President is intent on prolonging war
By now it should be completely clear to the American public that this administration has absolutely no intention of ever removing itself from Iraq and bringing our troops home ("Bush resists bid to curb Iraq mission," July 16).
In my more than 50 years as an American, I have never been more disgusted or less tolerant of a government that refuses to do the will of the people.
President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and company care only about furthering their interests.
How many more lives have to be sacrificed for Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney to be happy with the mess they have made not only of this country but also of the Middle East?
I am an American and a patriot. I support our troops.
And I want to bring them home now.
Diane Harder
Laurel
Al-Qaida's recovery shows Bush's failure
If anyone needed further proof that the Bush administration's "war on terror" is a complete and utter failure, it can be found in the article "Report reassesses threat by al-Qaida" (July 13).
After throwing the full might of the U.S. military into two wars, squandering more than 3,600 American lives, leaving tens of thousands of Americans wounded, and spending more than half a trillion dollars on the wars, this administration not only hasn't captured or killed Osama bin Laden, it also has allowed al-Qaida to regain its operational strength.
President Bush is not fit to lead a middle school volleyball team, much less the U.S. military.
Robert T. Wilke
Monkton
Converting learning into earning tricky
I think few people would argue with initiatives to reward teachers who take on difficult teaching assignments with better pay ("On learning and earning," editorial, July 9).
However, improving student achievement is another matter, and one that is often out of the control of most teachers.
Indeed, as things work today, school systems and many parents often prevent teachers from having a lasting effect on student achievement.
For instance, one expectation that teachers would have under a pay-for-performance program is that students would be in class on a daily basis.
However, students are pulled out of class to participate in athletics or attend club and organization meetings and other school-sponsored activities during the school day on a fairly regular basis.
There is often no time allocated for them to make up the class time missed, and this frequently lowers their grades.
Also, in some parts of the state, the turnover in student population can often be as much as 50 percent in one school year.
A teacher may begin the year in September with 30 students, and by the time June arrives, only 15 of the original students are left while 15 others are new arrivals during the course of the year.
How would it be possible for a teacher to control improvement in student achievement in that kind of situation?
I think a pay-for-performance program would be welcomed by most teachers, and as I understand it, some school systems and the Maryland State Teachers Association are discussing about such a program.
But I would certainly hope that real solutions to some of the problems cited above can be worked out before teachers embark on any pay-for-performance program.
Stu Chapman
Bel Air
The writer is a teacher in the Harford County public schools and a member of the Maryland State Teachers Association.
Mount Olive church has suffered enough
How insensitive of The Sun to publish reports about the financial problems First Mount Olive Free Will Baptist Church faced before a recent devastating fire, which was caused by lightning hitting the church steeple ("Burned church beset by debt," July 14) .
Haven't this congregation and its pastor suffered enough?
Alicia Alston
Baltimore
Anti-gay stance shows hypocrisy
After reading "Conservative stance toward gays" (July 13), I once again found myself at loss for words regarding the powers-that-be in the Catholic Church.
As a third-generation Irish-American with a strong history of Catholicism in my family, I find it continuously insulting to be subject to the church's belittling and marginalization of those who don't fit the conservative Catholic mold.
Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien and many other church leaders seem to believe homosexuality is a disorder, that gay men should not be accepted into the seminary and that they somehow need to be "cured" of this disorder.
Greater hypocrisy I have never heard.
From the time the church was founded to the present day, there have been countless instances of moral improprieties by church officials, from the pope to local priests.
Whether it is sexual scandals and the ensuing cover-ups or inaction during the Holocaust, the church has had its fair share of disorders that stand in need of a cure.
What the church needs to be concerned with is finding moral, capable, inspirational leaders with accountability who will lead by example.
It shouldn't matter if those people find Brad Pitt or Elizabeth Hurley more attractive in a bathing suit.
Patrick Muth
Baltimore
Church not showing the love it preaches
I found it interesting to read in recent Sun article that new Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien "has steadily risen to the upper echelons of Catholic power - carrying a Christian message of peace and love" ("O'Brien spent past decade ministering to military," July 13) and then read a related article that suggested he would shun gays in seminaries and the church ("Conservative stance toward gays," July 13).
Where, then, is Archbishop O'Brien's love, and that of his church, for gay people?
When will the Catholic Church learn to accept humans of all kinds as they are?
The way things are going, with the Catholic Church not willing to allow its priests to marry and continuing its anti-gay stance, pretty soon its churches (and their collection plates) will be empty.
The church needs to practice what it preaches.
Mary Lovell
Bel Air
Traditional rite still carries real appeal
The history of the Roman Catholic Tridentine Mass offered by the writer of the letter "Latin not language used by Apostles" (July 10) seems to be correct.
However, in her last paragraph, she categorizes those "clinging to this form of worship" as having a "distorted sense of history." On that point she is wrong.
I love the Tridentine Mass because it is the Mass I grew up with in the 1940s and 1950s.
I served as an acolyte (now called an altar server) at about 900 to 1,000 Tridentine Masses over an eight-year period in the 1950s.
In the letter writer's apparent disdain for tradition, she tries to denigrate those of us who are traditionalists.
She owes us an apology.
Joseph D. Schaum Jr.
Baltimore