Support for Art
The plan to make the 400 block of North Howard Street into an artist colony -- Baltimore's "Soho" -- certainly sounds great and looks good on paper.
But I wonder if anyone has really checked into the art market in Baltimore. Years ago, an artist colony was planned for East Baltimore Street near Johns Hopkins Hospital. One never hears anything more about this.
While the idea is a good one, in order for it to work, people in Baltimore must financially support the artists with meaningful purchases.
In out-of-town galleries in major cities, purchase prices of the smaller paintings start around $2,000. Larger work goes upward of the mid-$20,000 range.
One kind of local patron will go to New York to purchase something expensive, while another will be quaintly thinking in terms of a couple hundred dollars. This city has a nationally known reputation in this regard.
While the idea for an artist colony, work spaces, galleries, etc., sounds good for Howard Street, it can only work if the local people in Baltimore spend a lot more money in local patronage than they have for the past five years.
Melvin O. Miller Jr
Baltimore
Bridge Safety
In her Nov. 7 Opinion * Commentary article "Bridging Trouble," writer Anne Egerton raises "troubling philosophical questions" regarding the "ugly intrusion" being built by an independent school in her neighborhood.
In the 23 years I have lived in Baltimore, I have seen Lake Avenue turn from a pleasant residential street into a major east-west thoroughfare, traveled at speeds far in excess of the posted 25 miles per hour.
Where is the responsibility of the adult citizens who speed, pass when no passing is allowed, fail to even slow down for pedestrians in the crosswalks and respond with angry shouts and obscene gestures to those who attempt to obey the law?
Certainly children should be taught how to cross streets safety, but the most responsible of them may be affected by the irresponsibility of an adult.
I see the construction of this bridge not as bowing to a perception of the public will, defaulting on personal responsibility, or giving up my freedom of choice . . . If this bridge saves the life of only one child, is that not the bottom line?
Joyce S. Barnett
Baltimore
Nix TV Ads
William Pfaff's Nov. 7 column, "Americans Don't Have to Put Up with This," is timely and crucial.
The elimination of paid political advertising on television and radio is the short direct answer to everything that is wrong with Americans elections.
Not only would we see the end of plain lies and pit bull attacks on personal character on television, where they do the most damage, but we would also eliminate the major reason why candidates for public office have to raise so much money. No other idea goes so far to eliminate the money cancer at the viscera of American politics.
There is one thing that Mr. Pfaff has overlooked.
There is no way that the legal hired guns and the federal courts will ever let stand a simple statute that bans political advertising from TV and radio. The Supreme Court sees even modest attempts to control campaign spending as hideous in infringements on the freedom of speech of the rich.
The only way to protect such a ban from the lawyers is to enshrine it in the Constitution of the United States.
Hal Riedl
Baltimore
Include All
As an American who has been living overseas for nine years and teaching at international schools, I was alarmed by the article, "Board tackles religious holiday issue" (Nov. 11).
International schools are attended by children from all over the world, and the schools use this opportunity to help children to understand and to appreciate different cultures and religions.
At the elementary level, where I taught, the Muslim holiday Festival of Lights, Christmas, Hanukkah and Chinese New Year are all celebrated. Parents are encouraged to come in and share holiday foods with the class, and children are proud to show off their special holiday clothes.
Rather than feeling left out, all of the children help each other to celebrate. Children then grow up to appreciate differences and to be tolerant and understanding.
If all religious holidays are banned from school, children will regard the unfamiliar as strange and different. Rather than excluding all religious holidays, to foster understand and tolerance, let's try including all.
Leslie Jordan
Lutherville
Inconsistent
I am writing regarding your coverage of the Susan Smith murder confession (Nov. 5).
I find it interesting that The Sun would devote front page coverage to a story about a woman who allegedly killed her children because they got in the way of her romantic desires.
Each year, hundreds of mothers choose to kill their children for reasons not unlike Susan Smith's with the blessing of the State of Maryland and the U.S. Supreme Court. Why do not those stories make the front page, or any page?
I hope those who join the jeering crowds in condemnation of Susan Smith do not include the two-thirds of Maryland voters who gave their consent to the most liberal abortion law in the nation two years ago.
If the "pro-choice" crowd, which includes the mainstream media, condemns Mrs. Smith, they will once again demonstrate the inconsistency of their philosophy.
Joel R. Landskroener
Baltimore
Casinos Have Been Good for Tunica
I was surprised to read in your newspaper that the gaming industry in Mississippi has "yielded few jobs" (Nov. 6). The article is misleading and fails to portray an accurate assessment of the economic impact gaming has had in my state and my home county of Tunica, Miss.
In January of 1992, unemployment in Tunica County was 23.6 percent. By using the yearly unemployment average for our county (13.7 percent) you are misleading your readers.
The advent of the county's first casino, which opened in October, 1992, brought unemployment down dramatically. This trend still continues with an unemployment rate of about 8 percent today.
Your article also takes an unfair swipe at the jobs casinos are creating and makes an issue of the fact that out-of-state workers are filling some of these jobs.
True, some workers are from other states, but they are in turn spending money in Tunica County -- on rent, meals, entertainment and even high ticket items like automobiles. As this money is spent, more jobs are created.
Service industry employment for Tunica County residents increased 435 percent from 1990 to 1993.
Casinos are indirectly creating numerous jobs in every county where they are operating. As your article correctly points out, Mississippi's statewide unemployment in 1992, the first year casinos began operation, was 8.1 percent. The rate today is 6.5 percent with over 17,000 jobs directly related to the gaming industry in just two years.
The gaming industry deserves a good deal of credit for this growth. Legalized gaming has been good for Tunica County and Mississippi. New businesses are opening in the county, our local bank is building a new branch to accommodate new customers and plans are under way to construct more housing and hotels.
Legalized gaming has brought hope -- and jobs -- to Tunica County. We have been transformed from one of the poorest counties in the nation to one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in the South.
Webster Franklin
Tunica, Miss.
The writer is executive director, Tunica County Chamber of Commerce.