Next round of lawsuits: beer, beef ?
Regarding Warren Buckler's Opinion Commentary article ("Pols take stand on guns," Nov. 16), now that Chicago is suing gun manufacturers for the cost of violent crime, which law-abiding industry will be next?
Will someone force Budweiser to pay for the crimes of drunken, violent criminals? Will someone extort money from McDonald's to pay for heart bypass surgery? Compel Chrysler to pay the medical bills of car-crash victims?
If we thought politicians would be satisfied extorting billions of dollars from tobacco companies, think again.
Once the government has the power to sue in the name of public health, it's only a matter of time until your favorite product is targeted.
What's really frightening is politicians using their political power to bankrupt businesses that make products they don't like, and in the process, destroying our freedom to use them.
Instead of protecting public safety, politicians are committing a crime of their own: extorting money from honest companies to pay for the crimes of street thugs.
Bill Shadle
Myerstown, Pa.
Illegal steel dumping dents U.S. industry
The Business section article "Cheap steel imports hurt U.S. makers, but so what?" (Nov. 15) deserves a response.
The article states that cheap, foreign-imported steel results in lower domestic steel prices, without considering the effect on domestic producers.
Sure, lower prices always benefit the economy, but at what cost? As imports erode profits, first to go is research and technology (a large part has already been cut). The next to go is new equipment (old equipment gets worn and obsolete). Third to go are mills and jobs. If another war comes, the United States would be faced with a rundown steel industry.
On the other side of the coin, foreign countries subsidize their steel producers. Foreign countries do not enforce environmental protection laws or enforce worker safety rules, which add costs to U.S. steel, leaving domestic producers at a disadvantage.
One of the viewpoints in the article seems to suggest that it is unheard of for the U.S. government to favor an industry. The U.S. government supports a list of industries as long as your arm. So much butter and cheese was bought that it had to be given away because of a shortage of storage space.
The government also pays many farmers and ranchers not to plant crops. Just think how low our food prices would be without price supports.
The steel industry is not as healthy as your article implies as evidenced by laid-off workers, closed mills and company mergers.
Henry W. Garvin
Baltimore
The writer is a retired stainless steel research engineer.
Kane picked wrong Republican for blacks
Gregory Kane bemoans the loss of the governor's seat by Ellen R. Sauerbrey to Gov. Parris N. Glendening and castigates black voters because they turned out in a larger percentage than usual to vote against the challenger in that election ("Black voters succumb to Glendening demagogy," Nov. 7).
Apparently, Mr. Kane does not have the advantage of having lived in Maryland when rural black children were, basically, limited to seven grades of education (or less) because no buses existed to carry them to schools until 1938.
That's when Harry W. Nice, a Republican who became governor, saw the civil wrong in the Maryland brand of "separate but equal" in education.
At that time, the promise of the challenger made more sense to the black voter than the record of the incumbent. I can remember Mr. Nice leaning out of his car when he stopped to chat with a pod of black children, saying, "I am going to make it better for you to go to school. I am going to see that you get buses to go to high school." And he did.
I remember another great Republican. Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin, a man who, on his way to the State House, stopped his chauffeured vehicle to pick up a young black male student who had missed his bus and was hitchhiking to school.
Throughout that 17-mile ride to Annapolis, Mr. McKeldin talked to that youngster about the necessity of getting an education. Sometimes he spoke about the embarrassment of "separate but equal" schools.
Sometimes we elect candidates in spite of their records because of the rhetoric of his or her opponent. The last time black voters rose up to elect a Republican to the Maryland State House was such a time. The rhetoric of the Democratic opponent did not promise sensitivity to the needs and ambitions of black people. Unfortunately, the recipient of the black voters' trust saw fit to insult them by saying that he and those like him would select leaders for the black people. It catapulted him into the vice presidency via the "Southern strategy."
Mr. Kane seems to forget that candidates usually gain more favor from black voters on the basis of their record than on their rhetoric. Ms. Sauerbrey, after the election of 1994, had some uncomplimentary things to say about black voters' ethics and voting habits. Also, her voting record in the House of Delegates did not reflect a sensitivity to the plight and ambitions of black people.
Mr. Kane should applaud his people for being able to stand up when rationally called upon to do so.
Ernest O. Brown
Baltimore
Memorial Stadium at Camden Yards
The most recent candidate for the nane of the NFL stadium is PSINet. What an absolutely horrible name to hang on such a nice-looking structure.
The people of Baltimore, should have the power to name this building, and it should be called Memorial Stadium at Camden Yards.
But we don't have this power. We gave it up when we handed the keys to this $200 million-plus prize to Art Modell for giving us back a football team.
Then, in a move of gratitude and thanks, Mr. Modell decrees that we must pay permanent seat license fees to be able to get a season ticket.
And now, in yet another move to further endear himself to the hearts of Baltimoreans everywhere, the name of the new stadium is up for sale to the highest bidder, no matter how un-pronounceable, un-fitting or downright ugly that name is.
Maybe the next time we are ready to make an out-of-town millionaire an even richer millionaire, we should ask how many more millions he or she will need from us. It is obvious we have not given enough to our local NFL owner.
And if you think that the price our veterans have paid, even up to and including the ultimate sacrifice, is enough for Mr. Modell to consider naming it after them, you are sadly mistaken. Because in his world, obviously, dollars talk, not deeds.
Jeff Crockett
Halethorpe
Program with promise falling to bulldozer
Brendan Walsh, Shirley Wise and other community activists have a right to question the Housing Authority of Baltimore City about the demolition of 1,000 renovated public housing units and the waste of millions in public money ("City seeks to raze repaired housing," Nov. 6). I think everyone would be interested in learning how a program that promised so much to poor families has fallen to such a sorry state.
In about 1968, the idea of acquiring and renovating abandoned and/or tax-delinquent property as an alternative to the construction of conventional public housing projects was embraced as a real winner. Cities such as Baltimore and Philadelphia saw it as a way to deal with the growing scourge of vacant rowhouses, a way to supplement urban renewal activities and a way to house low-income families without the stigma attached to living in the projects -- laudable goals.
Start-up numbers in early years were relatively small, and houses were acquired, given a modest face lift and leased to poor families. This turned out to be a problem because damage caused by tenants, combined with latent defects in the properties, created unforeseen and unacceptable operating costs.
In the ensuing years, as the program grew, more attention was given to inspecting units and standardizing plans and specifications on which private contractors could make competitive bids. This led to higher costs that were still considered a reasonable investment, even with inflation over the years, because the units would stand up to hard use and would be easier to maintain. At least this was the theory. According to your story, the inventory of rehabbed houses has grown to 2,800 units, an investment of millions of taxpayer dollars.
In the period I am familiar with (1972-1990), housing managers often expressed frustration with the problems of managing the scattered rehabbed houses. High operating costs drained funds away from conventional housing projects, leases were hard to enforce (particularly as related to occupancy) and despite the "gut rehab" process, endless backlogs of maintenance work overwhelmed the maintenance staff.
The rehabbed houses were popular with tenants, although they were almost always located in marginal neighborhoods, as they are now, with crime, drugs and deterioration. This had more to do with expediency than design because these were areas where the tax delinquent and abandoned properties were readily available and the communities were most accepting of public housing.
Rehabbed houses and other governmental programs to encourage homeownership have not succeeded in stemming the rising tide of vacant housing in the city. But it is hard to understand how this justifies the decimation of low-income housing opportunities for city families that need it.
The conventional wisdom is that white and middle-class people have been fleeing the city in the greatest numbers, leaving the poor, elderly and handicapped behind.
Assuming Section 8 certificates or vouchers for these families are even available, where are the landlords who will accept them? They usually are not required to do so.
Eighteen family high-rise buildings with 2,000 units are going or gone; most of them will not be replaced. This represents a huge savings in security and operating costs, and the elimination of Baltimore public housing's most visible problem.
Some of the vacant rehabbed units might have to be demolished because they have been neglected beyond repair, but I believe it's possible to organize and find the resources needed to keep the bulk of these units functioning.
City or private managers under contract -- with fair incentives for good performance -- can accomplish this.
Any talk of giving the units to poor families should be thought through very carefully. It is an idea fraught with serious problems for the tenants and the city.
John McCauley
Baltimore
The writer was deputy commissioner of the city's Department of Housing and Community Development. He managed the city's public housing from 1972 to 1991.
Make death penalty more certain, public
The Sun editorial ("State-sanctioned executions," Nov. 17) states that the appeals process is necessarily long to prevent putting an innocent person to death. The state and federal courts give death row inmates too many chances to appeal their sentences for many different -- and mostly frivolous -- reasons.
The Sun also states that the death penalty does not deter crime. I agree. But I propose two solutions to the above:
First, there should be one appeal at the state level and one at the federal level. This will cut the cost and time involved in getting murderers to their destinies.
Second, executions should be open to viewers. Public and televised hangings, firing squads, gassings and electric chairs would reduce capital offenses.
Perhaps both Christine Doerfler and Tyrone Gilliam would still be alive today if these two proposals were in use.
Barry J. Costello
Timonium
Governor has bitten hand that elected him
Gov. Parris N. Glendening is doing it again, biting the hand that feeds him.
The execution of Tyrone X. Gilliam, in the face of enormous opposition from the African-American political and religious community, was the first test of how the governor would deal with the constituency that put him back in office.
Only weeks ago, the governor was walking through the neighborhoods, begging African Americans to vote, showing up at African-American churches preaching forgiveness and atonement and trying to convince young people that their votes really counted.
Now that we have delivered a victory for him, it appears that we have been played again with the old smoke and mirrors game. His callous behavior in executing Gilliam when it was not clear that the inmate was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt shows that the governor is not to be trusted.
While many African Americans would support the death penalty when the crimes are clear-cut, there is skepticism when an inmate may be executed on trumped-up charges, sloppy police work or, in this case, when the prosecution has not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
We live in a state where 15 men are on death row, 12 of whom are African Americans. All the African Americans have been convicted of killing white people.
Statistics show that the majority of violent crime committed by African-American men is perpetrated against other African Americans.
This determines a lot of young African-American men feel about themselves -- that society places no value on their lives.
The disproportionate application of the death penalty flies in the face of true justice.
Zachary McDaniels
Baltimore
Capital punishment catharsis, deterrent
Your editorial "State-sanctioned executions" (Nov. 17) reinforces my belief that the death penalty must remain and be even more diligently enforced.
The case of Tyrone X. Gilliam demanded the death penalty.
Life without parole is no answer for these types of crimes. These prisoners will become expensive wards of the state, filing mindless appeal after appeal. The arguments citing costs are specious; the endless appeals produce the costs. The execution itself is inexpensive.
If the death penalty were eliminated, lawyers would transfer their objections from the death penalty to the lesser penalty of life without parole. The main objective of the criminal and his lawyer is to wear down society and the judicial system.
In this case, the young life of a woman was cut cruelly short. If the only argument that opponents can muster is who pulled the trigger, I say put all three to death because they are equally guilty. They all willingly participated in this heinous crime. A death resulted from their ignorance, stupidity and lack of respect for life.
I'm confident a higher power will sort it out, and I promise not to lose any sleep over it.
Alan McAllister
Severna Park
Changing climate for the better in troubled community
In responding to Dan Rodricks' two columns on a woman with four children paying no rent in a Housing and Urban Development-subsidized housing complex, I must begin with the premise that reducing a "climate of consent" is a process, not just an event ("Needy losing fight for housing, to drug dealers, wrecking ball," Nov. 11, and "Drugs breed familiarity on Upton streets," Nov. 13).
The city has no magic wand it can wave to eliminate all of the ills in the making for decades in the woman's development and her neighborhood.
The city has taken some hard-hitting measures recently, however, and will continue to target the Upton area. At the same time, taking control of a negative quality-of-life situation is not as easy as it seems, especially when viewed from the outside.
Mr. Rodricks, whom I consider a basically fair-minded reporter, is on the outside looking in on the Upton community.
His view of just who is losing the fight for housing in the neighborhood is blurred, premature and simply wrong. His view is blurred not because his eyes are playing tricks on him -- bullet holes don't lie -- but because his view of the situation involving Shalelah Cook and her family, when seen through a bullet hole, affords him a limited, and somewhat sensationalized, scope of the situation.
As a result, efforts to positively impact her community, as well as her and her family, never see the light of day in Mr. Rodricks' columns and are sacrificed in the interest of the story line.
Thirty to 40 city and housing authority police officers issued 170 moving violations, made 30 arrests, served 5 warrants, conducted 300 field interviews and issued 48 criminal summons in just one week recently.
Most of the violations were issued to people from outside the community, who have come to see Upton as a place where they can buy drugs with impunity. The final arrest figures will be much higher.
The image of four small children being held hostage in their home, not being allowed the joy of playing outside, is heart-wrenching. The thought of an 11-year-old girl losing sleep and her appetite because of fears about her neighborhood is compelling indeed. The fact that her condition stems from a bullet shattering her window when she was 7 years old is hard for most of us to imagine.
This can only be changed by the community and city agencies working together.
M. Dion Thompson wrote a great article ("Upbeat on the Avenue," Nov. 12) about the turnaround at the Avenue Market, just a few blocks up the street from Ms. Cook's home.
The completion of a subway stop and revitalization of the Pennsylvania Avenue commercial district will have a positive effect on this community.
Next year, the Murphy Homes public housing development, just a few blocks south, will be demolished, and a new, economically diverse community will expand almost to Ms. Cook's doorstep. In the meantime, my experience is that the best way to get rid of drug dealers in a community is to get rid of drug buyers. No market, no salesmen.
In addition to the efforts of the police to interdict outsiders who fill the pockets of the dealers with profits, the city has funded substance abuse treatment at a level high enough to assure treatment on demand for city residents.
Because of circumstances beyond her control, this is Ms. Cook's neighborhood today. It has not always been this way, and thanks to efforts by several city agencies, will not remain that way for very much longer.
Ms. Cook does not feel she is able to move at this time. Her family and many others need housing someplace where criminal activity is far less or nonexistent.
That is why I have proposed transformation efforts in this and other communities.
Just fixing up housing in a community with the level of negative activity described in Mr. Rodricks' articles and moving people back with zero rent will not solve the problem.
Daniel P. Henson III
Baltimore
The writer is the Baltimore housing commissioner.
Pub Date: 11/21/98