Ads, taxes send different signals about smoking
"Smoking stops here." That is the slogan of Gov. Parris N. Glendening's new multimillion-dollar, decade-long anti-smoking campaign ("'Smoking stops here' starting today, state officials declare," July 12).
I think the slogan should read, "Blowing smoke in your eyes" -- to reflect the fact that Mr. Glendening and his cronies are trying to get another slick one by the taxpayers.
The ads will be paid for with a portion of Maryland's $4 billion cut from the gouging of the tobacco companies. Ironically, the announcement of this campaign comes only months after Maryland's legislature passed a bill known as the "Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act," which includes a cigarette tax increase and $1.3 billion in increases in state aid to education (most of which will go to the wealthier districts).
So, in a nutshell, $4 billion is coming to Maryland over the next 25 years and $300 million of that will be spent encouraging Marylanders to quit smoking. And there is a new increase in aid to our schools of $1.3 billion and a $1-per-pack cigarette tax to pay for it.
This basically tells Marylanders: "We are going to spend $300 million telling you to quit smoking and raise the tax so you can't afford to smoke. But if you want your kids to have a decent education, ignore us and keep puffing."
Jessica Chew-Massey
Princess Anne
Fighting smoking helps poor people
The writer of the letter "Use of tobacco tax is self-defeating" (July 18) is confused about the work of Maryland Democrats to reduce the preventable illness and deaths visited upon this state every year because of tobacco.
Second-hand smoke causes about 3,000 nonsmokers to die from lung cancer and more than 60,000 deaths from heart disease in this country each year. It also causes 150,000 to 300,000 respiratory infections in children under 18 months old.
All of these consequences of smoking disproportionately affect the poor, for reasons ranging from limited access to quality health care to greater marketing of tobacco products in low-income neighborhoods.
Higher taxation pushes people to quit smoking. And an anti-tobacco campaign with the sophistication of the marketing used by the tobacco companies is also a wise move.
And, until the reduction in smoking catches on, the use of money from these taxes for education makes sense.
Better public education helps increase opportunities for the poor and is a necessary step in reducing poverty.
Patti Flowers-Coulson
Towson
Governor is wrong on pollution standard
The Sun's article "Glendening pledges to sue EPA to save clean-air standards" (July 20) is another example of the state government's lack of knowledge and of a common-sense approach in addressing environmental and natural resource concerns.
The "clear skies" approach the Bush administration recently set forth will in fact increase power generation efficiencies while reducing further air pollution.
Gov. Parris N. Glendening's statement that "they want to give some of the nation's biggest polluters the ability to pollute more" is outrageously incorrect, and filing a lawsuit to block the proposed changes is another waste of taxpayers' money -- and at a time when they can least afford it.
Amending the New Source Review (NSR) rule as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes, will provide an ongoing, effective incentive for power plants to reduce emissions.
Prior to this amendment, the NSR process was lengthy and costly and created a disincentive for old plants to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions.
The step taken by President Bush and the EPA will get our power generators moving once again in the direction of reducing pollution and increasing efficient energy production.
Richard E. Hug
Baltimore
The writer is chairman emeritus of Environmental Elements Corp.
Bush is no friend to world's women
The Bush administration has finally proved it is both cowardly and hypocritical. While claiming to be the liberators of women in Afghanistan and the protector of their rights worldwide, it has quietly gone on a campaign to deprive women of the ability to control the size of their families and have some hope of freeing themselves from poverty and hunger.
The administration will not fund the United Nations Family Planning program. It claims the program supports coercive abortions in China ("U.S. to withhold $34 million from family planning," July 23). This is false. A recent study by this very administration found no such link.
What the U.N. program does is support women in their attempt to control the size of their families through birth control, which prevents pregnancies and abortions.
The administration could become a true standard-bearer for elevating women out of poverty and freeing them from the demands of oversized families for which they cannot provide. Children born into such families end up malnourished and fall behind developmentally, which only increases the burdens on the rest of the world to care for them.
But President Bush has placed the narrow-minded views of political zealots ahead of the needs and well-being of families around the world.
The lack of available birth control will doom millions of women to unwanted pregnancies that result in hungry children or illegal and unsafe abortions. Women will die; so will children.
If it were really interested in saving children and improving women's lives, the administration would participate in the U.N. programs that give families the tools they need to improve their lives.
Jeanette Nazarian
Catonsville
We need more troops to defeat terrorism
The Sun's July 10 report of the Pentagon's plans to trim "tens of thousands" of active-duty troops to fund war-fighting modernization is disturbing to the 2.8-million member American Legion ("Pentagon to consider large-scale troop cuts," July 10).
The American Legion has testified before Congress that weapons modernization and personnel increases must go hand in hand.
More than 85,000 reservists and National Guard members have been activated as America fights a war against terrorism, institutes an ambitious homeland security plan and carries out numerous peacekeeping missions.
In this circumstance, the nation should increase its active-duty military force from 1.35 million troops to at least 1.6 million troops.
The number of full-strength Army divisions must be increased from 10 to 12. And we need one dozen deployable Navy aircraft carrier battle groups and no fewer than 15 active Air Force fighter wings.
Such manpower and equipment are mandatory to serve our present and future national security and homeland defense needs and strategies.
Richard J. Santos
Greenbelt
The writer is national commander of the American Legion.
Hassles at airport don't make us safer
The writer of "Lapses make flying more frightening" (letters, July 18) stated that she is "very hesitant to fly" and suggested that tighter security at airports was important to prevent more attacks.
I, by contrast, am hesitant to fly because all what passes for "tighter security" at airports has done is create more and more hassles for fliers.
I don't believe that flying has been made safer by, as has happened to me, having the clips of my bra straps fondled, taking my shoes off for someone to stare at or having me take my coat off to go through "security" when having cloth between the metal detector and metal on my person makes no difference in the device's ability to detect metal.
And having an e-ticket kiosk ask me "if anyone unknown to me has placed anything in my baggage" and depending on me pressing the "right" button is stupid indeed.
The deaths of some 2,800 innocent people in the attacks on the World Trade Center was indeed tragic and shocking.
However, some perspective is needed: 1,380 people die every month in this country from accidents involving drunken driving and countless more die because somebody wanted to drive faster, somebody was talking on their cell phone or somebody was distracted by their kids in the car.
I believe the safest part of my journey -- by far -- comes when I am in airport and in the air.
Nancy L. Craig
Baltimore
Many citizens rely on mass transit
In his attack on public transportation, Wendell Cox forgets the thousands of people in Maryland who rely on the transit system ("The truth about transit," Opinion*Commentary, July 12).
For many working people, especially those who live in the city and hold jobs in the suburbs, public transportation is the only way to get to work. Those people have more important things to spend their money on than loan payments, auto insurance premiums (which are higher for city residents) and car maintenance.
A reliable transit system not only benefits workers, but also the businesses and communities they serve.
And many of our senior and disabled citizens lack the physical ability to drive. Transit allows them the freedom of movement they need to remain healthy and active.
For young people, especially those under the driving age, transit also provides a measure of independence. This is particularly important for teen-agers who are establishing their own identities on their way to becoming self-reliant adults.
For citizens of all ages and walks of life, transit provides equality of access to cultural centers, malls, libraries, parks, museums, schools, colleges and other public spaces.
Transit has an important role in creating a more just and democratic society. It is an essential public good that all of us have an interest in supporting.
Mark Giffen
Lutherville
Voucher plans show they can help kids
The writer of the letter "Vouchers won't help struggling students" (July 17) asked for a small, experimental program of school vouchers to determine their effectiveness. I give him Maine and Vermont.
Since 1873, Maine has run a voucher program in which the state pays the tuition for 35 percent of all private school students. For more than 100 years, parents have voted to keep this system. I would term that experiment a success.
Vermont uses a voucher system in 90 towns, recently paying tuition for more than 6,500 students in one year. This system has been in place for over 130 years and would seem to be another effective program.
Closer to home? How about the Children's Scholarship Fund of Baltimore?
This is an organization started recently by a group concerned about the abysmal education of Baltimore's poorest children. In 1998, about 500 private school scholarships were made available; 20,000 families applied. So it would appear there is a demand for better education in this state.
Baltimore's poorest children currently receive an education in the public schools that citizens should be ashamed of. Time and again vouchers have proved that they work better and cost less.
It's time to put children's best interests ahead of those of the education bureaucrats.
Tim Stonesifer
Westminster
Low wages sting more than mansion
It is depressing to read once again the sordid details of extravagance and cost overruns at Towson University -- sofas, knick-knack shelves, etc., costing thousands of dollars ("Costs of college's mansion detailed," July 20).
But as a professor at the university for 37 years, I am more dismayed at where my university does not spend money.
One hundred forty housekeepers earn a sub-living wage of about $14,000 per year because the university privatizes housekeeping, and because several years ago it negotiated a money-saving contract that did not require the contracting company to pay a living wage.
One organization of which I am a member, Faculty for a TU Living Wage, calculates that it would cost about $350,000 a year to lift the housekeepers' wages above the federal poverty line for the remaining years of the contract.
Student and faculty organizations have asked Towson to come up with money. How sad and how unfair that it has not yet done so.
Roderich N. Ryon
Towson
The writer is a professor of history at Towson University.
City trees need help from their neighbors
While median-strip tree plantings are one of the most challenging types of greening projects to care for, the care of city street trees and small neighborhood park trees is within reach of every city resident ("Young trees face tall odds," July 22).
Most likely, right outside your house there is a tree that needs your help. And in places such as Franklin, Union and Collington squares, newly planted trees need help from caring neighbors to survive.
There are simple ways to help these trees survive and grow, which is especially important during times of stress from weather conditions.
Water the trees twice a week with at least 10 gallons of water poured slowly so the water gradually percolates down to the tree's roots. Mulch lightly around your tree with 2 inches to 4 inches of shredded or chipped bark mulch, shaping it into a saucer around the trunk.
Keep tree pits clear of dog waste, oil, strong detergents, bricks and debris that poison the tree or block water.
And protect your tree from weed trimmers, bicycle chains, nails and anything else that damages the bark and opens the tree to disease and insects.
Trees clean our air, filter rainwater and provide shade in the summer and windbreaks in the winter.
You can't have healthy neighborhoods without healthy trees. So the next time you cook a pot of pasta or greens, save the water for your tree.
Amanda Cunningham
Baltimore
The writer is community forestry program manager for the Parks and People Foundation.
Illegal drug trade causes city's carnage
Help me, please. I just don't get it.
Young adults returning from Amsterdam tell me: "It's great. You can get anything" -- read drugs and sex -- "you want, and it's all legal." Now, I'm sure there are limits to this debauchery in Amsterdam, but the point is that I haven't heard of 151 deaths in Amsterdam this year.
But this is what I read in The Sun recently -- 151 persons murdered this year in Baltimore, many of them under 18 years old.
And, from sources I trust, I've heard you can buy any drug you want in Baltimore. It's just that they're illegal.
So instead of some sort of legal dispensary, illegal hoods are making a bundle and killing each other and some innocent bystanders to protect their interests.
This is where I need help. If you can get any drug in Baltimore and a large part of the homicide problem has to deal with drug turfs, drug deals and the like, doesn't it seem logical that many of the 151 deaths from homicide could be prevented by making illegal drug dealing unprofitable?
It can be argued that if drugs were legal, some people who otherwise would be hesitant to try drugs might do so. But would 151 (and counting) people a year die from trying the drugs? My guess is no.
I know Baltimoreans have been through this debate scores of times. It's just that after years of trying to rid our city of drugs, it's just not working -- and people are being murdered at a very alarming rate.
Doesn't it seem logical to revisit this conundrum at least one more time?
Saving lives in Baltimore means legalizing deadly substances.
Cinta Porter
Hunt Valley