Peace is the best solution for Kosovo

The Sun editorializes that "NATO allies must stay the course in Kosovo" (March 30). This is in spite of the fact that instead of bringing peace to the region, the U.S.-led NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia are the equivalent of pouring gasoline on a fire.

The bombing is exacerbating what it was supposed to prevent. Slobodan Milosevic and his thugs have increased the slaughter of Kosovars as nationalist hatreds intensify. Russsia's opposition reinvigorates Cold War antagonisms and effectively shuts down talks on nuclear disarmament.

Airstrikes will likely lead to the deployment of ground troops as the war widens and the carnage intensifies.

Wars develop their own momentum. "Resolve" and "credibility" become ends in themselves -- witness "peace with honor" as a justification for continuing the Vietnam War.

As with anything initiated by men, the bombing can be halted, contingent on the cessation of human rights abuses. A cease fire must be declared between the Kosovars and the Serbians, and all parties must begin intense negotiations.

Nonviolent methods have not been successful to date. That does not mean they will be unsuccessful in the future. It is better to have years of frustrating negotiations than a military solution that will result in thousands of deaths and long-term hostilities. A military settlement imposed by outside forces will not likely heal wounds or lead to a lasting peace.

Lee Lears, Annapolis

Health insurance cuts hurt good Md. program

I have deep concerns about the viability of the state's managed care program for the Medicaid population, HealthChoice.

The state has made tremendous progress in containing costs in this program and has already achieved a 4 percent savings from the old fee-for-service program, traditionally one of the fastest-growing segments of the state budget. Let's not destroy the gains we have made with overly aggressive cost savings requirements now.

At issue is the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's proposal to cut funding for the program by 3.7 percent over the next 21 months. What is particularly troublesome is that this proposal does not include any adjustment for medical inflation, which is running at 6 to 7 percent annually. Insurance costs in the commercial market are rising 6 to 10 percent, and the cost of pharmaceuticals is going up by 15 to 20 percent a year.

Taking inflation into account, the state's proposal amounts to about a 7.5 percent reduction in HealthChoice funding.

Because of issues raised last summer surrounding the adequacy of funding for the program, a study was conducted by an outside independent actuarial firm. The study released in February concluded that the payments made under the HealthChoice program last year were appropriate -- there was no overpayment as the state had originally contended. In addition, the study found that the state had been overly optimistic in its expectation of a 10 percent savings reduction under the managed care program.

Organizations must be allowed to fairly reimburse the providers with which they contract for the services the state requires. The state should resist being penny wise and pound foolish. Let's not repeat what we have seen happen in the Medicare program and in the state's Medicaid program.

Sister Helen Amos, Baltimore

The writer is president and chief executive officer of Mercy Medical Center.

A step that curbs diesel pollution

At long last, our timid legislators in Annapolis have taken a first step toward curbing the black smoke and soot spewed into the air by large trucks and buses that burn diesel fuel and pollute the atmosphere ("House OKs bill calling for emissions testing for large diesel trucks," March 26). For years, while passenger cars have been subjected to periodic emissions testing, trucking industry lobbyists protected their clients from regulation.

Since it calls only for random testing of trucks stopped for routine inspections at weigh stations and doesn't go into effect until July 2000, the newly enacted legislation falls far short of eliminating the pollution caused by trucks. But it's a step in the right direction. Under this legislation, vehicles that violate environmental standards would be given 30 days to make repairs.

Special thanks go to Baltimore County Democrat Dan K. Morhaim, who sponsored the bill in the House of Delegates. The bill has passed the Senate in nearly identical form and has the support of Gov. Parris N. Glendening.

Albert E. Denny, Baltimore

Tough decision but right one

I wish to congratulate you for making the very difficult decision to terminate a reporter who fabricated a quotation and for informing your readers. This type of swift and sure action contributes to maintaining the integrity of your newspaper while bolstering the confidence of your readership in what you present on the printed page.

George L. Shepard, Cockeysville

County has obligation to keep horse farm

I am writing on behalf of the North County Coalition to correct some misconceptions and provide some balance to the two articles by Liz Atwood ("Plan to sell horse farm given to county donor's family," March 11) and ("Officials rethink planned land sale," March 12) and the editorial concerning the possible sale of Merryland Farm by Baltimore County ("Looking a gift horse farm . . .," March 12).

The articles and the editorial presented the matter only from the standpoint of the county administration, as if the taxpayers of Baltimore County are serfs serving only at the pleasure of the baron of the shire -- Baltimore County government and its lackeys.

The editorial states that the county "government's main obligation is to the taxpayers." If this is so, why is the county government riding roughshod over the taxpayers and telling them they have have to like it? Why does the County Council disregard the wishes of Baltimore County's citizens and taxpayers?

Let's consider what the citizens are losing by the proposed sale of Merryland Farm. We are losing a public park. We also will no longer have access to the farm for "recreational and educational purposes," as we have had since 1993. And, if the property is placed in private hands, the public will lose the ability to visit and appreciate the house and other buildings on it, which are historic landmarks.

What will Baltimore County gain by the sale of this property? Funds for the purchase of development rights are provided by the state of Maryland, Baltimore County and private donations. Even though some of the sale proceeds will be used to buy development rights in the Long Green Valley Conservancy, the County's share of the cost of developed rights will be diminished, thus making funds available for other purposes.

The citizens wish to retain Merryland Farm as a simple, small public facility with a ring and possibly some bleachers to hold equestrian quarter-horse competitions and a horse-training facility, not a multimillion dollar structure to rival the Cow Palace in San Francisco or Madison Square Garden in New York.

That the property lacks equestrian trails is a specious argument for selling it because trails could be easily and inexpensively created. Likewise, the argument that this property is inaccessible is without merit.

Bottom Road is no more inaccesible and far less hazardous than Cromwell Bridge Road, where Loch Raven High School is located, and is actually more accessible than Pine Ridge Golf Course, about one mile from hazardous Dulaney Valley Road, or Greystone Golf Course on narrow, winding Vernon Road.

The two Sun articles and the editorial stated that the county entered into a nonbinding agreement with Seymour Cohn, the donor of the property.

The agreement actually states that the county accepts "the gift for the purpose of providing a recreational and educational complex to the citizens of Baltimore County."

It further states that "both parties [the county and Seymour Cohn] mutually agree that the terms hereof shall be binding upon them, their heirs, and their agents, personal representatives, successors, and authorized assigns."

The agreement was signed by Cohn, the county executive and the county attorney.

This gift was approved and accepted by the Baltimore County Council on Oct. 18, 1993, by resolution.

We are not lawyers, but we feel that it is for the courts to decide whether this agreement is binding on Baltimore County, not the county executive or The Sun.

Richard W. McQuaid, Parkton

The writer is president of the North County Coalition.

It takes three branches to root out court woes

I read with interest your accounts of the need for coordination, collaboration and cooperation among all components of the criminal justice system in Baltimore City in your "Getting away with murder" editorials.

It is essential that state and local agencies in all three branches of government develop an action plan to address the numerous issues of crime control and public safety. In spite of the adversarial nature of the criminal justice process and the unavoidable tensions that exist among components of the system, a criminal justice coordinating council, professionally staffed and maintained, is in the best interest of all citizens.

In the late 1960s, Mayor Thomas J. D'Alesandro III, upon the recommendations of a blue-ribbon crime commission, comprised representatives from public agencies and the business community, established the original Mayor's Coordinating Council on Criminal Justice.

The first executive director of the coordinating council, Michael Kelly, who later became dean at the University of Maryland School of Law, worked out of the Mayor's Office. When William Donald Schaefer became mayor, he gave attention to issues raised by the council and its staff.

During my work with the council, the city's judiciary joined with other state and local decision-makers in planning and supporting numerous innovations in the criminal justice system.

These included the expansion of pretrial release services, drug treatment programs for offenders at the City Jail, the upgrading of police equipment and training of law enforcement personnel, the deployment of police to high-crime areas, the automation of criminal records, a one-day/one-jury trial system and a court information system.

The council was a priority for Mayor Schaefer and, therefore, became a priority for the key leadership of all criminal justice agencies.

The coordinating council faced a crisis in the mid-1970s when Baltimore was sued in U.S. District Court for severe overcrowding in the City Jail.

With the active involvement of key leaders of city and state government, the coordinating council developed an action plan. In its report to the federal district court, the council identified resources to support needed personnel, services to alleviate the overcrowding and ways to reallocate budget items to fund initiatives.

From this cooperative effort, all the decision-makers involved, regardless of their primary mission, began to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of each of the components of the criminal justice system.

To work effectively and efficiently, the council established short- and long-range goals and a plan to meet them.

More important, Mayor Schaefer chaired these meetings, often on Saturdays, and his leadership was critical to the resolution of the litigation in federal court and other crime-prevention and judicial administration issues.

Fiscal support for the council's professional staff came from the city's general revenue and federal funds allocated through the Governor's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice.

The governor's commission was established by executive order in the late 1960s and was a statewide forum for crime and justice-related issues for many years. Throughout the administration of Gov. Harry Hughes, the commission continued to allocate significant resources to Baltimore's criminal justice system, including funds to support staff for the mayor's coordinating council. The City Council and General Assembly were always supportive of a criminal justice coordinating council in Baltimore City.

Richard W. Friedman, Baltimore

The writer was the mayor's criminal justice coordinator from 1974 to 1979 and executive director of the Governor's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice from 1979 to 1985.

Closing city gun shop is not way to stop crime

The Sun's article ("ATF has gun shop in its sights," March 26) on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm's efforts close the Baltimore Gunsmith Co. noted that more than 1,000 firearms seized in city crimes over the past nine years were purchased at the store. But many readers would have liked to learn how many firearms the store has sold since 1904, or even since 1990, that were not used in any crime. I'm sure that number would have exceeded 1,000.

And, on the subject of handguns, let me add this ammunition for thought. The earliest humans used their bare hands, stones, tree limbs and bones to kill each other. I submit that if the handgun had never been invented, East Baltimore street-level drug dealers would probably be killing each other with those primitive weapons about as often as they presently do with handguns. Further, I believe that if you asked drug dealers whether they would rather die of a gunshot wound or have their brains bashed in by a stone, they would unanimously choose the handgun as the less painful way to die.

Human beings will never stop killing each other. The blame can be placed on handguns, but humans are the real problem.

Thomas J. Hunt, Bel Air

Putting the Baltimore Gunsmith out of business is not the answer.

Doing that will not make crime just go away. Criminals will probably just buy their guns someplace else.

I live near Baltimore Gunsmith and it is about the only clean and neat business on the block, which is really a mess.

Police visit the shop and chat, and it makes us feel secure to have a neighbor like Baltimore Gunsmith. If the ATF forces that shop out of business, the block will just decay even further. Please don't do this to our struggling area.

Perhaps there are better ways to deal with crime, such as more police officers on the streets, and stiffer penalties for criminals.

Gretchen Groff, Fells Point

It is hard for me to believe that ATF and other unnamed "authorities" have the desire and power to close the Baltimore Gunsmith. A two-year undercover operation found no illegal transactions in the store.

The shop has never been convicted of any crime, yet the ATF now plans to use an unusual administrative procedure to try to close it.

I find this process of a government agency closing a lawful business that happens to be in political disfavor very disturbing, its implications far reaching and dangerous.

Gordon B. Shelton, Towson

Pub Date: 4/03/99