City, suburbs will flourish or fail together

Which Sun has it right?

The Sun's editorial page carried a magnificent series on sprawl that depicted its impact on village, suburb, city and the region as a whole. The essays were carefully analytic and specific in their prescriptions (Dec. 1-Dec. 6).

But then the Perspective section article "Is it too late for cities?" (Dec. 8) carried a litany of pain usually reserved for cocktail hours or the cry of the city dweller who has just suffered some trauma that causes that person to throw up his or her hands for the moment.

The editorials offer a specific agenda for the next governor to continue some of the positive efforts in the region. All the Perspective section's academic experts could muster is this bottom line: "Though cities will continue to be transformed ... few think they are going to go away."

How much better was the editorial series that showed us the specific public investments we have made to dramatically expand the region, overbuilding on the fringes and depopulating the region's center.

But the most serious flaw in the Perspective article is that it overlooks the great insight of the editorial series - namely, that the city and the region are so interconnected that they are in fact one.

Thus the issues of city, suburb, village and region must be addressed together. When we speak of the great role of cities in history, we do not talk only of the core - the square mile around the Babylonian Palace, the emperor's residence in ancient Peking, the Roman Coliseum or the marketplace on the Thames. We refer to the whole urban settlement, from its core to its fringes.

To look for the future of the city defined only as the political boundaries of Baltimore City is the kind of old-fashioned thinking that got us in trouble in the first place. The political unit is not the operative economic unit, cultural unit or real estate market. The region is one, with the city at its core.

You can't love the region and hate the city; you can't love the city and hate the suburbs. The combination is what makes us great.

Only when, pulling together, we create a competitive region, which works together and addresses the unique problems of each of its sub-parts, will we succeed in building a successful and sustainable region.

Joseph McNeely

Baltimore

The writer is president of the Development Training Institute.

Stopping growth is the smart choice

The Sun's editorial "Sprawl: Village" began a mostly excellent series that spelled out the necessity of Smart Growth (Dec. 1-Dec. 6), which the series repeatedly and accurately described in terms of reducing or slowing the harmful effects of growth.

Unfortunately, it ignored the fact that Smart Growth offers little or no hope of preventing the worst of those effects - air and water pollution, loss of open space and species, water and energy shortages, etc.

Maybe we need a new name for Smart Growth - one that either doesn't include the idea of growth at all, or makes clear that "Smart Growth" is no substitute for no growth.

"Not-Quite-So-Harmful Development" wouldn't be a very stirring slogan, but it would be a lot more accurate than "Smart Growth."

And, as for whether growth is inevitable, it may well be - if we make the mistake of assuming that it is.

Cliff Terry

Woodlawn

Parents' role is key to schools' success

It should not be shocking that the new test results show a wide gap between Baltimore County's best- and worst-performing high schools ("Test score disparities unsettling," Dec. 7).

And Superintendent Joe A. Hairston's remarks are right on the money when he states that the technical end of school improvement has been addressed but that overall "improvement has an awful lot to do with the spirit and will of the community."

Involvement begins at home, when parents stress the importance of education. It continues when children begin school and parents check to see that assignments are completed, discipline is in place and that their children respect their teachers' instruction.

It is also important to understand that the test results are based not just on this year's learning, but on that of previous years. Under the MSPAP, process, not content, was foremost in instruction. Now, there will be a blend of both, as reason dictates there should be. But it will take some time for students to adjust to the new demands.

In Baltimore County, teachers are qualified to teach wherever they are placed. It is the attitude of the students that makes the difference, not who the teachers are.

So, let's get together and put together a plan that targets parental involvement in education and supports what schools are doing.

This is the only way real and lasting improvements in education can occur.

Connie Verita

Baldwin

Union-only pacts ensure quality work

It is extremely ironic that James Russ, the chairman of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Metro Washington, would write to criticize Gov. Parris N. Glendening's handling of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project ("Union-only pact delayed plan to replace bridge," letters, Nov. 28).

Maryland sought to protect the workers, taxpayers and commuters of the region by using a "project labor agreement," or PLA, to ensure that the work was done by highly trained and skilled workers.

Typically, PLA-contracted jobs are built efficiently, provide safe working conditions, fair wages and benefits to workers and improve the quality of life in local communities by boosting their economy.

By contrast, I would remind Mr. Russ of the Springfield "Mixing Bowl" interchange project in Northern Virginia, which is being almost exclusively built by nonunion contractors and an under-skilled, nonunion workforce - and of the delays, cost overruns and job-site fatalities on that project.

But the Bush administration, paying back its anti-union supporters, rejected the use of a PLA on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and insisted that this project move forward without PLA safeguards.

When only one bid came in, at a vastly inflated rate, Maryland moved quickly to resolve the situation. By breaking the job out to be bid in smaller packages, the Glendening administration ensured that the project will move forward, on schedule.

And, fortunately for taxpayers, workers and commuters, union contractors won the bid.

Jerry Lozupone

Camp Springs

The writer is secretary-treasurer of the Washington D.C. Building and Construction Trades Council of the AFL-CIO.

Pre-empting terror puts America first

Three cheers for President Bush for telling the world, in unambiguous terms, that the United States will, if necessary, throw the first punch in our continuing war on terror. And the president made it clear that the response could be with nuclear weapons, if circumstances warrant their use ("U.S. hints nuclear response to attack by hostile country," Dec. 11).

Yes, the president's statement is unnerving and, yes, the United States was the last and the only nation to use nuclear weapons. However, the world has changed dramatically. And we are about as sure as we can be that rogue nations and terrorist groups such as al-Qaida will use nuclear devices if they acquire them and that they are working hard to do just that.

We are equally certain about the lessons of history. Weak nations or nations that will not defend themselves will be preyed upon by their enemies. Global terrorism is as dangerous as it is today because, over the years, national leaders failed to react to the threats.

So let the French, the Germans and the United Nations wring their hands and turn a blind eye to reality. The first responsibility of an American president is to keep his people secure. And whatever shortcomings Mr. Bush may have, his outstanding strength is his unwavering commitment to protect American citizens.

The United States is the world's only superpower. If we don't react aggressively and swiftly to the threat of terrorism, no one else will.

Carl LaVerghetta

Ellicott City

U.S. reaps hostility its bullying sows

Somewhere I read: "You shall reap what you sow." As with an individual, so with a nation - actions often return to exact their pound of flesh.

This American government, with its propensity to vilify other countries, fails to see that its collective hands are not pure.

America has a long, disgraceful history of lynching, segregation, injustice, terrorism, murder and hatred - especially of people of color.

Now, our government castigates other nations as "evil," as if America is above reproach. And President Bush has repeatedly claimed that other nations hate America because we are a freedom-loving people.

But when that freedom is won on the backs of others who are less fortunate, when we fail to see the sufferings of others, when we pretend that we are better off because God loves us more, the whole world becomes more chaotic and dangerous.

Sept. 11 brought this sad reality home to us all.

Milton Shade Sr.

Baltimore

GOP leaders show little compassion

When I first heard the misnomer "compassionate conservatism" during the 2000 presidential election, I was, to say the least, a bit skeptical that the Republican leopard had changed its spots. But after this year's midterm elections, the Republican Party has moved with such alarming speed to dispel the notion that it is the party of compassion it has surprised even this life-long Democrat.

The country's unemployment rate just topped 6 percent, yet the Republican-controlled House has refused to extend unemployment benefits to 830,000 workers who will lose this paltry income three days after Christmas.

And it was recently revealed that eight months ago the Bush administration reinstituted the granting of bonuses as large as $25,000 to political appointees, a practice President Clinton had stopped.

The Republican-controlled House also passed an amendment to the homeland security law that will exempt pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly from being sued if their vaccines are found to cause autism.

Additionally, the Bush administration moved within days of the election to roll back provisions of the Clean Air Act in ways that will allow older, coal-fired power plants to emit more pollutants for my children to breathe.

Frankly, the only compassion I see in this neo-conservative Republican Party is for the special interests that write the big checks that allowed the Republicans to outspend Democrats nearly 2-1.

Matthew George

Westminster

Backing Thurmond was act of defiance

The Sun's editorial "Mississippi burning" (Dec. 11) simplistically condemned Senate Republican leader Trent Lott's remarks at Sen. Strom Thurmond's birthday party as an endorsement of segregation.

Mississippians were, in fact, proud to vote for Mr. Thurmond in 1948. But they were proud to do so because he championed a defiance they were richly entitled to manifest against a federal government that had brought down upon their forebears just four generations previously a totally unjustified catastrophe driven by motives rooted in utter hypocrisy.

In 1948, supporting segregation was a way of exhibiting the South's unbroken spirit.

In the Civil War, the deaths of one-quarter of all male citizens of the Old South had been caused by the U.S. government - the same government that had effectively disenfranchised Southerners before the war.

It had chosen, over the South's vehement objections, to fund itself by instituting a federal tariff. Citizens everywhere knew that the tariff enabled the North's vast textile industry to deter foreign competition and inflate prices. Everyone further knew that foreigners recovered the U.S. import duties with retaliatory tariffs levied overwhelmingly against Southerners.

That same federal government also chose to ignore the immense benefit the North derived from cheap cotton, forgoing any prewar national measure that would have saddled the North with a share of the cost of abolishing slavery.

That same federal government proceeded to tell the world that its acts were for the benefit of the South's slaves.

Southerners were so blinded by their rage against this treachery that they required 100 years to recognize that the slaves had only been unwitting pawns in a political strategy that enabled Washington to appear to have achieved militarily a goal it had actually never even deemed worthy of attempting by peaceful means.

Dennis G. Saunders

Columbia

Gimbel was leader in fighting addiction

I was shocked when I read The Sun's article on the firing of Michael M. Gimbel ("Baltimore County drug czar is fired," Dec. 13). This man almost single-handedly built Baltimore County's Bureau of Substance Abuse.

I first met Mr. Gimbel almost 20 years ago when he conducted a drug and alcohol awareness program at a private girls school in Baltimore City. Although the school was not in the county, he did not hesitate to offer his services.

More recently, I have had the privilege of working with Mr. Gimbel in my volunteer efforts at a prominent boys school in Baltimore; and again, he couldn't have been more helpful. In fact, with his guidance, the school's drug and alcohol program has become a model for schools across the country.

Now, after 23 years of painstaking efforts, he is dismissed over a tangential political agenda? Something doesn't fit here.

Baltimore has a longstanding history of struggles with substance abuse. Finally we have someone making a difference; let's not let political pettiness get in the way.

Cindi Monahan

Baltimore

The writer is a former president of the Gilman School Parents Association.

Justice expedited can be justice denied

Although I share the outrage of the writer of the letter "Expediting execution will stop criminals" (Dec. 11) over the orgy of violence on Baltimore's streets, I part company with him when he calls for "quick, no-nonsense trials followed by speedy executions" as a solution to the problem.

Like it or not, due process of law in criminal trials is a fundamental principle of a democracy. The inconvenience and delay that come with it are surely preferable to the swift, brutal "efficiency" of a fundamentalist or repressive regime.

Even with the appeals process and other safeguards now in place, innocent persons do get convicted of serious crimes and imprisoned, even put on death row. Indeed, we recently read of a wrongfully imprisoned local man released after more than 20 years behind bars ("Out of jail, new challenges," June 18). Imagine the miscarriages of justice that would occur under a system of swift, perfunctory trials.

And then there is the question of the death penalty itself, which has yet to prove effective as a deterrent to crime. I don't know if a streamlined execution process would "put the fear of the Lord in the minds of criminals," but it would frighten me to see our imperfect court system scrap this nation's principles in pursuit of vengeance

By all means, let us deal severely with the killers in our midst, but not by reverting to Wild West-style justice.

And while we're at it, it wouldn't hurt to roll up our sleeves and make a determined effort to address the social and economic pathologies rampant in the city that foster criminal behavior.

Jonathan Jensen

Baltimore