Men, Watch Out
Andrei Codrescu's March 9 column, "Sex Mania Replaces Sex," deplores America's preoccupation with sex, even as the country's libido is shrinking.
Sadly, Mr. Codrescu exploits the humor in his article to mock Anita Hill's earnest crusade against sexual harassment.
While right-wing ideologues and prudes rebuke women for bringing sexual matters to courtrooms and Senate chambers, left-wing ideologues indulge in ironic banter.
They would have women take sexual harassment right between the eyeballs, happy that the American libido, a barometric index of American sanity, is alive and kicking.
Women who want to discuss sexual harassment in public forums are neither morally depraved nor icily frigid. Discoursing about sexual harassment is not the equivalent of discoursing against sex.
Harassment is unwelcome attention that is excruciating to the victim. It is not the same as laughter, love or jocular flirtation. It is certainly not an exciting road to romance or sex. Crude and sadistic, harassment can be used by both sexes to overpower and intimidate. Often the perpetrator has no sexual confidence and has not learned the pleasant nuances of communicating affection or attraction.
Sexual harassment can be aggressive and persistent in the face of negation. Women who are more frequently harassed than men may lose sleep, become tense and diminish their productivity. How to outwit the harasser tactfully -- and how to keep one's job -- may become morbid obsessions, especially during times when jobs are hard to find. Victims who capitulate may wind up feeling psychologically macerated.
European and Latin American men have scorned America's candid discussions about sex. It is often said that there are matters more profound than date rapes or sexual harassment. But such flippant statements should not detract from the fact that American women are currently blazing trails in the field of women's rights. It may take decades but women all over the world will follow suit. Although smug and snide at the present time, European, Latin American and other Third World men will one day be facing the same thorny issues that American men are being forced to confront now.
I am benumbed by the scores of articles that have appeared, written always by men, dissecting or deriding women's so called over-reaction or over-sensitivity to sexual innuendo.
It is evident that both sexes have to change their behavior but it is American men who seem to be in a dither because they are being held accountable for both deeds and words.
Hopefully one day soon, they'll calm down and carry on the mating business in a less cavalier fashion.
"Sex Mania Replaces Sex" would have been a tolerable piece if it had left Anita Hill alone.
Usha Nellore
Baltimore
Oregon Health Plan Provides a Model
Most Americans, it now seems, are ready to support some form of a national health-care system.
Our current fee-for-service, business-oriented method of providing health care is only satisfactory for those who can afford full coverage health insurance. This currently excludes millions of Americans in all walks of life and of all ages, many of them people who could be more productive if their health care needs were satisfied.
A pundit once said that the two greatest sins of any nation attempting to be great in the eyes of its people and of the world are to allow its citizens to live in poverty or to suffer from poor health.
All of the currently viable candidates for high office seem to be supporting some concept of national health care planning.
No single plan, however, has been developed which would answer as many of the needs of under-served Americans as has the Oregon Health Care Plan.
The targets of the Oregon Health Care Plan are the under-served. The goals are the provision of the basic necessities of health care, as agreed upon by physicians, community leaders and consumers.
The increased costs projected for such a program are modest by most standards. There is no attempt made under the Oregon plan to cover all aspects of health care. No nation and no plan can afford the level of health care and service which the well-to-do can provide for themselves and their family. There will inevitably be two standards of care.
The Oregon plan currently awaits congressional approval. This is not just a recently devised plan proposed as a political tool during an election year but a plan three years in the making and one with input and advice from all income levels throughout the state of Oregon.
It is a plan which this country can use as a model.
Robert E. Martin, M.D.
Baltimore
Car Phone Menace
It is time Maryland came up with a law requiring drivers with hand-held car phones to pull over to the side of the road when using them.
I am tired of avoiding people who weave into other lanes and forget where they are while talking on car phones.
They have no consideration for anyone else on the road.
The law should allow police to ticket anyone using a hand-held car phone while driving.
A law of this kind might prevent serious accidents.
People should get in touch with their state delegates to get the ball rolling on such a measure.
Stanley Weinberg
Columbia
In Bawlmer, It's a Streetcar, Hon
Beginning in the spring, the MTA will begin operating its new transit line from Camden Station to Timonium. The question is: What are people going to call it? Certainly, the MTA will try to give it some sort of official title.
Officials seem to enjoy giving public utilities and places official names. The problem is, nobody ever uses those names.
Let's face it, after all the hoopla over the naming of the new stadium "Oriole Park at Camden Yards," Baltimoreans will simply end up calling it "the Stadium."
When they built the subway they named it "Metro." But, what do people call it? "The Subway," what else? A clear sign of an out-of-towner is a person who calls it "Metro."
So what will our new transit line be called? Will it be called "Light Rail"? That's nice and high-tech sounding, but who ever heard of riding a rail (unless you've been run out of town)? Will it be given a nice cute name like "the Trolley"? That's too much of a Philadelphia word for here.
The MTA could save itself a lot of time and effort if it just called the system a streetcar line. After all, that's what Baltimoreans called them for 104 years before buses took over. Besides, that's what people will end up calling it anyhow.
So, why waste time coming up with some sort of exotic name? This is Bawlmer, hon; we'll call it what we want.
Kevin A. Mueller
Abingdon
Hole in Ozone Hole
Robert Arnold's letter,"The Ozone Hole Scare,"(March 14) deserves a rebuttal.
Mr. Arnold attempts to explain away the entire ozone depletion problem by saying that chlorine monoxide (C10), which is the compound that attacks ozone and which has been found to be at critical levels in the Arctic stratosphere this spring, came from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo last June.
He totally ignores the fact that an ozone hole has been occurring over the Antarctic since 1985. Since that time, the connections between CFC emissions from human sources, the buildup of C10 in the stratosphere and the depletion of ozone have been extensively investigated and documented.
The "hole" occurred first over the South Pole. An atmospheric vortex (whirlpool), which occurs over the South Pole, tends to gather in and concentrate the problematic gases. Also, the Antarctic winter provides extremely cold temperatures, which are required for some of the chemical reactions leading to the buildup of C10. Finally, the actual breakdown of ozone by C10 is driven by light energy. Consequently, the ozone hole occurs as the sun rises each spring. For the Antarctic this is in early to mid-October.
A similar hole has not occurred, to date, over the North Pole because the Arctic vortex is not as intense and temperatures are not as low as in the Antarctic. However, both of these factors are being overbalanced by the gradual increase in CFCs leading to C10, which has been monitored for some years. This winter C10 concentrations in the Arctic reached critical levels.
Since the ozone depletion phenomenon has been progressively worsening, it cannot be explained away by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo just last June. Mr. Arnold's debunking of the entire theory because the breakdown in ozone over the Arctic has not occurred to date shows utter lack of understanding. Even if we are spared this year from a breakup of the vortex, it will hardly discredit the theory or lessen seriousness of the mounting problem.
The evidence linking CFCs to the breakdown of stratospheric ozone is now indisputable. There is essentially unanimous agreement among scientists regarding the correctness of the theory and the seriousness of its biological and social implications.
Bernard J. Nebel
Catonsville.
The writer is professor of biology at the Catonsville Community College.
Shore Hospital
In an effort to balance the fiscal 1993 budget, legislators in Annapolis have proposed eliminating all "pork barrel" spending. Unfortunately, the proposed Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, outside of Ocean City, has been mentioned as one of the many projects that may face the chopping block. The building of the hospital is of critical importance to the entire state and should be fully funded in this final year of the state's commitment.
Each summer, the population of the Ocean City area, including Assateague National Seashore and Fenwick Island, swells to more than 400,000, with millions visiting during the course of the season.
Considering that Ocean City is the state's second largest city in the summer, it is astonishing that there is no hospital in all of Worcester County to serve this population! A visitor or resident who requires emergency medical care must be transported by ambulance to Salisbury, more than 30 minutes away. Atlantic General, if it is funded, would be within 5 minutes of Ocean City.
The Atlantic General project would also create 180 construction jobs and 400 hospital staff positions in Worcester County, which has a 20.7 percent unemployment rate, the highest in the state. These jobs would generate new tax revenues and reduce state public assistance expenditures.
Additionally, the hospital would facilitate the availability of primary care in Worcester County, which is one of the most under-served areas in Maryland.
The state had previously committed itself to fund 30 percent of Atlantic General ($5 million), which is much less than the usual 50 percent matching funds for similar projects. The remainder is to be financed by $5 million in local funds and more than $16 million in private donations. Only $2.5 million remains on the state's commitment, but unless this amount is budgeted on schedule this year, the project is in danger of serious delay or even cancellation.
J. Scott Robertson
Salisbury
Empty Zoo
The Baltimore Zoo has a new advertising campaign featured in newspapers and on television. The ads implore people to donate money to the African exhibit and contains the eye-catching line: "Our new wildlife preserve is only missing one thing: wildlife." I find this ad very disturbing and rather ironic.
It is disturbing to me because it so lightly conveys the message that "wildlife" is something for humans to put behind bars. True, the bars may not be Victorian-style, but the fact is that animals accustomed to roaming over the vast African plains are confined to very small areas in any captive situation. In the process, the wildness is domesticated, the life is deadened. A wild animal is forced to become an artifact.
I believe this is morally wrong.
What is ironic about the ad is that the empty exhibit at the zoo is, insofar as it is to model reality, strikingly true-to-life just as it is. Many African species are endangered.
Habitat destruction on a massive scale continues.
I submit that an empty exhibit would better express the conservation message zoos say they put forth. Maybe it would spur some people into action.
Jeanne Bartas.
Catonsville