Quayle-Bashing
Editor: Your constant bashing of Vice President Dan Quayle is so offensive to us and we are angered almost daily. It is the most unfair beating I have ever seen a public figure endure, yet he continues to rise graciously above it.
I know there are those whose thinking is influenced by your printings -- but not us, the great (usually) silent majority. We will be heard from again at the next election.
Mildred K. Johnson.
Dunkirk.
We're No. 1
Editor: I heartily agree with Carl Rowan's column suggesting Dan Quayle might not be worse than George Bush, perhaps better.
Mr. Bush and our generals like to brag that "We're No. 1!" But they base this on our military power. During the Reagan-Bush era, the United States lags far behind other industrial nations -- rates of infant mortality, literacy and life expectancy, for example. We have poverty that rivals many Third World countries.
Consider: In percentages of 1-year-old children fully immunized against polio we're No. 17, behind China, Brazil and Bulgaria. Egypt, Jordan and the Soviet Union have less infants born at low birth weight. Algeria, Morocco and Zimbabwe spend a larger percentage of their GNP on public education. Children in Hungary score better on an international math test. Lebanon, Libya and Cuba have, on average, more teachers for their school-age children.
Mr. Quayle could not do worse than Mr. Bush.
Under Presidents Reagan and Bush, our country is No. 1 in other areas: Among Western industrialized nations we lead in percentage of children living below the poverty line. We're No. 1 in teen pregnancy. We're No. 1 in murders of males between 15 and 24, No. 1 in murder by guns for all ages, No. 1 in percentage of population incarcerated, No. 1 in percentage of commuter trips made by private auto rather than public transport, No. 1 in per capita energy consumption and in emissions of air pollutants.
I agree with The Sun that Dan Quayle is unfit for the presidency -- as was Ronald Reagan and as is George Bush. We, the American people, are far more decent than our elected "leaders," and it's time we clean house next election day.
Gerald Ben Shargel.
Reisterstown.
Saints: Prayers and Miracles
Editor: Your editorial, "Making Saints," contains serious factual errors and reaches profoundly misleading conclusions.
For example, while the editorial correctly pointed out that the Holy See's Congregation for the Causes of Saints has jurisdiction in beatification and canonization processes, it failed to acknowledge that this congregation itself decided to suspend active consideration of the Cause of Queen Isabella.
Even more astonishing is the editorial's unsubstantiated assertion that a possible process for the cause of Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange "could cost a million dollars." The use of such a figure is totally unfounded. What the church looks for is not money but information, prayers and, please God, miracles.
The total cost of printing informational leaflets will be minimal, less than $2,000.
In today's dollars, the total anticipated cost of all historical and other studies would come to less than $30,000, a sum that could be expended over many years. But this figure can be significantly reduced by volunteer efforts, including those of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, who revere Mother Lange as their foundress.
When billions are spent annually for entertainment and on arms, the expenditure of a very modest sum to make better known a true heroine of our city and model for our times deserves better editorial comment.
At this time, the church is looking for more historical information about Mother Lange, especially prior to her founding the world's first religious community of women of African descent.
As time goes on, we hope that more and more people will come to know of her pioneering work as a woman of faith, prayer and action. Her example in teaching the neglected little ones of the city in her day may stir others here and elsewhere to commit themselves to quality education of the poor for the love of the kingdom of God.
Most Rev. William H. Keeler.
Baltimore.
The writer is the Catholic archbishop of Baltimore.
Priorities
Editor: The tragedy of Bangladesh and the plight of the homeless, hungry Kurds weigh heavily on the minds of all humane mankind. But we are also told that one in every nine American children goes to bed hungry at night.
Our government pledges untold billions of dollars to aid the foreign people who suffer due to wars and nature's whims.
Shouldn't we have to care for our own before we allocate huge sums of money far from our shores? Besides, with our economy said to be in shambles, from whence come these funds?
Margaret G. Orman.
Baltimore.
Obsolescence of Dominant Central Cities
Editor: Contrary to "Baltimore and Beyond," the long-term future of Baltimore City will have little to do with making deals between the counties and the city, but with facing head-on the growth dynamics of late industrial-age metropolitan areas. Baltimore must recognize the major evolutionary changes in old central city regions which make the concept of dominant central cities obsolescent.
In advanced nations, technology has revolutionized physical accessibility systems of entire regions.
Urban regional transportation infrastructure, computer-telecommunications and the fax machine have turned the static noun "facsimile" into an action verb.
Technology has vastly extended the horizontal distance over which high-quality daily business communications are normal.
Before World War II, the critical communication packages of financial and industrial offices were ferried around Manhattan by bicycle messenger. Today these distances stretch electronically throughout urban regions and beyond coastal limits.
"Baltimore and Beyond" made the assertion that the future of suburban counties may be dependent upon the public image of the central city. Yet this notion may be an aspect of outdated conventional wisdom.
Baltimore's suburban communities are well into the process of stripping away layers of traditional economic assets of Baltimore City. This has been demonstrated to some degree by the "Baltimore and Beyond" study.
It claims that 63 percent of the employed people of Harford, Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties already live and work in their respective counties. Thus, the industries' locations and the lifestyle choices of the majority of their employees' families are already free of central city dominance.
The cheaper cost of suburban land, relative transportation ease, extended regional infrastructure, telecommunications and, not last or least, racial prejudice all but provide a written guarantee of the continuing diffusion of central cities. Baltimore City simply lTC does not have the power to combat these forces. The physical future of technologically advanced regions will be defined by a computer-telecommunications network of specialty urban centers which will define their particular character and public image.
In addition to the poor, the old money, the committed urbanites and the struggling gentrification club, Baltimore and other celebrated central cities do indeed possess irreplaceable assets which the suburban counties cannot hope to acquire. These are their highly specialized facilities, unique opportunities, cultural resources and historic assets. Suburban communities cannot duplicate Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Independence Hall in Philadelphia or Faneuil Hall in Boston. The same is true of Fells Point, Society Hill and Old North End, or any of the major universities and hospitals of these same cities, respectively.
For the next quarter of a century, specialization and diversity in the form of economic and cultural superlatives offers an outstanding opportunity for Baltimore to breathe new life into its fraying leading edge. It should use the fruits of such successes as ripple generators to address some of its most recalcitrant problems.
Nicholas J. Mangraviti.
Columbia.