Time to Forgive Cuba

I wonder how many people realize that the United States has been at war with Cuba for the last 32 years -- not with guns and bullets but with a trade embargo that prevents Cubans from buying anything from us. Food, fuel, automobile spare parts and even medicines.

In addition to our own embargo, we are now penalizing other countries if they trade with Cuba under the so-called Cuban Democracy Act of 1992. These embargoes violate international law and the charter of the United Nations. They have been condemned twice by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Last year, Dr. Benjamin Spock, who was pediatrician to several generations of American children, traveled to Cuba at the age of 90 to see for himself what the conditions were. He found Cubans reduced to eating two meals a day with very little protein.

The children were showing evidence of malnutrition; lack of protein results in stunted growth. The adults are suffering from "optic neuritis," which is caused by a severe vitamin deficiency and often leads to blindness.

Cuban doctors have no medicines to treat illnesses nor vaccines to prevent diseases such as smallpox, polio, measles, etc.

Why are we treating the Cubans like this?

About 40 years ago Fidel Castro sought U.S. aid in overthrowing a corrupt and repressive dictator of Cuba. When our government refused, he turned to the Soviet Union, which did help. Part of the price he had to pay was to agree to let the Russians install missiles in Cuba.

As I remember, only a few were actually installed before a gigantic American protest persuaded Khrushchev to withdraw them. Not a single American was killed or injured, but for all these years we have refused to forgive them, although we long ago forgave Germany and Japan for starting World War II, in which thousands of American lives were lost. We even helped them to recover after the war.

Surely we have wreaked enough vengeance on the small island of Cuba for its "crime." The Cubans used to be one of our most friendly neighbors and good trading partners. They can be again if we would stop holding this grudge and lift the embargo.

Anne R. Broderick

Ellicott City

Evil in Gorazde

Thank you for publishing Daniel Berger's perceptive and provocative piece on international evil (April 9).

As we recognize the powerful historical lesson of "Schindler's List," shouldn't we expect our national and international leadership (if there is such a thing) to be more cognizant of the evils we are encouraging by turning our backs?

Yes, unfortunately, terror does pay.

Our government is not being asked to send troops, just to send money to help support the freedom of Gorazde from genocide.

But no: We have money for honey bee and tobacco subsidies, for profuse and redundant congressional staffs and junkets, but we have to repeat isolationist mistakes of the 1930s under the guise of budget balancing.

In the 1930s, we at least had the excuse of not knowing what was happening in the death camps. Now, we have no such excuse.

It is past time that the Clinton administration got its act together in international affairs. The U.S. has become a hand-wringing jerk on the international scene, and even the hand-wringing isn't too convincing.

Franklin W. Littleton

Baltimore

Telephone Charges

Has anyone noticed that long-distance telephone companies are routinely ripping off the public?

I was recently on a business trip to California, and I called home from Los Angeles airport before flying home, using a pay phone and a credit card.

The line was busy, and instead of using the AT&T; message option I hung up. Five minutes later I tried again, and the line was still busy, but because my flight was about to leave I decided to utilize the message service.

After the flight took off I used the airborne telephone service, GTEAir, to verify that my wife received the message.

GTEAir charges by the minute, so I kept the call very short -- easily under a minute. The call was charged to the same credit card.

When I received my credit card bill I noticed that both calls from the airport were charged by AT&T;, not just the one that got through. The GTEAir bill showed a charge for two minutes, not one.

When I called the credit card company they informed me that both AT&T; and GTEAir charge for the use of the line regardless if the call was completed.

This means, according to the MasterCard representative, that they can charge from the moment the customer picks up the receiver even if the line is busy or no one answers. (This explains why my hotel bill showed telephone charges for long-distance calls that never got through).

The overcharge on GTEAir was approximately $2.50, and the AT&T; overcharge was only $2.30. I debated dismissing these charges as insignificant, but I have changed my mind.

This billing practice, which may appear in small print somewhere but is not obvious, is outrageous. I'm sure AT&T; and GTEAir overcharges nationwide amount to millions of dollars per year.

It is my intention to raise this issue to a national level, but until I figure out the best way to proceed, may the consumer beware.

Elliott M. Simons

Columbia

Class Too Big

I applaud the citizens of the Waverly area who would like to start their own school, and I applaud the school board for its decision to explore this further.

In a news story about this on television I heard the newscaster say that the citizens of Waverly were upset because there were 30 students in their children's classrooms. How glad I would be if my child had just 30 children in his class.

My son is in the fourth grade at Reisterstown Elementary School and has 34 children in his class. The other two fourth grades I believe have 31 and 32 children in them.

I have talked to our principal and the PTA board. The only answer I get is that nothing can be done, especially this year.

I called the superintendent of elementary schools for Baltimore County, and she told me that the way the county allots teachers to schools is to take the total school student population and divide it by 25.

This amount of teachers would also include the librarian, guidance counselor and any special teachers the school might elect to have.

This method, of course, does not take into account how many students are in each grade, so the principals usually choose to have smaller classrooms in the lower grades. She also told me that they have no more teaching positions to give to anyone this year.

Anne Arundel County allots 58 percent of its budget to the schools, Carroll County 54 percent. Baltimore County's 1994-95 school budget would be 47 percent (up from 44 percent this year), if it isn't cut.

I am wondering how long County Executive Roger Hayden and School Superintendent Stuart Berger think this can continue. Will my child have to have 45 children in his class before anyone at the county level begins to respond?

Cynthia Ranker

Reisterstown

Goodbye, OBE

I thoroughly oppose the leadership and direction of Stuart Berger, the superintendent of Baltimore County schools, and his push for Outcome-Based Education (OBE).

My son attends Orems Elementary, where he recently received the new OBE report card. There were a total of 61 grades!

After trying for hours to decipher the jargon, my husband and I decided to have a conference with the principal and teacher.

It was explained that each grade was based on a separate set of criteria (called the "Scope and Sequence").

I do not believe teachers have the time it takes to effectively grade each child based on the vast amount of analysis it takes.

Because this system is so entangled, I believe it will facilitate handing out S's (satisfactory) to each child, rather than do the psychoanalysis it requires.

This system is based on the assumption that competition will damage a child's self-esteem.

Life is full of demands to be the best you can be, and if these children are being shielded from competition, how will they be able to handle the real world?

I also find this system to be highly attitude-based rather than ability-based. While attitudes are important, I think it de-emphasizes a child's ability, comprehension and achievements by placing an inordinate amount of weight on enthusiasm rather than performance.

For all of the above reasons, we have decided to remove our son from the public school system, and I believe you will be seeing more and more parents doing the same (although they may not write to inform the school system why), as we choose to obtain the best education possible for our children (within our means).

Denise D. Absalom

Middle River

Fit Punishment

Considering the The Baltimore Sun's past stance against crime, I do not find it surprising you are against caning the young American for crimes committed in Singapore.

After reading your editorial, I now question whether the beating Michael Fay will receive is too harsh for the crime of vandalism.

While the punishment may not fit the crime in this instance, he does deserve to be punished.

Criminals in America, particularly the youth, know they can get away with breaking the law. To that end, two questions come to mind:

If Mr. Fay is caned, do you think he will revisit Singapore to commit more crime?

If America flogged its criminals swiftly and without exception after a conviction, do you feel they would think twice before inflicting their cruelty on victims?

Something for all of us to think about.

James D. Brown

Baltimore

Building Real Foundations for Peace in Israel

I found the Feb. 1 article by Doug Struck on the work of Arna Mer-Khamis interesting, but very disturbing.

Her work for Palestinian children is admirable, but I find her politics and her attitude far from admirable.

I don't think that a woman who says that Zionism is racism and that most Israelis are racists is the right influence for these young people in the new atmosphere of the Middle East.

The intifada is over. The peoples of the Middle East are facing an era of peace, of living together. I wonder if Mrs. Mer-Khamis, who seems to be filled with such bitterness and hatred, has made any effort to teach these young Arabs that a new era has arrived in the Middle East.

The young people in her centers need to begin to think of co-existing with the people they have thought of as their enemy.

Two thousand years ago, the Jewish people were driven from their homeland, and for the 2,000 years of their dispersion they never forgot Jerusalem.

Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which enabled them to recreate their national existence in their ancient homeland . . .

When the Jewish people returned to their homeland, they established the only democracy in the Middle East.

They opened their doors to refugees from every corner in the world. Can a movement which brought home 29,000 black Jews from Ethiopia (14,000 in one day!) be called racist?

Does Mrs. Mer-Khamis know that NA'AMAT, the movement of working women and volunteers in Israel, has provided social services for Israeli Arab women, youth and children for over 30 years?

There are 75,000 Arab women members of NA'AMAT, and they have played an active role in every aspect of NA'AMAT activities. Nelly Karkaby, a Christian Arab, is vice-chairwoman of NA'AMAT's organization department and has headed the Arab division since its inception in 1960.

NA'AMAT has operated day care centers for Arab youngsters, vocational and technological training for Arab adolescents and adult education and vocational training for Arab women.

In town and cities with Arab and Jewish populations, teen-agers from both sectors learn together. NA'AMAT's Shalom Center in Jaffa serves Jewish, Christian Arab and Muslim Arab children. The children learn about each other's customs and celebrate the holidays of all three religions. It is a model of co-existence.

Recently, in cooperation with the Israel Ministry of Trade and Industry, NA'AMAT held a seminar for over 80 Israeli Arab business women who operate small businesses. They set up a mentoring network to provide a support system for Arab women entrepreneurs.

Since the signing of the peace accords, NA'AMAT has been holding meetings with representatives of Arab women in the West Bank and Gaza territories.

NA'AMAT considers the discussions an important step in translating the peace process into day-to-day relationships. The Arab women from the territories are aware of this special role of NA'AMAT and are interested in following NA'AMAT's model in their struggle to develop social, economic and political opportunities for Arab women in the territories and in fighting for women's rights.

A formal meeting between Israeli women and women from the territories brought to gether 10 Palestinian women, representing three women's organizations from Nablus, Jenin and Bet Sahur, and 15 Israeli women, including three national leaders of NA'AMAT.

A meeting was held in Jerusalem with Arab women from East Jerusalem and the territories that was very successful.

The Palestinian women had heard of NA'AMAT. They had seen Kelly Karkaby on television. They wanted to receive the material which NA'AMAT has published in Arabic, and they wanted to continue the contact.

Another meeting was held at Kibbutz Kfar Aza between representatives of NA'AMAT and of the Palestinian Women's Organization, an umbrella of women's organizations in the territories.

The two groups agreed to promote cooperation between the "twin" movements. NA'AMAT agreed to share its expertise to help the Palestinian women in their struggle to achieve equal status in the workplace with all workers, and to provide organizational advice, vocational training and methods for raising public awareness, increasing motivation and proposing legislation.

In addition, a group of Arab women from Gaza came to the NA'AMAT offices in Tel Aviv. They wanted to learn from NA'AMAT about activities for women, and they too wanted to use the expertise of NA'AMAT to set up social services for women in Gaza.

So, you can see from these examples that Mrs. Mer-Khamis is quite wrong about Israelis. Rather than being racist, most Israelis yearn for peace and are interested in learning to live in peace -- real peace -- with their Arab neighbors.

NA'AMAT and its 800,000 Israeli women members have worked for many years to lay the groundwork for the peace it knew would come some day.

If Mrs. Mer-Khamis would begin to lay the same kind of groundwork among the youth with whom she works, there may yet be a true peace in the area which would benefit all the peoples of the Middle East.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if 1994 would be the year it happens! . . .

Sylvia Lewis

New York

The writer is national president of NA'AMAT USA.