www.roanoke.com

Missions' clinics provide needed care
Mary Bishop
Bishop lives in Roanoke and is a retired newspaper reporter.
If you wondered what's happening to poor and working-class people in Southwest Virginia, the scene at the Roanoke Civic Center in early May spoke volumes. People waited outside all night for a precious place in line at the Missions of Mercy free dental clinic. In two days, more than 1,100 people received care. At least 400 were turned away. By 6 a.m. each day, the marquee read "Clinic full."
Read more.

Wednesday's letters can be read here.

It arrived on my desk in a small stack of mail, with a May 9, Jacksonville, Fla., postmark and no return address.

A standard, business-size envelope, full of hate. Sent anonymously, with an intended dose of creepiness.

Sent, I guess, by someone surfing the Net for journalists, someone with an agenda to advance and enough time and spare postage to educate people about "the truth."

For Wednesday: Those who thought the Fishburn heirs opposition to developing Mill Mountain killed the idea are mistaken. The city is still seeking proposals.

For Wednesday, we're writing about blood donors. Despite requests from the nation's blood donation organizations that gay men be allowed to donate blood, the Food and Drug Administration last week rejected the idea. Blood is in short supply, and expanding the donor base by allowing gay men can be done safely.

Restore the Earth; turn green
An industrialist -- a carpetmaker, no less -- is on a crusade for sustainability. If business is to drive this revolution, consumers can help.
Roanokers should be familiar with the idea of sustainable building. The 2004 C2C -- "cradle to cradle" -- home design competition in the city drew 625 entries from architects around the world. Each attempted to envision an eco-friendly, affordable home that could be a model for the future.
Read more.

Continuing the journey to build I-73
The time to weigh in on I-73's preferred route has passed. Concentrate now on winning funding.
Good news for proponents of Interstate 73: State officials have included funds in a draft transportation budget to continue making the plans become reality. The draft contains line items of $9.5 million for Martinsville and $2.8 million for Roanoke. True, it does, as Henry County Administrator Benny Summerlin said, "seem like an awful small amount of money" when stacked up against the estimated $4.3 billion needed to build the new interstate.
Read more.

Improve educational opportunities for Hispanic children
Sharon Saldarriaga
Saldarriaga is the state director for Telamon Corp. and also serves on the board of the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations in Richmond. The Virginia Forum
Virginia's Hispanic population is steadily growing. In fact, from 1990 to 2004 the share of babies born in the commonwealth to Hispanic mothers grew from 3 percent to 11 percent. But are we doing enough to ensure that these children start their educational path off right?
Read more.

What if we had reached out to Cho?
William L. Ayres
Ayres lives in Christiansburg.
Much has been written since the mass murder of 32 innocent victims on the Virginia Tech campus. Many ideas have been suggested as to how best to ensure a safe learning environment for the students on our college campuses. Some have already been or are in the process of being implemented.
Read more.

Tuesday's letters can be read here.

You can quote me on that
By Ray Stubblefield
have two home pages, one with Yahoo and the other with Google. You can personalize these pages to the nth degree. The number of options is incredible. I use Yahoo mainly for news, weather and e-mail, and Google for searches and my work. But a lot of my Google page has just fun, neat stuff, especially with the graphics interface.
Read more.

Excellence will continue to define nursing program
Robert Sandel

For nearly 35 years, the nursing program at Virginia Western Community College has played a vital role in the region's health care network, producing nurses that we all depend on to keep our children, our parents and ourselves healthy. As president of the college, I write to clarify the issues raised in your May 15 editorial about the nursing program's accreditation ("Nursing students kept in the dark").
Read more.

Monday's letters can be found here.

Remembering those who sacrificed
This Memorial Day, we honor the Americans who died in service.
Memorial Day originated after the Civil War. An organization of Union veterans established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to adorn the graves of the war's dead. Many Southern states refused to participate for decades. They preferred their own Confederate observances, many of which are still marked today.
Read more.

Remember the fallen and why they fell
By Tommy Denton
Equally important this Memorial Day weekend in honoring those who perished in the nation's military services is remembering the ultimate purpose for which they put on the uniform.
Read more

Bound in friendship by tragedy
Jim Carney

Carney, of Sterling, is the parent of Katelyn Carney, one of the survivors of the German class held in Norris Hall.

The horrific events at Virginia Tech on April 16 have scarred the campus, nearby community and the consciousness of unsuspecting thousands everywhere. The response of the people and communities of Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Christiansburg and surrounding areas has been overwhelming in compassion and support.
Read more

Center loves the market, too
Jim C. Sears

Sears is president and general manager of Center in the Square.

It seems everybody is talking about the Roanoke City Market. Even though some of the conversations contain criticism leveled at us here at Center in the Square, it is gratifying to hear so much concern, passion and energy in a discussion about our neighborhood. Roanokers clearly treasure their unique, historic downtown.
Read more

Sunday's letters can be found here.

How do you spell relief?
Certainly not S-H-E-L-L, or E-X-X-O-N - M-O-B-I-L. In Congress, proposed relief has been rebuffed.
Just as surely as American flags are brought out to mark Memorial Day, prices at the gas pump rise and give members of Congress their annual bout of indigestion.

Congress has proposed some gas relief to quiet Americans pain at the pumps.
Read more

Let the bands, and the people, play
Franklin County's noise ordinance needs limits that are reasonable for both residents and bands.
Somewhere between the decibel levels of a whisper and a jackhammer is a level that a rock band and Smith Mountain Lake residents can live with, peaceably.
Read more

Learning a tough lesson the hard way
Christiansburg finds that growth doesn't pay for itself.
Christiansburg is learning a tough lesson other cities and towns around the nation have already discovered: Growth rarely pays for itself. Read more

Talking point
"The war on terror is a slogan designed only for politics -- it is not a strategy to make America safe. It is a bumper sticker, not a plan. It has damaged our alliances and weakened our standing in the world."

-- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards in a foreign policy speech at the Council on Foreign Relations last week.