Crabs are sweet, this state's great, don't destroy it
I've lived my entire 18 years in Howard County. One of my grandfathers was a dairy farmer; the other was a draftsman for Bethlehem Steel. I believe Ocean City is the only beach in the world, crabs are the sweetest seafood, Baltimore is the greatest city ever created and the Colts will always belong to us.
I am a true Marylander to the end. However, lately I can barely stand to drive down the street. All the farms are being destroyed and turned into cookie-cutter homes. The beautiful land that makes Maryland "mini-America" is no longer. Every inch is found and developed.
I may only be 18. but these changes send a knife into my heart. I can't bear to see deer dead on the side of streets. Do we really need one more Wal-Mart? Is the purest soil in the East only good for developments that echo the glory of what they once were -- Holly Hills, Cabin Branch Farm, Foxmore, Doves Landing, to name a few.
I once dreamed of raising my own children here, but sadly I don't feel that way anymore. So I ask every Marylander: Stop destroying the majestic land that brought us all here in the first place.
Rachel Leigh Ford, Woodbine
The writer is a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Tired cliches impugn greenway
Letter writer Ellen Rhudy is a clever wordsmith who prefers fiction to fact ("Greenway isn't as noble as it sounds," letters to the editor, Aug. 8).
She repeats the tired old cliche that the Patapsco Heritage Greenway Committee (PHGC) is masking its "real intent to commercialize a natural area . . . and turn the valley into a cash cow for a few cunning entrepeneurs."
She and her fellow travelers work on the assumption that if you falsify the truth often enough, somebody is going to believe it.
I am one of those she would discredit. I have devoted 26 years of my life to saving, restoring and developing the historic mill village of Oella, where smart growth was adopted long before the term entered our lexicon.
While undertaking this project, I have continued my four-decade record of volunteer public service. It is sad that PHGC opponents feel the need to hurl personal abuse at those who serve their community but disagree with them.
The PHGC is a grass-roots organization of environmentalists, historic preservationists, trail enthusiasts, civic activists and county and state representatives. Its mission is to reconnect "people with the natural, historic and cultural assets of the valley in ways that interpret, enliven, preserve and enhance those assets and people's awareness, understanding and appreciation of them."
That is a mission that can benefit all of us. It simply requires people to work with goodwill through issues of concern to a brighter tomorrow.
Charles L. Wagandt, Ellicott City
Fire chief's bad example
Clarksville volunteer fire chief Patrick Marlatt is setting a poor example by his disregard for water conservation ("Fire chief caught filling pool says divers use it for training; But couple who reported him are unconvinced," Aug. 12).
I'm referring to the incident in which he used official equipment to top off his swimming pool when everyone else I know of is taking this water shortage seriously.
I'm sorry that he feels justified in order to let his divers utilize the pool for practicing and testing equipment. What a cop-out. There are public pools that could accommodate his team. What's more, they could wait a little longer until we get some relief in the form of some steady rain.
How can Howard County condone this?Shame, shame, shame.
Gary Garvin, Laurel
A withering forecast for counties' retail
Plans for the super-regional Arundel Mills "shoppertainment" complex in Anne Arundel County demonstrates the need for a mechanism to evaluate projects that will impact the regional economy, air quality and transportation systems.
Large-scale projects such as Arundel Mills clearly illustrate the shortcomings -- and the myth -- of local land-use control. Arundel Mills will generate approximately 75 million additional vehicle miles annually in the region and attract shoppers from up to 200 miles away.
Yet regional scrutiny is limited to the air quality modeling process, which does not address congestion, transportation choice, jobs-housing imbalance or disinvestment.
The regional effects of the project on transportation and air quality are obvious: We cannot drive 75 million more miles annually in the region -- there is no planned public transportation -- without increasing traffic congestion and further degrading our already famously poor air quality.
The effects of the project on the economy and existing communities are equally devastating. Established retail and commercial centers within Arundel Mills' 200-mile radius of influence will lose business and jurisdictions will have to brace themselves for a cycle of disinvestment and revitalization.
Moreover, Anne Arundel and Howard counties already have a documented dearth of employees to fill existing retail and service sector jobs. The employees, therefore, will have to come from elsewhere. Potential employees always weigh transportation costs when calculating the benefits of a new job and entry-level, low-wage jobs located far from one's home may not prove economically feasible.
Smart Growth means stabilizing our existing communities, mixing uses, reducing automobile dependency and curbing the use of green spaces. This project does the complete opposite on a very large scale.
We cannot hope to maintain or reinstate vibrant commercial cores in established communities if we destabilize their customer base with the extravagant construction of retail space built entirely on "greenfields."
We also cannot expect to alleviate gridlock or improve air quality with the addition of such a large auto-dependent project.
Kristen Forsyth , Baltimore
The writer is with 1000 Friends of Maryland.
Gray's presidency shouldn't cost public
Recently, it was reported that the Howard County Council Chairman C. Vernon Gray was elected president of the National Association of Counties (NACo).
Its counterpart in Maryland is a organization called the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo).
I have no great knowledge about the national organization, but I attended three summer sessions of the MACo organization at Ocean City while a Republican member of the Howard County Board of Appeals.
Those sessions in Ocean City cost the taxpayers of the state of Maryland a pretty penny. The Ocean City convention is nothing more than political schmoozing by mostly Democratic politicians at taxpayer expense.
The educational sessions which I suspect are supposed to be the rational for the meeting are poorly attended.
This is so even though cash prizes are given to one or more persons attending each session. When I attended the convention, I attended as many as I could and won two cash prizes -- an indication that the sessions were poorly attended. When I was a delegate, I also paid my own room and board but most delegates have their room and board paid for by the county.
I hope that Mr. Gray's expenses as president of NACo are not going to be subsidized by us beleaguered taxpayers.
In the past, Mr. Gray has not restrained his spending on extra perks of public office as evidenced by the press flaps about excessive car phone expenditures.
Mr. Gray's expenses as president of NACo should be examined. He should report to the taxpayers what his presidency of NACo is going to cost us.
Donald B. W. Messenger, Laurel
Tobacco still has tight hold on children and Congress
In preparation for the Maryland General Assembly session in 2000, I will ask the Howard County delegation to support legislation to establish a Howard County pilot program that clamps down on illegal cigarette and tobacco products sold to minors.
Specifically, the measure will allow for the suspensions or revocation of the state license for violators of the tobacco sales law that prohibits the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 18 years of age.
A state survey, conducted by the comptroller's office and released in December 1998, showed that youngsters 15 to 17 years of age tried to buy cigarettes at 830 retail outlets and were successful 35 percent of the time.
While that is an improvement over the 1996 survey, which revealed that youngsters were able to illegally purchase cigarettes 54 percent of the time, it is obvious that more stringent measures must be taken to curb cigarette sales to minors.
One of the reasons youngsters can purchase cigarettes so easily is that the present penalties for violators are weak.
Today, the penalty for such illegal sales is the imposition of not more than a $300 fine, not much considering the profit margins in cigarette sales.
A fine of not more than $1,000 is levied for a second offense, occurring within two years of the subsequent offense. For a third or subsequent violation occurring within two years of the prior violation, a fine of not more than $3,000 is imposed. Suspension or revocation of a retail license is allowed for fraudulent or deceptive use of a license and failure to comply with the Maryland Cigarette Sales Below Cost Act.
However, there is no provision in the law for retail license suspension or revocation for sale of tobacco products to a minor.
Our current law does not go far enough. We need to do more than just fine these violators. We need the ability to effectively stop them from selling cigarettes to minors on a temporary or permanent basis. My proposal will add to the current fines a 30-day license suspension for the first offense; a 90-day suspension for the second offense and permanent revocation of the cigarette sales license for a third conviction.
It should be emphasized that the penalties for illegal sales of alcoholic beverages to minors include liquor license suspension and revocation. Certainly, cigarettes can be as lethal to children as alcohol. Therefore, it is logical that the illegal sale of cigarettes to minors should carry the same penalties.
Nevertheless, in the past both statewide and local legislative proposals to impose for suspension and revocation of licenses as a penalty for selling cigarettes to minors have failed to gain General Assembly approval. But times have changed.
Recently, the state of Maryland made a strong commitment to smoking prevention by allocating millions of dollars of its $4.4 billion tobacco settlement money to fund anti-smoking efforts. I hope that commitment will also translate into stronger penalties for those who sell cigarettes to minors.
Each year smoking-related illnesses claim more than 7,500 people in Maryland. The American Cancer Society attributes 30 percent of all cancer deaths and 35 percent of health care costs in the nation to tobacco use.
Children have been the tobacco industry's best market because a youngster who begins smoking is 90 percent certain to become a cigarette-addicted adult. Every day, 60 Maryland youngsters become new smokers. Statistically, 20 of them will die prematurely from tobacco-related heart or lung disease. Indeed, cigarettes are potentially lethal to children.
Howard County, with its history of strong commitment to anti-smoking efforts, is an appropriate place to launch a pilot program that furthers the cause of childhood smoking prevention.
License suspension and revocation for the illegal sale of tobacco products is a sensible way to protect children. Certainly, it makes the punishment fit the crime.
Sen. Martin G. Madden, Clarksville
The writer is minority leader in the Maryland Senate and represents parts of Howard and Prince George's counties in the 13th Legislative District.
The United States' efforts to control the use of cocaine appears to be an abject failure. Recent media articles report on the deaths of American military personal engaged in cocaine control activities and the arrest of the wife of a senior military anti-drug officer charged with smuggling cocaine into this country.
Drug czar Barry McCaffrey is quoted as saying that the size of the Columbian cocaine crop is increasing and requested $1 billion more to fight the problem. Simultaneously, certain members of Congress are ranting about decertifying Columbia for U.S. aid.
Meanwhile, the U.S. tobacco merchants are permitted to foist their deadly addictive drug on our nation and the rest of the world under the protection of this same Congress, purchased with millions of dollars in campaign and soft money contributions.
In addition, billions of dollars recovered from the state tobacco settlement will be funneled to tobacco farmers rather than to preventing our children from becoming addicted to tobacco.
Since tobacco will kill approximately 500,000 Americans this year while cocaine will only kill approximately 3,000, the hypocrisy of the United States' actions is quite evident to the rest of the world and they merely blink at our admonishments.
I believe we will continue to lose the drug war until we start treating all deadly addictive drugs the same. I also believe that in order to achieve this goal we must have meaningful campaign reform legislation passed as soon as possible. Then we would have a chance to curtail the influence the tobacco industry exerts over our elected officials.
John H. O'Hara, Bowie
The writer is president of the Maryland Group Against Smokers Pollution.