Let's commit to hard work this school year

As bells ring throughout Maryland and the children of Maryland begin a new school year, let us all -- parents, teachers and administrators -- reflect on what we hope to have our schools achieve.

Let's hope that this new school year will see a continuing improvement in our public schools, which, after all, are pillars of our democratic system.

However, let's also hope that this new school year sees a return to more than just the basics. Let's all hope and pray that real discipline returns to the schools, for without true discipline in our classrooms, real learning cannot take place.

Let's hope this new school year will see even an greater drive to eliminate drug and alcohol users and, I should add, the disruptive child who feels that he can do as he wishes in our public schools.

Perhaps a realistic dress code also should be implemented, and a return to a little old-fashioned patriotism would not hurt.

Above all else, if our public schools are to survive as the guardians of knowledge and the purveyors of our future, we must see to it that learning does take place.

Quality education should be one that teaches not only what the student wants to learn, but also what the student will have to know to function in an ever-growing, complex society. This includes the ability to read as well as to have a working knowledge of mathematics.

Further, students graduating from a public high school should have a proper command of both written and spoken English. Needless to say, every youngster should have the opportunity to learn and appreciate the history of his country.

Perhaps we have forgotten that a quality education means work; it means burning the midnight oil. We must, for the good of our students, give them assignments. Let's not kid ourselves.

All learning cannot take place in our schools. The majority of our young people want leadership, yearn for realistic and fair discipline and welcome assignments related to the learning process.

Yes, this new school year, teachers, parents and taxpayers have a responsibility to get beyond past requirements and truly make our public schools so good that many now sending or contemplating sending their children to private schools will instead look to the public schools as providing the best possible education tax dollars can buy.

We can meet this challenge by beginning in this new school year to work toward excellence in our public schools, which should be second to none.

Finally, if we hope to bring positive change in our schools, it will mean that every parent having a youngster in a school will have to take a greater interest in what the school is doing for his youngsters.

John A. Micklos

Baltimore

The writer is a retired history teacher and a former member of the Board of Regents of Morgan State University.

In the city, there's a new ray of sunshine, and it is beaming on Old Harford Road.

That's because Hamilton Elementary/Middle School, a wonderfully refurbished old shell outside and an up-to-date, spanking-new interior, is open for business.

As a grandparent of a student there, I have seen how parents, teachers, principal and community leaders have worked together to brighten up the Hamilton area. It's important for us city dwellers to note these exciting new beginnings.

Pat Elliott

Baltimore

Liberties, not politics, are ACLU's concern

I write to clarify the American Civil Liberties Union's position on independent counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Clinton, in response to Kenneth A. Stevens' letter to the editor "Present-day sex police pry into private lives" (Aug. 26).

Mr. Stevens was writing on his own behalf, not as coordinator of the ACLU in Howard County. He was, but no longer is, the coordinator of that chapter. His opinions did not reflect the ACLU's position of the grand jury proceedings, nor were they meant to.

The ACLU has a strict and clear policy against taking partisan positions on any issue. We defended Oliver North and the Nazis in Skokie as readily as we defended draft card burners and religious freedom.

Our response to the Starr investigation and related issues is consistent with the ACLU's policy on nonpartisanship. In fact, we've taken positions on both sides of the controversy, consistent with only one factor: civil liberties.

Here are just a few examples:

Jan 13, 1997 -- Saying that the president is not above the law, the national ACLU submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the right of Paula Corbin Jones to sue Mr. Clinton.

July 21,1997 -- The ACLU of Southern California filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court saying Susan McDougal was being held illegally in Los Angeles County jail as punishment for refusing to testify in the Whitewater investigation.

Jan. 14, 1998 -- Siding with conservative groups representing Paula Jones in her sexual harassment case, the ACLU asked a federal judge to quash a subpoena in which lawyers representing Mr. Clinton sought membership and donor information from the conservative Rutherford Institute.

Jan. 28 -- ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser raised civil liberties concerns over Mr. Starr's methods in his investigation of Mr. Clinton.

March 19 -- Mr. Glasser was quoted in a newspaper article on Linda Tripp's wiretapping of Monica Lewinsky as saying, "We are not concerned with Clinton's plight. ... For a quarter century we've been hammering at the legal inadequacies of telephone privacy and wiretapping laws."

March 24 -- The ACLU criticized President Clinton's decision to invoke executive privilege regarding the grand jury testimony of presidential aides and a federal judge's decision to resolve the privilege claim behind closed doors.

April 2 -- Again citing First Amendment rights, the ACLU moved to quash Mr. Starr's use of subpoenas against bookstores where Ms. Lewinsky was alleged to have shopped.

The allegations against Mr. Clinton are not allegations of civil liberties violations. Therefore, the ACLU takes no position on whether the president has committed any impeachable or indictable offense, such as the obstruction of justice, perjury or suborning of perjury.

As a matter of policy, the ACLU does not seek the removal from office of any federal, state or local public official "except in extraordinary circumstances in which the official's continuation in office involves a grave and imminent threat to civil liberties." Watergate is such an exception, Monicagate is not. The ACLU's mission is to protect citizens high and low from overreaching by government authority. That is the common thread in every position we've taken throughout the Starr investigation.

Susan Goering

Baltimore

The writer is executive director of the ACLU Foundation of Maryland.

Bombing decision not Clinton's alone

I recently moved to Baltimore, and so far consider The Sun to be one of the best newspapers I've ever read. I especially appreciate the paper's active support of literacy programs and education.

However, I do not believe that coverage of U.S. air strikes measured up to the standards I have come to expect from The Sun.

As members of the media, The Sun's staff should be more aware than the average person that complex military decisions are made through the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon after an exhaustive review process made by dozens of people, not solely at the White House. The president does not just order around the military at his personal will.

The military and national security decision-makers in Washington, of whom the president is just one member, decided that there was an immediate threat to our national security interests and recommended action. By that action, we will never have any idea of what horrible fate would have befallen us.

This action had the bipartisan support of most of Congress and other world leaders, at least afterward. If this decision had been based upon anything other than the best judgment of an entire staff of experienced military and national security advisers, it would not have happened.

To insinuate that people such as Secretary of Defense William Cohen would risk the lives of thousands of Americans and others just to save face for the president is preposterous and an insult to our national security team.

Kelly E. Rusinack

Baltimore

Get money to Russians but not via government

The solution to improving the plight of Russia lies not with a government that has proven itself to be dysfunctional and corrupt many times. To help Russia, the International Monetary Fund must find a means to bypass the government and see to it that miners, teachers, doctors, soldiers and scientists are at least paid a portion of the salaries that are due them.

It is the strength of the people that will pull the economy and the government through this crisis. Ignoring the needs of the people will deliver them and their nuclear weapons into the hands of forces the world will regret.

Phillip J. Pack

Rosedale

Retain laws against certain sex acts

This is in response to the article "Gay, lesbian activists target Maryland law" (Aug. 26).

First, the U.S. Supreme Court has already addressed this question and decided that states have the right to regulate this sort of behavior.

Second, the statement by Michael Adams that heterosexuals can engage in oral sex while homosexuals cannot under Maryland's law is a blatant lie. The law is completely neutral and states that anyone who engages in several specified acts is guilty of engaging in a perverted sex act.

Indeed, just last year a prominent person in Baltimore was arrested and charged under this same law for engaging in a prohibited sex act in his car in full view of police officers in another car.

I hope the Maryland courts and the judiciary will stay the course and retain these laws.

Jack R. Tishue Jr.

Ferndale

Tell me your party as well as positions

I'm getting more than a little tired of receiving mail and door fliers and other campaign material from county candidates that neglects to state which political party they are affiliated with.

We have a party system, and these candidates are either Democrat or Republican, not that you could tell by their signage or literature.

I'd like to know what party they have chosen to belong to as much as I want to know their opinions on taxes, schools and guns. Why they have decided to keep this information hidden or hard to find puzzles me greatly.

John McGing

Columbia

Desegregation did not cause Gwynn Oak Park's demise

I was very glad to see your two-part series "Justice at Gwynn Oak" (Aug. 23-24). It's an important part of our history, and I'm glad that it has not been forgotten.

I was 13 years old at the time, and I remember it very well. As a Presbyterian, I am proud of the role my church leaders played in this historic event. I thought your article was thorough, sensitive, and informative. And I'm glad that the article pointed out that it was hurricane Agnes that destroyed Gwynn Oak Park, not integration.

I was also happy to see the quote from Dick Price about integration being "the right thing to do morally" because his family was vilified throughout the struggle. However, I was surprised by your rather superficial treatment of the effects of integration on attendance at Gwynn Oak, saying, "As its owners predicted, many whites stopped going to the park after blacks won the right to join them."

Before integration, however, many companies, churches and other groups had stopped holding picnics at Gwynn Oak because it was segregated.

The Price family said the success or failure of integration would depend on industrial bookings, and at that point more company picnics were scheduled for Gwynn Oak than ever.

But the Prices were not convinced that integration would work, and the same article quoted one of them as saying that capital improvements had been curtailed pending a determination of the effect of integration. I believe this decision by the Price family is what led to the demise of Gwynn Oak.

As one who went to Gwynn Oak a lot, both before and after integration, I can verify that the park began to visibly deteriorate after 1963. It seemed like they didn't keep the park up like they had done. Furthermore, in the 10 years prior to 1963, Gwynn Oak added new rides every year. In the nine years they remained open after integrating, they added nothing.

Even as a teen-ager, I was perplexed as to why the Price family didn't take a more aggressive approach in promoting and improving their park in response to the changing times.

What is perhaps most significant about this period in Gwynn Oak's history is that it survived integration and a decade of neglect. Perhaps the usual economic forces that hurt so many older, urban parks would have ultimately wiped out Gwynn Oak. And perhaps Gwynn Oak would not have recovered from Hurrican Agnes, no matter what the Price family did.

I really miss Gwynn Oak Park. I wish it were still here. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Bill Galvin

Relay

Another inspiring and beautifully written piece by Linell Smith. This is a crucial moment in Baltimore history. Not only did the story rekindle my memories of the time, it has enabled many discussions with my nine-year-old daughter. We are impressed with how historically Baltimore and Maryland have produced so many brave social activities. Gwynn Oak is proof that with a strong active community, great things are possible, and that's good for Baltimore.

Mary Barry

Glen Arm

Regarding your excellent commemoration of the Gwynn Oak Park demonstrations, here's a personal remembrance:

Last winter, at a Randallstown store, I found out the aquarium heater I use to keep my photo chemicals warm was no longer available, and the young saleswoman suggested I try another place in nearby Woodlawn. It had been almost 35 years since I'd gone there to provide transportation for those released on bail after being arrested trying to integrate Gwynn Oak Park.

Years ago, I came upon a tall white man jostling an old black man on the Gwynn Oak parking lot, and something inside me saw red. "He's an old man," I suggested. "If you have to beat up someone, hit me instead." To my great relief, as well as the old man's, he left. Years later, my predominantly black English class, having just finished an essay about courage by Gordon Parks, decided we'd all relate something we'd done that had required guts. But when my turn came I couldn't even remember this incident and instead said something about taking a relatively easy picture during a riot. The real things don't come back that easily.

Mostly for me in that period is the memory of Walter Carter. While not a fiery orator, he was more like Dr. King than anyone I've ever known, and as a leader of Congress of Race Equality, his gentle charisma did much to integrate Baltimore.

My grandmother used to tell me in Yiddish, "Sei un mensch . . . be a man." There's an island in the middle of Gwynn Oak Avenue where the No. 32 streetcar discharged its passengers. We'd always get off there when as a little boy I would go with her for a magical afternoon at the park.

I found myself at almost the same spot 20 later walking round and round with a sign. Members of the crowd hooted and threw stones. Every once in a while Mr. Carter, who was marching in front of me, would turn around and ask, "How're you doing, man?" "Fine," I answered, "but my feet are starting to hurt."

I'll remember this all my life, but given what's still left to be done, I only wish they hurt a little more.

Jack Eisenberg

Baltimore

The articles in this week's Sunpaper about the Civil Rights demonstrations at Gwynn Oak Amusement Park were very thought-provoking. While I was too young to remember the demonstrations, I do recall going to Gwynn Oak in the mid- to late sixities. I would like to see a follow-up article on what became of the park after it was desegregated.The August 24 article touches briefly on the reasons the park closed. The article states that "In the summer of 1963, larger amusement parks were already beginning to edge out small, family-owned businesses like Gwynn Oaks." Is this really true? The only larger amusement park I can think of that was around in 1963 is Hershey Park. Certainly Gwynn Oaks could not compete against Hershey Park, King's Deminion, or Adventure World today. However, in 1963, Hershey Park was a long way to go for most Baltimore residents. I don't think this really affected the business as much as you want the readers to believe.The article also states that the owners declared bankruptcy after Hurricane Agnes flooded the property in 1972. As I recall, the park was actually closed before 1972. I read in the Catonsville Times a few years back that the owners were considering reopening the park, but once the hurrican hit, they decided against this.The park had been in business since the turn of the century, then was out of business within ten years of being desegragted. Why did the park close in such a relatively short time after it was desegrated? This is a difficult question, but you should have addressed it completely. I agree that desegration was the right thing to do. All people certainly had the right to use the park, and I applaud the people who led the efforts and took the personal risk to fight for this just cause. But didn't The Sun cop-out in describing why the park closed? You took the time and effort to write good articles about the Civil Rights activities, and you followed through on what happened to the key participants. You addressed these difficult issues directly, but you sidestepped the equally difficult issue of why the park declined.I appreciate articles on local history, but please tell the whole story. How about a complete history of the park that addresses all the issues?

Greg Hiltz

Baltimore