Olympic Games can change face of area forever
A site-selection team from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) arrived in our region yesterday, as the USOC enters the final stages of selecting the U.S. Candidate City to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Clearly the pressure is on all of us to demonstrate why Washington and Baltimore deserve this once-in-a-lifetime honor.
That shouldn't be difficult. We simply have to be ourselves. This region already shines as a wonderful place to live, a welcoming place to visit and an international symbol of peace, freedom and democracy.
Our proposal to have the Olympic Sports Complex at the RFK Stadium site is a gold-medal idea. Nine Olympic sports would hold their competitions at this multi-faceted, waterfront sports complex, creating an unprecedented Olympic site and the centerpiece of the 2012 games.
Baltimore's Inner Harbor also offers a great opportunity to showcase Olympians and Paralympians. Six sports will be competed within a five-minute walk of each other. And a new Baltimore Arena will leave a legacy for decades to come.
And after seeing the University of Maryland College Park campus, it will be clear to the committee that the facility that is proposed as the future Olympic Village is ready for that role today.
But even as we plan for 2012, it is important to look beyond the games at the legacy this historic event will leave the community.
The Olympic Sports Complex is a perfect example. Long after the games, the Olympic Sports Complex will continue to breathe life into the eastern end of our capital city, thanks to its several world-class sports venues, enhanced public plazas and parks and a revitalized Anacostia River.
You could travel up and down the region and find similar benefits: a new velodrome in Baltimore; area youth and athletes using former Olympic training sites; and dozens of existing venues and facilities enhanced and improved.
The games will also create a $200 million Olympic Legacy Fund that will support youth sports programs, host elite sporting events and help maintain Olympic venues; a $10 million Cultural Heritage Fund to help upgrade cultural and historic sites; and a $6 million Regional Disabled Sports Foundation.
The torch will shine at the 2012 games for two weeks. But hosting the games will change the face and the spirit of this community long after the torch goes dark.
Martin O'Malley
Baltimore
Anthony A. Williams Washington
The writers are, respectively, the mayors of Baltimore and Washington.
The shrinking city should lose influence
State Sen. Barbara Hoffman speaks of "artificial boundaries" between Baltimore City and Baltimore County ("New plan outrages Baltimore officials," June 22).
But each subdivision has its own court system, police and fire departments, finance departments and local elected council.
Other things that aren't artificial about Baltimore City are higher property tax rates, outrageous auto insurance rates, more crime and lower school test scores. These may be the reason more people now live in Baltimore County than the city.
The city has lost population. Therefore, it loses representation. Live with it.
Joseph Lee Krome
Owings Mills
District lines divide the region harshly
The new lines around Baltimore look like a moat that keeps Baltimoreans inside ("Court revises political map," June 22). I can't see this being good for the city.
Surely we need more cooperation, not division, between Baltimore County and Baltimore City.
These lines are too harsh.
Carole Fisher
Ellicott City
High IQ isn't needed to know what's right
Exempting the mentally retarded from execution will allow every criminal and his or her brother to claim a mental handicap ("Justices ban execution of the retarded," June 21).
I also believe this ruling is a slap in the face to the mentally challenged who struggle diligently to and take pride in leading productive lives.
Evil comes in all sorts of packages and it doesn't take much of an IQ to learn right from wrong.
Once again, accountability has gone out the window.
Pamela A. White
Pasadena
Pastor is victim of double standard
Let me get this straight: A beloved priest and pastor in South Baltimore is forced by the Archdiocese of Baltimore to resign because he hired a convicted sex offender to be the church interim music director ("Baltimore priest steps down for 1999 hiring of sex offender," June 23). The Archdiocese explains that one cannot make such a mistake in judgment and still remain a pastor.
Contrast this with the treatment accorded the cardinal and responsible bishops and priests under him in the Archdiocesan hierarchy. They became aware of sexual abuse by a parish priest (the Reverend Maurice Blackwell) and then sent Father Blackwell to treatment supposed to cure him. He was then sent back to the unsuspecting parish and continued his abuse of boys.
Has the Archdiocese asked for its leaders' resignations yet?
Joseph A. Schwartz
Baltimore
How did Zito get a shotgun?
Reading "Providing compassion and justice" (June 23), one thing came to mind: How did a man [Francis Zito] who has been in and out of mental hospitals dozens of times get a 12-gauge shotgun?
R.J. Kuchta
Baltimore
Porous borders put country at risk
The writer of the letter "Bin Laden, not Iraq, poses greatest threat" (June 23), makes an interesting point. Regardless, America will remain in grave danger as long as:
Islamic terrorists can cross our borders.
Terrorists have a support network of "brothers" in America and American liberals show more interest in protecting the rights of terrorists than the lives of Americans.
Elliot Deutsch
Bel Air
Exclusive golf course can buy its own ads
It was kind of The Sun to devote several pages of the Sunday and Monday papers to the private golf course at Caves Valley ("Caves Valley course awaits the challenge of Seniors golf," June 23, and "A Cut Above," June 24). I had no idea The Sun had switched from printing news to printing promotional brochures.
Perhaps next time the paper could balance its coverage by noting the millions of gallons of water used (in this time of drought) and how many barrels of chemicals are employed to create that "manicured" look The Sun's writers fancy.
Surely, there must be a less environmentally damaging way to entertain a few hundred rich old men.
Hugh Bethell
Baltimore