State gives welfare recipients chances to work before 0) ending aid
We read with great concern the article "Welfare cuts loom for 9,000" (Aug. 28), stating that about 9,000 Baltimore residents may lose their Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) on Jan. 1, 1999, the federal welfare-to-work deadline.
Although the deadline refers to the provision in the federal welfare reform law of 1996 that prohibits an individual from receiving cash assistance for more than 24 months without engaging in a work activity, it is important to keep in mind the alternatives to paid employment that will allow benefits to continue.
These alternatives include subsidized employment in the public or private sector, grant diversion to pay a business for hiring a TCA recipient, on-the-job training, community service and training and education directly related to employment.
Maryland's welfare reform efforts have thus far been very successful. From January 1995, when the General Assembly and the Glendening administration first embarked on welfare reform, through July 1998, the welfare rolls have declined by 49 percent. We have made tremendous progress because, for the first time, we are treating people as individuals whose needs require individual solutions.
Giving people the opportunity to move from dependency to self-sufficiency while making them responsible if their actions contribute to failure has been the guiding principle of welfare reform in Maryland.
The General Assembly, recognizing the urgency posed by the federal time limit, has given the Maryland Department of Human Resources and local departments of social services the tools to help TCA recipients achieve self-sufficiency. The General Assembly:
* Passed landmark legislation in 1996, before enactment of the federal welfare reform law, to restructure Maryland's public assistance program and position the state for the federal changes.
* Created the Family Investment Program (FIP), which requires individuals to engage in a work activity in exchange for cash assistance and other support services.
* Gave flexibility to local departments of social services to implement the Family Investment Program at the local level.
* Specifies support services such as child care, which the state will provide to enable individuals to comply with work requirements.
* Requires screening for substance abuse and, if needed, substance abuse treatment. It has increased the treatment services funding by $4 million.
* Has established exemptions from the work requirements in hardship situations and for participation in substance abuse treatment.
* Allows local agencies to keep 45 percent of savings caused by reduction in caseload as an incentive to devise creative solutions to move people off the welfare rolls.
* Permits DHR to establish a state-only funded category of assistance for individuals unlikely to meet federal work requirments.
* Allows exemptions from state procurement laws for contracts expected to increase hiring of TCA recipients.
* Sets aside funds for demonstration projects and waivers promoting innovative approaches.
Despite our progress, we know that much work remains to be done. The individuals who have left the welfare rolls are, by and large, the best educated and the most job-ready. The individuals remaining on assistance may have greater problems, such as substance abuse problems, which create obstacles to employment. We must now concentrate FIP resources on these individuals and give them every opportunity to join the mainstream of society.
The Joint Committee on Welfare Reform intends to have a thorough discussion of state efforts to meet the 24-month time limit at its Sept. 22 meeting. We have every expectation that DHR and the Baltimore City Department of Social Services will assist families receiving TCA to meet their obligations under the law.
Families should be given every opportunity to comply with the law before facing termination of their benefits.
Annapolis
Samuel I. Rosenberg
Annapolis
The writers are co-chairmen of the Maryland General Assembly's Joint Committee on Welfare Reform.
Cypriot missile column ignored Turkish terror
Robert Freedman's article "Monica Lewinsky and the Russian missiles in Cyprus" (Aug. 31) was highly misleading, both in its account of Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus as well as in its review of the S-300 missile crisis.
Mr. Freedman states that "Turkish troops landed in northern Cyprus to protect the Turkish community of the island," adopting the Turkish government's pretext for its nightmarish 1974 invasion. He conceals the grim reality that Turkish troops killed thousands of Cypriots during the invasion, code-named "Operation Attila," and ethnically cleansed 200,000 of Cyprus' indigenous Greek inhabitants from 40 percent of the island. To this date, no other nation recognizes the puppet regime established by Turkey in northern Cyprus.
While Mr. Freedman espouses Turkey's absurd pretext for threatening military strikes against the anti-aircraft missiles Cyprus has recently purchased because they "have the range to penetrate the air space of southern Turkey," a U.S. State Department report cited by the BBC confirmed that the S-300s )) were a purely defensive anti-aircraft system, rejecting Turkey's claims that the system could be used for offensive purposes.
Moreover, Turkey has 35,000 troops and 500 battle tanks on Cyprus, which are in turn reinforced by Turkey's large technologically sophisticated army.
The Cypriots, on the other hand, are defending themselves with a Lilliputian force of 10,000 national guardsmen and 900 regular Greek army troops supported by 100 tanks.
Perhaps Mr. Freedman is most disingenuous when he claims that Turkey's rejection of Cypriot offers not to deploy the S-300s was because of Turkey's concerns that "the Turkish community on Cyprus [might] be threatened." The fact is that after Cyprus extended this olive branch, Turkey issued a new demand that for peace talks to resume, there must be legal recognition of its outlaw state and halting of the Republic of Cyprus' European Union admission.
While an effective, sensational headliner, the president's preoccupation with the Lewinsky affair of course had nothing to do with this impasse in the Cyprus peace process. An exasperated Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy for Cyprus, declared in a rare instance of finger-pointing that Turkish intransigence was to blame.
Given our government's continuing ratification of Turkish belligerence and the dissemination of misleading articles such as Mr. Freedman's, perhaps the finger should be pointed much closer to home.
'Phillip D. Spyropoulos
New York
The writer is director of American Hellenic Media Project.
Balto. fans don't remember how to behave at stadium
I am ashamed and embarrassed for a city I have been proud to call home.
I am a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I am also 3 1/2 months pregnant. Many would say that I should have known better than to enter "enemy territory" in my condition, but I felt perfectly safe in the town where I have spent my entire life. Besides, our crew (dressed in full black and gold regalia) survived an invasion into Cleveland during the Browns' heyday, so I figured Baltimore would be a piece of cake.
From the minute we arrived downtown, I knew this had been a mistake. These fans were not playfully taunting us as we rode by waving our Terrible Towels. These fans were not simply shouting and getting pumped up for the game. These fans were grim and angry. These fans were cursing and gesturing obscenely. These fans were ugly.
Still, we made it into the stadium and through the game without incident. Until the Steelers won.
Back on the bus, eager to leave this menacing place, a beer bottle brushed my head and smashed into the woman seated across from me. Several older gentlemen were attacked through their open windows, with Ravens fans climbing the sides of our bus hurling fists and more bottles. A crowd of psychopaths attacked the front door and began kicking in the glass.
My husband and another companion were cut by the shattering windows as they defended the entrance, managing to keep the attackers at bay with a blast from the fire extinguisher. While they were successful in securing the front door, other Ravens attackers busted the rear door and took our cooler.
I don't know if I can convey the terror of being trapped in a small school bus, surrounded by a throng of raving idiots attacking from all points. I felt helpless to protect myself or my unborn child. All in all, I guess we were lucky. For a terrifying few minutes I thought the lunatics would overtake us or overturn the bus.
Maybe because Baltimore was without a team for so long, its fans have forgotten how to properly cheer for their team. This was certainly evident during the game, when Ravens fans were silent as their defense took the field and screaming wildly while their offense struggled to call its plays. Maybe Baltimore fans have forgotten how to foster a friendly rivalry. Maybe this was just an isolated incident, caused by too much alcohol and the frustration of losing. Either way, it should not have happened, and I am embarrassed for my own home town.
Regardless of why we are Pittsburgh Steelers fans, at least we know how to cheer for our team. The citizens of Baltimore should be ashamed of the Ravens fans. I know I am.
awn R. Butler
Baltimore
Regulation is proper for tobacco, not fat and caffeine
Tim Gannon, as executive vice president of a chain of steakhouses, certainly has an interest in fending off any possible attempts by government to enter into regulation of the fat content of foods ("After cigarettes, get ready for the attack on fat and coffee," Sept. 8, Opinion Commentary).
But his argument, comparing food fat and caffeine to tobacco, carefully avoids certain fundamental differences between those substances.
Fat, unlike tobacco, is something that the human body requires, albeit in moderate quantities. Caffeine, unlike tobacco, is a substance that can be used in moderation by millions of people with beneficial effects (increased alertness, mood improvement) with no ill effects. Alcohol is another substance that millions of people can use in moderation with little or no harm.
Because of the great harm it can cause when misused, however, it is appropriately subject to government regulation.
In contrast to fat and caffeine, and even to alcohol, tobacco used in any amount is harmful to the body, and harm increases with the amount used. Tobacco use has both immediate and long-term harm.
Finally, any addictive qualities of caffeine or fat are mild and can be controlled by most people.
In contrast, virtually everyone who takes up tobacco becomes addicted to it and has extreme difficulty terminating tobacco use.
Regulation of such a harmful and useless substance as tobacco is entirely appropriate.
Regulation of fat and caffeine would be much more problematic because different people have different physiological responses to those substances.
With the new labeling laws, individuals are able to choose foods and beverages that contain unharmful amounts of fat or caffeine.
Elizabeth Fixsen
Savage
'Cheaters' deprive disabled of parking
I have been a disabled/handicapped person since September 1960. I get around in a wheelchair.
I have a car equipped with hand controls and find it appalling trying to find a parking space whenever I go out because disabled/handicapped parking spaces are taken up by cheaters able-bodied people who have lost their pride and self-respect for the sake of a parking space.
These cheaters need to get back their pride and self-respect and stop abusing this system.
The Motor Vehicle Administration has let this type of cheating get out of hand along with physicians who improperly fill out the papers for people to get tags and placards. There must be a way to stop or cut down on the cheating to allow parking for people who truly need it.
Theresa A. Sharp
Baltimore
Senator presidential in speech on president
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Democrat of Connecticut, was so well received and effective because he spoke with dignity, sincerity and sensitivity about President Clinton.
He made it clear that he could not let his personal friendship with Mr. Clinton outweigh his commitment to morality and proper behavior of a president.
Some of the political vitriol we have heard from presidential opponents has so offended Mr. Clinton's friends that they have gone to his defense despite their personal disapproval.
It took courage and honesty to plan and deliver that speech. Mr. Leiberman, known for his accomplishments, moderate views and devotion to duty, presents himself as a fine candidate for the presidency.
ylvia B. Mandy
Baltimore
Governor's policies pro-Modell, not model
Gov. Parris N. Glendening deplores President Clinton as a role model for children? People who live in glass houses shouldn't cast stones.
If anything, Mr. Glendening's tenure has been a textbook example of moral vacillation and political expediency. His absence of leadership is anything but an example.
As a resident of Baltimore, and as someone who voted for him, I was outraged by his behavior almost immediately. How could someone with any sort of moral fiber give so generously to those who already have (with a quarter-billion dollar entitlement for the Modell family, for example) while taking so ruthlessly from those who have nothing.
This is no endorsement of Ellen R. Sauerbrey, whose platform is hardly a glowing model for social justice.
However, her criticisms of the governor have plenty of merit. The governor failed to make any real headway on the plight of those most economically disadvantaged in a time of relative prosperity elsewhere and led the legislature nowhere. Was this because of a poorly formed vision for the state, malfeasance or plain incompetence?
dTC It's no wonder that at the same time he rebuked the president, Mr. Glendening lowered his own profile at events that might draw attention to his less-than-noteworthy record. If anyone should give a more complete apology, it's the governor.
Sean Gallagher
Baltimore
How dose Grasmick choose reading plan?
I read with great interest the Sept. 4 letter ("Phonics change is too late for whole language students") from a grandmother who said the change to phonics came too late for her grandson, who was unsuccessfully taught by whole language. My family had the same circumstances and also needed expensive private tutoring.
Maryland Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick was a proponent of whole language teaching, and now she suddenly jumps on the phonics bandwagon. One wonders why and how Ms. Grasmick selects the methods to teach reading.
Furthermore, when remedial assistance is inadequate and needed outside of the school, the State should reimburse families for the expense.
S.L. Elishewitz
Reisterstown