Our great president deserves gratitude, not this 0) investigation
Regarding the President Clinton-Monica Lewinsky investigation, all I have to say is this: Are our lives better because of this man?
How can we be so ungrateful to a great president who has done so much for our lives economically and only has the failings that most of our presidents have had?
To put the president in the position where his private sex life was made into a public issue was ridiculous in the first place. If Hillary Rodham Clinton can put up with it, who are we to make something out of it?
We need to see this episode for what it is -- a thoughtless willingness to bring down a great president for a flaw, a technicality. Mr. Clinton did not lie about a matter of state; he was a married man denying he had an affair.
President Clinton deserves our support because most of us have prospered under his leadership. Please let's stop making a scapegoat of a gentle man who has been so good to us.
Roberta Ann Bottei
Old Forge, Pa.
When will the media let up and cease adding fuel to the fire by reporting every little incident faintly related to the president's alleged sexual actions? How many of our elite politicians could undergo the close scrutiny of their lives such as the president is undergoing?
This whole charade brings to mind the days of Joe McCarthy and the days of the Spanish Inquisition.
We are setting a precedent for all future presidential candidates. They will be expected to be perfect in every way. They cannot be human or have any frailties or faults.
Daniel J. Wilson
Leonardtown
Can't get enough of Cal Thomas columns
My husband and I want to thank you for carrying Cal Thomas' column. Would it be possible to read his words more frequently?
Carol Clough
Bel Air
Discrimination, injustice keep playing field uneven
This is in response to "White privilege is dead" (Aug. 2) by Michael Holden in the Perspective section.
Mr. Holden's cavalier remarks about "black privilege" should anger every black person trying to get ahead and every white person who knows that discrimination and injustices still exist.
He surmises that the playing field is now level and that we have done just about enough to further equality among the races. Anyone living in the real world (and not the "parallel universe" that Mr. Holden seems to think is the domain of caring, compassionate whites) knows that is not true.
I certainly do not propose that all whites should go on a guilt trip, but we should open our eyes to what is going on around us.
By lauding all the good things that us whites have done (and they were not always done out of compassion or caring for our fellow man) and criticizing the bits and pieces of so-called privileges gained by blacks, Mr. Holden loses sight of all those seemingly small inequities and injuries that still exist.
Until a black man can feel comfortable walking down the street or going into a store in a white area, or a black family can live peacefully and hassle-free with white neighbors, or until a black child can walk to school without his mother being afraid for that child's life, the playing field is far from level.
Janney Lee
Cockeysville
Not all views expressed were those of chancellor
In his column "Grading the university system," (July 29, Education Beat), Mike Bowler offers an assessment of the University System of Maryland on the occasion of our 10th anniversary.
I appreciate Mr. Bowler's attention to this important milestone. However, because of the format of the article, a number of readers have concluded that all of the views expressed therein are mine. They are not.
Mr. Bowler points out that he spoke with "several observers in and out of the system" and that he is presenting "consensus answers." I happen to agree with some of those consensus answers and disagree with others.
Many of the observations reported by Mr. Bowler, such as those regarding former College Park President William E. "Brit" Kirwan's departure or the views of Prince George's County politicians, did not result from his interview with me.
Instead, my comments focused primarily on the enormous progress made by every one of our 13 institutions and on the many benefits that have resulted from their coordination and collaboration under a single board of regents.
Donald N. Langenberg
Adelphi
The writer is chancellor of the University System of Maryland.
We would be lucky to have Schaefer's state know-how
Many people question the decision of William Donald Schaefer to come out of retirement and run for comptroller of Maryland. I would suggest that rather than question his decision, we examine what it can mean for us as citizens.
With the death of the beloved Louis Goldstein, our state suffered not only the loss of a great public servant but also an incredible institutional memory. So much public policy depends on knowing what has gone before and how it has worked out, who the players were in various endeavors and if ideas were tried, what effect they had.
A government that has no institutional memory is prone to more errors of judgment than a government that can call on such memory to help it determine what should be done.
Mr. Schaefer offers us the only credible substitute for the wisdom and knowledge of Mr. Goldstein. We should count ourselves fortunate that he was restless enough in retirement to offer himself to public service once again. We can only benefit from his presence in our public life, no matter who the next governor might be.
Wally Orlinsky
Baltimore
Visitors center at Capitol is no solution for security
The logic of spending millions of dollars to build a visitors center at the Capitol as a response to the shootings there escapes me ("Capitol Hill visitors center proposed to screen tourists," July 27).
If it is to distance future shooters from congressmen, it can do that. But one might ask why congressmen shouldn't face the same hazards the general public does.
That aside, what is to prevent some disgruntled employee from wreaking havoc at the work site as so often happens these days?
If the objective of a visitors center is to prevent security forces from being shot, it fails. Presumably, the visitors center should also serve as a point at which to disarm citizens. Security people would perform this task at the metal detectors.
Thus, we have the same scenario as played out last week with security people at risk, only now at a visitors center.
Does this make the situation more acceptable? Have we gained anything? Or have we simply enriched some contractor and impoverished the public by another multimillion dollar boondoggle?
It seems to me the security system worked.
True, a terrible price was paid. But the public seems to forget, until something like this happens, a fact that the people who protect us face individually on a daily basis: They may be required to pay the supreme price every time they report for work.
Russ Seese
Aberdeen
Veteran showed courage opposing flag amendment
All thinking citizens should applaud Thomas H. Hartman for his courageous stand against the proposed flag-burning amendment to the Constitution ("If desecration law passes, U.S. veteran will burn flag," Aug. 2, letter to the editor).
Much as he decries flag burning, this genuine war hero's vow to burn the American flag if the amendment ever becomes law is an example of true patriotism.
There is nothing that desecrates the flag more than self-declared patriots in Congress, a number of them copouts from the Vietnam era draft, who are hoping to snag some votes in November from constituents by pushing this dangerous amendment.
If the flag-burning amendment ever comes to pass, there won't be enough jails in the country to hold the thousands of true patriots, like Mr. Hartman, who will burn the American flag to protest this brazen attempt to limit our traditional freedoms of speech and protest.
Robert A. Ritchie
Timonium
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Pub Date: 8/09/98