On homes too close to highways
The article in The Sun ("Homes won't get sound barriers," April 18) clearly illustrates why urban sprawl will not be contained until more citizen control is exercised over building decisions in the counties.
Although this article discussed a new community in Howard County being built so close to Route 100 that hearing could be damaged, this could represent any county in Maryland.
The so-called planning departments are, in fact, building facilitators.
Their ties to the building community are too close and deep. That the politicos don't step in is also not surprising as they are deeply indebted to the developers for campaign cash.
Why the planning department decided they needed to grant waivers so the development would be economically feasible is beyond me.
Why should a government agency bend, break and mutilate building rules, grant innumerable waivers and put people's health at risk to save the builder from a poor purchase and guarantee them a profit? The builder should have been forced to build a noise abatement earthen berm. If it was too expansive -- tough -- then don't build.
Granting building waivers is too important a task to be left to a nameless, faceless planning department whose credibility is questionable at best.
To control sprawl and stop this idiotic development, citizen control committees must be formed in every county to review and grant waivers.
Builders, planners and zoning experts are invited not to apply. We need to bring honesty, integrity and common sense back into the process.
Alan McAllister, Severna Park
Bike path bad for stream valley
The Patapsco Valley State Park is under siege by various parties who would like to use it to promote their vision of a major tourism corridor encompassing the Patapsco Valley.
The Patapsco Heritage Greenway Committee, composed primarily of business people in Ellicott City and Oella areas, has applied to the Maryland Heritage Authority for "certification" to qualify the Patapsco Valley as a Maryland Heritage Area.
This heritage area includes much of the Patapsco Valley State Park. The management plan is an estimate of the potential for increased visitation and tourism-related revenues.
As described in internal documents of the Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning, the critical component of a management plan for the Patapsco Valley is "market and economic studies to define existing tourism conditions, untapped tourism markets, strategies for capturing untapped markets, projections of potential economic impacts in terms of key performance measures, and assessment of the relative 'bang for the buck' of investing public sector dollars in strategic projects." The minutes of the Heritage Greenway Committee as far back as June 29, 1995, describe using the "trail system as a 'wedge' for the development of a corridor" in the Patapsco Valley.
John R. Griffin, secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, admitted in a letter April 5 that "trail development is a DNR priority in the Patapsco Valley State Park in order to alleviate overcrowding."
He doesn't suggest how building this paved bike road and tying it into the "Baltimore and Annapolis Trail," a segment of the proposed 2,000-mile "East Coast Greenway Trail," is supposed to alleviate overcrowding in the Patapsco State Park.
On the contrary, these trails are expected to bring hundreds of thousands of bikers down the trails and into the park each year. The trail planned through Patapsco park is really a 10-foot-wide paved road with a minimum clear cut distance required on each side of the trail for an effective width of 25 feet. The trail is also being designed for use by disabled persons, which requires contouring of slopes with heavy equipment to meet minimum grade requirements for disabled persons.
The governor needs to understand the environmental community has major concerns over destruction of wildlife habitat and increased stream pollution. This is just one of many bike roads planned for stream valleys across Maryland. While bike trails are fine when placed along roads or utility rights-of-way, they should not be used in narrow stream valleys that are the remaining habitat for wildlife and provide protection for water supplies.
Bob DeGroot, Rockville
The writer is president of Maryland Alliance for Greenway Improvement and Conservation.
A soldier's cry: 'Earn this'
A friend recently passed on to me a column by Dick Feagler in the Cleveland Plain Dealer dated August 5, 1998. I was very moved by what Mr. Feagler had to say.
The column was about the young men who sacrificed their lives for the sins of others on a beach called Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, in World War II and the meaning given their sacrifice in Steven Spielberg's movie, "Saving Private Ryan."
Many men who died or were wounded on that beach were Marylanders, because one of the divisions that landed on Omaha Beach was the 29th Infantry Division, known as the Blue Grey Division, a National Guard Division with its core troops from Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
I know of that division because I served as a private in the 115th Infantry Regiment of that division in the 1960s to fulfill my military obligation. I still belong to the 29th Division Association.
In "Saving Private Ryan," eight rangers go to save Private Ryan, whose three brothers have already been killed in battle, to spare Private Ryan's mother the agony of having all of her sons killed in combat.
In the movie, when one of the rangers is mortally wounded, he whispers to Private Ryan, "earn this." All of our soldiers who have given their lives for us and our country, I'm sure, would echo those words.
The columnist wrote that his tears were not tears for those soldiers who lost their lives or those who were spared and wondered why, but tears of betrayal.
In our country we have a president who betrayed us, who was a draft dodger and who did not serve our country's armed forces, a president who has diminished, degraded and sullied the office of the presidency and our country by his outrageous and unlawful conduct. In addition, we were betrayed by a U.S. Senate that lacked the moral courage to do anything about it.
Again have we been betrayed by our president who has committed our armed forces to war in the Balkans? Can we trust this president to send our young men and women to die or be wounded in battle? Can we be sure this is not a war that is promoted by the president for political purposes or to divert attention from his other wrongful conduct, such as allowing our atomic secrets and missile technologies to be turned over to the Chinese Communists?
Donald B. W. Messenger, Laurel
Big brother is not giving taxpayers a good return on their annual investment
My frustration with our tax system and our government drives me to write.
Today I saw my accountant and had to face it: not only the amount that is taken away from me and my labor, but the stupidity, the nitpicking and intrusiveness of the tax system.
Make no mistake: Our labor is our life. That means that we owe a substantial portion of our life to the government.
It is my view that if we did not have the current system of withholding taxes and Social Security from our paychecks, if every citizen had to write a check to the government every month or so for taxes, we would have a revolt.
The so-called tax breaks that were passed by this administration are ridiculous. For one, they add complexity to an already complex tax code. For another, the thresholds are so low that a great many people do not qualify for the education Individual Retirement Account and other supposed tax breaks. And besides, even if they did, would you tell me how much education you expect to get for a child by putting away only $500 a year? Has anyone looked at tuition lately?
And take the debate on Social Security. Big Brother wants to control the portion that could be set aside into private investments instead of letting people make their own decisions.
We did not need Big Brother to tell us where to invest the IRAs when they were available. So why Social Security?
And what better time to take a portion of the 13 percent (6.5 percent each from the employer and employee) currently going into the Social Security fund and divert it to the private sector than now while we enjoy a surplus? This is the perfect time to start making the transition.
Ah, but that would require Americans to make decisions about where to invest their money. That, in turn, requires an enlightened and informed citizenry. But do our schools teach our children about the economy and how it works? No.
The children are taught about different "lifestyles." They get sex education, and they are taught self-esteem. (Don't they know that self-esteem comes when you have achieved something?)
Why aren't they taught about interest and dividends and capital gains? Why aren't they taught to fill out a tax return? Why aren't they taught the basics about our income-tax laws? Why aren't they taught about the time-value of money? Why aren't they taught about risk and reward? Why aren't our children given the tools to become self-reliant?
And why aren't our children taught that when they get something from the government, they give up some of their freedom? Why aren't our children taught that it is better to be self-reliant and independent than to ask for handouts? Self-reliance -- that's where self-esteem comes from, not from, "you're unique, you are great and you are wonderful."
Private schools teach about investments. But this is not in the curriculum of the public schools. And yet, with the increased use of 410(k) plans funded mostly with employees' pre-tax dollars, it is precisely the employees who have to make the decision where to invest. Everyone, from top executive to blue-collar worker, needs to have a basic understanding of investment vehicles. Why has this subject matter not been added to the curriculum of our public schools?
The answers I come up with are not pretty: lack of caring, ignorance, passivity, the government's fear of a citizen tax revolt if the public were truly informed. By keeping the people ignorant, the government will have more power over them.
It's that simple. Our president and Congress members use our money to dispense favors through which they buy votes, through which they manipulate us and hold on to power.
Nothing will happen until and unless people ask for change. It is time the American people said "enough." The time to do that is now while the economy is strong and we have surpluses in our Social Security fund and in tax revenues.
And we must also demand of those in charge of our children and the boards of education that they add a thorough understanding of the economy to the curriculum.
Edith M. Cord, Columbia
The writer is a certified public accountant.
Pub Date: 4/25/99