Our Daily Bread should resist the quest for 'gated downtown'
It is not surprising to learn that the Baltimore business community, guided by the Downtown Partnership, wants Our Daily Bread's soup kitchen moved from its location adjacent to the Basilica of the Assumption.
Increasingly, poor people are not welcome in Baltimore. Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III tells us that public housing is not for the poorest of the poor. City Councilman Martin O'Malley presses hard for zero-tolerance laws, a smoke-screen for locking up the poor and ridding the downtown of people who don't fit in. And soon will come community court, where the indigent will be forced to plead guilty or rot in jail until trial.
Everything is centered on so-called development. Each day we learn of yet another restaurant or chain attraction opening for our tourists' pleasure. This, we are told, is Baltimore.
If it were possible, the Downtown Partnership would build a wall around downtown attractions -- a gated downtown.
Cardinal William H. Keeler, Catholic Charities and all those associated with Our Daily Bread should not buckle to the Downtown Partnership. They should resist. And they should call upon all the religious communities to stand with them.
What happens daily at Our Daily Bread kitchen is as important as the Eucharist celebrated daily at the Basilica.
Each person who sits at the soup kitchen table is nothing less than God in the stranger's guise. The poor person is a visible sign of what greed and the lust for power is doing to all of us in Baltimore.
Brendan Walsh
Baltimore
Don't ignore the terrorism to Palestinians in the past
I write in response to the letter "Israelis move slowly because of painful past" and the article "Sowing Seeds of Anger," by Sam Husseini, both May 31. The letter states that "the core of the Palestinian problem has been sadly overlooked." It goes on to lament cowardly acts of violence committed by the Arab terrorists.
The writer seems oblivious to the terrorism committed by the Haganah, the Stern Gang and the activities of the Irgun Zvai Leumi. After all, the Jews, without justification, usurped Palestinian lands and dwellings.
The U.S. government, overly influenced by the wealthy and the Israeli lobby, seems to overlook the fact that the Palestine Liberation Organization is struggling against great odds to regain property that was taken from them illegally. The Balfour Declaration (of 1917) stipulated that the civil and religious rights of the existing Palestinians should not be prejudiced.
Charles C. Worthington
Royal Oak
Forgive poor nations of debt that stifles their economies
More than two weeks have passed since President Clinton attended the Group of Eight summit in England. The Sun and most of the world's media gave little coverage to a major news story: 70,000 people gathered in England to attempt to persuade G-8 leaders to cancel the immense debt owed by the world's most impoverished countries.
Many African, Latin American and Asian countries carry so much debt that economic development is stifled and scarce resources are diverted from health care, education and other needed programs to make debt-service payments.
The biblical tradition calls for a "Jubilee" year, when slaves are set free and debts canceled. There is a worldwide movement (Jubilee 2000) to advocate this cause. Jubilee 2000/USA calls for a debt cancellation process:
In situations where countries burdened with high levels of human need and environmental distress are unable to meet the basic needs of their people.
To benefit ordinary people and facilitate their national and local economies.
That is not conditioned on policy reforms that perpetuate or deepen poverty or environmental degradation.
That acknowledges responsibility by lenders and borrowers and action to recover resources diverted to corrupt regimes, institutions and individuals.
That monitors international monetary flows and prevents recurring destructive cycles of indebtedness.
Edward Sommerfeldt
Baltimore
Warning labels on cigars would not stop teen-agers
In your recent article "Cigar threat gets notice" (May 27), Alec Klein points out that Surgeon General David Satcher is "especially worried about the rise in smoking among children." With the article's main thrust on the possibility of warning labels on cigars, I found myself wondering what warning labels would do to deter teen-agers from smoking cigars.
Is the government truly that oblivious to children that they believe warning labels could deter cigar or even cigarette smoking? Does Dr. Satcher want to wash his hands of the issue so much that he feels it necessary to try to tell the American public that warning labels would deter teen-age cigar smoking?
Not only would teen-agers not think twice about possible future health effects of cigar smoking, one must also remember that the government cannot replace parenting. I can understand the theory behind warning labels but not the theory that warning labels could assist in lowering the number of cigar-smoking children.
The federal government cannot micromanage every one of its citizens' lives.
Cigar smoking, whether by children or adults, pales in comparison to other issues such as Iraq, the federal budget and health care.
Paul Pineau
Glyndon
Baltimoreans can learn about city, history from tour
In reference to your recent editorial ("Beyond the Inner Harbor," May 25), you make a good point that there is much more to Baltimore than the Inner Harbor. Unfortunately, it is not only the tourists but also local Baltimoreans who are timid about exploring this wonderful city. Fortunately, there is a way to learn more about the city that many may not know about. It's called Harbor City Tours.
I was born in Baltimore, grew up in the city, then moved to the county for 25 years. Now, I'm back living in town and realized how little I really knew about Baltimore other than my weekly trips to the Inner Harbor. A friend told me about a local woman who gives narrated tours of Baltimore.
We went to Fells Point and Little Italy, then up Charles Street to Mount Vernon, all the while learning about the city's rich culture and heritage. Then off to Oriole Park for a close-up look at the stadium.
Next, I was reminded that years ago I could have bought a home in Otterbein for a dollar that now sells for several hundred thousand dollars. And the best part for me was that the tour was given by a local who obviously loves this city.
Carol S. Palmer
Baltimore
Guns-as-deterrent proposal was a piece of foolishness
The letter ("More guns are a deterrent to mass shootings in schools," May 31) was the most irresponsible piece of pro-gun foolishness I have heard in a while.
The statement, "People who engage in mass public shootings would be deterred by the possibility that law-abiding citizens may be carrying guns," has the same absurd thinking as Archie Bunker's plan to prevent airline hijackings by issuing a gun to every passenger boarding a plane.
H. W. Spalter
Pasadena
Don't blame gun owners for teen-age shootings
On May 30, two letter writers used your paper as a forum to attack gun owners.
One solution to the crime problem is to retain an attorney and sue gun owners. Do we sue responsible owners who have their weapons in secured areas only to have them found and removed by relatives, friends and criminals?
The other letter suggested that our legislators consider restricting knives and other sharp instruments. Knives are available to anyone in the United States, and these instruments of death are much easier to conceal than a handgun.
In memory of those injured and killed by blunt instruments, a memorial would be a ban on bats, hammers and rocks.
Barry R. Cohen
Randallstown
Parents must take the lead controlling their children
Cal Thomas says "Parents should have control over where their children are educated." ("Children shooting children a bad sign," May 27).
Yes, indeed. The education he's complaining about is being done at home, before the television set, where guns are prevalent.
Some 80 years ago, knives were available in every kitchen with overbearing parents asleep. I can't remember a child using them.
Martin Fass
Baltimore
Pub Date: 6/04/98