Moving Experiences
This year my wife and I decided that we'd had enough of the traffic jam and parking hassle before and after the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concerts at the Meyerhoff Hall. So we have taken to riding the light rail from Lutherville.
What a delight it has been.
We get off at the Cultural Center station, about 200 feet from the hall, and afterward wait only briefly for the next train back.
We watch the benighted crowds struggling with the jam-up of cars and wonder why they haven't made the same sensible choice.
Incidentally, the number of light-rail concert goers has increased with each concert.
On the most recent occasion there was also a performance at the Lyric Opera House.
At the Mt. Royal Avenue station, several dozen more from the Lyric joined the group from the Meyerhoff for the trek home, nearly filling the train.
Perhaps Baltimore suburbanites are finally realizing that the light rail is a blessing -- the most comfortable and civilized route to and from downtown.
Gwinn Owens
Ruxton
Paying Selective Taxes
In his Feb. 2 letter, Michael J. Hurd urges Republicans to end government funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on the principle that no one should have to pay for programs or ideas that he or she doesn't agree with.
Sounds fair to me.
I'll gladly grant Mr. Hurd the right to keep his share of the federal subsidy for CPB (about $1.60), if I can apply the same principle to my own tax bill.
Hmm, here are some ineffective, multibillion-dollar weapons systems I don't wish to pay for. Very well, I won't.
Let's see . . . here's a shady, destabilizing Central Intelligence Agency operation I want no part of. They won't get a penny from me.
Then there's House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Jesse Helms and all the other lawmakers whose policies I deplore. Let those who support their views pay their salaries, not me.
Hey, if the Republicans can give me the power to choose how my tax money is spent, maybe I can support them after all.
Jonathan Jensen
Baltimore
Michael Hurd doesn't want his taxes to pay for programs in which he has no interest like "Barney" and "Sesame Street." No one should be forced to pay for programs in which he has no interest.
I have no children in public school, but my taxes support public schools.
I use the libraries, but many people who pay taxes never go to a library. There are thousands of miles of public highways built with public funds on which I never drive. I can choose to go or not to go to public beaches maintained by public funds. Nobody asked me if I want those beaches.
Tax funds are spent on research of all kinds which may or may not benefit me. Nobody asked me if I want my taxes spent that way, but I believe some taxes should be spent on research. It may never benefit me directly, but may benefit us all indirectly.
Many people in this country would prefer their taxes not be used for weapons and warfare, but our elected representatives speak for us, whether we like it or not.
The air waves are supposed to belong to all of us. I resent commercials intensely and seldom watch commercial TV or listen to commercial radio. Some small portion of the airwaves should be reserved for non-commercial programs.
Martha H. Winslow
Ellicott City
Challenging Puzzle
One only has to walk through a Baltimore County Library or local book store to observe the kind of trash people are reading these days. Thus, I was not surprised to see your revamped Perspective section.
To my dismay, the London Times crossword puzzle had disappeared. Unlike the other puzzles, that one is a real intellectual challenge that many of us look forward to each week. Is it too much to ask to have one little corner of your newspaper devoted to something beyond the sixth grade level?
Come on -- bring it back.
David B. Smith
Baltimore
Minimum Wage
A Jan. 25 article on the minimum wage implies that the link between higher minimum wages and job loss has been seriously questioned by recent research. This is simply not the case.
You cite one study claiming to show that higher minimum wages result in little job loss. That report was a narrowly-focused examination of a few leading players in a single industry (fast food) which, predictably, showed little job loss in the first few months following a minimum wage increase.
This "evidence" is hardly enough to suggest that a minimum wage hike would have few negative effects in any sector of the entire economy.
In fact, the overwhelming weight of current evidence proves that raising the minimum wage is poor public policy.
In a nationwide poll conducted at the University of New Hampshire, 77 percent of America's economists said that minimum wage hikes cause job loss. Unfortunately for entry-level workers, those aren't the economists advising the Clinton administration.
But now there are more important reasons for avoiding minimum wage hikes.
When Dr. Kevin Lang of Boston University studied recent increases, he found that low-skilled adults were often crowded out of the job market by teens and part-time students following a minimum wage hike.
And Peter Brandon of the University of Wisconsin has just reported that higher minimum wages result in lower work force participation among welfare mothers.
This is because low-skilled workers have a much more difficult time competing for entry-level jobs after a minimum wage hike attracts higher-skilled people to enter the labor market.
This new evidence suggests President Clinton's proposal to raise the minimum wage actually undercuts his own goal of "ending welfare as we know it."
Thomas K. Dilworth
Washington, D.C.
The writer is a policy analyst at the Employment Policies Institute Foundation.
More Equitable
In most foreign lands the postage rates are higher than in the United States. Therefore, I am willing to pay 32 cents to mail a first-class letter.
However, it would be fairer and more equitable if the cost of junk mail were increased.
Joseph Lerner
Baltimore
Deep Misogyny
Ishmael Reed (Perspective, Jan. 29) appears to think that he has found the root cause of our society's racism against the black man: white feminists! (Racism against black women and other minorities doesn't seem to have been important enough to mention.)
His proof is laughably feeble. He claims the Clarence Thomas hearings and the O. J. Simpson trial have been targeted by and blown out of proportion by white feminists, who turn around and let white men get away with the same sort of crimes.
This may come as a surprise to the feminists who have been fighting the white establishment all these years for equal rights for women.
I guess they didn't realize that as feminists they hold all the power in this country, at least according to what Mr. Reed implies.
Unfortunately, Mr. Reed's attacks are neither new nor singular. Since the 1980s, conservatives have routinely used feminists as scapegoats for many of society's problems, such as teenage pregnancy, the spread of AIDS, the breakdown of morality, etc.
They cannot prove these charges, in part because their attacks have nothing to do with rational discourse, but rather serve to promote their deep and abiding misogyny.
In fact, the backlash against feminists, in which Mr. Reed is a participant, is so virulent and prevalent that many women have come to believe all the lies and now vigorously disclaim feminism.
This is a shame, because the truth is this: To be a feminist is to believe that we are all human beings.
Where is the shame in that?
Kathleen Sullivan
Baltimore