Paid Lapdogs

Editor: My thanks to Sun reporters David Conn and C. Fraser Smith. In their articles of Jan. 19, they taught me a great deal about why we have a state budget crisis.

Mr. Conn's business page article on Maryland's prevailing wage law was a real eye opener. Just because our legislators are the lapdogs of organized labor, we taxpayers pay about $50 million extra each year for state buildings and roads. You could buy a lot of books or pay a lot of teachers with that money.

And Mr. Smith's piece on the "GOP renegades" was a discouraging look inside Annapolis politics. I'm sickened to learn that our free-spending legislators are so devoted to pork-barrel politics that they try to punish hard-working delegates who actually (a) read the appropriations bills they're voting on, and (b) vote against the most wasteful boondoggles.

Our legislators obviously love to spend in order to buy the support of key special interest groups. But they need to be reminded that it's our money.

Legislators who can't change are likely to get a layoff notice at the next general election.

Melanie M. Walters.

Lutherville.

School Boards

Editor: Re: City Council President Mary Pat Clarke's proposal to elect school board members. I am in complete support of any proposal that would result in the election rather than appointment of school board members. I feel that serving as a member of any school board is an earned privilege.

While parents are being so strongly encouraged to participate in school and "get involved," what is being said when school board members are appointed by the mayor? It says that parent input is only appropriate at certain levels of education and that perhaps parents should be seen and not heard.

If there is to be any refinement in the quality of our children's education, I believe the citizens of Baltimore City should choose the most innovative of their peers to guide the system in a new direction. Furthermore I believe there are a number of parents within the Baltimore City public school system who are worthy enough to vie for a seat on the school board and hopefully will be encouraged to do so.

Amy L. Taylor.

Baltimore.

Silicone Implants

Editor: The recent decision by the Federal Drug Administration to put a moratorium on silicone implants raises many interesting issues. The lack of adequate experimentation and information regarding the safety of the implants illustrates how little progress we have made in the area of women's health care issues.

Since 80 percent of these implants are used for strictly cosmetic purposes, it seems that altering a woman's appearance is more important than insuring her health and safety. I am pleased the FDA decided to re-examine the safety of silicone implants, yet we should consider carefully examining the safety of such products before they are marketed.

Perhaps in the future we will be less eager to "fix" women's appearance, and we will take more time to insure the safety of a product that is used to merely enhance Peter Kuper - INXwomen's physical appearance.

Or better yet, why don't we work at accepting women's bodies the way they are?J

Stephanie Oyen.

Baltimore.

Mo, Curly and Larry in Detroit

Editor: I am writing this letter out of a sense of frustration. Over the course of several days I have read articles and listened to talk shows that refer to the "Big Three" auto makers as if they are three separate people named Mo, Curly and Larry. People seem to think that if something happens to these three people it will not affect them and if anything they would be glad to see them "get theirs."

People fail to realize that the "Big Three" are actually hundreds of thousands of people like themselves. They also fail to realize that if something happened to any or all of these three companies that they themselves could lose their jobs through the trickle-down effect.

It is not just the people who make the vehicles that would be affected, but it would also be the people who make the parts that go into these vehicles including the seats, batteries, lights, glass, paint and carpeting. It would be the people who supply the raw materials to these businesses to make the parts. It would include the thousands of people who make and form the steel and plastic body parts. It would be the trucking and rail industries that deliver the vehicles. It would be the salesmen and mechanics in the car dealerships.

It would include employees of the restaurants and stores that are located in the same towns as these factories.

You would also see a bigger cutback of the firemen, policemen, garbage men, clerks and school teachers whose towns and cities no longer have the tax base to employ them.

I know that there have been a lot of poor management and union decisions in the past that people hear about, and it turns them against the American cars. The Big Three are attempting, with the help of the unions and the hourly work force, to rectify a lot of the old problems and build a quality product. The problems did not come overnight and they will not go away overnight, but if people don't soon start to look at the American car again and not the foreign imports they could find themselves looking for a new job because their old one will be gone.

They can then drive their Toyota, Mazda or Volkswagen to the unemployment office to get their small portion of what they have been accustomed to earning.

Tom Lutz.

Cockeysville.

Editor: Now that the "Big Three" auto leaders have embarrassed themselves in Japan and are intent on shoving "old-guard" business practices down the public's throat using protectionism, isn't it time we customers voice our feelings?

If industry "chieftains" (I don't say leaders) would truly listen to what the customer is saying, and then respond by actually delivering a competitive product, the troubles besetting American industry would quickly evaporate. But the Lee Iacoccas and Robert Stempels of the corporate world prefer to produce what they think we should like, tell us why it's the best, and then lean on government to force us to buy it. Is it any wonder that America loves Japanese cars? Japan's automakers really do listen -- and respond. Simple formula.

At the same time, many other American corporations (Motorola, G.E., Xerox) are currently demonstrating that we can still compete. They have had the courage to scuttle the old order and breathe life into an under-utilized work force. Better companies are listening to their employees, encouraging their involvement and innovation, and developing an honest dialogue with their customers.

Traditional American corporations are at war on two fronts: the increasing pressure of global competition; and the internal war of retaining command and control "power" versus "letting go" and spreading the scope of responsibility and decision-making. The best companies are finally making full use of their people's talents rather than demanding mindless robotic performance. America is still very capable of competing on a global scale -- but not without significant change in the way our businesses operate. In a broader sense, bureaucracy is currently being forced to disassemble in both the corporate and public sectors. Resistance to this change will continue but the result is inevitable.

With widespread personal involvement and continued pressure, these changes will lead to a revitalized America.

Thomas J. Brindisi.

Lutherville.

Pyritic and Pyrrhic

Editor: Your metaphoric metallurgy "After Japan, Bush Push for Trade," (Jan. 10) needs refining or your pun comes undone. "Pyritic victory" defies geo-logic. "Pyrrhic victory" defies geo-political-logic.

As to the former, iron pyrites have fooled many a gold, not silver, prospectors with their lustrous yellow color.

The yellow of our ill-lustrous (sic) president has not fooled the American job prospector. Mr. Bush did not go to seek "jobs, jobs, jobs" but to secure just one -- his own.

Yet "pyrrhic victory" means a success, although at great cost as it was for Pyrrhus in 279 B.C.E. Upon defeating the Romans at Asculum and suffering heavy losses, Pyrrhus declared, "One more such victory and I am lost."

I know victory. This Asian expedition was no victory. Mr. Bush is no King Pyrrhus.

So you leave me in a geo-semantic quandary: to mine some silver from the fool's gold of election year junkets remains beyond the ken of modern science or ancient history.

Can we hope that something of value might be extracted by our leaders? Not yet.

Legislators remain in the dark ages of political science as much as the ancients did in metallurgical science dreaming of turning rocks into gold. We call them alchemists. They had no victories -- either pyritic or pyrrhic -- until they faced reality.

Charles R. Hedenstad.

Severna Park.

Don't Re-Dune

Editor: A Northeaster recently hit the East Coast.

Thanks to the recent beach replenishment plan, sand dunes took the punch of the storm. Now instead of losing homes, we've lost a $44-million beach.

Maryland built the dunes reinforced by fences in hopes of sparing the shops and homes farther inland. The gamble paid off and now there's talk of rebuilding the dunes. But the state budget is already in deficit. The nation is in a recession. Homeless people wander the streets. People are losing their jobs left and right. The bay is fighting a losing battle. Isn't there a better use for the $44 million?

What makes the erosion in Ocean City so noticeable? There are plenty of other instances of erosion on the East Coast which aren't given a second thought. It's because developers insist on building all the way to the water line. Wouldn't the shore look a lot more inviting with more sand and less asphalt?

The sea is always going to be at the edge of the beach. It's just coming and going now, like the commuters on the beltway. Floods can be expected to occur occasionally, as we recently saw. And there's not a whole lot anyone can do about it.

Greg Zaplec.

Timonium.