County connector can cut congestion, protect environment
I am writing to commend The Sun for its May 10 editorial ("Tying Montgomery Co. to the Baltimore region") on the need for an inter-county roadway that would link Montgomery County and Baltimore.
An inter-county highway is vital to meeting our transportation needs. While we must continue to expand our mass transportation network, we must also add this highway link between our major centers of economic activity.
As the debate continues over this highway, a few key points should be kept in mind.
We do not have to forgo environmental protections to build this road. Where there are areas of particular environmental concern, such as sensitive wetlands, the road can be designed and built to have minimal impact.
The State Highway Administration has designed this roadway creatively. From wooded buffers and median dividers to ramp layout, to signage and lighting, we should, and can, build a parkway that is a functional and aesthetic model.
This roadway will improve the quality of life for thousands of Marylanders daily.
The greatest increase in vehicle miles traveled is during noncommuting times when families are shopping, shuttling children to activities and running other errands. Many family-time hours are lost -- and much air pollution is created -- while cars idle in traffic jams.
A by-pass highway would alleviate the growing congestion jamming local roads throughout Montgomery and Prince George's counties.
More than 30 years of development, and another 10 to 15 now in the pipeline, have been approved with the understanding that this roadway will be built.
From a local, state and regional perspective, an environmental perspective, a competitive perspective and a quality of life perspective, the question we should be asking is not whether we should build this road, but when.
O. James Lighthizer Annapolis
The writer is former secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation and the current chairman of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce's Transportation Committee.
Smart growth really is smart
Steven Hayward's May 10 Opinion Commentary ("Smart Growth policy is chock-full of dumb ideas") is itself chock-full of falsehoods.
Mr. Hayward asserts that Smart Growth means "much higher" population densities. But the qualifying density under Maryland's Smart Growth law equals a lot size of 12,445 square feet, a bit larger than a typical suburban quarter-acre lot.
Mr. Hayward says any housing survey proves that what people want is a large lot in a low-density development. The National Association of Home Builders say their surveys consistently show that what people really want is a good housing value in a good neighborhood.
Mr. Hayward believes we're stuck with dumb transportation along with dumb growth. He thinks higher densities cause congestion and subscribes to the old chestnut, "you can't force people out of their cars."
Actually, sprawl forces people into cars for lack of alternatives.
According to a regional study conducted by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments in 1994, focusing growth inside the Washington beltway produces 22 percent less congestion than current land use plans.
Maryland has already chosen the path of smart growth and has the opportunity to choose smart transportation over more highways in next year's legislative debate on transportation funding.
George J. Maurer Annapolis
The writer is senior planner for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
AIDSWALK deserved more media attention
I was saddened to see so little media coverage last weekend for the Health Education Resource Organization's (HERO) Maryland AIDSWALK'99. As a volunteer for HERO and other AIDS-service organizations, I find it astonishing that there wasn't more said about a disease that infects nearly 10,000 Marylanders.
Ironically, HERO moved the walk to the Inner Harbor area for so it would have greater visibility, but The Sun's only coverage was one photo in its May 23 Maryland section of the walkers viewed from a great distance.
The media had a wonderful opportunity to educate the community about AIDS awareness. Unfortunately, they dropped the ball.
If we keep this disease at a distance, and deny it a face, more Marylanders will succumb to the epidemic.
Gina Mast Baltimore
How can so many senators still oppose gun controls?
I do not understand why the U.S. Senate's vote last week on the crime bill ("Senate passes crime bill," May 21) was so close that Vice President Al Gore had to cast the tie-breaking vote.
Why do many senators, mostly Republicans, object to a waiting period for guns purchased at gun shows and child-safety locks on all guns?
Aspirin, mouthwash, most medications and poisonous cleaning fluids have tight caps that are difficult to open so children can't easily get access to them.
Surely gun owners value human life more than a little inconvenience.
As Mr. Gore has said, there will be more deaths and injuries unless gun manufacturers and owners put safety locks on all guns, voluntarily or by order of law.
Ruth Von Bramer Randallstown
In the wake of the school shootings in Colorado and Georgia, I was dumbfounded that 50 U.S. senators voted against a gun control bill last week.
To Sen. Orrin Hatch and his colleagues who opposed the gun regulations, I say what Joseph Nye Welch said to Sen. Joe McCarthy in 1954: "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
Leon Reinstein Baltimore
Making gun industry the scapegoat on crime
The firearms industry is getting blamed by headline-hungry politicians who are looking for scapegoats for the utter failure of state and federal governments to deal effectively with mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse.
This kind of corrupt logic would hold carmakers accountable for car accidents, alcohol distributors responsible for drunkeness and local builders accountable when a resident falls down the stairs.
For a generation, politicians have written laws that let citizens off the hook and blame the manufacturers instead.
This removes responsibility from citizens and opens the door for greedy trial lawyers, who often have a hand in writing the legislation, to make lots of money.
Many anti-firearm politicians know they cannot repeal the Second Amendment, so they are trying to destroy the industry instead.
The real issue is the inability of lawmakers to protect us from violent crime, most of which is drug- and alcohol-related and involves firearms illegally obtained firearms by mentally unstable people.
Jim Pileggi Galena
Real hunters want pelts, not bear parts for profit
After reading The Sun's May 19 article "In Virginia, poaching for profit," I would, if I didn't know better, be tempted to believe that most licensed hunters who harvest black bears sell the gall bladders and paws for profit after a legal harvest.
But 95 percent of illegal bear parts are supplied by poachers. Poaching is not hunting, and poachers are not hunters.
The vast majority of bear hunters are hoping for a nice pelt, which will make a beautiful rug, and some tasty meat. They do not shoot bears to cut off the paws, remove the gall bladders and leave the carcasses to rot.
A few bad apples may do this, but it is unfair to taint all bear hunters with the same broad brush, as the article appears to do.
I believe buying and selling bear parts is illegal, no matter the source. So how do "some Washington restaurants" sell bear-paw soup for $60 to $100 a bowl? Why didn't The Sun investigate this further?
To profit financially from a game animal hunted and taken through fair chase is to taint the spirit of the hunt.
I realize that many people do not understand the hunters' love of of hunting. I just want the non-hunters who read Earl Swift's piece to know that true hunters do not sell bear parts and will not tolerate those who do.
Brian D. Hess Bel Air
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