, etc. If, however, sports have little or no educational purpose, then why not do away with them?

Sports can be a strong motivation to stay in school.

If students are doing a good job on the sports field or arena, give them a good grade to encourage them to do a good job in the classroom. Don't kick them out of sports, or you may be kicking them out of school.

David J. Twigg

Portsmouth, Nov. 13, 1997

HIGHWAY UGLIFICATION

A dismal drive to the Dismal Swamp

I see that the ``uglifiers'' at the Virginia Department of Transportation are at it again. The stately old trees that line the portion of Route 58/460 passing the Great Dismal Swamp are being butchered. The limbs are being cut all the way back to the trunks, far up into the canopy, leaving cartoon looking stick figure trees.

This has been one of the loveliest stretches of major highway in the Hampton Roads area, particularly during the autumn. To have its beauty diminished by an agency that spends substantial amounts of our tax dollars planting trees, shrubs and flowers is indeed ironic.

Dallas Holston

Suffolk, Nov. 13, 1997

OCEANA

Noise-wary neighbors raise petty complaints

How soon they forget. Sailors and dogs, keep off the grass and don't bring your jets and families to Oceana.

Believe it or not, Navy families need and deserve a good place to live and raise their children, which includes good schools, churches, recreation facilities, hospitals and stores. Virginia Beach is such a place. But few people want to exclude these citizens for very selfish reasons: The jets are too noisy! They annoy me while playing golf. They annoy me while I watch television. Sounds petty? Indeed.

Let's cancel some myths abut these F/A-18s. The current crop of jets are quieter in general than the old A-6 and F-4 aircraft, and considering that the more austere training dollars available reduce the pace of operations, Oceana will not have an increase in noise levels. Arrival of the additional aircraft will see the early departure of the F-14s being retired from the inventory.

So roll out the red carpet for arriving families, and enjoy the daily air shows. I have lived at the ``45'' for the Oceana South-East runways, in Point 'O Woods, for 35 years, and I say, ``Welcome aboard; the more the merrier.''

James C. Edwards

Virginia Beach, Nov. 12, 1997

ENTERTAINMENT

Thanks for musical salute to veterans

We attended the ``Salute To Veterans'' at Chrysler Hall on Nov. 10 and were rewarded with several hours of most enjoyable and stirring music, instrumental and vocal. It was so much more than we anticipated.

What a wonderful gift you, The Pilot, gave to us all. Thanks for what you do for our community and for the attention and support you show for our military.

Dan and Maggie Kelly

Virginia Beach, Nov. 12, 1997

TOO MANY LOOPHOLES

Drop exemption to vehicle taxes

If the personal-property tax cannot be abolished. The least we can do is investigate the high percentage of vehicles that avoid or are exempt from the dreaded tax. Among them:

Vehicles that are issued dealer tags but are used as personal vehicles.

Vehicles registered for business.

Rental vehicles, which are not required to have city stickers or pay a tax, but the opposite is true if you lease a vehicle.

Vehicles with stolen city stickers.

Military and some government personnel are exempt from personal-property tax. However if that person owns more than one piece of real estate or remains registered longer than five years in Virginia, then they should pay the full amount of tax.

If all of the ``exempt'' vehicle owners were required to pay their fair share of the tax, maybe a greatly reduced tax bill would be eagerly accepted by us ``chosen few.''

Jack Anspach

Virginia Beach, Nov. 12, 1997

SEMPER FIDELIS

Remarks typical of Clinton Pentagon

The most dangerous aspect of Army Assistant Secretary Sara Lister's disparaging remarks about the Marine Corps is that she is so typical of the marginally qualified political appointees now running the U.S. military. Rather than an aberration of military policy, Lister's bizarre comments, in a Clinton Pentagon, are closer to the mainstream.

Alone among the military services, the Marine Corps has tenaciously tried to maintain its warfighting tradition. On the other hand, its sister services have consistently groveled at the political trough of military social experimentation to the detriment of morale and, ultimately, war-fighting capability.

Is it not ironic that Lister used the word ``extremist'' to describe an organization that for more than two centuries has unhesitatingly spilled its blood defending our nation's liberties? Who is the extremist?

Robert Stumpf

Captain (sel), U.S. Navy (ret.)

Virginia Beach, Nov. 14, 1997

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