Obstruction and sabotage by Republicans
Twelve years of Presidents Reagan and Bush racked up a trillion dollar deficit, saw the gulf between rich and poor widen to Grand Canyon proportions and the middle class besieged to the point of desperation.
Leveraged buyouts and corporate mergers put thousands out of work, while chief executives were bestowed obscene salaries and "golden parachutes."
Cutbacks and blind neglect exacerbated the plight of the cities, soup kitchens sprouted, the homeless abounded and crime and drugs flourished.
Now when President Clinton energetically tries to tackle the country's problems, he is met at every turn with acrimonious Republican obstructionism.
Bob Dole and Co. quashed the jobs stimulus bill, short-changed the crucial prevention aspect of the crime bill, callously killed all possibility of health care reform for this year and are now sabotaging the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Peeved that the GOP lost the presidency, Senator Dole, Sen. Phil Gramm et al. are in a permanent fit of pique, acting like spoiled brats instead of responsible congressmen.
If they can't legislate their way, there will be no legislation at all. They resort to technicalities, delaying tactics and paroxysms of filibustering to withhold any victory from Clinton.
But a defeat for Clinton is a defeat for the American people. Evidently, the GOP doesn't give a tinker's damn about promoting the general welfare.
The party system was not meant to result in paralysis. Congressmen are supposed to work together productively in a spirit of cooperation, compromise, negotiation -- not indulge in tantrums to bring the whole process to a stop.
Rea Knisbacher Baltimore
Unrecognized
Baltimore's Afro-American teachers and principals continue to overlooked when it comes to ability and recognition. Five teachers and principals were honored as outstanding educators and received $25,000. How were they chosen? Was there a search committee? Were all the schools in this city and other counties aware of the search?
We teach our children to believe anything is possible if you put forth the effort. Perhaps we should say "maybe," but keep working toward a goal anyway. Will things ever change? Surely there must be at least one Afro-American teacher or principal qualified to receive some recognition as an "outstanding educator" in the state of Maryland.
Clara C. Jones
Baltimore
Reparations
Did The Evening Sun actually pay Michael Fletcher for the piece "Reparations for blacks is no laughing matter" (Other Voices, Oct. 13)?
The subject is indeed laughable, not to mention the ridiculous logic that supports its absurdities.
If you want a good reason for the advent of conservatism in our country, one need only read the foolishness contained in this gem.
Have not the myriad social programs aimed at the betterment of blacks since the 1960s been reparations on a grand scale?
Has not affirmative action advanced blacks while excluding others? Did not the Great Society throw billions at a problem and find little or no cure?
Doesn't the Moving to Opportunity program to this day give poor blacks an "equal opportunity" with their neighbors who had to work for their place in society?
Not to mention a social welfare system that provides health care, food stamps, child care and rent subsidies.
Reparations have been and continue to be paid, but it's people like Mr. Fletcher who pretend not to see the obvious.
Ideas like his will continue the Civil War into the 21st century. I would suggest that the blacks he identifies as being unsuccessful begin to use the opportunities our society has given them and work to achieve parity with their brothers.
More subsidies are not the answer.
Joseph L. Bishop
Monkton
In support of the bells of St. John's
I am often asked why I like living where I do, so close to Greenmount Avenue (or the Old York Turnpike, as I prefer to call it), and my answer is always the same: the bells of St. John's.
Before the bells of St. John's-Huntingdon Episcopal Church were automated, I could only rely on the 10:20 a.m. Sunday chimes and the daily 5 p.m. concerts the Rev. Jesse Parker so beautifully and skillfully played.
Now from 8 a.m. until 5:45 p.m., I savor the bells for a few fleeting seconds every quarter hour. At 6 p.m., I settle in for four minutes of a blissful hymn, seldom dry-eyed. I am not Episcopal, but Jewish.
In my nine years here, I have watched as sanitation and police services have eroded, merchants have abandoned Greenmount Avenue and treasured neighbors have moved out.
Sometimes it feels hopeless, but then I hear the bells and my spirit is truly lifted and renewed. I operate a tea room, also steps from St. John's. The bells are quiet enough that the windows must be thrown open to hear the chimes, and in the warm months my customers comment daily on the tranquil, inviting music.
This neighborhood remains, because of the bells of St. John's, the Victorian village so beloved by Lizette Woodworth Reese.
My neighbors and I have spent countless hours complaining to the Liquor Board about a certain Greenmount Avenue bar that almost nightly disturbs the peace until 2 a.m. with blaring, thumping "music."
It is curious that those complaining about the bells have not joined us in our on-going attempts to silence the unrelenting noise.
St. John's-Huntingdon Episcopal Church, meticulously restored and maintained, is an oasis of serenity for people of all religions or no religion.
Our community is appreciative of the dwindling congregation for staying put, for Father Parker's involvement in neighborhood issues and for keeping us on schedule 10 hours a day in such a glorious manner.
!Donna Beth Joy Shapiro
Baltimore
I found myself amused but incredulous when I read of the controversy over the bells of St. John's Episcopal church in Waverly (Oct. 12).
It may be that some sort of compromise will be worked out to the satisfaction of everyone concerned, but as a former resident of Waverly, I want to say that the ringing of St. John's bells was one of the nicest features of living in the neighborhood.
It was reassuring and reminded me of my connection to the spiritual and to ages past.
I would think that a more appropriate target for Dolores Moran's ire would be the noise pollution emanating from the carstereos of passing motorists. Many times was I awakened at two or three o'clock in the morning by the pounding beat of someone else's taste in "music."
Often was a morning's quiet conversation interrupted by some inconsiderate, thoughtless pedestrian, boombox in hand. Countless are the occasions that I have been disturbed by the too loud, and sometimes obscene, lyrics that in today's culture pass for "artistic expression," defended by the First Amendment to the Constitution!
This is not to suggest that such conditions exist only in Waverly. Obviously this is not the case. The noise pollution of which I speak is everywhere.
It does not matter whether the sounds are "rap" or Rachmaninoff. The lack of courtesy to others, who, after all, might not wish to listen, is the same. Unfortunately, courtesy is not something our culture seems to value anymore.
I do not mean to imply that Ms. Moran's point that the bells disturb the sleep of workers isn't valid. In our modern world of shift work her point is well taken.
Nor should the sick be imposed upon. Again, perhaps a compromise, in light of modern urban conditions, can be effected.
Still, given the choice of the reassuring tones of church bells or the jarring disturbances of boomboxes and stereos, I'll take the former.
Alan Gephardt
Baltimore