Run Purple Line below ground to ease commute

In the late 1980s, the Montgomery County Council advocated a (so-called) inner Purple Line connecting Silver Spring to Bethesda ("Plan to extend Washington's Metro tees off golfers and users of trail," Dec. 3). That plan called for an above-ground trolley, which would have required Metro subway riders to come up to street level to board a lovely, leisurely trolley as it stopped several times on a relatively short ride between two urban centers.

I would argue that a similar route by bus already exists. And during the 1990s, when I and the County Council reviewed the project, we consistently turned it down. It was not efficient, cost-effective or commuter-friendly.

My proposal to use the same route but build a below-ground subway - making the route fast and easily accessible for riders - was encouraged by the County Council but fell on deaf ears from both the county executive and the governor.

After all, County Executive Douglas M. Duncan had his own idea - to build a transit line farther north to serve the new businesses he had lured to the county. And the governor, by not accepting the county executive's proposal or the council's, didn't have to go forward with any plan.

Stalemate meant no major expenditure for Montgomery County on this project and more money for Mr. Glendening to use elsewhere. And it allowed the governor to claim it wasn't his fault Montgomery County couldn't make up its mind.

But Montgomery County needs both an inner and outer subway line.

Whether Mr. Duncan's outer route is far enough "out" is debatable. There is no question, however, that subway riders traveling between big job markets in Silver Spring and Bethesda should not have to spend up to 40 minutes (as they do now) to ride the Red Line all the way into Washington and then come out to the suburbs to connect to their destinations.

With an inner Purple Line, the trip should take at most 10 minutes. And this would increase subway ridership by bringing more commuters out of their cars and buses, save precious time for all riders on that route and ease the overburdened subway load in and out of the city.

And, of course, an underground subway on the old CSX route would allow both the Columbia Country Club and the hiker-biker trail to exist at street level.

Gail H. Ewing

Potomac

The writer was a member of the Montgomery County Council from 1990 to 1998.

Rail plan can be blueprint for future

The Transit Riders League of Metropolitan Baltimore strongly supports the Baltimore Region Rail System Plan ("State betting rail expansion will get commuters on track," Nov. 19).

Based on rider needs and mindful of the positive economic impact that the expansion of transit has had on other major metropolitan areas, we sought a visionary plan, regional in scope, with good interconnections, that builds on the existing 53 miles of rail lines and creates a system for fast, reliable travel to our life activities.

And now we have a 20-to-40-year plan that will take people to White Marsh, Columbia, Towson, Owings Mills, Dundalk, Hunt Valley, the Social Security headquarters and Arundel Mills mall. It will have connecting hubs at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Pennsylvania Station, Camden Station and Charles Center.

The plan envisions future expansions to Annapolis, Bel Air and Westminster, as well as suburb-to-suburb and outer city circumferential lines.

But to do this we must first have a core system - and this is what the plan can give us.

Barbara Cutko Baltimore

Eugene Peterson Laurel

The writers co-chair the Transit Riders League of Metropolitan Baltimore.

Put amusement park on Fells Point pier

I can't believe that many of the responses to the November Question of the Month about uses for the Recreation Pier include rehashing the same type of entertainment over and over again (letters, Nov. 30).

Why does everyone think that restaurants and shops are the answer?

And how many "Harborplaces" with restaurants and shops can Baltimore support? Harborplace already has a number of vacancies.

I think the city should gear the revitalization of the Fells Point pier to a family-oriented facility that is different and enjoyable. An amusement park would be my suggestion.

It could include a fun house, haunted house ride, arcade games and all, of course, topped off with a Ferris wheel and a roller coaster that could go out over the water at the pier's end.

Many of the amusements could be located inside on the first floor of the building, making them accessible year-round.

And with Baltimore's climate becoming more temperate, the outdoor attractions could be open most of the year.

Vendors could provide services and run the amusements independently, thus deferring the operating costs.

Baltimore needs more family fun areas inside the city, and this could be a start.

Mark Zivkovich

Baltimore

Hunting deer is not a sport

The Nov. 30 Sun carried a lengthy editorial ("Good hunting") concerning the service deer hunters are doing the public in keeping the deer population under control. If that is the belief of its editors, The Sun is entitled, even obligated, to espouse it.

And on Dec. 1, The Sun ran another article on deer hunting on the front page of the sports section ("On opening day of deer season, hunters bag big breakfast first").

But deer hunting is not and has never been a sport. In any sport, each side has a reasonable chance of winning - that's even true in tic-tac-toe.

But it isn't true in deer hunting. In this case, a human with all of the powers of reason goes into the woods with a high-powered rifle for the express purpose of shooting a beautiful, timid, helpless animal - for the joy of it or to mount the head over a fireplace.

This is not sport, this is slaughter, just as surely as the cattle are slaughtered in a meat-packing house.

Write what you will about deer hunting but please don't ever equate it with sport. This is not fair to true sportsmen.

John P. Kimball

Baltimore

Choice is nightmare for teachers unions

The writer of the letter "Vouchers won't cure what ails our schools" (Nov. 30) has fallen for all the anti-school-choice arguments of the public school teaching axis of unions and bureaucrats that has been propagating the let's-give-more-money-a-chance theory of education for generations.

And, while I haven't seen the plan to which the writer refers, I'll bet it doesn't include putting a gun to anyone's head or otherwise forcing parents to take kids out of school for $2,500 or for any amount.

Nor, I'll wager, does it insist the voucher be redeemed at private schools whose tuition is four times the amount of the voucher.

No. What it most likely represents is a choice.

And this is the teachers unions' worst nightmare - the beginning of the end. Who knows, a private school or two might pop up charging $2,500 a year for tuition, uniforms, books and transportation.

And who will teach at these schools? Any of 1 million people interested in teaching students to become better citizens, parents and employees.

Mike Netherland

Severna Park

Insulting Muhammad isn't good journalism

The Sun's editorial "Courage at deadline" (Dec. 2) celebrated the 2002 International Press Freedom Award winners and mentioned Nigerian reporter Isioma Daniel as yet another unfortunate journalist targeted for violence by the enemies of free speech.

In response to the Islamists of Nigeria who were protesting the Miss World Pageant as a decadent parade of nudity, Ms. Daniel wrote that the prophet Muhammad himself would have approved of the pageant and would have gone so far as to pick one of the beauty queens as his wife.

The article inflamed Islamists, who called it blasphemous.

This set off a conflagration of riots that caused numerous deaths and forced Ms. Daniel herself into hiding because of death threats.

The fact that Ms. Daniel is a Christian no doubt added fuel to the fire.

Much as journalists in this country love to stand up for journalists all over the world in a show of solidarity, a more reasoned approach is required in the case of Ms. Daniel.

It is horrible that she was condemned to death, but she was plainly stupid when she suggested she has insights into the prophet Muhammad's way of thinking and behaving. This played right into the hands of the Islamic extremists, who claim to understand the mind and the writings of Muhammad better than anyone else.

When Ms. Daniel, in a fit of thoughtless cheekiness, used the prophet to hit the Islamists below the belt, she sank to the level of her opponents.

In many parts of the world, journalists can unleash death and destruction by the way they challenge political and religious ideologues. Gratuitous and irresponsible journalism is not a responsible choice in such places.

Journalists should be truth-sayers and dissenters but they should be loftier than their opponents and smarter than those who would muzzle them.

Usha Nellore

Bel Air

Chemical calmatives just aren't safe

The recent deaths of 130 Russians from exposure to a derivative of the opioid Fentanyl during a raid to free hostages of Chechen captors in a Moscow theater should serve as a huge red flag for those promoting so-called nonlethal weapons - in particular the use of chemical agents called "calmatives" ("Military research explores various nonlethal weapons," Nov. 23).

As events in Moscow showed, the risks are too great and there are too many variables for such chemicals to be used safely.

Aside from the immediate physical danger, calmatives also represent a significant longer-term threat to arms control regimes. Many experts believe their use violates the Chemical Weapons Convention, because such chemicals fail to distinguish between military and civilian targets.

Given the challenge of minimizing harm to innocent civilians, the difficulty of controlling calmatives and the problem with the Chemical Weapons Convention, the use of such agents should be prohibited until a new review of their effectiveness can be done.

David Isenberg

Washington

The writer is a senior analyst for the British-American Security Information Council.

Give steamer berth here in Baltimore

The Sun's editorial on the SS United States did great service and honor to an ocean liner of historic proportions ("Cool, and still afloat," Dec. 7). And it is important to try to save this splendid symbol of America's emerging post-World War II power and pride.

In the summer of 1953, I worked on the ship as a bellboy while I was in college. I remember with great pleasure a sleek and handsome ship - with red, white and blue funnels that drew thousands of admiring spectators.

The ship had become monarch of the seas when it wrested the coveted blue ribbon from England as the fastest ship afloat, besting the 1938 trans-Atlantic record of the Queen Mary by more than 10 hours. And the record still stands today.

As The Sun urges, we should not allow this symbol of America's maritime pre-eminence to continue to rust and possibly disappear as scrap.

Why can't we think of it as a national treasure that could reside in Baltimore's harbor - highlighting our seafaring heritage while bolstering civic pride?

This proud ship would be a magnificent attraction for any city in which she is berthed.

Stanley C. Gabor

Baltimore

Gifts should aid those in need

The spirit of the holidays is giving. And we have no problem with giving. We make lists. Our kids make lists of presents for us to buy, and we make every attempt to buy them all (within reason, of course).

We shop and we give. But many people on our list are fortunate enough to need nothing. Some of them may actually not even want anything. We give to them anyway. And most of us go overboard.

Amid all the holiday activities, some of us remember to contribute also to a charity. But the level of poverty and people in need is staggering. One does not have to look far to identify an organization that needs support, a family that needs food or a child who needs clothes or a toy.

We do not do enough to support them, but this can be easily amended.

First, let your family and friends know that in lieu of a gift you would prefer a contribution to a charity of your choice. Then suggest to co-workers that you adopt a family or send a donation to an animal welfare group instead of exchanging gifts.

And finally, if you give more than one present to a child, identify one as a contribution to a charity in his or her name. What a wonderful message you will convey.

Your reward? The inner satisfaction of knowing you have made a difference for someone in need.

Anne Gold

Cockeysville

Berrigan's spirit cannot be stilled

As we were walking among the several hundred people processing from Jonah House to St. Peter Claver Church for the funeral of Philip Berrigan, someone walking beside me sighed and said, "Well, I guess this is the end of an era." I nodded in agreement ("Berrigan remembered as friend, protester of war and injustice," Dec. 10).

But during the funeral, as Mr. Berrigan's wife and children read from the Scriptures that motivated his lifelong commitment to nonviolence, and quoted his words, then as I listened to his brother Daniel Berrigan give the homily, I knew the Berrigan era was not ending.

As I heard his long-time friends in the peace movement recall their months and years in prison together for acts of civil disobedience to oppose injustice, war and weapons of mass destruction, I sensed the era was ongoing.

But it was the voices of the children there in the crowded sanctuary that convinced me that instead of the end of an era we were witnessing the evolution of a new era.

The many young couples at the funeral with their whining, giggling, weeping babies and toddlers spoke of the future of the peace movement. These young families and their circles of friends all over the nation will continue to beat swords into plowshares.

The body of Philip Berrigan is no longer with us, but his spirit is alive and well - in his family and the many friends and followers who actively support his efforts to bring peace to our world, where war and violence are a constant threat.

Phyllis S. Yingling

Baltimore