Best seller?
When O. J. Simpson's book, "I Want To Tell You," makes the best seller list, I wonder if it will be listed as fiction or non-fiction.
atrick Dempsey
Ocean City
Sentence guidelines
Maryland ranks seventh highest in the nation for violent crime and sixth for murder. It is time to strengthen, not weaken, sentences for violent criminals.
Unfortunately, the Maryland Sentencing Guidelines Advisory Board (MSGAB) thinks otherwise.
When Circuit Judge Robert E. Cahill recently sentenced a man to 18 months for killing his wife, saying he was reluctant to give prison time, outrage swept through Maryland and the nation.
The message to criminals was: Crime pays! The message to victims: You have no right to justice.
The MSGAB reinforced these messages with recent revised sentencing guidelines. Judge Cahill's slap-on-the-wrist-style sentencing is now to be the rule, not the exception, in Maryland.
Virginia took a different approach to violent criminals. Gov. George Allen, supported by the National Rifle Association's CrimeStrike, has abolished parole and increased prison building.
Not surprisingly, Virginia ranks only 36th in the nation in violent crime. Is there any doubt which state will be safer a year from now?
While MSGAB describes the guidelines as "descriptive" rather than "prescriptive," what they describe is a horrifying picture of a collapsed justice system in Maryland.
Under the old guidelines, a criminal convicted of first degree rape could face 10 to 18 years; under the new guidelines, he'll face only 1 to 10 years -- a shocking decrease.
The message from the November election was that Marylanders want meaningful steps taken to rid their streets of violent criminals -- not guidelines that spin the revolving door of prisons even faster, returning rapists to the streets in record time.
Gov. Parris Glendening and the Maryland legislature should heed voters' wishes and regain control of an out of control criminal justice system.
We need crime control -- not gun control.
Robert L. Totten
Severn
Cableless public
Lost within the many recent comments concerning federal funding for the Public Broadcasting System that have appeared in The Evening Sun is the one issue that should be at the forefront of any such discussion: economics.
All of the conservative pundits who so glibly pronounce that public television is no longer necessary because other cable stations currently offer the same programming are blind to the fact that some individuals either choose not to pay the exorbitant cable rates or -- could it really be? -- not afford them.
The elimination of public television would result in the cultural disenfranchisement of these individuals, I being one.
In effect, those that need the programming of PBS the most would be denied the education that it provides, while George Will, Cal Thomas and others of their ilk would have access to several stations offering educational programming.
The irony in this situation is twofold.
First, the same social conservatives who staunchly oppose the immorality that is portrayed by commercial television are striving to eliminate the only commercial television programming that actually attempts to improve the minds of America, leaving "Married With Children," "Roseanne" and other shows that they feel negatively portray the American family.
Second, it is blatant elitism from those same social conservatives who denounce the "cultural elite," seeking to keep knowledge, and therefore power, in the hands of those that are educated and can afford to pay for such programming.
Matthew Blair
Baltimore
Fells Point suffers from plague of bars
Your articles on open-air bars proposed for Fells Point really hit home. I have been a property owner and resident of Fells Point for 16 years, and the situation is definitely deteriorating.
I live just two blocks from two of the proposed open-air bars. In the past year alone we have had six windows punched in within a block.
Cars on my block have been vandalized, with broken and bent RTC antennas and wiper blades, and scratches from sharp objects.
Early last spring I put a beautiful planter in front of my home. Six times the shrub was pulled out and dragged down the street. Three times it was overturned with dirt, plants and flowers all over the sidewalk. Finally I had enough and moved it into my yard.
The antique store two doors away had its planter overturned recently, and another store down the street had its stone planter broken in half.
Regularly I pick up beer bottles or sweep up broken ones, and clean up pizza and sandwich wrappings from my steps and sidewalk.
And the noise is just crazy. Drunks love to scream and yell. I have had to get a prescription to help me sleep through the noise, mostly between 1:30 a.m to 2:30 a.m. as the bars close.
One of the major problems with my block is that Belts Wharf owns a great deal of unfenced paved property next to the parking lot which is supposed to be for the marina in the 1900-2000 block of Aliceanna St.
On weekends mostly, many people park there and walk up to the bars on Broadway. When returning, that deadly mixture of testosterone and alcohol brings out primal urges to destroy in the suburban yuppies who plaque us.
I believe police do what they can, but it isn't working. Once I called 911 because a loud group would not disperse. When the policeman arrived, he said, "What do you expect? This is Fells Point."
Why don't I sell the home that I have painstakingly and lovingly renovated over these past 16 years?
Fells Point has many wonderful qualities. It is steeped in charm and history and retains that rare mixture of working waterfront and historic homes which many of us who choose to remain find more attractive.
But if things continue to get worse, hard decisions will have to be made. And the addition of giant open-air bars just two blocks away will be much worse.
I hope others not so directly affected by this terrible bar expansion will support the efforts to thwart the addition of these drinking wells,which have neither the aesthetic nor the betterment qualities that our neighborhood deserves.
Thomas L. Ditty III
Fells Point
Debt crisis
Recently we witnessed the U.S. House of Representatives pass a balanced budget amendment and send it to the Senate. The debate over tax increases, spending cuts and new program spending has put some false information out there.
The first one comes up every time the government wants to spend on a new program. You have heard it before: "We are the richest nation in the world."
This is not true. If you total all of the U.S. government's assets and subtract its liabilities (one is a $5 trillion national debt), you will find that we have nothing. Being in more debt than anyone else does not make you the richest.
What is happening in Mexico should be a warning for us. Canada will be the next to go. Canada's national debt per family is twice ours.
If we continue down this road, we will be in crisis like Mexico, except there will be no one to bail us out. This will bring down not only the U.S., but also other countries whose economies depend on ours.
It would then make no difference how much money you had for retirement or had saved. The dollar would only be good for recycling paper.
The second piece of false information is, "America has the right to know what is going to be cut before we have a balanced budget amendment."
So what are we saying? We really don't need a balanced budget amendment? If the cuts aren't what we like, then there really isn't a need for a balanced budget amendment?
What would be cut is irrelevant. Over the years, Americans have lived with budgets. We have all had circumstances that forced us to cut back. We had no choice.
Maryland's senators, Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes, are faced with a great opportunity. For years both have talked of bipartisanship and doing what is right for the country. This is the issue for them to prove they mean it.
If they vote against this amendment, they are more loyal to party than country. If they vote for it, they will prove they are really looking out for our nation and our future.
In a recent poll that I saw, 89 percent of Americans want a balanced budget amendment. Most understand the need for our federal government to get its financial house in order.
Can those to whom we gave the privilege of serving us understand? Never has there been a greater threat to the well-being of America.
Jeff Zenger
Baltimore