Magnet Schools
The magnet school program was presented to Baltimore County residents as an effort to increase educational opportunities for students throughout the county. Magnet school fairs were used to attract students into the program.
What was not emphasized was that the federally mandated objective was to alter the racial mix within schools.
I assume the gender emphasis noted in The Sun's March 20 story was initially, or later became part of, the program's objective.
The board might have been able to maintain the appearance of a program to improve opportunities for all students if the numbers were right.
Where the magnet program appears to have run aground was when more white (possibly Asian-American as well) students, including males, applied for the program than had been anticipated.
This stripped the magnet school program of the facade of openness when, to achieve changes in racial and gender mix, many such students had to be excluded.
This decision to undertake the magnet school program may be the single most important decision defining the school system in Baltimore County.
In exchange for a small federal grant (around 1 percent of the school budget, I think), the board appears to have been willing to declare the school system to be discriminatory regarding race and gender, and in need of correction.
This despite the fact that, using the definition of discrimination laid down by the U.S. Supreme Court, it was not.
The perception nevertheless becomes the reality. The board's folly will be with us for some time.
The board has at least one consolation regarding discrimination. Where there was no evidence of discrimination before the advent of the magnet school program, the board's actions have addressed that oversight.
Herm Schmidt
Bradshaw
Needle Exchange
Thank God cooler heads have prevailed in the State House, and it looks as if Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's controversial needle exchange program will become a reality.
Hopefully, the sometimes vindictive governor will not select this issue to "punish" the mayor for their recent differences.
Most likely Gov. William Donald Schaefer will sign the bill. To me, this will represent a start toward Mr. Schmoke's ideas on a debate about drug decriminalization.
The egg comes before the chicken, and to an intravenous drug abuser, the needle precedes the drug.
So let us hail the passage of this legislation, not only as an AIDS prevention measure but as a start toward more modern weapons in the war on drugs.
Joseph R. Armstead Jr.
Baltimore
Lobbyist's Power
On March 21, The Sun reported on an outrageous display of the tobacco lobby's oversized influence in Annapolis which merits further emphasis.
Citizens should be outraged that Maryland tobacco-lobbyist and campaign contributor Bruce Bereano was granted an exclusive private hearing by the House Judiciary Committee because he was unable to attend the committee's scheduled public hearing of tobacco legislation on March 11. He missed the hearing because he had to go to a basketball game that day.
Committee chair Joseph Vallario said that this was sufficient reason to convene a private hearing just for Mr. Bereano to argue against a number of tobacco control bills, although many unpaid citizens took time out of their regular jobs to attend the scheduled hearing.
They had three minutes each to present their case in the public interest after missing half a day's work. A formal complaint filed with the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee is pending.
This blatant display demonstrates how the tobacco lobbyist has our elected representatives wrapped around his little finger. No wonder citizens feel disenfranchised.
This outrage should be a catalyst not only for tobacco control legislation, but for badly needed lobbyist disclosure laws.
Joseph Adams, M.D.
Baltimore
What Next in France? Language Gendarmes?
The March 15 article on France's proposed law that would ban the use of foreign words from "business and government communications, radio and television broadcasts, public broadcasts, public announcements and advertising messages" is ridiculous at best, and at a time when xenophobia is rampant in many of the ex-communist areas, this is worrisome as well.
The incorporation of other languages into a country's vocabulary is a commonplace occurrence.
Americans have adopted such words and phrases as "c'est lvie," "R.S.V.P.," "rendezvous" and "gauche," incorporating them into our everyday language.
The question is, is the incorporation of foreign words necessarily destroying French culture? And will this action in any way prevent the French people from using these foreign words? What are they going to do next? Install language police?
The French culture will grow and flourish whether they go through with this law or not, and with progress there comes a broadening of horizons which would naturally include an expansion of vocabulary.
Limiting the French vocabulary can only hinder the French people. The more words we have to choose from, the better we can express ourselves and communicate with others.
Amy Sehman
Ellicott City
Let Chapman Serve Clients Others Don't
As the former managing principal for the Chapman Co. in the late 1980s, I have received a host of phone calls and requests for interviews about my former employer, prompting this letter.
Without taking sides of who is right and who is wrong, let's examine the facts.
Nate Chapman is a phenomenal salesman. His skill in seizing sales opportunities advanced him up the ladder as a top stock and bond salesman for Alex. Brown & Sons, nationwide. With a nod to his skills, Alex. Brown and other notable, button-down Baltimoreans signed on the dotted line, opening the Chapman Co. in 1987.
They supported him and what he would bring to Baltimore City. Unfortunately, his quick study, which found him gracing The Sunday Sun and Warfield's magazine, has now placed him and the future of his firm, at least for the time being, squarely on shaky ground.
I joined the Chapman Co. as a stockbroker, one week after thmarket crash in 1987. I did so because Nate sold me on his dedication to introducing money and its management to the African-American community.
He must have sold many others as well, because Market Segment Research, Inc., a Florida-based marketing concern, in its 1993 Minority Market Report, reported that Baltimore had the highest incidence of stockbroker usage of any major metropolitan city in this country . . .
As an ex-employee, I have every right to be bitter about Nate Chapman and his personnel management -- or lack thereof. I was summarily fired one week before Christmas because my popular local talk-radio broadcast had been picked up nationally.
Critics said, by working for Nate and being a nationally syndicated radio host under his employ, I would steal Nate's sunshine. True or false -- who cares? I moved on.
What does matter in this public search for answers is that it will ultimately have a chilling effect on local Baltimoreans looking for black faces to help them manage their money.
As one of five black stockbrokers out of 1,000 in a lily-white Richmond-based regional brokerage, having a black face across the desk makes a difference to investors tired of feeling unappreciated or, more commonly, unaccepted, when searching for answers to their investment questions.
The black community, typically quiet on all matters unrelated to knee-jerk issues, cannot afford to allow this institution to fade out of existence.
Nate Chapman's zeal in stumping for public support is not uncommon for business enterprise. Sponsoring and supporting black business enterprise is good business anywhere.
I was in Nate's office in the fall of 1988, when the brancmanager of the local Baltimore office of Alex. Brown came to the Chapman Co. to share his experience in helping us build our business.
He emphatically and unapologetically stated that we shouldn't depend on black customers to grow our company, "since there are only 20 blacks in the state of Maryland with any real money." He told us that in order to grow, we must introduce large business and large business interests to our capabilities and abilities to compete . . .
In quiet, reflective moments, white brokers, male and female alike, honestly must admit they have no interest in hiring, soliciting or making money for anyone who doesn't look like them.
There is a new definition of black-on-black crime in urban, predominantly black, Baltimore City.
Am I saying turn the other cheek if something was done illegally? Of course not. But barring wrong-doing, if the City Council thought this was a good idea four months ago, it should now.
Who benefits if the lofty ideals of providing financial information to a community long starved for financial market advice fails? Thirty-eight percent of Baltimore's African-American community are not looking at The Sun's stock pages or buying T. Rowe Price or Alex. Brown mutual funds because of their hiring or marketing efforts in the black community.
I'm not shouting racism. I'm shouting capitalism, something we all respect. Let the Chapman Co. serve a community many would rather leave behind.
John B. Slaughter II
Baltimore