This Is Justice?
Reading Lyle Denniston's Dec. 29 story, "No immunity for president, but trial delay," I wished I had paid more attention in civics classes.
Up until this point, I had no idea there were footnotes to the Supreme Court dictum, "Justice delayed is justice denied."
Frederic Holland
Millville, Del.
Blue Plastic Waste
I have been piling recyclables in my basement and hauling them to recycling centers for as long as there were places to take them.
Combined with composting most bio-degradable waste, and mulching grass and leaves, this means that we put out one small can of garbage every other week.
You could say that we were pretty dedicated to recycling to keep it up during the long years before we got curbside recycling.
So why am I mad, now that we finally have curbside pickup in Catonsville? Blue plastic bags.
Some moron, or someone with stock in the plastic bag industry, decided that bottles and cans should be tied in blue plastic bags for pickup.
I asked about this at a meeting, where a woman treated us like school kids and carefully told us nothing that wasn't in the pamphlet I'd already read.
She was unable to answer any question that diverged from the details of the instructions therein.
Apparently, the haulers will not take away my bottles and cans if they are not in a blue plastic bag, even if I put them in a blue bin clearly marked "Recycled Bottles & Cans."
This is totally counter to the whole point of recycling. We are supposed to be reducing the amount of solid waste and reducing the need to extract more resources from the planet.
Why is the county creating this artificial need for blue plastic bags?
It's bad enough the grocery cashiers are always trying to use them to line the cloth grocery bags that I bring to avoid needing any disposable bag.
Counties around us with recycling programs accept bottles and cans in bins and dump them into larger bins, and there is no problem if they break.
I'm not asking the government to buy me a plastic bin. I have had them for years.
If someone cannot afford to buy a bin, I guess they should have the option of using bags. At least they would be recycling, which they might not do otherwise.
I just don't want any more plastic bags myself. Plastic bags are only marginally recyclable under the best conditions, and these will not be useful, because they will have been contaminated by food from the bottles and cans.
I will try putting my bottles and cans out in a bin, and if the haulers will not take them, then I guess I'm doomed to continue my regular trips to the Western Acceptance Facility until Baltimore County can finally do recycling right.
Carl Aron
Catonsville
Welcome Neighbors
The Sun recently quoted Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who said that all of us resent having poor people move into our neighborhoods.
I am going to broaden Representative Ehrlich's experience. I am his constituent and I welcome new neighbors who have not enjoyed the opportunities I have been dealt, but who nonetheless strive to pull themselves and their children out of poverty.
I strongly suggest to Representative Ehrlich that his public statements accommodate the likely existence of diverse views within his constituency. Otherwise, he may be perceived as not only inexperienced, but closed-minded and arrogant.
Robert Bloksberg-Fireovid
owson
Confusing Names
There seems to be continuing confusion concerning the sale of bulletproof vests in this area and just who is selling them.
Robert Abrams of Second Chance Security is not Robert Lee Abrams, manager of Valley Gun and Valley Police Supply. They are two separate and distinct people.
Our company has been receiving a considerable number of phone calls confusing these two men. Likewise, Second Chance Security is not a part of our business. We would like to clarify this situation so that no confusion will exist.
Valley Gun & Valley Police Supply sells bulletproof vests only to sworn law enforcement officers, security guards and local business owners who can demonstrate a need for the purchase.
We do not sell vests by mail order, nor do we sell them to the general public. They are fitted to the purchaser in our store, much the same way as a suit of clothes.
We are extremely careful regarding the sale of vests and all other police-related equipment.
We would not allow anyone to purchase police equipment for illegal use, as we are a responsible member of the business community.
Melvin J. Abrams
Baltimore
The writer is president, Valley Gun & Valley Police Supply.
There are Two Sides to International Adoption
Without denying the great joy of adopting any child in need of a family, I would note there are two sides to the inter-country adoption coin: the side of the countries with available children (the "suppliers") and the West's.
For the most part, the West views the adoption of foreign-born children as charitable, humane, perhaps even noble.
What could be more humane, we reason, than to adopt seemingly unwanted, even discarded, children, removing them from lives of misery and poverty to an environment in which material comfort and social opportunity abound?
The desires of (sometimes childless) couples/individuals to be parents are fulfilled, and the adopted children are given unprecedented opportunities. A win-win.
From my experience, the supplying countries seem to have quite a different view. In their eyes, by and large, we are self-serving, exploitative and imperialistic importers of a precious commodity, their children.
Since the mid-1950s, supplying countries have offered a relatively easy solution to the problem of childlessness in the West.
However, recent developments in Korea, Romania, several Latin-American countries and now Russia suggest that even though Americans (and other Westerners) continue to adopt their children, we probably will not see a return to the 1960s when some 10,000 foreign-born children were adopted each year by U.S. families.
Since 1990, fewer and fewer children are becoming available for inter-country adoption. In practically each case, nationalism explains the change. With the break-up of the former Soviet Union, a resurgent nationalism in the former republics does not augur well at all for inter-country adoption.
Additionally, in many instances, legal termination of parental rights may not have been achieved for these children, either by voluntary consent by both birth parents (a new Immigration and Naturalization Service requirement and stipulated in Russia's proposed law) or granted by local courts.
An alternative to inter-country adoption for many American couples could be to look within the United States, the thousands of children available for adoption.
True, a percentage of these children are in some way handicapped, but then a number of the foreign born children also are handicapped. Most are products of malignant environments and foster-care stagnation. Many are non-white.
What most of these U.S.-born children need to develop into healthy adults are loving families willing to share their lives with them -- not as is currently being suggested, a reconsideration of returning to some contemporary design of the orphanage.
Speedier adoption of these children would be achieved if states approved the new Uniform Adoption Act, and adoption agencies re-examined some of their policies that tend to stifle permanent placement.
Howard Altstein
Baltimore
The writer is a University of Maryland at Baltimore professor who has studied adoption.