Slot machines at track needed to resuscitate a slumping industry
Regarding the letter to the editor ("No gambling expansion without statewide vote," Aug. 11) from Kay Dellinger, although I agree that any expansion of gambling in Maryland should be put to a referendum, I must disagree with everything else she had to say.
I am a member of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and am a Maryland thoroughbred horseman. We are totally opposed to any forms of casino gambling other than those outlined in the bill to save our industry.
I went to Delaware Park last week and can verify that one out of every five cars on its lot had a Maryland license plate and that after several years of operation, you still have to wait to find an available machine, even in the middle of the week.
There are no slot machines to be found in any gas station or grocery store, and Delaware taxpayers are getting great relief from money generated by Maryland gamblers.
I believe if the public is fully educated on the facts of our proposal to save Maryland horse racing, a referendum would pass without a doubt.
Steven E. Davidson
New Windsor
Special section on stadium was closest I'll get to it
Thank you for your recent special section introducing the new football stadium. I've watched the stadium go up, driving by each week, and it's amazing how quickly it has taken shape.
The pictures and descriptions you printed were greatly appreciated because they are the closest look I'll ever get to what my taxes paid for. I can't afford a ticket to a game.
Thaddeus Paulhamus
Baltimore
Fire department vehicles don't have to be so noisy
It was reassuring to read the assertion of Baltimore Fire Chief Herman Williams that his "primary focus is the well-being of our citizenry" and that he claims responsibility for managing his agency in a "fiscally responsible manner." One wishes that the fire department were operated in a more socially responsible manner, too.
Chief Williams notes that over 20 years the use of emergency vehicles has "increased dramatically." His figure of 170,500 responses to fire alarms and calls for medic units stated another way, means that on the average slightly more than 19 fire and rescue vehicles traverse the streets of Baltimore every hour of every day and night of the year.
Unfortunately, a side effect of this activity is that the sounds of sirens and air horns have become a constant, 24-hour-a-day feature of life in downtown Baltimore.
It is a rare night when slumbering downtown residents are not jolted awake by the sound of a passing ambulance or fire engine resulting in the many physical and social ills known to be caused by sleep deprivation.
It is too easy to ignore the problem generated by siren and air horn noise by asserting, accurately, that emergency services are humanitarian and essential to the functioning of the city.
I readily concede that one can only be grateful for their availability. But when the special privileges granted to emergency vehicles are used carelessly, or abused, it is time to examine the effects of the excesses. Ironically, a service designed to help, when used thoughtlessly, can hurt.
The noise generated by emergency vehicles in downtown Baltimore detracts hugely from the quality of life here. Fortunately, all that is necessary to minimize the problem is to devote the time and intention to doing it. If Chief Williams is truly concerned with the well-being of the Baltimore citizenry, as he states, he might work to reduce the negative side effects of the department's operations.
Other cities have done so. Vancouver, B.C., Canada, recently completed an extensive study of ways to reduce urban noise, including that generated by emergency vehicles. The Vancouver study, exceptional in its scope and detail, could be profitably emulated here.
Until that happens, it might be more accurate to characterize Baltimore not as the city that reads, but as the city that screams.
Harry Gehlert
Baltimore
Schools' reinvented wheel will roll like a cube
If the leaders in reading reform (Texas, California, New York and Illinois) have created a reading wheel that rolls, why has Maryland expended the time, effort and money to have 25 educators work for 16 months to design another one?
Ironically, the Maryland experts have created a cube but are calling it a wheel. Don't try to reshape the cube into a wheel. Use one of the four existing wheels.
Edmund C. Piercy
Baltimore
The writer is head of the social studies department at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.
Former county leaders wrongly labeled corrupt
In your editorial "Untying executives hands" (July 30), you state that the rules regarding merit system employment were enacted 42 years ago "in response to corrupt administrations." Use of the pejorative "corrupt" besmirches the reputations of both government officials and long-time employees.
Allow me to correct your editorial. The merit system came into existence along with the Baltimore County charter giving us home rule, which was adopted in 1956 largely through the efforts of my late father, Christian H. Kahl. He served on the three-man Board of County Commissioners from 1942 until 1953, mostly as chairman and therefore head of the administration.
He and many of his supporters worked hard and successfully to secure the charter's enactment.
From 1934 until he was elected to the U.S. Congress, my late father-in-law, H. Streett Baldwin, had served in the same capacity on the Board of County Commissioners. For the last two years of his life, he and my father were again together on that board, working as they always had to modernize the county, improve its library and school systems, manage its growing budget efficiently, build more roads, broaden the tax base, expand the police and fire departments and create an employment system that would be fair and accountable.
The need for employment reform was perceived by the leadership, and I do not recall any cries of corruption as a motivating factor.
My father became the first elected county executive of Baltimore County under the charter in 1958.
By your own account, the merit system became a reality 42 years ago. For The Sun to characterize previous administrations as corrupt is to misrepresent history and insult the memories of these leaders and descendants. I think you owe our families an apology.
Lois Kahl Baldwin
Cockeysville
Correcting an inaccuracy by the Heritage Foundation
Oh, the joys of surgical quotation. A recent letter ("Heritage funding criticism disingenuous, inaccurate," Aug. 10) from a Heritage Foundation vice president, Herb Berkowitz, quoted two words from The Nation magazine to make it seem as though the Institute for Public Accuracy received a grant specifically to "combat Heritage."
But he left out the rest of the sentence: "and other right-wing think-tank propaganda." We have never received a grant to focus on the Heritage Foundation.
Evidently, Mr. Berkowitz wants to deflect attention from the evidence in my article ("Foreign funds flow to U.S. think tank," Aug. 2) that Heritage has repeatedly testified on Capitol Hill about United States-South Korean relations without disclosure of its $1 million in funding from the South Korean government via the Korea Foundation.
Although Mr. Berkowitz' letter claimed that "the Korea Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization, not an agency of the Korean government," other sources have been more candid. As the Wall Street Journal reported three years ago, the Korea Foundation is "funded by South Korea's Foreign Ministry," and a South Korean embassy spokesperson confirmed that the Korea Foundation "is an affiliate of the South Korean government."
Norman Solomon
San Francisco
The writer is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.
Schaefer shouldn't thwart Joan Pratt's candidacy
How can former Gov. William Donald Schaefer not only come out of retirement but also threaten the candidacy of the young, very capable Baltimore City Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, cause other capable candidates to withdraw and appear to be the favorite?
Gwendolyn Brooks Stewart
Baltimore
Pub Date: 8/19/98