Reading Takes Some Family Effort
Editor: In a recent Harvard University study, it was estimated that as many as 75 to 85 million of the 180 million Americans are unable to read or write.
I feel that the number of people who lack basic reading and writing skills could increase in the years to come. The reason is that young people are spending too much time watching television.
While schools are devoting more time and attention to helping students improve their reading skills, the youngsters are going home and spending an average of four hours per night glued to the TV.
To reinforce and improve reading skills taught in school, the student must spend time reading at home. Since independent reading increases both vocabulary and fluency, reading at home can be a powerful supplement to work started in school.
Parents need to encourage reading. A family visit to the library every two weeks would provide the free reading material necessary to compete with television.
The family could establish a block of time when everyone is reading. If the school and home fail to support reading as a leisure activity, television will be the victor and the nation the loser with more and more adults who are illiterate.
Ray Hofmann.
Baltimore.
WBAL's Policies
Editor: The writer of the letter, "Radio: A Listener's Lament," presumes that WBAL does not carry the hourly CBS news because local commercials offer more revenue than the network newscasts. That simply is not true.
We choose not to air the CBS news so that we have greater flexibility in the overall presentation of our news product.
For instance, on a day when there is a major local story, we would be locked into delaying that story until after the CBS news. Secondly, we are affiliated with several networks (CBS, Mutual, Associated Press Radio, UPI) and this allows us to use reports from whichever source is doing the best job on any particular day.
WBAL is a news/talk station. News is just one ingredient of our programming. Our talk shows, for instance, give listeners an opportunity to comment on the news and to explore subjects in depth. That makes a comparison to WTOP irrelevant. Its format is news, not news/talk.
News/talk is the most costly format on the dial and that makes WBAL the most expensive radio station to operate in this market.
While we, too, would like to see more options for radio listeners, we think we've come up with a good mix.
We are the only radio station in Baltimore offering a locally produced newscast after 6 p.m. We are the only radio station that staffs a newsroom at night. Our staff is twice as large as any radio news department in Baltimore.
The average length of stay on our news staff is about nine years and WBAL staffers average 15 years experience in broadcasting or journalism. Combined with the quantity of air product we provide, we think WBAL listeners are well served. As proof, just last year, United Press International voted the "WBAL News Journal" the best newscast in the country.
It was the first time any Baltimore radio or television station has been so honored.
Mark Miller.
Baltimore.
The writer is news director of WBAL-AM.
Recycling
Editor: Letter writer Kenneth Goldberg's attitude toward recycling is, sadly, typical of too many. These naysayers buy over-packaged goods aimed at people too lazy to use multi-serve containers, let alone to cook for themselves.
Most consume the contents of various cans, bottles, boxes and jars every day. We must break the throw-it-all-away habit unless we want these castaways to become part of the pollution instead of part of the solution.
The answer does not lie in kvetching and moaning about the few basic rinse-and-sort guidelines for recycling.
Instead, use common sense and a few simple purchasing guidelines:
Don't buy single-serve containers.
Buy goods in recyclable packaging, when you have a choice.
Buy cans before glass, glass before plastic, and plastic bottles before plastic-coated cartons.
Let your local government representatives know you want a curbside recycling program, even if it means giving up one of the two weekly trash collections.
It's not a question of whether we want to recycle, but how we're going to fulfill our personal responsibility in properly disposing of our waste. As with anything, recycling is easier than it might seem at first and almost everybody surveyed wants to do it.
Make it even easier by talking to a couple neighbors and starting your recycling car pool, until curbside programs arrive in your area.
$Louis Brendan Curran. Owings Mills.
The writer is president of Owings Mills Green Action.
American Jobs
Editor: When it comes to free trade, The Sun and The Evening Sun never give the whole picture.
You don't tell your readers that "fast-track" means to prohibit amendments and limit debates. Is this what the purpose of Congress is, not to debate issues or make amendments?
Your ridiculous labeling of "labor bosses" should stop if this reference is to union officials. I am a proud union member and a proud elected union representative. I represent the fears of the American (and please underline American) workers, who firmly believe -- and rightly so -- that our jobs will be given to the Mexican workers.
Why are you so willing to give away American manufacturing jobs? Why don't you have the same feeling for the American worker that you do for the foreign worker?
If you truly want to help the Mexican worker and economy, why not give them foreign aid to be used for the purpose of rebuilding the infrastructure of their country? Build roads where there are none, homes for their people and give them decent wages for their labor.
Let's help them this way and not by simply giving away American jobs.
Carmen Papale.
Baltimore.
The writer is manager and vice president of the Amalgamated
Clothing and Textile Workers Union.
What 'Holy War'?
Editor: Jeremy Seabrook's Opinion * Commentary, "The West's Holy War Against the Third World" (The Sun, April 17), contains nothing that wasn't discussed and discredited in the 1970s.
His ideas have been lifted from the unsubstantiated writings of Third World neo-Marxists, such as Andre Gunder Frank and Samir Amin, who proposed far-fetched theories of Western-imposed impoverishment and economic disengagement as a cure for the ills of the Third World.
Unfortunately for Mr. Seabrook, recent experience shows that it is the anti-Western leaders themselves who are the true culprits in the impoverishment of many well-endowed countries of Africa and Asia.
We find that formerly wealthy countries cannot even feed themselves, thanks to the inept and destructive policies of leaders who exploit their own people and borrow large sums from the West in order to prop up huge socialist police states which deny even the most basic civil rights.
In contrast, the capitalist model has succeeded in offering Third World countries a proven means for approaching the freedom and prosperity that people throughout history have desired.
How much longer does Mr. Seabrook propose to use the West as a scapegoat for the stunning failures of Third World regimes?
And, when will he begin to hold the leaders of failed socialist utopias accountable for their own actions?
It seems that some die-hard leftists can offer nothing more imaginative than the recycling of the same old, mind-numbing ideologies, which have clearly become reactionary in the post-socialist 1990s.
#Stavros P. Viahoyiannis.
Baltimore.
Food from Urban Gardens
Editor: In an otherwise engaging article about the new Colorado bill making produce-bashing a criminal offense (April 6), Rob Kasper brought into question the safety of city-grown vegetables. He found ludicrous the idea of New Yorkers growing their own fruits and vegetables to ensure a safe food supply: "I'll take my chances eating Alar-covered apples over asparagus grown on 42nd Street any day."
It would be cruel to challenge Mr. Kasper to eat his hypothetical choice, but such groundless statements do a great disserve to thousands of back yard and community vegetable gardeners. The benefits of home food production are significant: reduced food bills, improved nutrition, physical and mental exercise and the greening of trashed, vacant lots.
Our office does educate gardeners on the potential danger of lead in garden sites and the need to rinse air pollutants from produce. It is absurd, however, to believe that home-grown city produce is less safe than supermarket fare. Many experienced gardeners would argue just the reverse: they have the final say-so over what's added to their soil and sprayed on their crops. Many successful organic gardeners use no chemical pesticides at all.
It might surprise Mr. Kasper to know that commercial crops grown in California are regularly damaged by air pollution. Perhaps he should follow his own advice and "ask common-sense questions" before plowing any new ground.
Jon Traunfeld. Baltimore.
The writer is urban gardening coordinator for the University of Maryland System's Cooperative Extension Service.