Morality still matters, even during the heat of military combat
In response to your movie review on "Saving Private Ryan," is no one else troubled by the director's handling of the ethical questions in combat ("Grace under fire," July 24)?
Having seen Oliver Stone's "Born on the Fourth of July" last week also, I was struck by a common theme: War leaves no room for moral choices and actions. Steven Spielberg takes this point of view in portraying the last clearly justifiable war, as some have called World War II.
In order to make that point, Mr. Spielberg oversimplifies choices. He also reinforces a cultural disdain for physically slight males who think, talk and write too much. The translator is a simpering, ineffectual coward until he can bring himself to shoot a prisoner.
Once we can shoot prisoners in the "fog of war," we can more easily rationalize destroying villages and villagers to keep the enemy from controlling them. Thankfully, two brave soldiers with moral qualms at My Lai acted quickly at great risk to themselves to stop that massacre. Lt. Col. Frank Herbert also wrote a book on ethical fighting in Vietnam. Good soldiers not only can, but must, make moral choices in the heat of battle.
Of course, most of us would prefer to end war. But should one occur despite our best efforts, I trust individuals can learn to tell the difference between an armed combatant and an unarmed prisoner or civilian. That is not too fine a sensibility. To insist they neither can nor should make that distinction is very dangerous and downright irresponsible. It works for its shock value in an antiwar polemic. But what if our future enemies watch this movie and take no prisoners?
D. J. Lilly
Baltimore
Remember Czar Nicholas II and later victims of Soviets
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his wife's participation in the religious service for Czar Nicholas II and his family was really a historic step. Mr. Yeltsin's eulogy was particularly outstanding and statesmanlike.
The murders of Czar Nicholas, his family and others were horrible crimes, but basically a Russian matter. The tens of millions who were murdered using different methods in the Soviet Union, however, are not exclusively Russian matters. Nobody knows where their bones are. Those bones are everywhere in Russia and countries that were members of the Soviet Union.
What is known is that those Marxist-Leninist Bolsheviks mercilessly fought for their power. No Russian should be silent about those horrible crimes.
Alec Kecskes
Kensington
Legislators deserve kudos for pushing cleft coverage
The article "Maverick's mission dims GOP allegiance" (July 23) described U.S. Rep. Greg Ganske of Iowa showing a picture of an infant with a cleft lip and palate and explaining that too many health maintenance organizations (HMOs) dismiss treatment needed for clefting as "cosmetic" and unnecessary.
The same unfortunate situation was true in Maryland until this year when Maryland's State Advisory Council on Hereditary and Congenital Disorders proposed legislation that was sponsored by state Del. Dan K. Morhaim of Baltimore County and state Sen. Joan Carter Conway of Baltimore.
The legislation requires HMOs in Maryland to include benefits for expenses arising from orthodontics, oral surgery, audiological and speech/language treatment involved in the management of cleft lip and/or cleft palate. Gov. Parris N. Glendening signed this legislation on April 28, and it will go into effect Oct. 1.
I commend Representative Ganske for his stand to increase national awareness and ensure HMO coverage for individuals born with clefts. I am also thankful that the Maryland General Assembly responded to the need for this legislation when it passed the legislation.
Ginny Patzer Ellicott City
The writer serves on the State Advisory Council on Hereditary and Congenital Disorders.
The more, the merrier on city's Inner Harbor
The Sun was wrong about the Wyndham hotel, and it is wrong about the Bubba Gump barge restaurant. We all owe James Rouse, John Paterakis, David Cordish and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke our thanks.
The National Aquarium is selfish and shortsighted. Neither my friends nor I intend to support it in the future.
The city needs more attractions. They all help each other.
Dennis Seufert
Baltimore
Bubba Gump must pass the Baltimore taste test
Based on the review of other Bubba Gump restaurants, opponents of the establishment can perhaps hope for the following scenario -- it opens, it's lousy, it closes.
Richard Crystal
Baltimore
Sauerbrey didn't apologize for criminal accusations
Ellen Sauerbrey's tantrums when she lost the 1994 gubernatorial race in a close but fair election included serious criminal charges against many duly sworn election officials, particularly in black majority Baltimore City and Prince George's County.
Ms. Sauerbrey has neither proved her accusations nor apologized to the citizens of Maryland.
Perhaps this November the voters will grant Ms. Sauerbrey the opportunity to demonstrate that she has matured and can lose with adultlike dignity.
Gary F. Suggars
Baltimore
The writer has been a Republican election judge in Baltimore for 20 years.
It's tougher for candidates to send message statewide
Recent statewide polls in Maryland's Democratic gubernatorial primary show that almost half the state doesn't even know who Eileen Rehrmann is.
While some might view this as a failing in the Rehrmann camp, political reality draws a different conclusion.
Demographics have changed so drastically in Maryland that unless you are a statewide candidate who resides in the Washington suburbs, it is virtually impossible to be elected in your first statewide race unless you have a very powerful message (Ellen Sauerbrey's tax cut proposal of '94) or have millions of dollars to spend in the Washington media market. One week of television in D.C. costs more than $200,000 dollars while Baltimore television comes in at about $90,000.
With Montgomery and Prince George's counties being two of the three largest subdivisions in the state, a candidate for statewide office can't afford to ignore these localities.
Maryland's shifting population may signal a long drought for Baltimoreans who wish to achieve statewide office.
Towson
Front-office support vital to teachers and principals
Reading and hearing reports about the lack of professional and emotional support from the Baltimore school system for retiring Northern High Principal Alice Morgan Brown makes me sad and angry. Weren't the majority of central office administrators hired because of their expertise in education? Isn't part of their job to assist teachers and principals in nurturing the children's desire to succeed in an orderly and safe environment?
I still don't understand why most central office administrators, counselors and psychologists weren't sent to Northern High immediately. A consensus could have been reached during an after-school meeting on how to deal with this unusual crisis. These school employees should have returned early the next morning, ready to begin mandatory conferences with each suspended student and his or her parents or guardians. All sides would have learned much from and about one another.
On July 1, I retired after teaching in Howard County for 31 years. I know now why those schools are successful and why I liked my job. Its central office staff members work hard to remove obstacles, are accessible and strive to do better. For all those years I took their support for granted, now I'm truly thankful.
Ingrid W. Edgerton
Elkridge
Take aim at cutting down availability of ammunition
If guns can't or won't be eliminated, can ammunition be controlled to put a dent in crime?
B. J. Small
Baltimore
Pub Date: 7/30/98