Anguished Plea
I am the sister of Susan Hurley Harrison, the Ruxton woman who disappeared Aug. 5 and whom we suspect has been murdered. I am writing to plead for the public's help in finding my sister.
This situation is devastating Susan's family. We suffer not only the usual anguish of losing a loved one but the additional agony of not knowing where she is or, if she was in fact murdered, what her last moments were like.
These are the questions that torment us, that run continually through the minds of Susan's two sons, her three brothers and me.
Our lives have become a nightmare, and the worst part of it is the knowledge that this could go on forever, that we may never find her, may never know what happened to her.
I have taken to avoiding walking through my living room because it contains a framed photograph of a pigtailed five-year-old Susan proudly holding her new baby sister, me, while her big brother Bill, aged eight, keeps a protective arm around her.
The picture conjures up so many images, now acutely painful, of our childhood: of Susan holding my hand and walking me into school my first day of first grade, of her sewing and knitting clothes for me, of her teaching me to ice skate and helping me learn long division; and of Bill always acting as her protective big brother, loyally standing up for her and never letting another neighborhood child tease her.
The thought that he could not protect Susan that fateful August night is now a daily torment for Bill, as well as for my younger brothers and me.
And the anguish that it is causing her two sons, who were the center of her life, is beyond imagining.
The desire to protect, to take care of, one's family members, in death as well as life, is a basic human impulse.
I implore readers to be on the lookout for Susan or her remains. If you have any information, please contact Detective Ramsey at 410-887-3943. A $6,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for her disappearance.
If, as we suspect, Susan has been murdered, I have this to say to her killer: If you have a shred of morality or humanity or compassion, you will confess your crime.
And if you consider yourself a religious person, reflect on this: With every day that passes and you remain silent, you are compounding your sin.
Molly Hurley Moran
Athens, Ga.
Women's Issues
After some post-election conversations I had with some women friends, I felt I had to voice a loud message to women before the general election.
It disturbed me a great deal to learn how many women voted for every woman on the ticket based on gender alone. We must be informed and educated if we are going to cast a vote.
Ellen Sauerbrey is not the best candidate to elect if we care about women's rights. I urge women to make an effort to learn the positions candidates hold on women's issues before election day.
Ellen F. Eisenstadt
Owings Mills
Meeting Goals
This letter is written in response to Mike Bowler's Sept. 8 article about school and family partnerships.
As a teacher at Curtis Bay Elementary School in Baltimore City, I have witnessed critical, positive changes in the school as a result of our involvement in the Family and School Connection program sponsored by the Fund for Educational Excellence.
Parent and community participation at the school have increased dramatically since we became involved in this project two years ago. By systematically addressing the six major types of involvement cited by the Hopkins' Center on Schools, Families, Communities and Children's Learning, we have made the parents and community an integral part of Curtis Bay Elementary School. They know that we need their help and appreciate their input.
The community of Curtis Bay has responded to our needs in ways too numerous to mention and continues to be available for projects which benefits our students.
We feel sure that we will meet goal eight of the national "Goals 2000" before the year 2000 because of our school's community outreach programs.
Jacqueline Griswold
Baltimore
Charles Village Tax District Won't Work
The proposal to create a special tax district or, depending on your point of view, a "special benefits district," is dividing the Charles Village community and threatens to sever Charles Village from the rest of Baltimore.
The proposal is to impose a tax surcharge of 30 cents per $100 of assessed value on all properties between (roughly) North Avenue and 33rd Street, Howard Street and Greenmount Avenue.
The money raised from this property tax surcharge, estimated at $400,000, would be used to provide extra security (60 percent of funds), extra sanitation services (23 percent), promotion of the area (10 percent) and "administration" (7 percent).
All this is supposed to make the area a safe and clean place to live, to protect and maintain property values and to prevent departure of those who can afford to leave.
The question of whether to have a special tax district will be submitted to referendum during October. All owners of property and all registered voters in the affected area will receive ballots by mail and will have the opportunity to vote "yea" or "nay."
Using a $30,000 grant from City Hall, the effort to promote the proposal is being led by the Greater Homewood Community Corporation.
An election-style campaign is employing three consultants and features electioneering paraphernalia such as professional brochures, lawn signs and T-shirts. Greater Homewood is serving as "interim administrator," and, if the measure passes, is positioned to become permanent administrator.
As more residents and property owners learn about this proposal for a special tax district, however, they are beginning to express their opposition and taking steps to defeat the measure.
Anti-tax district leaflets (paid for by residents' contributions in the amount of $195) have been delivered to every dwelling unit in over 60 "block faces" and at various community events.
Residents object to a special tax district for several reasons:
First, it probably won't work. $400,000 sounds like a bundle, but when one divides it up using the percentages above, it really can't pay for very much.
A handful of people cannot effectively patrol 80 square blocks around the clock, and cannot provide perceptible sanitation services. To suggest otherwise is to raise false expectations.
Second, those proposing the special tax district have never been specific about what they have in mind.
What do they mean when they say "security?" Hiring off-duty police officers? Hiring rent-a-cops? Hiring Hopkins football players? What? Other than a percentage pie chart, particulars have never been given.
Third, the Charles Village area is not a single neighborhood, but several, and not one interest group, but many.
There are rowhouses and apartment buildings, quiet streets and
streets filled with traffic, blacks, whites and Asians, renters and owners, residents and business people, rich, middle-class and poor.
There is a large, transient student population. These different neighborhoods and interest groups are not likely to ever agree on what will make the area "safer" and "cleaner."
Fourth, the elitism inherent in this proposal encourages a "we-they" attitude against outsiders. It will "Guilford-ize" the Charles Village area.
Rented cops and hokey carts will not make crime and sanitation problems go away, but they are guaranteed to set the area apart from the rest of the city.
(If things are really so bad in Baltimore, why not just raise everyone's property tax by 30 cents and introduce new services all over, not just in elitist little "Guilfords"?)
Finally, the heavy hand of City Hall is not only paying to promote a special tax district, but, if the measure passes, will continue to play an influential role.
The legislation setting up a special tax district requires the Board of Estimates to review and approve (or disapprove) any and every action of significance planned or taken by the special district's administrators.
It will create another layer of quasi-public bureaucracy, with allegiance to, and dependence on, City Hall and the Mayor.
Grenville B. Whitman
Baltimore