Holocaust study includes reasons why
Maybe I missed something in my reading of the article regarding the firing of Christina Jeffrey [newly appointed historian of the U.S. House of Representatives], so even at the risk of being castigated for my lack of perception, I must ask, what can be learned from a history lesson about events so searing to the human mind as the Holocaust, so repellent as ongoing anti-Semitism and racism, without looking at the ideology of the aberrant monstrosities that breed them?
As far as I could tell from your report, Dr. Jeffrey neither espoused nor advocated teaching the isms she cited.
Nine years ago, she rendered a professional, clinical observation that "the Nazi point of view, however unpopular, is still a point of view . . . as is that of the Ku Klux Klan," and implied they should
be examined as factors in the inhumanities they precipitated.
The Holocaust happened. It can't be undone. Hatred and intolerance of one group for another continue to fester and a scintilla of ignorance could cause a new holocaust any day. Witness the anti-abortionists' judgment that their violence and killing are justified.
It seems to me that understanding the mind-set that drives individuals, groups or nations to regard others as inferior and not worthy of life is the best way to avoid similar abominations in the future.
Joseph DeMarco
Baltimore
Punitive damage
If a consumer is injured by a product purchased, sues the manufacturer and wins the case, he or she is awarded compensatory damages. These are paid for any financial or physical loss, they are supposedly full compensation for such losses. This is just.
In many cases, however, there is a punitive damage assessment made by the court, to discipline the manufacturer for selling a faulty product.
If the litigant has received compensation for all damages suffered, he or she is entitled to no more. Any other payment is a profit.
The supposed purpose of "punitive damages" is to discipline the guilty, not to enrich the injured.
Punitive damages assessed by a court in any suit should be awarded to the political subdivision in which the suit takes place.
The change would reduce litigation, lead to out-of-court settlements, and help all citizens who eventually pay for increased product costs.
Charles D. Connelly
Baltimore
Academy news
I can see the dollar signs lighting up in the eyes of many University of Maryland administrators based on Jonathan Bor's piece on Robert Gallo, the "famed scientist" (Dec. 29).
Can you imagine the stature the University of Maryland system would attain if Dr. Gallo and his team were to come up with an AIDS cure while working for UM? Instant success and fame. The coffers filled to overflowing!
I recall a column by Morris Freedman entitled "Buying 'Stature' " dated Oct. 24, 1986. It was written in response to a Nobel prize-winner in economics being gobbled up by George Mason University.
I believe an analogy can be drawn even if the fame is derived under slightly different circumstances.
Professor Freedman wrote:
fTC "But universities which build their status on puffery, by slapping names onto facades, without sustaining solid teaching and research, may get their 15 minutes or so of Andy Warhol's fame but little else."
Another situation just reported in the Dec. 30 Sun has a similar pattern, the resignation of President William C. Richardson at the Johns Hopkins University.
Here, instead of trying to find someone to run this prestigious institution from within the ranks, it is assumed by The Sun and others that the university will spend a year searching from among those "up-and-comers" at slightly lesser schools who are just waiting to be handed a higher visibility job, or pull off a real coup and land a "name" candidate.
I would assume the reason is money. The bigger the name and more notable the personality, the better the chance of raising funds.
While The Sun can't find enough good things to say about Dr. Richardson in its editorial, it is interesting how money is never mentioned in the equation.
I wonder how many average residents of Baltimore or the surrounding community even know who Dr. Richardson is. Without his resignation, The Sun would probably have gone another year without commenting on the Hopkins.
It might possibly pop up in a feature section article if another report came out on food quality or boredom at the school, but The Sun spends its time wondering which method to select into order to teach Johnnie to read in a society flooded with more reading material than ever existed in the past. So much for education in Maryland.
R. D. Bush
Columbia
Keg law
I was initially supportive of the legislature's initiative to curb the problem of teen-age keg parties through a law requiring the purchaser's registration of kegs of beer. It was not until I recently purchased a keg that it became apparent to me that the law not only will not work, but that it puts a needless and expensive burden on the seller.
The law requires that the seller and purchaser enter some data onto a sticker attached to the keg. The intent is, should the keg end up supporting under-age drinking, to be able to trace the purchase and prosecute the buyer for illegally supplying alcohol.
But it does not work, and cannot be made to work.
The problem is that the labels can be removed. Simply grab two corners and pull slowly. Teen-agers and those who buy beer for them can figure that out.
Can the lables be made permanent? No. A kid with a rotary sander can remove any label, paper or engraved. Labeling the kegs won't work. And if the label can be removed, the keg becomes untraceable, just as before the law was passed.
There is also a hardship to the seller. Providing the required information takes time. Not much, but enough that the seller I visited was so fed up with the system that he was going to stop carrying kegs. (This won't deter under-age drinkers, either, for someone will always sell them beer).
When you're standing in line at the checkout counter, why wait for the buyer to enter name and address onto a label that does no good?
An ineffective, unnecessary and costly bureaucracy has been established. The law accomplishes nothing, imposes a hardship and should be repealed.
avid N. Blough
Ellicott City
Deadbeat Dads
Robin Miller's Other Voices column, "The Pain of a Deadbeat Dad" (Jan. 11), is absolutely correct. This state desperately needs a family court system, and Mr. Miller is a deadbeat dad.
I am not usually prone to assumption or speculation, but two sentences in his article lead me to believe that he fits perfectly Webster's definition of a deadbeat, "one who persistently fails to pay his debts or his way."
The first sentence, ". . . I decided not to pay the $540 because I may need it to hire a lawyer." The second, "I probably could have paid $20 or $30 a week in all but the worst times but . . . I decided to pay nothing," leads me to believe that Mr. Miller will grasp at even the weakest of reasoning to justify nonpayment, ergo his astronomical arrears of $8,500.
Using his logic, one who has a $135 utility bill but only $100 would not pay the $100 because it might be needed for candles and firewood should his utilities be cut off.
What dads like Mr. Miller need to do, for the sake of their children and themselves, is to pay whatever amount they can afford and document those payments.
When they find themselves in court, they should produce that documentation and offer clear and convincing evidence that it was all they could afford.
Our system of justice may not be perfect, but it allows you your day in court. It is up to the individual to use that day wisely.
dward D. Groff
Baltimore