Md. contract workers deserve the benefits fellow employees 0) get
I was glad to see the story about the state of Maryland hiring contract workers and not providing such benefits as health care and pension. This might make sense for short-term workers of six months or less, but it is grossly unfair.
These employees have worked side by side with permanent employees for years, performing the same work but receiving none of the benefits, which also include sick leave and vacations.
Your story highlighted the existence of a two-tier caste system on the government level. The state of Maryland should rethink the use of contract employees or at least give them benefits. It seems that the lack of health care and pension benefits would have future consequences with more people needing Medicaid and other government assistance.
Phyllis Sachs
Baltimore
Sauerbrey has abandoned ideas and loyal supporters
Craig Timberg's column regarding Ellen Sauerbrey's "headache" in putting together a statewide election slate fails to point out that the current deep division in the Republican ranks was caused by her recent abandonment of her principles and of personal loyalty to her lieutenants ("Sauerbrey bid for unified GOP hits resistance," July 14).
For some reason, probably fund-raising coupled with bad advice, she has done an about-face and alienated her core supporters. First, she drops her loyal and philosophically compatible 1994 running mate, Paul Rappaport, from the ticket. Second, she makes a transparent grab at the black vote she has no hope of getting by endorsing for comptroller Michael Steele, a man with no financial credentials.
In doing so, she has offended the many Republican supporters of the 1994 nominee, accountant Tim Mayberry, who has been traveling the state for five years with an articulate message of accountability in the comptroller's office.
Many question the propriety of Ms. Sauerbrey intervening in primaries.
Mr. Rappaport is correct to run a campaign independent of the Sauerbrey-Bennett-Steele cabal. They appear to be heading the same way as the Dole-Kemp disaster in 1996. With Mr. Rappaport and Mr. Mayberry energizing the forgotten base, who knows? They may provide Ms. Sauerbrey with reverse coattails, and she may win in spite of her ill-advised actions.
Daniel E. Earnshaw
Havre de Grace
United Nations not giving Israel its rightful place
It is most ironic that the overwhelming number of member states of the United Nations are tripping over each other to upgrade the Palestine Liberation Organization's status when Israel is the only long-standing member state that is not a member of any regional group.
As a result, Israel is barred from sitting on important U.N. committees such as the Security Council because membership on those bodies is provided only to representatives of the regional groups. While Israel logically belongs in the Asia group, the Arab states block its membership there.
Furthermore, the Palestinians' effort to upgrade their U.N. standing was an attempt to predetermine their international status and a distinct violation of their agreements with Israel. Israel and the PLO signed an interim peace deal in 1993 that left Palestinian statehood and other controversial topics to be resolved in "final status" talks. The U.N. should not be meddling in this matter until it is settled between the two parties.
Efforts must be undertaken to ensure and promote Israel's full and equal participation.
Ronald B. Weitzman
Baltimore
Assateague Island project will not hurt piping plover
I am writing in response to the letter "Protect the piping plover from growth on Assateague" (July 12).
The letter contains erroneous statements that create a false impression of the activities that will occur on the island later this summer.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, requested by the National Park Service to repair last winter's storm damage, has been exhaustively planned to fully protect the piping plovers using northern Assateague Island.
No work will begin until the plovers finish their reproductive season. Based upon progress thus far (as documented by intensive monitoring), it appears that breeding will conclude by mid-to-late August, at which point the project will be given the go-ahead to proceed.
At no time was the well-being of the plovers in jeopardy. Also, the emergency project will not "create a 10-foot berm for development" as stated, but rather restore the island to its pre-storm elevation and condition.
Up to five 5 of sand was lost during the storms, creating a real concern that any future storm might split the island in two. The repairs are intended to tide the island over and lessen the risk of future damage until a planned restoration program can be initiated.
It is unfortunate that despite a well-publicized decision-making process, misunderstandings about the Assateague project persist.
Marc A. Koenings
Berlin
The writer is superintendent of the National Park Service's Assateague Island National Seashore.
Mental illness coverage gap is not just a printing error
You ran a brief article stating that Prudential HealthCare's latest brochure erroneously stated that "it would no longer cover treatments for cancer or accident-related injuries" ("Prudential coverage won't exclude cancer, accidents," July 3).
"Embarrassed" Prudential officials blamed it on a printing error.
Even more embarrassing is the fact that many insurers intentionally do not cover treatments for brain-based psychiatric illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. These have been proven to be treatable medical illness caused by abnormalities in the brain.
It is no misprint that most other insur- ance companies severely limit coverage for these illnesses, often by adding red tape, limiting yearly maximums and requiring 50 percent to 65 percent co-payments rather than the 10 to 20 percent co-pays for other medical problems.
Even Medicare uses a "psychiatric limitation" to increase the cost to beneficiaries of treating these medical illnesses. For example, a beneficiary with symptoms of depression caused by bipolar disorder will have to pay 50 percent out of pocket, while a beneficiary with the exact same symptoms but caused by hypothyroidism or a stroke will pay only 20 percent.
In 1998, is there a sound reason for this discrimination? If it is
clearly an "error" to exclude coverage for treatment of brain cancer, why is it not wrong to exclude coverage for other brain illnesses?
Dr. Steven R. Daviss
Reisterstown
Czar Nicholas II tolerant compared to Communists
Your Moscow correspondent, Will Englund, spoils his otherwise informative and interesting article with a terribly wrong historic declaration.
Writing in "Burial of czar's remains puts nothing to rest 80 years later" (June 25), Mr. Englund declares that Czar Nicholas II "was, after all, head of one of the most repressive regimes on Earth."
However, Czar Nicholas II let Trotsky, Lenin and the other revolutionaries go to Switzerland, the United States and France to plot for revolutions not only in Russia, but also in those host countries. The Communist regime, on the other hand, murdered, sent to labor death camps, or silenced all those that could have disagreed with it. Not only a Sakharov or a Solzhenitsyn, but ordinary peasants who worked hard and owned a couple of cows and horses.
Under Czar Nicholas II, my uncle, while a student at the Odessa Medical Institute, frequently spent his days on revolutionary barricades against the regime, and yet, he graduated and had no problems with the police.
Under Communism, on the other hand, my father spent his entire life either silent or lying about his background as an officer in the Imperial Army during World War I.
Ludmila A. Foster
Washington
The writer is executive director of the Congress of Russian-Americans.
Pub Date: 7/18/98