Why make developers scapegoats?

Why is it that every election season the press and public begin a feeding frenzy on homebuilders and developers? These are responsible men and women who make major contributions to our community and quality of life.

Developers and homebuilders undertake a project with considerable risk. They invest a great amount of energy and financial resources to create a quality product. Often, they put their own homes at risk, securing the financing to enhance their visions for better communities.

We have all the laws and regulations in place necessary to assure adequate facilities and comprehensive planned growth, as well as controls to monitor campaign contributions.

Developers support political candidates the same way you do. They want fiscally responsible government that enhances the quality of life for all citizens. They also make major contributions to the nonprofits groups of our community, including but not limited to youth sports teams, Scouts, the community college and hospital.

Are there unethical developers and homebuilders? We all know there are. However, certainly no more than unethical salespeople, accountants, teachers, lawyers or sanitation engineers. Why persist in painting them all with the same broad brush? I have had myriad experiences with people in the development and construction industries. They are hard-working, socially responsible people.

Jill McCuan

Columbia

Animal shelter work is often unnoticed

As a member of Animal Advocates, I get to work closely with employees of the Howard County Animal Shelter. I would like to praise the work done by these dedicated county workers. The important services they provide often go unnoticed.

Whether they are returning a lost cat to his owner, controlling a dog roaming at large or matching a family with an animal companion, the employees at the animal shelter work hard to make our community a better place.

Animal Advocates would like to urge residents to visit the county animal shelter and learn about the many ways the public can assist in helping abused and homeless animals. The Howard County Animal Shelter is located at 8576 Davis Road, Columbia, 410-313-2780.

Ann Selnick

Ellicott City

Maybe Hillary Clinton is thinking of herself

Has anyone considered that the real reason Hillary Clinton defends her husband is that, besides enjoying the prestige and privilege of being the president's wife and living in the White House, she is trying to save herself?

Who would pardon her if Bill Clinton is impeached? Mrs. Clinton is certainly in a position to be indicted for, among other things, concealing billing records that indicated she had lied under oath about representing Whitewater matters as a lawyer at the Rose Law Firm and for her hand in the firings in the travel office.

Donald B. W. Messenger

Laurel

The two faces of the GOP

It appears to me that we are experiencing an ironic andisturbing reality of a major political party that purports to be a champion of the individual against an all-powerful government but is using the power of the government to assault individual privacy.

While the private acts of the president can be described by religious codes of conduct as sinful, the private acts of consenting adults are not illegal.

They certainly are not of constitutional consequence.

This prurient preoccupation provides a convenient smoke screen for the Republican-controlled Congress to block attempts at campaign finance reform and keep the money machine rolling to fund attempts to buy control of state and federal governments.

Wetlands are under attack, the Endangered Species Act is under attack, and attempts are being made to have male-dominated legislatures make medical decisions for women.

I find these national issues of far greater importance.

David H. Pardoe

Columbia

Highland's venue for local artists

It was nice to see the Sept. 24 article in The Sun in Howard on the growing arts community in Highland ("Highland community is abuzz with creativity").

I was disappointed, however, to see the article state in reference to the Highland artists that "they have no formal retail space to sell their wares."

If the writer had visited Highland (almost exactly where the arrow in the article points on the map), she would have learned that there is a local gallery that sells many of the local artists' works, including the CD by Glen Salas' band, "The Tree Surgeons," which is mentioned in the article; artwork by two artists whose work appears on the cover of the CD, Darlene Nicholson and Michael Gessner; and many other talented artists.

Liz Humes

Highland

A little leadership on obeying speed limit

Crackdowns on aggressive driving and running red lights are good, but speed limits must also be enforced. That is particularly true on U.S. 29, where there seems to be a total disregard of the posted limit by most drivers.

What really irks me is that the local police who would appear to be commuting to their shift at the Scaggsville station are often leading the way.

One would expect that they should set the example. I could understand if they were on a call, but they are not using flashing lights or sirens, and it occurs on a daily basis.

With this lack of attention, the speeds seem to get ever faster. No one seems to care.

Bob Carels

Columbia

Citizens themselves must aid in crime fighting

The Sept. 25 editorial, "Don't dismiss crime fears," strikes me as having been written by either a poor myopic soul who is chained to the desk and doesn't read the local papers or a new hire not yet fully up on the history of the two villages commented on.

The fact of the matter is that the Howard County Police Department has been at the forefront of addressing crime and the perception of crime in Columbia's villages with community policing initiatives that were begun years ago under the forward-looking helmsmanship of Chief James N. Robey and are continued by his eminently able successor, G. Wayne Livesay.

The Police Department has long been organizing community forums and working with neighborhood liaisons to collect data and disseminate accurate information regarding crime trends in the county to deal with often illogical rumor-fed perceptions while at the same time running discreet, yet effective, zero-tolerance campaigns in neighborhoods that receive the most calls for service or have other indications of problems.

The shootings in Harpers Choice, however, are unpleasant reminders that society has some grave problems to work out before we can call the job done. The "Rouseian" ideal of offering a safe place to live for all still holds up, but it is more and more dependent on the volunteer effort of the citizens to keep it working.

Long Reach, for example, enjoys benefits in our second year of grant funding that brought a police satellite office into a very expensive first-class renovation of our village center.

Three years ago, things looked pretty dismal there but with the combined efforts of the county police, Columbia management and the Long Reach Community Association, it is now a lively place where families shop after sunset and businesses are drawing new and regular customers.

Additionally, the grant program known statewide as "Hot Spots," enabled other entities in the community to link up for work with school-age children in "at-risk" situations to improve their educational experience and continue their oversight during the summer.

The satellite office has also become the meeting place for a new resident initiative program combining two adjacent developments with some common concerns to effectively marshal available resources to prevent the sort of things we fear in Columbia. All of this and more has been reported in The Sun as it developed.

The editorial seemed to lay the onus to take action solely on the police and Columbia officials. But work has been under way for a long time and is bearing fruit.

Unfortunately, evidence of the difficulties in dealing with some of the issues is demonstrated by the fact that one of the shooters had been banned from the site where he committed his crime but continued to visit his family there.

If we wish to remain a constitutional democracy and not a fascist state, then we will have to expect that people moving around in society unconcerned with official sanctions will continue to do as they please no matter how wrong we insist it is or how strongly worded editorials may be.

Crime is reportedly on the decline but we keep inviting more people into our county and therein lies the rub. Regardless of socioeconomic status, it is our human condition that compounds the problem.

Chief Livesay and the dedicated men and women of law enforcement would love it if they could work themselves out of a job, but they are secure in the knowledge that we humans will never naturally permit that.

So we must come out of our homes and support the work that is going on and not give in to irrational fears that no one is paying attention and the whole place is going to hell in a handbasket.

John J. Snyder

Columbia

Pub Date: 11/08/98