Turning tragedy into real empathy
The horror and sadness of the shootings at Virginia Tech must not be understated. This is a difficult time for all who have been touched by this nightmare ("Killer walked among them," April 18).
However, as we reflect on what has happened, let us use this opportunity to become more empathetic over the losses of those we often do not hear about - the losses of those touched by such other horrific events of our time as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As a nation, we are shocked and devastated by the events at Virginia Tech. But let us not forget that the kind of sorrow we are going through now has been part of the daily life of Iraqis for four years now.
The killings in that war are often indiscriminate and too often have taken the lives of women and children - in addition to students, workers and soldiers ("Bloodshed sets back U.S. effort in Baghdad," April 19).
Yet we are so detached from what is happening in other countries that we act as if the world must stand still while we deal with our own tragedies of 33 dead students.
Again, let me be clear: I am not trying to understate the events in Virginia. They were indeed tragic and horrific.
I am only saying that if the media put the sort of energy and time into covering the wars that it has devoted to covering this Virginia Tech shooting, the outrage and sadness the nation feel now would be turned into empathy for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan who have dealt with such tragedies for years on a much grander scale.
The nation would demand an end to this inhumane suffering immediately, and finally the healing could begin.
How many more "local" tragedies need to occur until we understand that killing is killing the world over?
Robert Karp
Baltimore
Banning guns only disarms the victims
Less than 24 hours after the tragic killings at Virginia Tech, the usual suspects were already calling for more gun control, shamelessly exploiting the loss of innocent lives to further their gun-ban agendas ("Va. tragedy likely to put gun control in spotlight," April 18).
There's just one problem with their argument: Guns were already banned on the Virginia Tech campus.
Of course, that did not stop the killer from bringing his guns onto the campus. All that it did was ensure that all of his victims were unarmed and helpless, that there could be no resistance as they were slaughtered en masse.
In Virginia, one can get a permit to carry a concealed handgun.
How different would things have been if a student, professor, janitor or security guard had been armed and had been able to respond in kind to the gunfire in Norris Hall?
No one can say for certain how many lives might have been saved. But the outcome would certainly have been different.
And just as the "gun-free" campus was not spared this sort of violence, neither would gun violence disappear if guns were banned nationwide.
Even if we could somehow magically confiscate every gun in the country, criminals would still get guns.
Whether they were smuggled across the border, stolen from police or illegally manufactured (as is now done in Pakistan and the United Kingdom), criminals would get guns.
All a gun ban would accomplish would be to create more unarmed victims for those who care nothing about the law.
The killings at Virginia Tech were a terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to the families and friends of those whose lives were taken and to those recovering from their injuries.
But the solution to such tragedies is not to disarm the victims.
Peter Bagnell
Randallstown
Health crusaders curb our freedoms
I have lived in Maryland for all of my nearly 30-year life. However, my residence in this state will be drawing to an end by February 2008 at the very latest.
As a smoker, it has become clear to me that this state no longer desires my presence (although it sure loves taking my money with taxes); therefore, I am taking steps to give the state what it desires ("Debate smolders as ban on smoking looms in Md.," April 11).
I enjoy going out to local bars and restaurants. I also enjoy smoking while doing so.
But I am not willing to bow to the whims of an overreaching state government and the shrill, fanatical cries of the anti-smoking crusaders who pressured lawmakers to pass this anti-smoking decree.
Simply put, I have had enough and I am leaving.
And I want to warn other freedom-loving Marylanders (I know there are still a few out there) before I go.
These crusaders will not stop at banning smoking in bars and restaurants. They are on a mission to wipe out anything they deem unpleasant.
The ball is now rolling, and it will inevitably pick up steam on its downward slope as more and more "unpleasant" activities are taken away from the citizenry.
Smoking indoors today, smoking outside tomorrow, and I don't even want to think what we will ban after that.
In closing, I propose that the state of Maryland should change its nickname.
"The Free State" is obviously not going to work anymore. I suggest "The Fascist State."
Or how about changing the name from the "state of Maryland" to the "People's Republic of Maryland"?
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Claude T. Baker
Nottingham
Make tenants take trash responsibility
I think that Baltimore's government is partially on the right track regarding the litter issue ("Bills would give city more power to force property owners to tidy up," April 17).
Landlords need to comply with rental registration requirements.
But for sanitation violations, the city needs to develop a mechanism to hold landlords and tenants equally responsible.
Some inner-city areas are atrociously dirty. The filth is an embarrassment.
I have had firsthand experience managing my family's rental properties. I know that even in cases where we have a well-defined lease detailing a tenant's responsibility for keeping a property's exterior free of debris and using trash cans with lids, the tenant does not comply with the litter rules, because the legal responsibility and penalty for trash violations fall on the landlord.
Eviction is an option. But that is fraught with its own problems.
Tenants appear to have no responsibility aside from paying rent.
Perhaps if the city would view tenants as responsible citizens and treat them as such, that would have an impact on the city's filth.
Karolyn Gibbs
Baltimore
The writer is a real estate agent and a property manager in Baltimore.
School officials deserve an 'F'
Baltimore school commissioners Brian D. Morris and Kalman R. "Buzzy" Hettleman sound to me like third-graders who want credit for the many wrong answers on their arithmetic test because they studied really hard ("School budget woes sharply exaggerated," letters, April 13).
They want us to accept the product because the process, they say, was good.
Yet they admit in their letter that the budget the board adopted was not "final" and required "correction" before being transmitted to City Council.
They also suggested, not only in their letter but also in Mr. Hettleman's appearance on WYPR-FM's "Marc Steiner Show," that one is not entitled to criticize obvious discrepancies in the budget - discrepancies apparently amounting to millions of dollars and hundreds of staff positions - unless one participated in the longest open process in recent history or visited North Avenue for a make-up session where each discrepancy might be fully explained.
But certainly, no document issued by the Board of School Commissioners should require private tutoring to explain away its flaws and errors.
Respectfully, I suggest to Mr. Morris and Mr. Hettleman and their fellow board members that it is they, not The Sun, who have undermined "public confidence" by adopting and issuing such an obviously flawed public document.
Their arithmetic - and their PR efforts - get an "F" from me.
Rick Gilmour
Towson
Legislative grants a boon for students
The writers of the letter "Patronage passing as aid for college?" (April 14) refer to the Maryland legislative scholarship program as political patronage.
The writers correctly state that other Maryland scholarship programs distribute funds based on economic need and not on achievement or residence in a particular legislative district.
But this in fact suggests the reasons that we need the legislative scholarships.
It is in the best interests of all Maryland citizens to have the legislative scholarship program distribute some college aid funds to districts across the entire state, rather than chiefly to the economically distressed districts, and to reward the achievements of outstanding students even if they are not needy.
Smart, hard-working students should not be punished because of geography or their parents' success.
This is about fairness to the students and not political patronage.
It is also in the state's best interests to offer incentives to our best and brightest young students to attend Maryland's colleges and keep them here to contribute to the future of Maryland.
This is a smart investment, not patronage.
I think this is a good program that deserves continued support.
Neil Cohen
Towson
Inequality burdens Soweto's children
Scott Calvert's brilliant three-part series about the "matric" examinations in Soweto, South Africa, should open American eyes to the vicissitudes suffered by students not only in South Africa but in many other parts of the Third World as well - where opportunities are few and entire lives and careers are controlled by one exam taken at the end of high school ("Mandela's Children," April 8 to April 10).
In nations such as South Africa, the anxiety during final exam time is excruciating and palpable.
Exams can be brutally difficult, and second chances are few.
Students labor under the most adverse of circumstances. Books are scarce, libraries are few, transportation to libraries is unreliable and night learning is often disrupted by power outages, which are a familiar feature of daily life.
Parents suffer for their children, and failure in finals dooms millions of students to the lower rungs of society, the grind of blue-collar work and a penurious life.
Some students who fail get despondent enough to take their own lives, leaving their befuddled and anguished parents to suffer eternal guilt.
Harsh as this system is, in South Africa there is no way out.
The country has an urgent need to build a black meritocracy. Years of apartheid have plunged the black majority into intergenerational deprivation, disease and illiteracy.
Today's children of Soweto may not know or remember the horrible hardships of apartheid.
But they have been branded by the tragedies of their forefathers and the historical shame of white prejudice once enshrined in the constitution of South Africa.
From the tin shacks of the Cape Flats to the tiny houses of Soweto, blacks live separate lives and integration is slow in coming in South Africa.
Whites who stubbornly refuse to apologize for apartheid - or for slavery in the United States - because they had nothing to do with it and insist that the time has come for blacks to leave the past behind and seize the present should take note.
Comfortable homes, safe neighborhoods, inherited wealth, educational opportunities and the good test scores many whites take for granted in South Africa and in the United States are the gifts of forebears who rationalized and legalized the prejudicial treatment of blacks.
Children of slavery, like the children of apartheid, cannot be ordered to "get over it."
There is no set timetable for when past wounds will disappear from the collective subconscious of a wronged race, even in countries where steps have been taken to right the wrongs.
And the impatient need of many whites to expunge the past and disown or wash away guilt must not set an unnatural deadline for black recovery and rehabilitation, either here or in South Africa.
Usha Nellore
Bel Air
Talking to enemies isn't appeasement
Talking with your enemies is not tantamount to appeasement. And the canard presented in the letter "Syria trip endorses its brutal regime" (April 16) that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by talking with President Bashar Assad of Syria, somehow gave legitimacy to his regime is nonsense.
What her trip did show is the Democratic leadership moving to the forefront, willing to use diplomacy with adversaries (as well as allies) to find ways to ameliorate conflicts and disputes
The Bush administration's contempt for diplomatic engagement with adversaries fosters the perception that the United States is an arrogant bully determined to have its way - critics and world opinion be damned.
We may be the world's sole surviving superpower, but we cannot bend the world to our liking with threats, intimidation and the folly of pre-emptive wars.
Such policies and attitudes only embolden our adversaries, give sustenance to the Osama bin Ladens of the world and give resonance to their message of hatred and death to Americans.
In a world with seemingly intractable conflicts everywhere, the need for competent and mature leadership and diplomacy from this country has never been greater.
This administration has shown repeatedly that it is far from being up to the task.
Dave Lefcourt
Ellicott City
Trust U.N. scientists on warming trend
The writer of the letter "Heed the skeptics on global warming" (April 14) references a book by S. Fred Singer and Dennis Avery that presents, he says, "convincing evidence" that global warming is a natural cycle. The writer also criticizes U.N. climate scientists and claims that we should follow "unbiased, reasoned and rigorous examination of the facts."
The writer failed to point out that Mr. Singer is by no means unbiased. His organization, the Science & Environmental Policy Project, has received funding from ExxonMobil.
And, indeed, Mr. Singer makes a living contradicting mainstream science.
He is also skeptical about the connection between chlorofluorocarbons and ozone depletion, between ultraviolet radiation and skin cancer and between secondhand smoke and lung cancer.
The minority of scientists who reject the idea that global warming is real and human-caused often use the same studies as the basis of their claims. Many of these studies have not been accepted in the scientific community.
The fact is that the majority of scientists believe and the majority of studies conducted clearly demonstrate that global warming is real and human-caused and that steps must be taken to minimize its impact.
And I would trust the recommendations of 2,500 scientists who work for the United Nations before a scientist who has a pattern of questioning proven science and has been funded by the largest oil company in the world.
Jeff Blankman
Owings Mills
High-paid players earn big salaries
I share The Sun's pleasure in learning that major-league managers will bench players for not hustling ("Do the hustle," editorial, April 13).
Hot-dogging and selfish play run rampant in professional sports, and such conduct is infecting all levels of amateur play. What once was derided as bad sportsmanship is now often the focus of highlight reels.
Perhaps the stand of the Cincinnati Reds manager and the NFL's effort to get tough on bad behavior by players signal a turnaround. I hope so.
However, I must disagree with The Sun's assessment about the "out-of-whack economics" and "overpaid" players in Major League Baseball.
Players do make a great deal of money, far more than most of us do.
But that does not make them overpaid.
Players these days, like workers in any other industry, including newspaper editorial writers, are paid pretty close to the value they add to the bottom line of their employer.
That is simply the way markets work - allocating resources, in this case baseball talent, to their most highly valued uses.
If a player is not worth millions of dollars a year to a franchise, the team is free not to offer that player so much money. The fact that players get paid that much is clear evidence that they more than make up for it in terms of the revenues they generate for their team.
This has not always been the case - in the days of the reserve clause, players were bound to their team for as long as the team wanted them, with opting not to play baseball their only alternative.
So let's celebrate the glimmer of hope that professional sports may begin cracking down on lack of effort and boorish or criminal behavior by players.
But recognize also that the players earn the money they are paid.
Dennis Coates
Catonsville
The writer is a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Robinson's struggle reveals our progress
It was like some bizarre crease in the fabric of time.
Last week started with the country's obsession with the racially insulting, ignorant comments by a clueless talk-show host about the members of a women's college basketball team ("Controversy steals shining moment," April 11).
It ended with ceremonies across the country extolling the life and achievements of the great black civil rights pioneer and Hall of Fame baseball player, Jackie Robinson ("By the number, game honors a man's legacy," April 16).
Reading those hurtful comments from Don Imus, you had to wonder if we are making any progress against the forces of bigotry and intolerance so prevalent in our history. But on Sunday, we were reminded of the separate and unequal conditions blacks faced in America only 60 years ago.
Apartheid ruled the day back then, and one baseball manager from Mississippi was heard to wonder aloud if blacks were actually human beings.
Imagine coming to work as Jackie Robinson did every day to face naked hatred, shouted obscenities and people out to do you physical harm.
Not just one day, but 154 days each year.
We all now see that the world of sports would be much diminished if blacks were not allowed to participate.
Clearly, there has been a change for the better over those 60 years.
We still have a long road to travel to fulfill our country's promise of liberty and justice for all. But, thankfully, the road is not as long as it once was.
Sig Seidenman
Owings Mills
Finding ways to control city's gang problem
I read the words of one young man in The Sun's article "Gang problem hemorrhaging" (April 15) - "It's about us taking care of our own" - and I can appreciate that many young people in Baltimore neighborhoods feel a need for structure and support, which government institutions have for so long, wrongfully, failed to provide.
Some of Kevin Gary's ideas sound promising, and I hope they bear fruit. And taking care of one's own is a praiseworthy objective.
But what does it have to do with harassing a woman in a wheelchair, killing people at random or forcing people to perform actions they don't want to do?
Those are the acts of bullies, not of people who take care of others.
Get it through your heads, kids. Only cowards are bullies. Manhood demands more of you.
You have the intelligence and the courage, and it's up to you to use them.
Katharine W. Rylaarsdam
Baltimore
In The Sun's chilling article on the increasing presence of gangs in our area, I counted 14 times the term "drug trade" or some variation of it was used.
This tells me that if our city is ever to rid itself of these violent groups, it will only be by taking the profit out of the buying and selling of drugs.
So long as bundles of money can be made in the drug business, sending gang members to jail, counseling programs, churches, GED programs, boot camps or whatever else we try will not work.
The only thing that will work is to somehow remove the profit motive from drug dealing.
Exactly how to do this should be a major topic of debate among the candidates in our coming mayoral election.
Herman M. Heyn
Baltimore
Mayor Sheila Dixon's announcement of a new Baltimore Conservation Leadership Corps is an effective response to the city's youth gang problem ("Youth jobs program to promote 'green' city,'" April 11).
Youth corps, whose history dates to the federal Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, show young people how to work in teams, solve problems as a group, follow instructions, complete projects that benefit the environment in their neighborhood and do much more.
A national evaluation of youth corps programs conducted by Abt Associates and Brandeis University shows that arrest rates are one-third lower for corps members than for other youths.
Out-of-wedlock pregnancies drop among female corps members, and positive outcomes are, according to the study, "particularly striking for young African-American men."
Moreover, by involving Baltimore's nationally esteemed Civic Works program in the effort, Ms. Dixon has helped ensure that this new corps will be cost-effective and help young people connect in new and positive ways with their city.
Want to wear colors, be with a group of your peers and friends, and earn real money?
Join the corps.
Don Mathis
Bel Air
The writer is executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Harford County and a former director of the Pennsylvania Conservation Corps.