Charles St. pub ought to lose its liquor license

The city liquor board's vote to suspend the liquor license of Rootie Kazootie's and fine its owners is but a slap on the wrist for the bar's owners ("Liquor board suspends Charles St. pub's license," Nov. 8). I am frustrated that the board seems to value a bar catering to under-age drinkers more than it values families with children and citizens committed to living, working and believing in Baltimore.

Each Saturday and Sunday at 2 a.m., hordes of boisterous, intoxicated teen-agers exit the bar to the dismay of sleeping families. Neighbors have videotaped drunken patrons fighting, damaging property and urinating near their homes.

Police have snagged 18-year-olds for consuming alcohol in Rootie Kazootie's, which advertises "$10 all you can drink" specials. And private investigators have proved the restaurant has failed to meet the ratio of food to alcohol sales that its class B restaurant liquor license requires.

Last April, liquor board chairman Leonard R. Skolnik requested that the community and the pub meet to discuss nuisance concerns. A July meeting was scheduled. Ten neighbors sat in a liquor board conference room. But Rootie Kazootie's failed to show.

The vote to suspend and fine Rootie Kazootie's reflects progress. But the liquor board has already been presented with enough physical and testimonial evidence to revoke the license of the bar.

Bridget McMahon

Baltimore

Veterans Day offers lessons about Iraq

Michael Olesker's column "Veterans Day at The Wall strikes chord amid war talk" (Nov. 12) does strike a chord with someone who served in Vietnam in 1967-68. And I hope that common sense will prevail when it comes to putting our forces in harm's way in Iraq.

Is it not more important to focus our energies on productive things in our country such as the economy, limiting dependence on foreign oil and improving our quality of life?

Mr. Olesker asks, "Do we know the truth about the Middle East?" Having witnessed the deceptions of Vietnam, I doubt it.

Keith F. Kelley

Lutherville

Progress on crime merits applause

I found Baltimore Circuit Judge John Prevas' comments in Jim Haner's article "Fighting a legacy of murder" (Nov. 3) disturbing.

Judge Prevas describes the hard-fought gains won by Mayor Martin O'Malley, Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris and the city's more than 3,000 police officers as a "very expensive charade."

His advice to the mayor: "Whatever he does, he has to find a way to get the hardcore felons off the street for good, or people will begin to understand that his crime reductions are a fiction."

A fiction? Those are strong words. The truth is that city has seen a 29 percent reduction in crime overall and a 15 percent decline in homicides over the last three years. These figures are far more meaningful than the murky downstream arrest-to-conviction ratio Judge Prevas suggests we focus on.

The mayor and the commissioner are addressing the city's crime problem at its source.

They are preventing crimes. Their efforts should be commended.

Andrew Boyd

Churchton

GOP feels threat from Nancy Pelosi

I can always tell when the Republican Party feels threatened by a politician from the loyal opposition. As in the case of Cal Thomas' column on Rep. Nancy Pelosi's election as House minority leader, they tend to personally attack and attempt to smear through rumor and innuendo the reputation of the person they seek to destroy ("Democrats writing their own epitaph," Opinion Commentary, Nov. 13).

I have not seen such a diatribe since Bill Clinton first announced he was running for president, and that hate campaign didn't stop for eight years. The Republican Party has never been known as strong in its debating skills, hence its long history of personal attacks.

But I congratulate Ms. Pelosi. Being from Baltimore, and having lived in San Francisco for 20 years, I am proud of her and her family and know she is intelligent, sensitive, strong and open to new ideas -- unlike her attackers.

Michael S. Eckenrode

Baltimore

Unelected president sets new standard

The overwhelming trend in midterm elections over the last century has been for the party holding the White House to lose seats in the House of Representatives. But perhaps this political maxim should be amended to note that it applies only when the party in the White House was actually elected in the first place.

Kevin J. Doyle

Reisterstown

Ehrlich wins victory for political diversity

It was really all about leadership. Lost in the posturing and rhetoric of the gubernatorial campaign was the fact that Maryland needed someone capable of leading state government, and Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was the clear choice in that regard ("Ehrlich wins," Nov. 6).

While Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend stood propped up by the handlers who have surrounded her for eight years (at substantial cost to the taxpayers), Mr. Ehrlich displayed the personal stature needed to govern.

Ms. Townsend's ineptitude and her party's errant message were so repugnant to many Maryland voters that what should have been a virtual slam dunk for Ms. Townsend turned into a dramatic upset win for Mr. Ehrlich.

Mr. Ehrlich's victory was a victory for political diversity, independent thought and personal freedom over rigid political doctrine.

Dennis Sirman

Westminster

Unchecked power is the real menace

The genius of a truly democratic government lies in its system of checks and balances. When these restraints are set aside, our nation's boast of "government of the people, by the people, for the people" no longer rings true here or around the world.

Now, in the aftermath of the election, American citizens of every political stripe had better pay attention to the red flag of unchecked power.

When the Republican Party finishes crowing over "victory" and the Democratic Party quits wallowing in excuses and begins to stand up for some credible alternative policies, we may find this to be the only patriotic and sensible course.

Elizabeth W. Goldsborough

Owings Mills

Camelot fades into the past

I have seen John F. Kennedy as president, Robert Kennedy as U.S. attorney general, Edward Kennedy as a U.S. senator, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend as lieutenant governor and R. Sargent Shriver as a leader of the war on poverty.

With Mark Shriver losing his bid for Congress and Ms. Townsend's loss in the governor's race, it appears that what was known as Camelot is fading into the mists of time.

Gerald M. Rosenthal

Pikesville