Women in Music
It was encouraging to read James Roos' nationally syndicated May 20 article, "Women have a hand in classical music,"
Women are finally beginning to be more widely recognized for their accomplishments as composers and conductors of classical music. As a point of interest, the two conductors pictured in the article are known to Baltimore audiences.
Catherine Comet was formerly the associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Kate Tamarkin was the conductor of the Women Composers Orchestra during its 1988-1989 season.
Your readers may be surprised to know that there are currently many women conductors in Maryland: Gisele Ben-Dor with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra; Frances M. Dawson with the Columbia Pro Contara; Cathy L. Ferguson, the Columbia Orchestra; Ann Harrigan, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra; Kerry Krebill, Musikaten, and Shirley Mathews, Pro Musica Rara.
Maryland and the entire mid-Atlantic region are fortunate to have these gifted women.
Mr. Roos mentioned that several women's organizations are "digging up forgotten compositions by women." Baltimore's Women Composers Orchestra is one of just a handful of such groups.
Founded in 1985, the WCO is dedicated to the performance, inspiration and promotion of music composed by women, bringing to audiences the richness and variety of women composers from the 18th century through the present . . .
Those who are interested in learning more about this subject are encouraged to get in touch with us at 323-7578 or FAX 323-6031.
M. Elizabeth Scott
Baltimore
The writer is board president, Women Composers Orchestra.
Finger Food
Mary Corey's May 13 article mentioned (perhaps disparagingly) that Barbra Streisand ate Caesar salad with her fingers while in the District of Columbia recently.
Ms. Streisand (no surprise) actually seems to be "in the know." This salad, when first created in 1924 in Tijuana, Mexico, by Caesar Cardini, was intended -- and eaten -- as a finger food.
Mr. Cardini used only whole, long-stemmed romaine lettuce in his creation, stalks that lent themselves to being picked up.
Most restaurants now render Caesar salad with leaf or chopped lettuce.
The only restaurant in Baltimore, to my knowledge, where one can eat a traditional, romaine stalk Caesar salad, sans utensils, is the super-elegant Hampton's at Harbor Court.
Certainly, a far cry from the famous salad's Tijuana settings.
Thomas Hicks
Baltimore
Minority Hiring
In The Sun May 20 there appeared an article criticizing Rep. Helen Bentley, R-Md., for being below the congressional average for minority hiring.
In this same article it was stated that Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., has 15 minorities on his staff of 18; also stated was the fact that Albert Wynn, D-Md., also black, has 12 minorities on his staff of 16.
Why then should either of these gentlemen be so concerned over Ms. Bentley's staff, when they follow the same policy albeit in reverse?
E. M. Fritz
Ocean City
Bridge to Asia
With the opening of the Chunnel, the British and French have accomplished far more than a magnificent engineering feat. They have bridged centuries of isolationism and mistrust between nations, leaving a legacy far greater than the outcome of European wars.
Now is the time for the United States to accomplish a still greater feat of civil engineering, the bridging of North America and Asia via the 50 mile Bering Strait.
The distance between continents across Little Diomede Island is short, the mean water depth only 200 feet or so.
During the Ice Age, that land bridge was used by hunters to cross into North America, populating the Americas with the Indians later discovered by Columbus.
The area is in an earthquake region, but this country has proven many times before it can overcome engineering challenges. Anyone standing on Hoover Dam can see the American engineering spirit at work, a skill for which we are still respected by the Japanese and the world. It can be done.
No endeavor could better signal to the peoples in the former Soviet Union that their future is permanently linked to the world, that isolationism is a dead end for those yearning for a better life.
The commerce which would flow by rail and truck across this bridge would transform the economies of the CIS nations from Siberia to west of the Urals. Oil could be piped rather than shipped by sea, eliminating major oil spills.
As the British and French have shown the way, let us literally bridge centuries of mistrust and bridge the Bering strait.
Lee Clark
Millersville
How To Avoid a North Korean Holocaust
In August 1981 at Eastern College, St. Davids, Pa., during the annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation, I gave the paper, "Mathematical Philosophy -- Status Report I." In this paper I made the following statement relative to dialectic controlled political systems such as Marxism or communism:
"Certain political and philosophical systems that have infiltrated numerous modern human cultures are based upon logically inconsistent and, thus, contradictory foundations . . . The paramount inconsistency which pervades these systems is closely related to human rights considerations and, in particular, how these irrational systems view human behavior, wants and aspirations. It is the close proximity of these demonstrable contradictions to these highly emotional human factors which will tend to generate certain significant consequences . . .
"Unless these fundamental errors are eradicated from these systems, then these cultures appear to be doomed to collapse from inherent logical inconsistencies . . . More importantly, it is a highly significant fact that the internal logical collapse of these inconsistent systems can take any diverse form. This collapse could easily involve an irrational action which would envelop all of mankind in an unprecedented holocaust."
The predictions I made certainly have come true with respect to countries associated with the former U.S.S.R., among others. The mathematical analysis of the dialectic logic needed to argue for the acceptance of such political doctrine and my predictions were not considered seriously at that time they were made. However, these predictions have been verified and remain in force.
What is of significance is the relationship of these predictions to the United Nations policy toward North Korea and the possibility of an international "unprecedented holocaust."
The reason why the collapse of such systems has not, as yet, yielded an international holocaust is that the central government policies in the former U.S.S.R. were weakened internally by the people themselves. The reason for this weakening stems from the knowledge individuals acquired that there exist political philosophies which contain certain absolute concepts such as individual freedom and responsibility as well as specific and ideal human behavior, among many others.
Although the North Korean "problem," from the viewpoint of media coverage, is not of daily significance, in actuality, it is the most significant of all. Of all the dialectic controlled political systems on planet earth, North Korea is the most likely to produce the "unprecedented holocaust." One reason for this is that it is impossible for a western culture based upon absolutes associated with individual human rights and aspirations to comprehend fully the dialectic that controls the North Korean political system and, hence, predict accurately the behavior of its officials. More importantly, since the system is closed, in the extreme, to Western political thought and its absolute concepts, an internal weakening of central government control is, in the immediate future, less likely.
My predictions as to the results of the logical clash between dialectic-controlled political systems and those Western political philosophies with absolutes associated with human behavior should be taken more seriously. The collapse of the North Korean political system will occur. What is necessary is that an international holocaust be avoided. The United Nations, and the United States in particular, should do every thing possible to undermine the North Korean political system by, first, providing the North Korean people with the knowledge that there do exist political systems that reflect individual human rights and desires. Then supply the people with every means possible to weaken central government control. If this is done, the collapse would more likely be internal rather than external.
Robert A. Herrmann
Annapolis