Are Orioles racist or is Hall stretching?

I've read Wiley Hall's column (The Evening Sun, March 10) "It's the image, fair or foul." Since I am an African-American, I felt the need to respond.

The things mentioned in his column, we are aware of. We are aware that what we receive is tokenism. In the employment system, no matter how experienced we are, when promotions come, they would rather bring in another white and train him because it seems as if we aren't good enough.

I've heard the old saying, "If they don't like it here, let them go back to Africa." Well, we're telling them, if we should go back to Africa, then they should return to England.

I am a veteran, I've served my country with honor and dignity; to some, I'm still a second-class citizen. Wrong. I'm first class in every way.

I am a baseball fan, I love sports, but there have been some things that have happened at some events that I would like to forget. We are decent human beings, and we need to be considered.

John H. Lucas

Baltimore

It's hard to believe that anyone so seemingly intelligent, well-educated and informed as your columnist Wiley A. Hall III . . . could be so paranoid that he finds the playing of a song, "Thank God I'm a Country Boy," at an Orioles baseball game racist!

And he really makes a quantum leap into the Land of the Absurd when he blames the Baltimore Orioles organization for the dearth of blacks attending Orioles games. It's the Orioles fault, he says. They haven't made enough of an effort to get blacks to come to the games.

Hogwash. If they can read, see or hear, blacks are exposed to the same information about the team as are whites, reds, yellows and pinks. The fact that they choose not to go to the games is a matter of personal choice, not the result of some devious plot on the part of the Orioles.

His speculation that blacks don't relate to the Orioles because in the past they had fewer minority players than any other team in baseball doesn't hold water either. If he wants to use the racial composition of teams as a basis for fan interest, how does he explain the attendance of white fans at professional basketball games, where the teams are loaded with blacks.

Richard T. Seymour

Baltimore

According to Wiley Hall, blacks don't attend Oriole games partly because "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" is played during the seventh inning stretch. Mr. Hall believes the word "country" equates with "redneck" which equates with "bigot." So, explains Mr. Hall, his black friends won't go to the games.

Mr. Hall has a unique opportunity to reach and influence a large audience and purports to represent the views of an important segment of the population. With that opportunity comes a grave responsibility to choose his words wisely, think logically, research his information tirelessly, avoid the very bigotry that he so much decries and place integrity above going for the cheap shot.

When Mr. Hall stoops to name-calling, stereotyping and the presentation of impressions as facts, he fuels the fires of racial divisiveness and demeans his responsibility.

But when he indulges himself in something as far-fetched and absurd as finding subliminal racism in the seventh-inning stretch song at the stadium, he almost appears to be mocking his responsibility.

The black community deserves more thoughtful representation and the white community needs to hear from someone who can give it more insight and less rhetoric.

Carol D. Williams

Phoenix

Can't compare Israel to Arab dictators

Time and again, the media bombard us with pictures, events and progress, or lack of it, regarding Israeli conciliation movements such as "Peace Now," "Yesh Grul," the Israeli Left, etc. Yet, in all these years, there has not been one report referring to any such Arab movement. Why?

The answer to the question is simple. There are none. The Arab world does not let its masses express themselves freely. More than 400 Arab people were killed in the so-called West Bank by Arabs who claimed these persons were collaborators.

There is no democratic process to be found in the entire Arab world. All opposition to the regime in power is ruthlessly subdued and/or eliminated: 20,000 killed in Hama, Syria; thousands during Black September in Jordan; thousands in Iraq, and the list goes on. Is it fair, just and accurate to profile the Israeli conciliation movements without a comparison profile of the other side?

Joseph Haus

Reisterstown

Misplaced attack

Deborah Ingram's comments (The Forum, March 9) would indicate her to be a gentle, caring person. It is so ironic that she and others deplore the representation of brutal abortion results on a public highway but not the reality of such brutality to unborn human beings.

I hope she realizes that the proposed Maryland abortion law would allow the teen-agers (whom she worries about protecting) to have their bodies as well as their unborn children ravaged by abortionists without parental contact and consent.

I hope she and all decent families express their "no" in November to the proposed intrinsically evil abortion law. Let's attack the issue, not the message-bearers.

Jack and Millie Finck

Baltimore

Craven lawmakers

The Evening Sun reported March 12 that the Budget and Taxation Committee proposed $14 million in cuts to local subdivisions for police protection and $12 million and $3 million respectively from Medicaid and welfare benefits in order to balance the state budget.

Obviously the poor and middle class are again being left adrift by legislators who are out of touch with their constituents' realities.

When these same legislators were asked to trim their office expense account, the vote was nay. When asked to trim their self-serving scholarship program, again they voted nay. Where was The Evening Sun's editorial outrage? Why it was leveled only at the Baltimore County Teachers Union for having the audacity to speak out against its members being furloughed?

It seems your newspaper can live with cuts to programs desperately needed by those left defenseless by their economic condition. But can you live with dedicated public employees who stand and say enough is enough? It seems not. Your editorial told teachers, in effect, "Things are tough all over, so stop complaining and do your job."

The state shouldn't balance the budget on the backs of public employees. How about sharing the pain of these tough times? If that is too much to ask of our lawmakers, then maybe when we go to the polls next time we should seek out candidates who are willing to make the tough decisions that are equitable to all.

Joseph Machovec

Baltimore

Untapped pool

The current field of mediocre presidential hopefuls urges me to suggest that this worrying American situation could be improved if naturalized Americans were allowed to run for the presidency.

Edmund Bridgewater

Baltimore

Truck ban

The recently enacted truck ban in the Canton area and The Evening Sun's editorial endorsement of it is so stupid as to be bizarre.

This section of East Baltimore has been heavily industrial since colonial times. Boston Street has always been the main thoroughfare for commerce.

Upscale condos have been built recently in the area for people who knew they were in an industrial area. Now these same people want to strangle business and industry in Baltimore to improve their so-called "quality of life."

You can be sure the Virginia Port Authority is watching this idiotic act of self-destruction and will not hesitate to use it as one more reason to persuade shippers to avoid Baltimore.

Bruce P. Murdock

Timonium

The writer is president of Bruce P. Murdock Inc., which services and maintains petroleum handling equipment.