Father Tom
I have read the article (Dec. 4) dealing with the St. Francis Center on Whitelock St. and its director, Father Thomas Composto.
My work with juvenile corrections institutions in Baltimore and throughout Maryland leads me to believe that the youths of our city need more people who care for them like Father Tom.
His passion for serving the lowest of the low in our midst is unremitting. He is indefatigable in his efforts to remain among those who represent Christ to him. His determination, born from his love of the poor, is indomitable.
But above all, his sense of humorous self-effacement reminds me of a modern-day St. Francis of Assisi.
Indeed, his Italian-American heritage places him more in the effusive, yet self-deprecating line of saints from the Mediterranean world. An example is New York's Mother Cabrini, who ministered to the poor immigrants of the last century.
Father Tom does not wait around for handouts. He makes things happen for his parishioners, even if that means waiting on tables to earn money to keep the center open.
While most of us give of our overflow, few of us give of our substance. No so with Father Tom. He has dedicated his entire life to finding solutions to the problems of alienation of Baltimore inner city residents.
The personal stories of the numerous individuals whose lives have been changed by his presence are vivid testimony to the tangible result of his efforts on their behalf.
His path is a personal outreach to the majority of community residents who are law-abiding individuals as well as to the street gangs and drug dealers.
I feel that your article will stimulate like-minded individuals to come forth and assist Father Tom in his noble efforts, financially as well as personally.
Peter J. Esseff
Dayton
Crying the Blues
Oh, the perfidy of the Blues! ("Doctors angry over Blue Cross plan to slash their fees as much as 25%," Dec. 2). The non-government insurers were to be the protectors of doctor's incomes.
For several years, those of us physicians who have said we should look at single-payer systems (read "government control") have been told that we were naive, that "at least the companies will negotiate with us."
Well, the negotiations seem to be "take-it-or-leave-us." The government would at least allow us access to our legislators and some ability to influence a decision.
Who has been naive?
Until we can eliminate the artificial layer between patient and provider, I would as soon trust government as the private sector to manage the money collected from consumers. The governor doesn't make a $1 million "salary."
Davis S. Davis, M.D.
Severna Park
Save a Bundle
Your prescription in the Dec. 4 editorial for keeping the Maryland Transportation Trust Fund solvent in future years is right on target, yet could go even further.
Privatization has been shown to cut costs of transportation services by an average of 20 to 30 percent in cities across the nation.
Denver, Los Angeles, Fairfax County, Va., and many other major metropolitan areas throughout the nation have experienced dramatic cost efficiencies by outsourcing some of their bus routes, and at the same time service levels on those routes have risen.
The Baltimore Mass Transit Administration as well as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority could cut costs and offer more service through effective privatization of selected bus routes.
Maryland's new governor can help assure that the gasoline tax stays where it is by allowing the power of private enterprise to keep costs low and provide high quality transit service.
In addition Maryland could also effect real savings in its human service transportation programs through better coordination.
Area agencies on aging, adult day care programs, medical assistance, general transportation and other publicly subsidized programs could save a bundle on administrative and capital costs by pooling their resources and coordinating their transportation services wherever possible.
Simple steps such as these have been rejected in the past because of turf battles between agencies and government employees' fear of loss of control of their programs.
Yet these fears can be put to rest by effective management of selective privatization and careful controls in coordinating agreements.
Outsourcing and coordination of transportation routes are saving millions of dollars throughout the country and in many cases providing superior service.
TC They deserve consideration as Maryland debates the future of its transportation policy.
Paul Comfort
Sudlersville
Smoke Screen
Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's allegations of racism in the Republican efforts to ascertain who really is the choice of the Maryland electorate runs true to form. It is his routine smoke screen for any actions to which he does not agree.
A measly 6,000 votes have placed three counties in control of electing our highest state official.
One would assume that as another elected official, the mayor would laud the efforts to correct any voting irregularities. Instead, he trots out his usual biased opinion and arrives at his usual conclusion: Racism.
Beryl Wiley
Cambridge
Dirty Pool
Peter Jensen's article on auto emissions (Nov. 27) omits any mention about truck and bus emissions. Do they have a lobbyist who got an exemption?
One only needs to get "locked in" behind one of these behemoths to watch as well as to inhale their black fumes, which still do add to the poor air quality and the discomfort/health hazard to those having respiratory problems.
The Mass Transit Administration, other bus lines and trucking firms should not be excluded from such an effort to give us clean air in Maryland.
Jay Cherry
Baltimore
Language Teaching
Having read about the interest in language arts instruction, test data and the effectiveness of whole language in several Baltimore County schools, I feel compelled to comment.
I am a firm believer in the value of whole language as a way of engaging children in reading, creating lifelong readers, and teaching students effective strategies to understand text and decipher words.
I also believe that phonics and whole language are not incompatible, and therein lies the key for those who are frustrated with the perceived failure of the whole language approach.
According to "Becoming a Nation of Readers," a national report issued in 1985 by the Commission on Reading, phonics instruction is necessary and should occur in short segments. It should be completed by the end of the second grade and should be a step toward rapid word identification.
As an assistant principal and a firm believer in the value of whole language, I am helping the teachers in my school move in that direction.
In the first and second grades, our boys and girls will continue to receive systematic instruction in phonics.
It is the way in which phonics will be taught that differs from a traditional approach and maintains the spirit of whole language.
Phonics will be embedded in literature. For example, rather than being taught the sound of long "a" by using words out of context, children in a whole language class will listen to a piece of literature with the long "a" sound is present in a number of words.
The teachers will then call attention to those words and the class will study them and the sound. Thus there is a reason for phonics.
Children soon realize that the study of the sound of the letter is related to words and text that they know. Also, children will experience the sound/symbol relationship (phonics) as one way to help them decipher words.
Concurrent with this, teachers will teach sight vocabulary, structural analysis and word configuration as well as comprehensive strategies.
Whole language instruction is worthwhile. It is used internationally as the most effective tool for reading and language instruction. It should not be abandoned because one aspect of reading is perceived to be lacking.
Rather, I urge educators to keep the framework and modify the instruction to include a phonics program consistent with the principles of whole language.
Betty H. Kansler
Baltimore
The writer is assistant principal of Hamilton Elementary Middle School in Baltimore City.