Mfume's past points the way to promise

In a chilling prologue to his biography, Kweisi Mfume tells of a tense confrontation with a street tough at the corner of Robert and Division streets, on which his own blood had been spilled a generation earlier. By then a fourth-term congressman representing Baltimore's 7th District, Mr. Mfume had returned to this desolate spot with a "60 Minutes" crew as chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Since that summer day in 1994, conditions there have worsened. One side of that block has been leveled; rats and rubble own the scene. I remember a different time for those who resided in the spare but neat rowhomes two generations ago. Though living with humiliating Jim Crow burdens and the economic wasteland of the Great Depression, working class families somehow stayed largely intact and productive.

My preteen years were spent a short distance away, where the blocks of McCulloh Street above North Avenue were populated by middle-class and professional African-Americans -- teachers, clergy, doctors educating and serving their segregated own. The ills of Mr. Mfume's adolescent world three decades later, much less the horrors of today, are no part of my recollections.

Why recite these dimming memories now? To help put to rest, with hopes growing that Mr. Mfume may be a mayoral candidate, thoughts that he is in any sense a stranger to Baltimore's woes. No, this man knows too well the hellish streets of our hurting town. Having survived them, triumphed over them, his life's experience equips him to lead their reclamation. This is a turning point, and the task needs doing now if our cherished city is to be saved.

If Mr. Mfume runs, countless others will offer their talent and energy to join in the struggle.

Milton Bates, Baltimore

Augusta T. Townsend had dramatic flair

Ever since I learned of the death of Augusta Tucker Townsend, I have been looking in vain in the library of my late husband, R. P. Harriss, for some of the stories she wrote under her pen name, Means Davis ("Augusta Townsend, 94, best-selling author of novel about Hopkins medical students," March 8).

Alas, the library is not well organized and probably, unexpectedly, I will find them. Ms. Townsend wrote them long before her best-selling novel, "Miss Susie Slagle's," was published. She always had a flair for the dramatic, as evidenced in her writing, in her daily walks and bicycle jaunts around the Johns Hopkins University athletic playing field and by the incongruous baseball caps she wore.

Although the stunning portrait of her by the world-renoened Stanislav Rembski has disappeared, I hope that it will be discovered.

In it, she is pictured in a full-length, spectacular, red satin evening dress with her hand resting lightly on a Victorian settee.

Now that she is dead, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that much of her unpublished work will be discovered in her files at her former residence at 100 W. University Parkway.

Margery W. Harriss, Baltimore

Cross words over Sun puzzles

Please do not take Steve Sharp's advice on your crossword puzzle ("Sun crossword puzzle becoming too difficult," March 23, letter to the editor).

I, too, look forward each day to doing The Sun's crossword, usually at lunch, in about 15 minutes. I started doing the puzzles about a year or so ago, so I don't claim to be a pro.

However, I wouldn't do them at all if they were any easier.

Please don't dumb them down.

Nancy Lloyd, Bel Air

I agree 100 percent with the Steve Sharp's letter. The Sun's crossword is getting too difficult, especially when you can do much more with the New York Times. Several of us used to get together each day to solve the puzzles.

I admit that a lot of us are not as educated as others, but from the feedback I am getting, a doctorate degree wouldn't make much difference.

Lighten up so all of us can have some pleasure.

John R. Mussina, Baltimore

Steve Sharp's letter about the difficulty of The Sun's crossword puzzle hit the nail on the head. To go further, the culprit is the definitions. They have become stupid and senseless.

Please go back to the way the words were truly defined. There is no humor in the present way.

Marjorie J. Neuman, Baltimore

Amen! I, along with my friends and neighbors, used to enjoy this puzzle, and we feel exactly as Steve Sharp does.

What happened? If you've got a new puzzle source, go back to the old one, please, so we can enjoy the puzzles again.

Marilyn Clark, Baltimore

I'm so glad someone thought to write to you about The Sun's crossword puzzle -- it makes my day doing the puzzles.

A co-worker of mine has been doing them for about 40 years, and she also agreed they were getting harder.

Mary Miller Parkville

In response to the letter about The Sun's crossword puzzle becoming too difficult, my husband and I had a good laugh.

We, too, are avid crossword puzzle solvers. After the paper is read, We cut out both puzzles and cover one with Handi-wrap. We clip it to a clipboard and with a fine point permanent marker pen proceed to solve the puzzle. Mistakes can easily be erased.

What fun can be derived from solving a puzzle easily? It is supposed to be a challenge. We have "The World Almanac," a crossword puzzle dictionary and a good dictionary.

It is amazing how many new words can be learned by doing a hard puzzle.

Please do not change the format. We were most disappointed when you stopped the Acrostic puzzle in the Sunday Sun. Quite a challenge and quite educational.

By the way we are not "brains." We are 72 and 85 years old. It doesn't take a pro to solve the puzzles.

Bettie Tillman

Neil Tillman, Freeland

Hurrah for Steve Sharp of Havre de Grace!

After years of brain-thrusting with The Sun crossword puzzle ev- ery day, I felt I had been losing my ability to remember and to solve the puzzles. It is comforting to know someone else out there agrees that the puzzles have become exceedingly difficult.

As we grow older, we seek mental challenges to help stimulate our mental capacities. We need lots of challenges, not lost causes.

Jane Kloetzli, Edgewater

I heartily agree with Steve Sharp's letter.

I, too, can't wait to try to do the crossword puzzles in The Sun, but they are very frustrating, and I'm spending too much time on them.

Even when using a Merriam Webster's crossword puzzle dictionary, I cannot finish them.

Either make them easier or take them out.

Teresa Rogers, Baltimore

I agree with Steve Sharp's letter about your current run of crossword puzzles.

I haven't completed one in many weeks, but I thought it must have been just me.

When it has words that you have never seen before, it must be too difficult.

George Morgan, Baltimore

I wanted to respond in support of the letters regarding the increasing complexity of the crossword puzzles in your daily paper.

I always thought the paper was supposed to be something for everyone to enjoy.

By making your puzzles so complicated, you have effectively made this part of the paper useless for the majority of your readers.

This is especially true for our treasured senior popluation.

My mother and many of her friends used to collect the crossword puzzles so they would have something interesting to do during long waits at doctors' offices or during the hours that drag on in the middle of the night when sleep eludes them.

By making your puzzles more challenging, you have taken yet another pleasure away from this group and left many feeling as though it is perhaps their loss of ability rather than your level of difficulty that is changing.

I hope that you consider publishing puzzles for the 95 percent of us who are not geniuses rather than for the 5 percent who are.

Amy Gerlach, Baltimore

Like Steve Sharp, my husband and I always looked forward every day to doing the crossword in The Sun.

Unlike Mr. Sharp, we still look forward to it because we like the challenge of a difficult puzzle.

We do use the help of two crossword dictionaries, my Scrabble dictionary and good old Webster's.

Yes, there are occasions when we don't complete the puzzle.

If Mr. Sharp doesn't have useful reference sources, he should get them, and he soon will enjoy the challenge more than ever.

Mary Anne Collins, Perry Hall

Feral colonies littered with good intentions

I was dismayed to read The Sun's romanticized account of the public health problem posed by feral and other stray cats and dogs in Baltimore City. I refer to Rob Hiaasen's article "Pet project" (March 10).

Roaming cats and dogs can transmit rabies and other diseases to humans. A lick or scratch from a stray animal -- even a touch from one -- may be enough to transmit diseases. The animal may have lice, ticks, fleas or intestinal parasites that can be transmitted to a pet in a yard.

Parvo, a virus that kills puppies and unvaccinated dogs, is spread through the feces of infected dogs.

Food left in city alleys for cats may draw and sustain colonies of cockroaches, rats, raccoons, opossum and other vermin, as well as the stray cats and dogs. Stray and feral cat colonies, maintained by well-meaning humans, attack and kill songbirds and other wildlife in communities.

The maintenance of feral cat colonies gives area residents the impression that it is acceptable to allow their pets to run loose. In fact, a pet running loose can subject its owner to a $100 citation from the city and lawsuits from bite victims.

Every time a person is bitten by a feral cat, the taxpayers of Baltimore pay for the investigation, testing and follow up on the bite victim. Medical bills can and do run into the thousands.

While Vonnie Gowe's, described in the story as someone who care's for animals, shows admirable compassion for animals, it would be unrealistic to ignore the threat to public health and private property caused by feeding stray and feral animals. The Baltimore City Bureau of Animal Control has in place its Have-a-Heart trap program. Personnel are trained in safe methods of animal capture, which minimize the risks to animals and humans.

It would be greatly appreciated if Ms. Gowe and others interested in animal welfare would help the city Bureau of Animal Control by finding good adoptive homes for the 200 dogs and cats we are holding.

To participate in the Have-a-Heart trap program, to adopt a cat or dog, or for more information, call Animal Control at 410-396-4688 between 8: 30 a.m. and 4: 30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Robert L. Anderson, Baltimore

The writer is director of the Baltimore City Health Department's Bureau of Animal Control.

Good times roll, so should bicycles

Now that the strong economy has improved Baltimore County's financial picture, I suggest a modest, one-time expenditure to improve bicycle and traffic safety. The county should complete its program of replacing unsafe parallel bar grates with safe ones that bicycles can ride over.

The county had suspended its safety grate program when it encountered budgetary problems.

Making it safe for bicycles to use the areas next to the curb should allow bicyclists to safely share a wide curb lane with cars.

The State Highway Administration has completed its grate replacement program, making it safe for the cyclists to share the wide curb lane with cars on many state roads. Because Baltimore County is committed to the state's Smart Growth plan, which includes making communities and streets more bicycle and pedestrian friendly, the county should complete the grate replacement program that it started.

Jeffery H. Marks, Baltimore

First Desert Storm, now quiet storm

Committing United States armed forces to action in the Serbian province of Kosovo should have elicited more discussion in American homes than the Dow Jones does.

Yet, we are employing B-2 bombers over Central Europe with less discussion in Congress than preceded Desert Storm.

More reading may indicate what the NATO clash with Serbia, which historically has been an ally of Russia, may portend for the United States and our all-volunteer military.

Thomas Strother, Annapolis

Lincoln was right; Taney was wrong

The letter to the editor "If Taney statue goes, others must fall, too" (March 19) suggests that Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's decision in the habeas corpus matter was a good one and that President Abraham Lincoln committed "high crimes and misdemeanors" against the Constitution.

Neither assertion is correct.

Secessionists in Baltimore rioted against Union troop movement through Maryland in April 1861.

Lincoln tried to work something out with Maryland officials, but the violence and sabotage continued. Facing a hostile army across the Potomac, Lincoln authorized General Winfield Scott to suspend habeas corpus and to bombard any cities where armed interference with troop movements between Philadelphia and Washington occurred. John Merryman was apprehended after participating in a bridge destruction.

Taney ruled in the habeas corpus case as presiding federal circuit judge for Baltimore.

When his order to release Merryman was ignored by a union general, as chief justice, he assumed the case as a Supreme Court matter. However, his decision did not include the participation of the other justices. It was the first of the incidents in which he usurped Supreme Court authority to decry Union actions against the insurrection.

On July 4, when Congress convened on his order of April 15, Lincoln explained his actions and what he needed to put down the rebellion.

He pointed out that the habeas corpus in Article I does not specify Congress, and with Congress in recess at the time, the rebellion began, he had to act to preserve the Constitution and to execute its laws.

Taney's interpretation was not supported by judges in other cases, and Lincoln's actions were not disapproved by Congress. Because of Lincoln's actions to protect the capital, the Union Army was able to occupy the Alexandria area of Virginia. Rebel forces were wasted repeatedly trying to cut off Washington. They failed; they lost; Lincoln was right.

Ronald P. Bowers, Lutherville

University employees oppose union bill

The article on collective bargaining for the state ("Mandatory union fee faces likely defeat," March 18) left out an important fact: Employees at University of Maryland System campuses do not want collective bargaining. Of 8,800 nonfaculty employees, fewer than 600 belong to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.

Every independent staff council from every campus in the UM system has rejected collective bargaining.

The elected staff members of the Council of University System Staff voted overwhelmingly not to endorse the collective bargaining bill. The only staff organization to endorse the bill is AFSCME. Even other unions oppose this bill.

The great majority of university employees have decided against the collective bargaining bill, yet the governor and AFSCME wish to impose unionization upon them. I hope the General Assembly hears the voices of the employees and does not force unionization upon the university. It's not wanted or needed, and it is not in the best interest of Maryland students or citizens.

A. Lawrence Lauer, College Park

The writer is an executive committee member of the Council of University System Staff.

Honor Cal Ripken Sr. and reduce smoking

I was never fortunate enough to meet Cal Ripken Sr.

From all I have read about him, it appears he was a truly caring and wonderful man, and his death is a great loss to this community.

I would like to suggest a way to honor this great man: create a group in the Orioles organization that would work to reduce youth smoking and name the group after Cal Ripken Sr.

Given that Mr. Ripken's tremendous amount of smoking may have led to his death by lung cancer, this group could work to prevent future leaders of our community from getting addicted to smoking.

With the help of all the people who knew and loved Cal Ripken Sr., this group could be a great way to honor him and help countless youth. He was dedicated to helping youth as much as he could, and this would be a perfect fit.

Marc Starnes, Baltimore

House blew chance to save lives

The House Judiciary Committee recently had an opportunity to possibly save lives and collect millions of dollars in federal transportation money all at the same time. For the second year in a row, it failed to do so.

Bowing to tavern and restaurant interests around the state, 12 legislators voted to keep the DWI level at .10 instead of the recommended and life saving level of .08. States that have adopted the lower level have been able to show that lives were saved.

I hope that citizens find out who voted against the legislation and also who kept the state of Maryland from receiving millions of dollars.

What is more important than human life? I thought nothing was, but then I found out how much influence the restaurant and tavern industry wielded. Why are legislators elected to office if they really don't take every opportunity they can to save lives?

And even though Maryland has a surplus this year, we can ill afford to let millions of dollars slip through our fingers because of a possible campaign contribution or because the toxicologist was not as convincing as he could have been.

Cameron E. Miles, Baltimore

Pub Date: 3/27/99