'Doonesbury' cartoon told the painful story of Alzheimer's 0) disease

We have lost another precious life to Alzheimer's disease. This time, it was Lacey Davenport, a beloved, fictional character from the "Doonesbury" comic strip. Unfortunately, Alzheimer's disease is not fiction. It's a very real and devastating disease that 4 million Americans and their families face today.

The Alzheimer's Association of Central Maryland would like to thank Garry Trudeau for writing this important and poignant story line about Alzheimer's and The Sun for publishing it.

By openly discussing wandering and other health and behavioral problems caused by Alzheimer's, they have helped educate people about the challenges that are faced daily by individuals ,, with the disease, their caregivers and families.

Alzheimer's disease affects more than 40,000 people in Central Maryland. The Alzheimer's Association of Central Maryland provides programs and services for people with Alzheimer's disease and their families and their caregivers, including a telephone help line, support groups, information and education about the disease.

People interested in learning more about the warning signs of the disease, family and caregiver programs and services, or how they can help support us can call 410-561-9099 or 800-443-2273.

Caryn Collier

Timonium

The writer is director of development and public relations at the Alzheimer's Association of Central Maryland.

Keep alluring alliteration, playful puns in headlines

He's ba-a-a-ck (or maybe it's she). A year or so ago, The Sun's pages became laced with literate alliterations and peppered with headlines that had the salt of wit, to wit:

"Ballpark's boiling, blistering bleacher bums."

"Their branch of government trims cherries of deadwood."

"The best of chimes, the worst of chimes."

Then they stopped as suddenly as they started. Had the editor retired, or remained, but rejected writing rapturous repetitions or playful puns?

Now the humorous headlines have happily reappeared here:

"Pain, paranoia perplex prime protagonist of 'Pi.' "

"Le Grand K [kilo] has a weight problem."

"Offshore drilling debate gushes among Calif. candidates."

"Candid Closet: Confidence is key."

Keep the comical headlines coming.

Bennard B. Perlman

Pikesville

Sequoia was presidential, but not for Atlantic Charter

Regarding the article "A national landmark worthy of preserving" (Aug. 19), I wish to bring to your attention a statement regarding the former presidential yacht, Sequoia. Capt. Giles M. Kelly stated that the "Sequoia played host to Winston Churchill when he and President Franklin D. Roosevelt drafted the Atlantic Charter and planned war strategy that helped thwart Hitler and buy time for the Allies in the early, dark days of World War II."

For the record, I would like to and give credit where it is due. Before 1936, the Sequoia was used periodically for the president's relaxation.

Because the ship was heavily outfitted in wood, the Navy considered it a fire hazard, and it was replaced by the U.S.S. Potomac.

The most significant voyage of the Potomac took place in August 1941, four months before Pearl Harbor forced our country into war. In a most daring escapade, the Potomac set sail with the president, ostensibly for a fishing vacation at Cape Cod. Instead of a leisurely trip, the Potomac was making a rendezvous with the U.S.S. Augusta, on which FDR transferred to the warship.

The Augusta traveled off Argentia, Newfoundland, to meet with the British battleship Prince of Wales. It was on this occasion that Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill created the eight peace aims known as the Atlantic Charter, which determined the future course of the war in Europe.

The Potomac, meanwhile, keeping up the pretense, sailed through the narrow Cape Cod Canal. A look-alike volunteer donned the president's fedora and jauntily waved from the Potomac's deck to onlookers, thus ensuring the security of the historic summit meeting.

Frances Lynch

Columbia

Caricature of Sauerbrey looks like a vendetta

When I opened The Sun Aug. 25 and saw the disgraceful caricature you published, it made me realize the depth of the vendetta that your newspaper is carrying on against Ellen Sauerbrey.

It is obvious you have reached the point of journalistic frustration. Your actions have completely obliterated your ability to show good judgment.

' Walter Boyd Lutherville

I am appalled to see KAL's cartoon lampooning Ellen Sauerbrey's record on the environment (which I plan to ask her about). You have printed something that I feel falls well below the standard of decency, respect and good taste.

Lester Simon Jr.

Towson

We can reduce terrrorism by shutting military school

Now that we've bombed terrorist camps in Afghanistan, will we be bombing Fort Benning, Ga. next?

The School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning has trained thousands of Latin American military troops to abuse, torture and bomb civilians. Our military claims it has changed its curriculum and no longer instructs on how to torture and make war on civilians, which it readily admits it used to do.

However, the SOA didn't change instructors (much less punish them for training terrorists), which makes one wonder just how much the curriculum has really changed. Meanwhile, the school's graduates continue to abuse civilians and undermine democratic processes in Mexico and Central America.

Many, including Catholic priests, are serving jail time for demonstrating against the SOA's continued existence. They feel that the school is an embarrassment to all Americans. They understand that the very existence of the SOA represents to Latin American citizens our government's complicity in the torture and bombing of civilians. The SOA needs to be closed.

Congress will vote this month on whether to continue funding the School of the Americas. The vote will be close. Apparently, some congressmen think that terrorists are not terrorists when they are our terrorists and don't care about the pain the continued existence of this school causes our neighbors to the south.

Bob Krasnansky

Ellicott City

Federal ownership of land not good for environment

Why is it so difficult for Tom Horton to understand that vesting powers of regulation in a federal bureaucracy is tantamount to giving more of our individual freedoms away ("Private rights, public resources," Aug. 28). Who says that our government must be trusted to do good for the average citizen? Just a few examples: Was it not the Internal Revenue Service that was recently chastised for its overbearing and terrorizing attitude toward the taxpayer?

Was it not the Environmental Protection Agency's forced cleanup of silver mine tailings that actually pushed more lead particles into the air?

Was it not a bureau of the federal government that early in this century supervised the rape of the Western waterways by its frenzy of dam construction, and now another bureau claims that it was all a mistake?

Paranoia this is not. How is it that some politicians ordain policies that espouse that the end justifies the means? Sure, the end result of these laws is good, but by giving more power to our central government to regulate our society, we are deviating from the mandate of our Founding Fathers that the "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Otto C. Beyer

Ellicott City

Hirsch's balanced approach of right to bear arms

I would like to commend Arthur Hirsch for his well-written article "Debating the right to bear arms" (Aug. 23).

It was a refreshing change to find such objective and balanced coverage of this topic within the pages of The Sun.

Donald Keefer

Lutherville

Pub Date: 9/02/98