Dangerous Cuts
On Sept. 21, the Baltimore City Fire Department closed another fire suppression unit, Engine Company 38, at 15 South Eutaw Street.
The city does not seem to realize that even though the city's population is declining, fire and emergency medical calls are increasing.
The area that Engine 38 serviced is a high value district and is heavily occupied in daylight hours (hospital, hotel, Social Security, college, etc).
Even though the other fire apparatus from the Eutaw Street station will arrive in the same time frame, we have still lost one piece of equipment and four firefighters 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
These fire fighters would have been used for rescue or extinguishing fires. They will no longer be there to save lives.
I just hope it doesn't happen, so those who chose to make cuts in fire suppression don't have to live with the "what ifs" the rest of their lives.
This is not only an issue of Engine 38, but of any fire or medic unit in this city. The city must realize that to stop the decline in population, they must first make the city safe. Then and only then will people move back to the city.
Residency clauses are a Band-Aid approach to a tourniquet problem and won't work. I suggest the administration start making public safety the priority it should be.
William V. Taylor
Baltimore
The writer is president, Baltimore City Fire Fighters Local No. 734.
Cruel Slaughter
I would like to correct a misunderstanding that could arise from the Associated Press article in The Sun Oct. 2, headlined "Less cruel end is sought for slaughtered poultry."
The poultry industry is described as saying that there's no evidence that the methods that are now used to process poultry are inhumane.
However, the evidence is there. At present, poultry slaughtered in the United States are being neither stunned (rendered unconscious) nor anesthetized (rendered pain-free).
Decades of experimental poultry slaughter research show that to be adequately and permanently stunned, broiler chickens require an electrical current of around 120 mA to induce unconsciousness, and turkeys require 150 mA to produce this state.
Documented poultry industry sources have revealed that chickens and turkeys are not being either stunned or rendered insensitive to pain prior to having their throats cut.
Instead, the birds are administered a very mild pre-slaughter electrical current causing a painful electric shock, cramps and bodily paralysis.
As Dr. Alice Johnson, director of regulatory affairs of the (P American Meat Institute, stated Sept. 28 at the House subcommittee hearing on the Humane Methods of Poultry Slaughter Act, poultry are being immobilized prior to slaughter.
This procedure, which is done for highly disputed commercial reasons, is definitely not being done in order to reduce the birds' suffering.
Fortunately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced at the hearing that, if federal humane slaughter legislation were extended to poultry, "USDA stands ready to institute the changes to our domestic inspection program and our foreign program reviews to accommodate this change."
Karen Davis
Potomac
The writer is president, United Poultry Concerns, Inc., a non-profit organization that monitors poultry use.
Indian Miracle
Hail to Jonathan Power and The Sun for its excellent commentary on Brazil ("The Next Superpower," Oct. 7).
The article clearly demonstrates the economic miracle in Brazil. This is the same country that was the hardest hit of all Latin American countries during the 1980s recession -- negative economic growth, high unemployment and hyper-inflation. Brazil is now the 10th largest economy in the world.
Now, let's have a follow-up article on India, the fifth largest economic power in the world and another potential economic superpower.
India's economic miracle is no less significant. The opening up of its economy to trade and investment has the world knocking on India's door, including all major American companies.
The adoption of prudent monetary and fiscal policies under Finance Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao have led to rapid economic growth and transformed India into an economic powerhouse.
The same companies, like Coca Cola, that abandoned India due to government over-regulation are back in India setting up businesses and joint ventures. Trade between India and the United States topped $2.8 billion last year.
According to Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown, in a growing and open India economy trade between the two countries could exceed $5 billion.
I= The United States is now India's largest trading partner.
Pradeep Ganguly
Baltimore
Cuba and Haiti
These past weeks I have been reading frequently that the U.S. should not get involved with Haiti because Haiti has no strategic value to the U.S. Perhaps not.
But the real reason for the invasion that has turned into occupation is racist and political.
The voters in Florida do not want a flood of Haitian refugees. In order not to lose the Florida vote, President Clinton has found it necessary to make Haiti safe and livable for Haitians; so they will stay home, rather than immigrate to Florida, becoming a political liability.
Politics also plays a huge part in the Cuban situation. Again, a flood of refugees would be a political liability. But Fidel Castro isn't going anywhere, and he's not going to change from a Communist dictatorship.
It is shamefully inhumane that the administration has chosen to grant legal immigration applications only to those physically residing in Cuba.
It would seem to me that those who have risked their lives on rickety rafts are the ones who really found it necessary to leave Cuba and therefore are the prime candidates to make application for immigration while in Guantanamo, rather than having to risk their lives by returning to Cuba.
To tell them to return to Cuba to apply may well be sending them to persecution; at the very least, they may be prohibited from reaching the U.S. interest office to make application.
But a good start to solving the Cuban problem would be to quickly process and admit all those Cubans who qualify for immigration, including the 100,000 backlog from previous years.
Perhaps justifiably, we have been admitting Cubans for over 30 years as they attempted to escape the Communist dictatorship. Out of fairness, we should be just as open in admitting Haitians, if need be.
Haiti and Cuba: It's a political no-win situation for President Clinton.
Harry E. Bennett Jr.
Baltimore
In Defense of 'Baseball'
David Zurawik implies that PBS couldn't, or shouldn't, take pride in Ken Burns' "Baseball" in the face of "mixed" reviews, "lackluster" ratings and the fact that it has become "the stuff of parody" ("Burns & Co. hear no evil on 'Baseball,' " Sept. 30).
Is he kidding? The series drew high praise from viewers and television critics alike, and as for the frequent parodies of "Baseball," they reflect the fact that Ken Burns' unique style -- like Alistair Cooke's introductions to "Masterpiece Theatre" -- has become part of popular culture. Most filmmakers would welcome such "problems."
Most alarming, though, is Mr. Zurawik's focus on ratings. We're pleased that "Baseball" drew a large audience by public television standards, but that's not the point.
It was a success, first and foremost, because it is a fascinating history, well told by an extraordinary filmmaker who is (excuse
the expression) at the top of his game.
The quest for quality over ratings is central to public television's mission; it allows us to offer programs as fine and diverse as "The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour," "The Metropolitan Opera Presents" and "Eyes on the Prize," none of which draw audiences large enough to succeed on commercial television.
Only time will tell whether Mr. Zurawik is correct that the success of "Baseball" is overblown. When F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was published in 1925, one leading New York critic declared, with authority, "This is a book of the season only."
4( Stay tuned, Mr. Zurawik, stay tuned.
Jennifer Lawson
Alexandria, Va.
The writer is executive vice president in charge of national programming and promotion services for Public Broadcasting Service.