Tax credits for teachers too meager to keep best

The proposal for $500 tax credits for schoolteachers hatched on the eve of the election by the State Board of Education is truly bizarre ("Grasmick plan offers incentives," Oct. 28).

Similar benefits will immediately be sought by other groups -- police officers, social workers, prison guards and so on. An extra $500 a year will not recruit or retain any schoolteacher.

Although the Maryland Department of Education has found that graduates in computer and physical sciences can expect to earn $6,000 to $10,000 more in private industry than in teaching, only three Maryland counties have union contracts that permit extra pay for teachers in hard-to-fill disciplines such as the sciences.

A supplement of $10,000 per year for fully qualified high school teachers in these disciplines would cost less than the proposed $500 tax credit and would address the most critical problem. The state should devote more money to merit pay to retain the best teachers. Uniform, seniority-based union pay schedules that drive the best teachers into administration or industry and that ignore the private-sector labor market have failed our public schools.

George W. Liebmann

Baltimore

Military service should not be forced

In his letter ("Those who would skip draft should face firing squad," Nov. 8), Willis Case Rowe displays more outrage than sense. At the beginning of his military service, Mr. Rowe took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

His letter makes clear that he has not read the Constitution and does not understand the principles for which he risked his life.

The first paragraph of the 13th Amendment states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

I would ask Mr. Rowe how conscription is not involuntary servitude when it is by definition forcible induction into military service? Also, conscription was as unpopular in the 1860s as it was in the 1960s -- there were anti-draft riots in New York City in 1863.

If the framers of the 13th Amendment in 1865 wanted to permit conscription, why didn't they craft an exemption for it as they did for imprisonment? We must obey the Constitution as it is written, not as we would like it to be written.

Mr. Rowe's assertion that draft resisters should face the firing squad is so much fascist blather. Since when are civilians subject to military law? Since when does each of us exist for the benefit of the state rather than for the benefit of ourselves and those we love?

I shudder to think that I served (voluntarily) as a lieutenant for nearly four years in an Army antiaircraft missile battery to make the world safe for Mr. Rowe's kind of nonsense.

Amos Hale Adams

Pikesville

Save the environment from a ton of trouble

Tomorrow marks the second annual America Recycles Day. Choosing to recycle is a lot like choosing to vote. Just as a few votes can swing an election, an average family of four can easily recycle more than a ton of material each year.

These tons mean less soot and greenhouse gases in our air, fewer pollutants such as sulfuric acid, less oil in our waterways and less trash going to landfills and incinerators.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a recent survey of several studies concluded that recycling results in a net reduction in 10 major categories of air pollutants and eight major categories of water-quality indicators. Recycling also means business in Maryland. It creates nine times as many jobs as landfilling and incineration.

In this state alone, more than 100 private companies are involved in the processing and remanufacture of recyclables.

In the weeks leading up to America Recycles Day, Scout troops, schoolchildren and curious adults have toured some of these local recycling factories to watch used bottles, cans and paper recycled into new products right before their eyes.

I hope that people will take a moment this weekend to consider that the difference recycling makes is well worth a little extra effort.

Ellen L. Kobler

Annapolis

The writer is a member of the Maryland Recyclers Coalition.

Glad not to be living in frosty Kasper home

Rob Kasper's column ("Nothing boils the blood like turning the heat on," Nov. 7) made me grateful not to be married to him.

To forego one's personal comfort to save money is "thrifty"; to smugly impose it on others, especially your own family, is just plain stingy.

Dorothy L. Harrison

Ellicott City

Life in bay will suffer with dredge dumping

Your editorial supporting the dumping of dredge spoil off Kent Island is a sad day for Maryland ("A site for spoil," Nov. 10). Of course the shipping channels must be dredged, but dumping 18 million cubic yards of muck into prime recreational and fishery waters is an obscenity.

Silt is one of the main killers of the Chesapeake Bay. It is one of the primary causes of cloudy water (along with nutrient bloom), which screens out sunlight and kills plant life.

Killing underwater plants also kills fish and crabs by depriving them of spawning habitat and concealment for the vulnerable young, not to mention oxygen.

The idea that all that silt will "not significantly affect bay ecology" is sheer lunacy. When a builder must construct dams to avoid harmful runoff from a single new home site, is it OK to dump 18 million cubic yards of sludge directly into the bay?

Dumping 18 million cubic yards of silt off Kent Island will make the central bay a muddy-water eyesore for nine years.

Dump the spoil anywhere but back in the bay.

James W. O'Reilly

Monkton

Kane's earlier reasons to oppose Sauerbrey

Last year, Gregory Kane wrote if the absence of white racism were measured on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 representing the least amount of racism, whites have moved from minus 10 to zero.

In short, he said, they have nothing to brag about. Why does he believe I should vote for a candidate such as Ellen R. Sauerbrey, who has nothing to brag about?

Mr. Kane wrote that conservatives: "Walked around with their chests poked out from here to the Rock of Gibraltar, invoking the name of Martin Luther King Jr. for their causes and insisting that they are the ones who are going to lead the nation to racial nirvana."

What Mr. Kane wrote is the very reason why African Americans did not for for Ms. Sauerbrey.

Leo A. Williams

Baltimore

Gingrich showed class but Clinton persists

The departure of Newt Gingrich from the Washington scene surprises friends and foes alike. Even more surprising is the manner in which it was done. Like him or not, it was done with a certain amount of class.

President Clinton's crowd, so far lacking a John Dean or enough collective moral and ethical fiber to join a push to remove him, will leave the nation to finish out the century with a popular, lying and dysfunctional president.

Orville Johnson

Towson

Chang's Mart, neighbors should come together

In October, you published an article, an editorial and letters regarding a controversy between Chang's Mart and some members of the Bolton Hill community.

The story ("Two cultures clash around tiny store," Oct. 1) reported Bolton Hill's effort to get rid of Chang's Mart, a liquor and convenience store, because the community doesn't like the store's clients, who buy liquor by the miniature bottle and beer by the container. To Bolton Hill homeowners, Chang's presents an image and litter problem ("Bolton Hill's struggle for stable community," Oct. 14 editorial).

Your articles also mention that the largely affluent, white middle-class Bolton Hill residents say the clients of Chang's Mart present an image and litter problem. These customers are largely people of color who live just outside of the neighborhood.

Thus, reporting about the racial overtone is simply unavoidable, although Doreen Rosenthal, president of Mt. Royal Improvement Association, denied the race factor in her letter to the editor ("Campaign against grocer to uphold law, community," Oct. 7).

According to previous articles, Chang's Mart had been cited for selling alcoholic beverages to minors twice in 15 years. For this reason, some residents of Bolton Hill link its patrons to other nefarious activities nearby, including prostitution and drug trafficking. I simply do not see the connection.

If Chang's Mart is singlehandedly responsible for the deterioration of Bolton Hill because of two citations in 15 years, we should all become zealots to bring back Prohibition to protect our own neighborhoods.

Ms. Rosenthal's letter mentioned several other charges against Chang's Mart that were dismissed on technicalities. However, this was not mentioned in any of your articles, and Ms. Rosenthal gave no documentation.

To some, Chang's Mart is a nuisance. But to others, as letters supporting Chang's Mart (mostly from his clientele, who are African American) indicate, the store, with only 25 percent of the space used for alcoholic beverages, is a necessity to the community.

As a homeowner, I also empathize with people of Bolton Hill. Perhaps the struggle to achieve stability "in a rising sea of hopelessness and poverty" may seem like a losing battle at times.

I am sure Bolton Hill residents work diligently to keep their neighborhood safe and stable.

The neighborhood's uniqueness and diversity always impress me when I visit the area. Residents make investments in their homes and community.

I write this letter as a businessman and as a homeowner. I ask both sides to come together with a better understanding toward one another's situation and to to communicate with respect and sensitivity to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.

Pyong Kuk Pak

Baltimore

The writer is president of the Korean Society of Maryland.

Balanced approach for transportation in Maryland

The recent gubernatorial campaign had much debate over realistic solutions to the region's transportation challenges, including our top concern -- congestion.

Any responsible transportation vision must be balanced. There is no silver-bullet solution to our traffic congestion problems. The solution lies in a mix of more roads, more accessible transit, effective traffic management and more widespread use of alternative such as telecommuting and carpooling.

Since 1995, the Glendening administration has aggressively pursued this balanced approach while integrating economic development, neighborhood conservation and land-use considerations as stronger factors in our transportation planning.

Over the past four years, the state has invested an average of $600 million in our world-class highway network, an increase of 11 percent over the amount invested in the previous four years.

During this period, 345 lane miles have been added to the system, reflecting a 2.4 percent increase in Maryland's total highway capacity.

In addition, Gov. Parris N. Glendening recently added $381 million to the Maryland Department of Transportation's capital improvement program, with $271 million being allocated to highway construction.

At the same time, we are making prudent investments in Maryland's transit systems that carry an average of 15 to 20 percent of the traveling public in Washington and Baltimore.

If transit were to disappear tomorrow, 330,000 more cars would be on the road, requiring 1,800 new miles of roads to handle all the traffic, at a cost of $15 billion.

We must also recognize that transit ridership is a key component in the state's ability to meet federal clean air standards.

Compliance with these standards has a direct impact on the level of highway funding a state receives from the federal government.

Transit is critical to transportation in Maryland. While we add capacity to our highway network and use traffic management technologies to help reduce congestion, we also continue to grow ridership on our transit systems.

Maryland, through its Comprehensive Transit Plan, is taking the lead in developing some innovative solutions to the growing suburb-to-suburb commute.

Additionally, double-tracking the Baltimore Central Light Rail Line is a top transit priority of the Glendening administration, and federal funding has been authorized for the project.

Through marketing ridership, integrating our ticketing systems and encouraging development around our transit stations, we can achieve a greater return from these investments.

The transportation challenges facing Maryland can only be met by implementing a balanced, adequately financed vision.

David L. Winstead

Linthicum

The writer is secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation.

Don't punish racetracks for betting wrong horse

I was somewhat dismayed to see Democratic state Del. Howard Rawlings quoted as saying that he felt the racing industry should have to pay "some consequences" because it acted against the will of the people ("Track owners to push for slots," Nov. 7).

He said this because track owner Joseph A. De Francis gave money to the Republican National Committee in the recent election.

I would like to respectfully point out that many people in the racing industry are Democrats and supported Gov. Parris N. Glendening's re-election. In addition, I wonder if Mr. Rawlings realizes that 44 percent of the Maryland voting public supported Ellen R. Sauerbrey and the Republicans and that many counties, such as Carroll and my own Kent, had a majority of voters in Mrs. Sauerbrey's camp.

Would Mr. Rawlings expect these counties to withhold services from the minority who supported the Democrats because they should have to "pay some consequences for acting against the will of the people"?

I would think that Mr. Rawlings could be much more effective if he put his energies into positive ways to serve his constituency in Baltimore City without wasting any thought on such negative things as how to punish other citizens of Maryland who happen to have a different political philosophy.

Surely, Mr. Rawlings believes everyone is entitled to vote his or her conscience and shouldn't have to feel intimidated by the thought that there will legislative punishment to those in the minority.

I would hope that all delegates would consider the issue of slot machines at the racetracks without turning it into a political football.

The amount of revenue that can be raised for the schoolchildren of Maryland, as well as the horse industry (which includes breeding farms as well as racetracks), is too substantial to be used as a "punishment" for making the wrong political contributions.

Cynthia R. McGinnes

Chestertown

Is it just me, or has anyone else asked the question of why legalizing slot machines is always contingent upon placing them at racetracks?

At the Charles Town racetrack, I've noticed few people walking through the door connecting the casino to the track, leading me to believe that completely different kinds of gamblers are on either side of the door.

One thing has little to do with the other, and I fail to understand why they are always connected.

Gambling revenue could be used for a host of good projects, but why is it that the racing business should be entitled to the first cut out of the pie?

Michael Shackleford

Baltimore

We must hold leaders to moral standards

In your editorial ("An end to the myth of the 'moral leader,' " Nov. 9), you selected presidential actions that, when viewed from the year 1998, seem less than exemplary. Brushed aside are the dozens of presidents we would want our children to emulate.

To toss aside moral standards that have guided our society even before the founding fathers put pen to paper, liberals condone our president's giving in to his most primitive instincts. They then say, "That's OK; John F. Kennedy did it."

There must be a benchmark in our society of what is acceptable behavior, and the highest elected office in our country should be held to that standard. You can rattle off your lists of philanderers in our history and say how cosmopolitan it makes us, but you must also recognize the majority of the honorable and ethical people who make up our history and our country today.

The presidents you mentioned lived in a time when the press would not report news of their private life. Bill Clinton does. He knows it, and he should be held accountable. We should all feel outraged by his behavior.

We face a challenge in this country. If we continue to encourage our citizens to strive for mediocrity, our country's standing will erode. If we lower the bar for acceptable moral conduct, our ideals will disappear. Then we all lose.

Christopher Byers

Havre de Grace

The attempt in your Nov. 9 editorial to decouple the presidency from moral authority is yet another pathetic example of your servile devotion to the agenda of a liberal president.

If the president were a conservative, I'm certain you would be calling for his head. But beyond that, your notion that we as a nation need to mature along the model of our European counterparts is patently absurd. The last time I checked, the Europeans seemed to be looking to us for leadership on a variety of issues.

The presidency is about leadership, leadership is about moral authority, and moral authority is the ability to separate right from wrong.

How many times have we heard this president say that the country must support a program -- affirmative action, a minimum-wage increase, troops to Bosnia -- because it's "the right thing" to do? How can a president ask us to accept something as the right thing to do when he lies under oath or suborns perjury? Certainly he knows these are not the right things to do.

If our presidents have not been able to satisfy this expectation of moral authority we have of them, that is no cause to eliminate it. That would be sacrificing an ideal on the altar of expediency, truly a symptom of a decaying society. The inability of your newspaper to realize that we must continue to hold our leaders to the highest standards is most disappointing.

Michael H. Ries

Columbia

Pub Date: 11/14/98