LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Baltimore Sun

Those who want to restrict political freedom are at it again.

The current campaign financing system has nothing to do with the charges brought against former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell ("Fall of a man of 'immense talents,'" July 24).

But so-called reformers are using Mr. Bromwell's corrupt behavior to trick citizens into accepting government-financed elections.

The truth is that government-subsidized campaigns have been shown to decrease confidence in state government.

Political scientists Jeffrey Milyo and David Primo found that taxpayer financing has "a statistically negative effect on public views about whether 'people have a say' in their government or whether 'officials care.'"

Moreover, a Government Accountability Office study found that more citizens believed that Arizona's public-financing system for campaigns had increased the influence of special interests than believed it had decreased their influence.

Marylanders shouldn't be fooled into thinking that government-subsidized elections are anything more than welfare for politicians.

Mike Schrimpf

Arlington, Va.

The writer is deputy community director for the Center for Competitive Politics.

Queen Anne's voters seek smarter growth

The Sun's article "Developer and four others sue Queen Anne's, claiming bias" (July 20) suggests that the decisions of current and former Queen Anne's County commissioners to block sewer service to a development that included some affordable housing were driven by "anti-growth" voters who don't like the "demographics" that come with affordable housing.

But that is not true.

Successful Queen Anne's County politicians often run on platforms that involve providing work force housing because county voters don't want the county to lose its teachers, fire-fighters and other service providers to areas with lower-cost housing.

What motivated the so-called anti-growth voters in the past two elections was not opposition to affordable housing but anger over the thousands of mostly unaffordable new housing units that were on their way to approval in a county of just 18,000 homes.

In 2002 and again in 2006, county citizens were concerned about poorly planned growth that crowds schools, overtaxes emergency services and creates acres of impervious surfaces that contribute to the destruction of our bay.

The majority of voters chose candidates for county commissioner whose policies on growth promised to allow Queen Anne's County to grow carefully and keep its rural character of small towns, marshes and waterways, forests, farms and open space.

And they chose candidates who would require developers to build affordable housing.

Mary E. Campbell

Centreville

Death penalty unfit for a fallible world

Leonard Pitts Jr.'s column "Just imagine: You're innocent, facing execution" (Opinion * Commentary, July 22) raises an important point.

Death penalty advocates should consider the following: To support capital punishment, one must either believe that the court system is infallible (which is demonstrably false, as the case of Kirk Bloodsworth, who was exonerated by DNA evidence after spending years on death row, proves) or that it is acceptable to occasionally execute innocent persons.

In a fallible world, a just punishment must not be irrevocable.

Imagine going to the death chamber for a crime you didn't commit. Imagine your child doing so. Our society can do better: Life in prison without the chance for parole is a severe but revocable punishment.

Maryland should eliminate capital punishment.

Craig Herud

Aberdeen

Failure to impeach is terrible precedent

The editorial "A terrible precedent" (July 21) completely missed the point.

The Founding Fathers put impeachment into the Constitution to protect the country from presidents who believe they are above the law.

The president has ordered U.S. attorneys to ignore the law and refuse to file a contempt of Congress charge against a former administration member.

I think this shameless attempt to stop an investigation amounts to obstruction of justice, which is a felony and an impeachable offense.

Unless members of Congress do their duty and impeach this lawless president, such criminal acts will become precedent.

Richard L. Ottenheimer

Pikesville

Welcome for gays isn't very friendly

I am not a Roman Catholic. But if I were, I would certainly not be made to feel welcomed into the church by the writer of the letter "Church welcomes sinners of all types" (July 24).

I am a gay man. My sexuality is innate and as much a gift from my Creator as my blue eyes and my curly hair.

My sexuality harms no one and threatens no one. I consider myself a moral person. My sexuality (and yes, my sexual behavior) is not a sin.

That is not to say I am without sin. I consider my greatest sin to be having lived a lie by pretending to be heterosexual for the first 40 years of my life.

That lie did hurt people.

Lies cause pain and indeed threaten society.

The letter writer might look to her beloved church for more evidence of the hurt and pain caused by lies about sexuality - pain that goes well beyond any discomfort the writer might feel about fellow human beings who simply love differently from the way she does.

Hugh Silcox

Baltimore

Thanks but no thanks for the warm welcome into the Catholic Church from the writer of the letter "Church welcomes sinners of all types."

Her readiness to lump gay people in with adulterers, thieves and murderers is a stinging slap to the face and far, far worse than being left out in the cold by conservative Christians.

Angie Engles

Columbia

Blocking condom ad sends wrong signal

The refusal by Fox and CBS to air a new condom commercial is a roadblock to increasing commitment to sexual responsibility from men ("Condom ad has message many need to hear," July 24).

An ad that tells men that being responsible and using condoms makes them more attractive should be supported rather than censored.

Fox's requirement that such ads "must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy" reflects terrible public health practice.

The prevention of unwanted pregnancy is unquestionably a health-related behavior, just as is the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

In a recent national survey, two-thirds of men who used condoms said they did so both to prevent pregnancy and to prevent disease.

We should be striving to get men and women to increase condom use.

Messages that a real man uses condoms can help in this task.

Laura Lindberg

New York

The writer is a senior research associate for the Guttmacher Institute.

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