Lawmakers: Do right thing on tobacco tax
I will be going home to see my mother this weekend. For the past two years, she has suffered from the pain and treatments associated with lung cancer caused by smoking. As a family member watching this horrible disease progress, I feel compelled to plead with our lawmakers to vote the right way when it comes to the governor's $1 tobacco tax proposal.
Senators Edward J. Kasemeyer and Martin G. Madden, as well as Delegates Elizabeth Bobo, Shane Pendergrass and Frank S. Turner all signed pledges to support even a higher $1.50 tobacco tax proposal before the election. Surely, they will keep their promise to the people and vote for the governor's bill, even though it is a smaller increase.
Perhaps even the most conservative and fiscally minded Howard County lawmakers will vote the right way, too.
The state collects only $130 million in tobacco taxes each year while it spends at least $1.5 billion on smokers who get sick and die from tobacco use. For every $1 smokers spend on their daily fix, the state economy chips in an extra $3.25 taking care of them when they get sick. These costs get passed on to all of us and we see higher insurance premiums and higher costs for goods and services as a result. Just one bill for four days of treatment and hospitalization cost my parents $29,900, for example.
We should do everything we can to discourage tobacco use. Voting for the $1 tobacco tax is a healthy and fiscally responsible thing to do.
Glenn E. Schneider Columbia
Editorial missed mark on property
Your March 5 editorial in The Sun in Howard County, "Standing against sprawl," demonstrated that the writer knew little about the area of concern. The property purchased by Admad Bagheri for a senior housing project is not in western Howard County.
If anything, the property, located between U.S. 40 and Route 144, just opposite the northern end of Folly Quarters Road, is on the eastern side of central Howard County. To be exact, its location is 6.8 miles along the U.S. 40 from the eastern line of Howard County at the Patapsco River Bridge and 14.8 miles from the western line of the county just before reaching Mount Airy. The editorial also states the property area is "far from services in a village center or access to public transportation."
Actually the proposed site is just 1.8 miles from the multiple shopping areas centered about U.S. 40 at Bethany Lane. To my knowledge there is no public transportation anywhere along the busy U.S. 40 corridor, and we older citizens have been getting along just great without it, thank you.
What really seems clear to me is that the Howard County Council did not want to ruffle the feathers of the immediate upscale neighbors in the area -- Ryland's Terra Maria development, Turf Valley Country Club and the new expensive Brantwood homes being developed across Route 144 on what was Charles C. Feaga's old farm property.
Well, maybe our conscientious council members will consider the senior citizens and elderly of Howard County sometimes after 2000 rolls around if they are still in office.
In the meantime, wouldn't it be refreshing to read editorials that express opinions based on correct facts, rather than half-truths and smoke screens?
Carl G. Aulds Ellicott City
No commercialization at Waverly Woods
I am writing to protest the proposal of the commercialization of the entrance to the Waverly Woods development. I urge the planning and zoning commission to vote down this proposal.
It appears the developer's only desire is the monetary return he will receive from the sale of this land.
The developer promised several years ago to do nothing to destroy or detract from the beauty of historic Waverly Mansion. Such promises are only broken when money speaks louder than words.
Michael Stephenson Sr. Ellicott City
How bystander might have saved life
On March 11, So Shan Chan was slain and her daughter was wounded in the parking lot of the Howard County Circuit Courthouse in front of at least two men. Either man might have saved Ms. Chan's life had he been carrying a gun. However, each was (presumably) an unarmed, law-abiding citizen, unable to help.
Did anyone ask either man: "If you were carrying a gun at the time, would you have used it to try to save Ms. Chan's life?" Thought should be given to that question and to the answer that each man might have provided.
William J. Scanlon Jr. Ellicott City
Kazan, Oscar and the Arthur Miller link
The articles by Chris Kaltenbach and Ann Hornaday on March 13 regarding the controversy over the awarding of a special Oscar to Elia Kazan for his contributions to film-making were informative but failed to mention the role of Arthur Miller in the debate.
Mr. Miller and Mr. Kazan were close friends before the House Un-American Activities Committee's attempts to root out communism in Hollywood began in 1947 and continued through the 1950s.
Mr. Kazan directed the original stage version of Mr. Miller's "Death of a Salesman" in 1949. However, when Mr. Kazan began to testify as a "friendly witness" before the committee, Mr. Miller and he parted ways. Mr. Miller was sympathetic to those writers and directors whose careers were ruined as a result of the hearings. He reacted to the "Red Scare" by writing "The Crucible," a play about the witch trials in Salem in the late 17th century and drew close parallels to the HUAC investigations.
However, at about the same time, Mr. Kazan collaborated with script writer Budd Schulberg to write and direct "On the Waterfront," a rationale that "informing" is justified under certain circumstances -- in this case a mob that controlled the dock workers union.
Just about anyone older than 40 remembers Marion Brando's Oscar-winning performance as Terry Malloy, the "informer."
Mr. Miller was to delve into the issue once again in his autobiographical play, "After the Fall," written in 1964. There is a brilliantly written scene in which the Miller character, Quentin, and the character based upon Kazan have a bitter argument over the latter's decision to "name names."
Mr. Miller in his writing alludes to the fact that Mr. Kazan's actions led to the death of Philip Loeb, a popular character actor, in 1955.
With the recent revival of "Death of a Salesman" on Broadway, a play in which Mr. Miller seems to be exposing his socialist leanings in his condemnation of the conventional wisdom of the American Dream of success, security and comfort, it would be interesting to learn if Mr. Miller, now 88, has tempered his views in regard to Mr. Kazan.
Arthur Laupus Columbia
Bitter tears for Paula Jones
This letter is in response to The Sun article March 5 in regard to the Clinton/Jones lawsuit settlement.
I cried out of sympathy for all the lawyers who were involved in the "increasing bitter fight that had broken out among the lawyers who had handled her case at various stages with competing fee claims along with charges of malpractice and bad faith traded back and forth."
However, my tears were not in vain as I further read that U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright of Little Rock had reached an agreement with the attorneys on how to divide the money.
Do you mean to tell us that the Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville conservative legal advocacy group that had been paying for Jones' lawsuit, will be paid $100,000? The Rutherford Institute, headed by John Whitehead, said in January that its outlays were at least $415,000 and rising.
My tears quickly dried when I suddenly remembered all the appeal letters mailed out to Christians scattered across the country, whining for money to help beloved Paula. Now I cry again for all the beloved people who were persuaded, duped and snookered into donating to such a worthy cause.
Kathleen Cox Ellicott City