Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tech's no-guns policy leaves students helpless
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Tech's no-guns policy leaves students helpless
I find it tragic that, according to news reports, seven witnesses to the recent killing of Xin Yang felt they had no option other than to run out of the room and call police. Of course, due to Virginia Tech's asinine "no guns on campus" policy, none of these people had any real way to stop a madman armed with a knife. The horrific outcome once again showed what can happen when seconds count and it takes minutes for police to respond.
If one of the bystanders had been able to carry a weapon on campus, perhaps he or she could have stopped the attack before the young lady lost her life. Unfortunately, we will never know if the attack could have been stopped, and even more frightening is the fact that there is absolutely nothing to prevent it from happening again. The police, who in my opinion do as much as humanly possible to protect the citizens, cannot be in all places at all times.
It is outrageous that the administration at Virginia Tech and most other universities continue to support policies that leave students helpless to defend themselves against deranged individuals.
Raise a ruckus to save Explore
Amen to Bill Tanger's commentary, "Explore new options for park" (Jan. 25). At last someone in Roanoke has stepped forward with a plausible solution to a problem.
I was one who contributed time, sweat and money to Explore Park from the very beginning, and it has been made all the more difficult for me because, for more than 50 years, I have listened to the people of Roanoke complain that everything good was left to fall apart until nothing could be done to save it. The Incline Railroad, the Rockledge Inn and now Mill Mountain Theatre, which once occupied that same spot, seems to be the newest cultural landmark destined for the scrap heap.
Explore Park is a shining example of what can be accomplished and a valuable educational tool. How many people in this valley understand that Roanoke once was the frontier of the West?
In another 10 years, the people of this valley will moan and ask, "Why didn't someone do something to stop this?" Don't let another Roanoke landmark fall victim to self-defeatism. Write to your representatives in the General Assembly and demand that Explore be preserved for this and future generations.
Obama fulfills country's promise
The inauguration was not primarily about race. But race was not far from mind, because these words were not far from mind:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident ... ." "Forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves ... ." "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed."
This is not to say this nation has righted all of its wrongs, or that old hatreds no longer exist, or that old wounds no longer hurt, or that the man in the White House is without flaws.
It is to say, in a way Thomas Jefferson never imagined, that Abraham Lincoln could not have expected, that Martin Luther King did not live to see, that the mighty words that have echoed through the long halls of our history, through times of tumult and grief, scenes of fire hoses and police dogs and white-hooded riders, that these words, with their promises of freedom, equality and brotherhood, are now, in an imperfect but nonetheless real way, fulfilled. If you saw and heard on Jan. 20, be glad. Hope.
Aborted babies could have helped
Forty-six million babies murdered, calling it abortion. I wonder how many scientists, doctors, artists and politicians were in that number. I wonder how secure Social Security would be if those babies had been allowed to be born, grow to maturity and become employed, contributing citizens.
Never mind. Let's just keep murdering the unborn while we make sure the terrorists are treated like guests at the Ritz.
Sly Geithner gets by the Senate
Re: "Tim Geithner confirmed as treasury secretary," Jan. 27 news story:
Congratulations, senators! You bought Tim Geithner's condescending apology to the Finance Committee and voted to confirm him as our new treasury secretary. You have just put the fox in charge of the henhouse.
