Two-Bit Pols
Recent correspondence to your letters page seems to miss the point.
The nation's conservatives, and now many liberals, are trying to point out the fact that the Whitewater mess is just another example of a two-bit politician "getting his."
What galls people is that Bill and Hillary Clinton represented themselves as Dudley-Do-Rights and were really just as greedy as all those bad guys. And 43 percent of the people were fooled.
So they fibbed! Big deal. Remember Spiro Agnew, Dale Anderson, Joseph Alton, Wally Orlinsky, etc., etc.
Somebody should form a committee . . .
John E. Mullikin
Cambridge
Sporting Scholars
Letter writer Michael Trias-Fraticelli's March 30 diatribe on the state of sports in American higher education is inaccurate and misleading.
As the director of a local NCAA division I athletic program which has 20 varsity sports and nearly 400 student-athletes, I feel compelled to respond to his remarks.
We at the University of Maryland Baltimore County are very proud of our student athletes.
During the past five years, our athletes have graduated at a faster rate than the rest of the student body. They have completed more credits per year and have maintained grade point averages equal to the undergraduate averages.
UMBC's first Marshall Scholar was a recruited student athlete, as were our two recent Rhodes Scholar finalists.
Student athletes are involved in leadership roles and extra-curricular activities throughout our campus. For example, we have a basketball player who is a concert pianist and a soccer player who is a singer in campus musical productions. We emphasize student in the term student athlete.
Athletes are asked to be positive role models because of their visibility and attractiveness.
Our department community service program has involved our athletes in work with local school children, inner-city youth through the Alvin Ailey Foundation and Catonsville and Arbutus youth groups.
We use sports to promote healthy living and to provide motivation to do well in school. Clearly the impact of our athletic program is positive and worthy of being on the college campus.
Charles R. Brown
Catonsville
Simon Knows
Until Roger Simon's column of March 20 I had always attributed his anti-hunting views to ignorance of nature and of the role of hunting and hunters in wildlife management and conservation.
The false information in that article can only lead to the conclusion that he is intentionally using the press to mislead and misinform the public. Nobody can be that ignorant of the facts.
He addresses the anti-hunter harassment provision of the crime bill as a freedom of speech issue. He talks of the animal rights extremists being forbidden to display signs. He speaks of how peaceful these demonstrations are . . .
Mr. Simon knows that these people slash hunters' tires. They pursue hunters through the woods banging pots and pans and hurling insults at them in the hope of provoking an incident.
He knows, too, that this lunatic fringe has demonstrated its capacity for violence by burning and bombing millions of dollars worth of research and agricultural facilities.
And, yes indeed, he is fully aware that this is a harassment issue . . .
Robert L. Dunker Jr.
Catonsville
Busy Elsewhere
Joyce P. Wheeler, in her March 21 letter, writes that "George Washington and Thomas Jefferson . . . signed a declaration that all people are 'created equal,' even as they owned human chattels."
Thomas did (he wrote that document), but George didn't.
He was busy elsewhere on July 4, 1776, doing his job as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, a position he had held since June, 1775.
Gordon H. Himmer
Baltimore
Unleash the Power Makers
Given the circumstances, Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. made a wise decision in accepting Peco Energy Corporation's bid to supply 140 megawatts of power starting in 1997.
As an old-line company, Peco not only has the expertise to build a trouble-free plant, but the expertise and the facilities to keep the plant in running condition. The small power broker can't do that.
The tragedy lies in the whole concept of deregulation. We have seen it in Western Maryland, where a single co-generator would have increased the cost of electricity by 10 to 20 percent.
An existing contract with Pennsylvania Power & Light for 200 megawatts is for 4.4 cents per kilowatt.
With all of the regulations, BGE can produce electricity for 3.58 cents per kilowatt, if it were allowed to build its own plant.
The tragedy is that BGE could produce electricity for 2.3 cents per kilowatt if it weren't strangled with regulations.
So far, all the theories about water and air pollution have been proven false. So is the claim that auto exhaust can produce ozone.
There was the matter of thermal pollution. That was put aside when it was found that the warm water from the discharge canal was actually beneficial. The regulations have remained in place.
Then there was the fly-ash discharge from the stack. Dust-free zones were set up and companies could buy points from other companies if they could not meet standards. That quieted down when the hot precipitator with its 99.9 percent efficiency was introduced.
Then there is the acid rain theory. All tests to date prove this theory wrong, the latest a 10-year study by Congress itself. It hasn't eased regulations when BGE has to burn very low sulfur coal at Brandon Shores.
Carbon dioxide and the oxides of nitrogen produce the greenhouse effect and acid rain. Both are essential to plant growth and the world's food chain. God and science have never clashed on this point.
And now we hear that the ozone layer has healed itself even with an increase in chlorofluorocarbons. That should sit well with owners of 1993 cars.
And then there is the anti-nuclear policy of this government. The whole industrial world is building nuclear power plants, but not the United States. The growth of nuclear power has broken the back of the oil cartel.
In our nation the cost of electricity is going up. In other nations the cost of electricity is going down.
The concept of building small power plants as power is needed is all wrong. There is never too much power. When Pepco built Morgantown, power was shared with BGE. The reverse was true when BGE built Calvert Cliffs.
At present, Pennsylvania Power and Light shares power with BGE. Delmarva Power and Light shares power with Peco and Public Service Enterprises. When power is shared, the benefits of cheap power go beyond our own territorial borders . . .
Martin Sanders
Baltimore
Wrong Stereotypes
Daniel S. Greenberg's March 29 column, "Medical Scientists Are Wary," contained a significant error that derives from an outdated stereotype.
The statement that "heart, liver and lung transplants . . . often produce limited results . . ." is simply not true. In fact the results of liver and heart transplantation have been very good for some years now.
More than 80 percent of good risk liver recipients survive over a year, and those who get through the first 6-12 months have a high likelihood of living year after year without further problems from their liver.
Rehabilitation is excellent, with the great majority of these patients returning to full-time life activities.
The data are similar for recipients of heart transplants. It is true of course that these are large-scale procedures with relatively major initial operative risk.
But considering that patients had developed disabling organ failure and face certain death shortly, these transplants regularly provide a remarkable benefit.
Appropriate application of the marvelous technology available in today's medical science requires constant re-evaluation, as discussed by Mr. Greenberg. However, this perpetuation of outdated and misleading impressions serves no one's best interest.
James F. Burdick, M.D.
Andrew S. Klein, M.D.
William A. Baumgartner, M.D.
Baltimore
The writers are members of the surgery department at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.