Police drug sting makes community a safer place
The community of Bywater Mutual Homes Inc. wishes to express its heartfelt appreciation to the Annapolis City Police Department and the Anne Arundel County Police Department for their highly successful undercover drug sting in our community ("Impact of drug sweeps hailed," Feb. 1).
Their joint efforts led to the arrest of nine persons, none of whom were residents of Bywater, for various drug violations and one charge of possession of a handgun. Drugs, cash and eight vehicles were also seized.
Those arrested will be issued a notice banning them from future trespass on Bywater property. And we will make public any and all persons who persist in conducting illegal activity on our premises.
As we continue this ongoing struggle to make our community safe for our residents and their families, let's not forget those in other communities throughout Annapolis who are bombarded by illegal acts.
Let us work together to prevent the movement of these activities from one community to another. Residents, staff and other concerned entities have vowed to continue to use several crime-prevention tactics, such as the neighborhood watch program, to enhance the quality of life in Bywater.
Once again, we thank all who are helping to provide a safe environment for the families and visitors of Bywater.
Alma Cropper
Annapolis
The writer is president of the board of Bywater Mutual Homes Inc.
Sailing enthusiasts seek expanded coverage
In response to growing concern about The Sun's sailing coverage, I believe that it is not only important for The Sun to continue its sailing coverage, but increase it.
The world's biggest and longest-lasting ocean racing event is again coming to our backyard -- Baltimore and Annapolis -- next year.
In 1998, the event drew hundreds of thousands of spectators in Baltimore and Annapolis as well as one of the largest spectator fleets in the history of race-watching.
Many of these people, like myself, are active sailors on the Chesapeake Bay and beyond.
We read and respect The Sun and are very enthusiastic about seeing its coverage of sailing continue and grow.
Tucker Thompson
Annapolis
The writer represents Performance Sailing and Marketing.
Lee's legacy merits a place of honor
I question the sort of revisionist history columnist Matthew Buck must be teaching at the Gilman School these days ("Baltimore needs different statues," Opinion
Commentary, Jan. 31). But at the McDonogh School in the good old days, Paul Carre helped us understand that the War Between the States was not chiefly an anti-slavery crusade, but a deep social division over the question of the central government's authority to impose its will on sovereign states.
After anguished spiritual conflict, slavery opponent Robert E. Lee determined that his primary loyalty was to the Commonwealth of Virginia, rather than to the bureaucracy growing beneath the unfinished capitol dome.
Victors in a violent conflict usually claim the right to interpret its outcome as God's will, but honest scholars will admit that the burdens as well as the benefits of the Union's victory over the South haunt us to this day.
The failure of the industrial North, as well as the agricultural South, to achieve a true and just inter-racial society is only one among several tragic consequences of that war. And Lee was among the first and greatest of postwar leaders to turn from bitterness or profiteering to the education of a new generation of leaders who might build a better society.
At Lee's encouragement, his comrade in arms and peace, Col. William Allen, came to Maryland to be the first headmaster of the McDonogh School.
The school's purpose was to provide opportunity -- not for the liberal elite, but for the poor, mostly the orphans of that fratricidal conflict.
The legacy of Lee and Allen lives on in the institutions they nurtured.
To characterize such men merely as those who "fought on the wrong side of a 140-year-old conflict" and "left cities like Baltimore with a terrible legacy of racial segregation and division," or as "symbols" of "horrid crimes" of slaughter and "the enslavement and oppression of an entire people" is degrading slander, born of myopic obsession with today's politically correct formula rather than the broad perspective of balanced historical judgment.
Yes, let us have a statue as well as a boulevard commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but let us not suggest that it replace the memorials to great men whom many of us honor for reasons far different from those Mr. Buck's column implied.
The Rev. Thomas W. Bauer
Pasadena
Sun should condemn Clintons' ugly exit ...
It is almost impossible to imagine the Clintons making a more disgraceful exit from the White House. First, there were reports that the Clinton White House staffers vandalized, through burglary, intentional destruction and graffiti, many office areas prior to their departure ("Bush aides say Clinton staffers left nasty mess," Jan. 27).
Next came the reports that almost anything aboard Air Force One with a presidential seal was missing after the Clintons and their guests departed the plane for the final time.
Finally, it has been reported that the Clintons looted the White House of $190,000 worth of property donated to the White House from various sources ("Clintons say they will pay for half the gifts they kept," Feb. 4).
It is past time for The Sun to condemn these actions.
If the media is to assume any role as a government watchdog, The Sun can no longer maintain a code of silence about the Clintons' conduct and their expensive departure.
Michael DeCicco
Severn...
and recognize Ashcroft's virtues
I wanted to make a few comments on The Sun's disparaging cartoons and editorials on U.S. Attorney General John Aschroft ("Ashcroft isn't right for attorney general," editorial, Jan. 31).
It is incredible what this man has put up with. First, he has to endure questioning from two paragons of virtue, Sen. Edward Kennedy and Sen. Joe Biden.
Then he was crucified in the press for being a devout Christian.
It is all right for Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman to use God during his campaign, and for Al Gore to ask, "what would Jesus do."
But if some conservative shows his belief in God, that is just terrible.
Mr. Ashcroft is a good man who will actually enforce the laws, including civil rights laws.
David Hachey
Glen Burnie
Abortion aid limits protect U.S. taxpayers
President Bush did not cut off the funds for family-planning organizations around the world; he did not say that women around the world could not have a abortion ("Bush blocks foreign aid for abortion," Jan. 23).
What he did say is that the taxes of Joe Sixpack, who gets up every morning and goes to work and breaks his hump to feed his family and pay his taxes, will not be used to pay for these abortions.
Paying for family planning for women in other countries means, if a woman has a unwanted pregnancy, she can plan that American taxpayers will pay for it.
Bill Williams
Glen Burnie
Jackson's healing happened too quickly
The Rev. Jesse Jackson wants his legacy to be that of a champion of people of color and an example of being a good Christian. Unfortunately, he has failed -- miserably.
The world now knows that he fathered a child during an extra-marital affair.
I find it very disturbing that any respected spiritual leader would do such a thing. But to also be the leader of an international organization such as PUSH and the Rainbow Coalition, I find a bit too much.
Reverend Jackson said he would take time off from his public ministry to heal. Yet within a week, he was healed enough to say that he was ready to return to public life.
In my opinion, Reverend Jackson based his healing time on a public consensus that he perceived to be positive.
I find it hard to believe that a person could devastate his family so deeply and heal so fast. I truly feel sorry for Mrs. Jackson and the Jackson children, because they must be enduring a very deep pain.
But what is this telling our young people, of all colors?
We preach and preach and preach about monogamous relationships and safe sex.
I don't want my child telling me that Reverend Jackson does it, so it's all right.
Ron Edwards
Annapolis
Errors marred review of 'Death of Vishnu'
I must take Joan Mellen to task for erroneous and misleading statements in her review of "The Death of Vishnu" by Manil Suri ("'Death of Vishnu': cosmic care-taking," Jan. 21).
She argues that the "current publishing environment" considers "the next sure thing" to be "writing -- good, bad or indifferent -- from India."
This in itself is a debatable judgment, but her claim that "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy initiated this trend is incorrect and ridiculous. That book is actually a late-comer to the genre.
Mellen calls Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy" an imitator of Ms. Roy's book. Since "A Suitable Boy" is several times the length of Ms. Roy's work and is much more complex in themes and treatment, it is hard for me to detect in what sense it could be imitative of Ms. Roy.
But, more important, since Mr. Seth's book was published in 1993, and Ms. Roy's did not appear until 1997, it is hardly possible for it to imitate Ms. Roy's book in any sense.
David Haberstich
Glen Burnie