Connector freeway wouldn't solve real congestion problem
The Sun's May 10 editorial "Tying Montgomery Co. to the Baltimore region," claimed Montgomery County needs a new east-west road.
This runs counter to positions taken in the past two months by the Montgomery County Council and Prince George's County Council, who want to abandon the proposed Intercounty Connector (ICC).
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), prepared in 1997, found that the proposed ICC would not solve the problem of congestion on the Capital beltway, Interstate 270 or I-95.
It concluded that many intersections in Montgomery County would become more congested if any of the east-west alternatives under study were built.
Montgomery County citizens want to get back and forth to their jobs, not, as your editorial suggested, to Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
The DEIS found that the dominant travel orientation for Montgomery County, and the Washington metropolitan area, will not be east-west but radial, almost entirely oriented toward the inner suburbs and the District of Columbia.
The I-270/Route 355 corridor, which extends from Bethesda to Clarksburg, is the county's economic engine. Congestion on our main street has grown rapidly and is projected to continue to grow.
Providing travel alternatives that reduce car travel and congestion along our main north-south corridor, and along the Capital beltway, needs to be our top transportation priority.
Neal Fitzpatrick, Chevy Chase
The writer is conservation director of the Audubon Naturalist Society.
Promoting competition in local phone service
The Sun's May 11 editorial "Ma Bell's big purchase" missed the point of AT&T;'s planned cable acquisitions and under-rated the benefits consumers can expect from competition.
AT&T;'s moves will stimulate competition -- pushing Bell Atlantic to make broad-band and other services available at affordable prices.
Combined, AT&T-MediaOne; will offer service to approximately 26 percent of the 103 million U.S. homes where cable tv is available. These homes will retain the choice of other sources for telephone, Internet and television services.
These choices will increase and prices will drop as technology advances and new competitors emerge. That's what an open market is all about.
In contrast to AT&T;'s commitment to compete, Bell Atlantic is pursuing mergers in an attempt to increase its monopoly control over the local telephone market: first with NYNEX and now through its proposed merger with GTE.
By teaming up with MediaOne, which already has begun offering local telephone service in some parts of the country, AT&T; can make an end run around the Bell monopolies.
Long-distance rates have declined dramatically since competition was introduced in the 1980s.
It's high-time that local telephone customers have a choice among carriers competing to offer the best prices, advanced technology and improved service.
Wilma McCarey, Baltimore
The writer is vice president for government affairs at AT&T.;
Analogy of Iraqi, Kosovar casualties found offensive
Gerald B. Shargel's May 11 letter began with the inflammatory remark that Americans have killed 1 million innocent Iraqi civilians ("American, Yugoslav killers should sit down together").
With this grossly inflated figure as background, he ignores the origins of the sanctions against Iraq and the simple solution, which is for Saddam Hussein to abide by the terms of Iraq's surrender after the Persian Gulf war.
Iraq invaded, conquered and was well on its way to destroying a fellow Arab nation when the United Nations intervened.
Saddam Hussein's acquiescence to the terms of his defeat would have spared his people the suffering that they now endure, but Hussein himself does not.
For Mr. Shargel to draw a parallel between our government's restoration of a sovereign nation after a brutal attack by a dictator and the Serbian explusion of Kosavars from their native land is offensive.
Nelson Marans, Silver Spring
Aid money would help Balkans more than bombs
Mark Matthews' May 16 article, "West plans to help rebuild the Balkans without Milosevic," about tentative plans for a Balkan Marshall Plan gives hope that some rationality has finally appeared among the geniuses who decided that the best way to put out Balkan fires was to pour gasoline on them.
It should not have been necessary to go to war to learn that the best way to achieve stability in the Balkans is through economic development.
If the money we are spending on bombing and refugee relief -- and will spend on post-war reconstruction -- had been devoted to development in the first place, thousands of Serbs and Albanians might still be alive today.
Sure, Slobodan Milosevic is a bad guy, but it's hard to believe that dangling a whopping aid package in front of him would have no effect.
Paul R. Olson, Baltimore
Welcoming war's refugees could help renew Baltimore
The attitude of the city's current administration to urban renewal seems to be "tear it down." This leaves communities with broken neighborhoods, ugly surroundings and sidewalks in disrepair.
The Balkan war offers Baltimore an opportunity instead to accept refugees, and give them housing in West Baltimore, where so many houses are now vacant.
These people deserve a chance to change their lives, in a place where new communities can be founded by people who have education, a work ethic and a sense of family and community.
In so doing, they could revitalize areas of Baltimore and help renew the city.
Alex Haill, Baltimore
Scouting promotes values for many area youths
The Sun's May 5 article "The few, the proud, the kids" describes a rigorous disciplinary program offered by the Marines that gives boys and girls a strong dose of manners and military values.
In the article, a parent notes, "This isn't the Boy Scouts" -- and she's right.
But programs offered by the Boy Scouts do serve youth in many of the same ways, focusing on physical fitness, manners and producing strong leaders.
Scouting teaches boys and girls to help others and respect the rights of all people. Its programs promote self-reliance, courage and resourcefulness, while also instilling values and morals.
This year, our scouts in Baltimore and the five surrounding counties collected more than 250,000 pounds of food for charity and will donate more than 100,000 hours of volunteer service.
The Baltimore Area Council, Boy Scouts serves more than 71,000 boys and girls.
Erik Nystrom, Baltimore
The writer is Scout executive of the Baltimore Area Council, Boy Scouts of America.
Story understated risks of eating too much salt
The Sun's May 12 article "Salt shake-up" was scientifically inaccurate on several matters related to the effects of salt on blood pressure.
First, in contrast to the flawed evidence cited in the article, the evidence that salt contributes to the development of high blood pressure is strong and persuasive. Recent evidence has strengthened, not weakened, the link between salt and hypertension.
Second, the statement that "only 8 to 10 percent of the population needs to watch their salt intake" underestimates the number of persons who would benefit from a reduced intake of salt.
Hypertensive individuals (more than 20 percent of U.S. adults), older persons, African-Americans and persons with kidney disease or heart failure are particularly sensitive to excess salt intake.
A reduced salt intake together with other nutritional approaches (weight loss, moderation of alcohol intake and a healthy diet) could ease the current epidemic of blood pressure-related cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Lawrence J. Appel, Baltimore
The writer is associate professor of medicine, epidemiology and international health at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.
Pub Date: 5/21/99