SATURDAY MAILBOX

The Baltimore Sun

Let each consumer police the press

Nick Madigan's article "Policing the Press" (Jan. 14) appeared to miss the point about what's wrong with the media in the United States.

There may be lots of organizations monitoring the media, but they largely serve the interests of established industry players and as such are of little use.

The real problem with the media is that when it comes to criticism, they may be good at dishing it out but they just can't take it.

Let's face it, the media have become lazy - reduced to a mere conduit for recycling press releases - and are no longer an organ of critical questioning.

Just look at the easy ride President Bush and the White House have gotten from the press corps. Soft questions are the norm, and anything even slightly difficult is easily deflected by slick spokesmen who stick close to their prepared texts.

It's no use decrying the fact that today "everyone's a critic" and that mere consumers (i.e., readers like me) and other ordinary mortals can have a valid, informed and well-presented view of the world.

This fact actually needs to be celebrated - as the so-called media industry professionals have forfeited their position as arbiters of truth, information and entertainment through nepotism, sloppy reporting and weak questioning based on the "don't bite the hand that feeds you" school of journalism.

The reality is that the days of the established media are numbered and that disillusioned consumers like me will increasing turn to Internet blogs or go straight to the source - filtering out the establishment editorial viewpoint and the unwanted static of advertising and other propaganda.

Ted Newcomen

Church Hill

Embrace diversity to heal church rift

As a lifelong Episcopalian, I am in mourning along with the Rev. Jo Bailey Wells over the present serious divisions in this denomination ("The Virginia schism: a wound in Christianity's heart" (Opinion

Commentary, Jan. 4).

The writer of the letter "Confronting sin is a higher priority" (Jan. 13) epitomizes the sticking point that threatens to tragically tear this church apart.

The letter writer subscribes to a belief that the Bible unequivocally condemns homosexual acts as sin, and assumes that this excludes those who are not heterosexual from the ministry.

He sees this view as one to which Christians must respond with unquestioning obedience to God's command.

But some Episcopalians, who are equally faithful, recognize in their Creator a much wider purpose that embraces differences without regard to race, gender, ethnicity, personality or sexuality. The important thing, according to this view, is that we worship the same God in spirit and in truth.

Unity depends on embracing the diversity that has been a hallmark of Anglican faith for centuries.

The bottom line is that neither side can honestly claim to know the mind of God.

I subscribe to the latter opinion, and so I long to hear that this ancient Anglican Communion will be humble enough to realize that the Almighty cannot be confined to a box or locked in to the ancient mores found in the Old Testament or the cultural practices that restricted the Apostle Paul's human understanding.

In matters of such importance, Episcopalians must pray for brotherly love, understanding and great patience.

Elizabeth W. Goldsborough

Owings Mills

Stakeholders should select school boards

Throughout the nation, appointed and elected school boards have proved inadequate to solve America's education dilemma ("Should city school board be elected?" Opinion

Commentary, Jan. 8).

For decades, if not centuries, cities and states have played musical chairs with our schools' governance crisis. Simple sanity should dictate that we look for new solutions.

On the one hand, why should politicians appoint school board members?

On the other, elected school boards would attract the same sort of blow-hard, incompetent egotists who populate our City Council and state legislature.

What is the alternative? Democracy.

School boards should be dominated by those constituencies most concerned with providing quality education - parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, students and such other school employees as bus drivers, maintenance crews, kitchen workers and principals.

The parents' organizations should elect a majority of school board members.

All constituencies should have the right to elect anyone they choose, and instantly recall any delegate not performing to their satisfaction.

These constituencies are best able to pick representatives who are earnest, capable and dedicated and who get along with others.

A. Robert Kaufman

Baltimore

County board quiets the voice of parents

The Baltimore County school board is at it again ("Muslims protest shift by the school board," Jan. 9).

First, it limited the amount of public speakers per school board meeting to 10 to shorten its sometimes five-hour-long meetings. Anyone who wanted to speak had to sign up prior to the meeting, then wait hours to voice an opinion.

Now, the board has decided a lottery system would be better.

The Sun's article states that 10 names will be picked out of a box. Will this be done in front of the public, or are the school board members picking and choosing the people and topics they want heard?

What will be next? No comments from the public at all?

If the school board wants to shorten its meetings, it should consider spending less time on presentations.

This would be a win-win situation for everyone involved.

The meetings would be shorter, allowing the school board members to get home at a reasonable hour, and parents would voice their opinions earlier in the evening, allowing them to get home and spend time with the children they advocate for.

Jennifer Przydzial

Baltimore

The writer is a former education reporter for Patuxent Publishing.

Speeders pose threat, waste fuel

I'm writing to thank Michael Dresser for his column "Speed demons haunt responsible drivers" (Jan. 15).

Mr. Dresser's clear presentation of the stupidity of those who turn our highways into Autobahns was intelligent and to the point. I loved it.

I constantly hope to see these crazy drivers stopped by the police further down the highway after they go barreling by me. Unfortunately, that almost never happens.

The aggravation, danger and sometimes injury and death speeders cause were well-explained in the article.

The one point that Mr. Dresser didn't mention as he shredded the speeders' arguments is that their speeding decreases their fuel efficiency significantly, probably by 15 percent to 25 percent.

Given our nation's need to conserve oil, I don't care if the speeders would say they are willing to pay extra for the gas - all of us also suffer to some extent because of them.

Thomas Rowan

Columbia

Saving our heritage no enemy of growth

As a lawyer myself, I was quite disappointed with the lawyer who wrote the letter alleging that "the position of the preservationists, simply put, is that the preservation of old buildings trumps all other civic interests" ("Save lives and souls before old buildings," Jan. 13).

That is a gross misrepresentation of the position of historic preservationists.

In fact, we believe that historic preservation is one very important factor among many in our civic life.

Some people in the debate over the expansion of Mercy Medical Center are basically arguing that the choice is between building a new hospital and saving the 1820s-vintage rowhouses - that you cannot do both. That is a false choice.

Why hasn't Mercy publicly released its architects' expansion plans so that other architects can analyze them?

The simple fact is that Mercy has presented no evidence that it cannot save more of the rowhouses while building a new hospital ("Hospital might spare one house," Jan. 5).

We need a public hearing where sworn testimony can be presented regarding what can and cannot be done.

There would be no litigation if Mercy would make a good-faith effort to find a compromise that would serve its interests and the interests of those who seek to preserve Baltimore's heritage.

G. Byron Stover

Baltimore

The writer is a member of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association and Baltimore Heritage.

South Vietnam did stand up for itself

The Sun's editorial "Echoes" (Jan. 14) was well-written and factual but seemed to skip over an important era in the Vietnam conflict as it attempted to draw a parallel with Iraq.

I served in Vietnam as a member of an adviser team to the Vietnamese I Corps located along the border between North Vietnam and South Vietnam during 1970 and 1971.

I believe the United States did in fact achieve the situation Ambassador Graham Martin described when he said, "I think the government can ... become self-sufficient, can keep their freedom, and allow us, when we end our involvement here, to withdraw."

Most U.S. ground combat forces were being withdrawn by 1971. By 1972, our support was essentially limited to a small number of adviser teams, Army aviation units and air support.

On March 29, 1972, the North Vietnamese launched a major attack intended to destroy the South Vietnamese army.

The North invaded with some 150,000 troops, including two armored divisions. It was with some pride that I watched on TV as "my" I Corps stopped and destroyed the two armored divisions.

The North completely underestimated the fighting ability of South Vietnam. By July 1972, the North was forced to abandon its offensive and had lost more than 100,000 men.

U.S. support during this battle was essentially limited to helicopter and air support.

This support was essential because we had limited the South Vietnamese to second-line aircraft and tanks while the North fielded modern Russian and Chinese jet aircraft and tanks in large numbers.

After the 1972 offensive, North Vietnam did not try another major attack for three years.

In 1975, North Vietnam launched another, more massive invasion of South Vietnam. We will never know what the outcome would have been had we offered the same support we had given in 1972.

The South Vietnamese were still limited to second-line aircraft and tanks. But the political situation in the United States precluded providing any air support in 1975.

John Andrighetti

Ocean Pines

The writer is a retired Army captain.

Keep the uncivil locked up in jail

This week, we're all outraged at the deadly shooting of another police officer and at what's starting out to be a record-setting year for murder and carnage here in Baltimore ("A 'broken' system scrutinized," Jan. 11).

Well, in my humble opinion, we are trying to solve the wrong questions with the wrong answers. We are trying to stem a modern-day barbarian invasion with legalisms, politically correct niceties and wishful quivering.

If we really want to end this generations-long siege in which civil, law-abiding, decent citizens have been cowed into surrendering much of their city's territory to lawless, strutting desperadoes, we, as a citizenry, would see to it that we build as many prisons as it takes to permanently incarcerate this murderous scourge terrorizing our fair city as much as any army of jihadists brutalizes Baghdad.

Only when we decide that the uncivil must be removed from the civic body for good will we start to see a receding number of articles detailing yet another set of weekend murders.

Until then, we'll just have to find more redoubts to hide from the barbarian tide.

David Harrison

Arbutus

Saar chose wrong path to jail reform

The title of the editorial "Needed prison reforms" (Jan. 12) was right. But The Sun's endorsement of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s approach was not.

The Ehrlich administration's efforts at prison reform, known as RESTART, showed a lack of understanding of the system from the beginning.

Skepticism of the RESTART program by employees and legislators was based on the inability of outgoing Public Safety Secretary Mary Ann Saar to explain the program adequately.

Meanwhile, the reduction in correctional officer positions proved to be a major disaster as inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-correctional-officer violence escalated in correspondence to the reduction in correctional officers.

Inmates were harmed and killed; two correctional officers were murdered, and many were injured. Gangs rose in power throughout the prison system.

This is not the road to reform.

It is no surprise that experienced correctional officers began to leave their jobs in record numbers and that the state had trouble keeping new hires.

Even increases in pay weren't enough to persuade correctional officers - many of whom have families to raise - to risk their personal safety for the job.

What is the solution to the disarray in Maryland's prisons? Common sense demands that the retention of experienced officers and the recruitment and training of new correctional officers must be a top priority.

This can be done through a combination of incentives such as making long-overdue improvements to correctional officers' retirement plans and making a serious effort to involve them in planning other improvements.

With a stable and safe environment, serious rehabilitation can begin.

Already, correctional officers train inmates as plumbers, electricians, car mechanics, and other trades. But much more can be done.

Inmates who participate in job training are much less likely to return to criminal careers. These programs and others need to be evaluated, enhanced and modified to maximize their impact.

Finally, a bridge needs to be created between incarceration and return to the community. Access to housing, jobs and drug treatment are necessary, at a minimum.

And the Division of Parole and Probation and other state agencies must develop an interdepartmental plan that provides the needed services to help ex-convicts find success on the outside.

Sue Esty

Baltimore

The writer is interim executive director of AFSCME Council 92, which represents the state's correctional officers.

Locking lifers away leaves useless limbo

In October 2002, before he was elected governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said, according to The Sun, that "he would reverse Gov. Parris N. Glendening's policy of refusing to pardon people who have been sentenced to life in prison" ("Ehrlich makes pledge on guns," Oct. 30, 2002).

After four years in office in which Mr. Ehrlich granted clemency in very few cases, that promise sadly remains unfulfilled. And the question is relevant given The Sun's recent article about the long-overdue release of Walter Lomax ("Man is set free after 39 years behind bars," Dec. 14).

Mr. Lomax was one of the 134 lifers removed from the work release program when Mr. Glendening changed the policies for lifers.

As The Sun reported, Mr. Lomax educated himself while in prison and earned work release and family leave ("After remaking his life in jail, inmate clings to hope of freedom," Jan. 5, 2003).

As one of the 134 lifers, I have known Mr. Lomax for more than two decades.

On work release, we paid room and board, paid for transportation, paid local state and federal taxes and paid for health insurance.

We were productive, contributing members of society, and not one of the 134 lifers removed from work release had violated any regulation.

I understand that politics has taken over the process and that lifers will never again be placed in work release; the question is whether any relief will ever be provided for those lifers who, like Mr. Lomax, earned their education and moved on to work release and family leave in the community.

For those lifers who lack prestigious legal and political friends, the question is whether, almost 14 years after their removal from the community, the political process will continue to ignore their plight - the limbo in which they have been placed as the result of a change in state regulations.

Douglas Scott Arey

Westover

The writer is an inmate at Eastern Correctional Institute.

Has Croatia confronted its dark past?

I was unpleasantly surprised to read Julia Gorin's obviously biased and factually dubious column "When will world confront the undead of Croatia?" (Opinion Commentary, Jan. 16) in The Sun.

It is important to get the facts straight. Croatia has never justified, nor does it purport to justify, the crimes of the Nazi puppet regime that ruled parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina during World War II.

And if the author had observed more closely and been more judicious, she would have noted that Croatia has, over the past 15 years of its independence, undertaken numerous initiatives to confront and overcome the dark aspects of its past.

This has been done mainly through education programs in schools and universities but also in public information campaigns.

Official textbooks in Croatia have always espoused Croatia's contributions to the anti-fascist alliance during World War II, including those by leading Croats such as former Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, while not shying away from addressing the less comfortable details of Croatia's past or, more precisely, that of the non-legitimate, quisling regime installed by the Nazis during World War II.

In recognition of these long-standing efforts, Croatia was, in November 2005, invited to become a full member of the Task Force on International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research.

Moreover, in stark contrast to what the author suggested with regard to Croatia's attitude on the former World War II internment camp at Jasenovac, Croatia's president, prime minister and parliament speaker took part in the November 2006 opening of the permanent exhibition of the National Museum and Education Center at the Jasenovac Memorial Park to pay further tribute to its victims and foster education on the Holocaust.

On that occasion, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader stated that "not to forget the truth about our past and to draw a lesson from it is the only guarantor of our peace of mind and our peaceful future."

It should also be noted that Croatia is the only country in the region that has cooperated, and continues to fully cooperate, with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

Croatia has extradited or mediated in the extradition of 35 Croatian citizens or ethnic Croatians from Bosnia and Herzegovina to the ICTY, and has fulfilled all other requests (720 in all) put to it by the tribunal.

Croatia's judiciary has also processed numerous war crimes cases on its own, including several high-level cases involving senior military commanders and a parliamentary deputy, as well as cases transferred to Croatia by the ICTY.

Croatian citizens, regardless of ethnicity, are being held accountable for war crimes and other violations of the rules of war, much as those in any other democratic country subjected to a protracted conflict on its territory would be.

Croatia and its government recognize that it is in our best interest, and the region's best interest, that all countries of Southeast Europe work toward the common goal of membership in the European Union and NATO, and in so doing, create a better and brighter future for all our citizens based on our shared values and commitments. Croatia is dedicated to building this common future.

It is wrong and misleading to focus on three or four individual acts and use them to incriminate a country and its entire population, as Ms. Gorin did.

Josip Babic

Washington

The writer is press attach? for Croatia's embassy to the United States.

As a Serbian-American who lost 68 relatives on my mother's side to the genocide of Serbian Orthodox Christians in Nazi-puppet-regime-era Croatia, I thank The Sun from the bottom of my heart for publishing "When will world confront the undead of Croatia?"

Although any reference to the genocide of Serbs, Gypsies and Jews in Croatia during World War II is often criticized by the mainstream Western media as "ancient," in reality, Croatia has never de-Nazified itself or fully rejected this past. War criminals from the Nazi period escaped justice and returned to Croatia 50 years later, guaranteeing that history would repeat itself during the recent wars.

Today, Croatia is Europe's most ethnically and religiously "pure" state.

The fact that Croatia actively denies that the genocide of Serbs took place and will not apologize for the past remains one of the greatest unresolved issues facing the Balkans today.

Until Croatia confronts the ghosts of its horrible past, there will always be deep instability in the Balkans.

Michael Pravica

Las Vegas

The writer is a representative of the Serbian Unity Congress.

As an American journalist living in the Balkans (and a previous contributor to The Sun), I would like to commend The Sun for running Julia Gorin's very brave and factually impeccable article on Croatia's fascist tendencies.

No doubt the column will not be popular with Croatia's many yes-men.

But what Ms. Gorin said needed to be said: More than a decade after the end of the Yugoslav civil war, the Croatian government and a large segment of its population keep trying to ignore the country's shameful Nazi and neo-Nazi past - a stifling silence that is fascistic in itself.

Nevertheless, Western media and governments have consistently failed to hold the Croats to the same level of accountability as the Serbs or other Balkan actors - perhaps because Croatia, unlike Serbia, has a beautiful Adriatic coastline that wealthy Western retirees have eagerly been buying in recent years.

After all, who would want to compromise the chance of seaside vacation idylls with unpleasant talk of concentration camp excesses, such as those that occurred at the infamous Jasenovac internment camp - the kind of torture and mass murder that shocked even the Nazi German authorities?

Christopher Deliso

Skopje, Macedonia

The writer is director of www.balkanalysis.com.

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