Walters exhibition should be blockbuster for gallery, 0) Baltimore
The arts preview enlightened Baltimore's culture lovers about the array of worthwhile opportunities this season. In his visual arts preview, critic John Dorsey described the major museums' offerings as a nice balance of the "crowd-pleasing" and "thought-provoking," but lacking the scale and name recognition last year's shows ("Less glamour, lots of interest," Sept. 13).
While it is true that the Walters Art Gallery, as always, considered artistic and scholarly merit first when planning its upcoming exhibitions, the "The Invisible Made Visible: Angels from the Vatican" exhibition opening in November does indeed deserve "blockbuster" status.
This summer, more than 200,000 visitors attended the St. Louis Art Museum's 12-week showing of the "Angels" exhibition. If this is any indication of the show's potential to draw visitors, the Walters should have no difficulty reaching the projected attendance of 85,000 for its 8-week showing. This projection translates into an average of 1,800 visitors per day, on par with the Monet blockbuster at the Walters this spring. The Monet exhibition recorded about 1,900 visitors per day and had an estimated economic impact of $15 million on the city.
Since "Angels from the Vatican" will be on view at the Walters during the height of the holiday season (November 8-January 3), it will no doubt mean a similar boost to the economy. This is an offering to rival the shows of Washington and New York City; the "Angels" blockbuster promises to be a fount of cultural enrichment and tourist dollars for the city of Baltimore.
Ann Wilson
Baltimore
The writer is director of marketing and communications at the Walters Art Gallery.
Graves the wrong umpire for Little League dispute
The Northwood Baseball League should demand someone other than City Planning Director Charles C. Graves III to serve as umpire in its dispute with Morgan State University ("Morgan, Little League fight over fields," Sept. 12). Mr. Graves is the chairman for MSU's master plan for expansion.
It is our experience that MSU is not particularly concerned about its environmental setting on the Herring Run. It may be similarly unconcerned about its other neighbors.
Richard S. Hersey
Baltimore
The writer is executive director of the Herring Run Watershed Association.
You have a lot to learn about people in Dundalk
I write in response to your editorial ("Reading voter tea leaves," Sept. 17). Louis DePazzo was defeated not because Dundalk only elects "crazy" people as your editorial might appear to suggest. Mr. DePazzo failed to listen to his constituents' wishes.
If he wanted to represent corporate interests instead of working families, he should have been a lobbyist, not a county council member.
As a 10-year resident in Dundalk, I'd like to say that your paper has no clue about Dundalk. Allow me to point out that Dundalk is different. The people I've met here are very honest and hold nothing back. This type of honesty is a breath of fresh air.
President Clinton should have come to Dundalk and observed our community. Maybe he would have learned something about being straightforward like my neighbors and saved himself a lot trouble.
Ed Rothstein
Dundalk
Took time for sex police to go after Henry Hyde
The slow-moving sex police, after all these years, blew the whistle as their dogs sniffed out U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican, in the oblong-shaped room where he currently chairs the House Judiciary Committee hearings.
The congressman acknowledges the charges: He did have an extramarital affair when in his 40s. He stated, though, "The statute of limitations has long since passed on my youthful indiscretions."
No quite that long ago, American women will recall, he was plenty tough on the indiscretions of others. As author of the infamous Hyde amendment in the 1970s, he effectively blocked access to abortion for the nation's poor women.
Yes indeed, the sex police are working overtime this season.
Sally Gray
Baltimore
Clinton's Lewinsky scandal is Shakespearean, too
Reflecting on Dan Rodricks' column ("Scandal translates from Greek tragedies," Sept. 14), I turned to Shakespeare and found this:
L Hamlet: Act 1, Scene 4: So oft it chances in particular men,
That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty
(Since nature cannot choose his origin),
By their o'ergrowth of some complexion
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
Or by some habit, that too much o'er leavens
The form of plausive manners that these men,
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,
His virtues else, be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo,
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault: the dram of ev'l
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
To his own scandal.
Elizabeth K. Perry
Baltimore
Wrong place and time to discuss Clinton affair
Every day in the newspapers across the country, editorials denounce President Clinton for embarrassing the country with his actions. Well, that was true a few weeks back, but news reporters are now the embarrassment.
On Sept. 16, the president brought forward a dignitary from another country for a news conference so we could learn how things are going in other lands. Instead of the dignitary getting the attention he so richly deserved, the American media, with their tunnel vision, could only focus on the president and his problems.
Why can't they learn that other things are going on in this world that are important, too, and that the news conference with a dignitary was not the time or the place to have a feeding frenzy? This is akin to unrefined people continuing a family squabble in the middle of a funeral service. They came with their own agenda and to hell with anyone else.
#Douglas C. Burdette Jr.
Aberdeen.
Let impeachment process continue, constitutionally
President Clinton should not resign. The American people deserve nothing less than due process under the Constitution. The House Judiciary Committee must render its judgment on impeachment. If grounds exist, so be it. Impeachment proceedings, though potentially lengthy, are essential. The Framers did not intend quick-fix, politically motivated deals for challenges so great as these.
We must allow the impeachment process to proceed unimpeded and be mindful that it will be a slow, even tawdry, grind. In this way, we can rise above speculation, calumny and conjecture. Mr. Clinton can respond completely to the allegations confronting him. Our goal must be a faithful rendering of constitutional intent. We, the people, must allow the Constitution, as it is framed, to be our guide.
Sheila M. Feinberg
Bethesda
Hold our presidents to highest standards
It is critical that all Americans operate according to standards of honesty and integrity, and the president, above all, should be held to the highest ideal of moral conduct.
While anyone deserves to be forgiven when truly contrite, one who tells the truth only when cornered cannot lead a nation that places its power in trust. Whenever a leader thinks that self-preservation and personal well-being are more important than the anguish caused to a nation, there should be no doubt that lack of leadership exists.
The suffering inflicted on the people by a president who cannot admit the truth has to be corrected in some way so that we can restore belief in our own virtue. It is therefore evident that President Clinton should resign or be impeached.
aye S. Thomas
Salisbury
Pub Date: 9/24/98