Let's fund the care kids need to flourish
In telling the tale of the tragic death of Davon Qualls, The Sun's article "Failed by the system - taken by the streets" (Oct. 14) puts a name and a face to our nation's failure to adequately fund effective mental health services for youths.
This senseless death is upsetting but not surprising.
National data show that only one out of three children with a serious emotional disturbance receives needed mental health services, and for those who do get services, help often arrives years after the onset of illness.
In the interim, many of our youths fall into a downward spiral of school failure, low self-esteem, alcohol or illicit drug use and involvement in gangs and street life.
Ironically, an intensive, home-based intervention that targets antisocial behavior among adolescents like Davon recently became available to a limited number of Baltimore youths.
Multisystemic therapy attempts to modify a variety of factors that contribute to antisocial behavior. It has been demonstrated to be more effective than either traditional mental health treatment or detention in reducing rearrest rates among youths.
The critical question is whether we can secure funding so that multisystemic therapy can be offered to the many youths who would benefit from it.
One key is Medicaid, which covers this treatment in several states but does not do so in Maryland.
Our state is currently exploring ways to fund such treatment under Medicaid.
But at a time when the federal government is trying to pull back on Medicaid funding for mental health services and the state is facing a significant budget shortfall, it will take a strong and creative effort to improve the availability of this and other effective mental health interventions for our city's youths.
Davon's death should remind us of the choice we face.
Either we as a society commit ourselves to finding resources for effective community mental health services, or children like Davon will continue to pay with their lives.
Jane D. Plapinger Benjamin Mason Baltimore
The writers are, respectively, the president and CEO and the chairman of the board of Baltimore Mental Health Systems Inc.
Back the better bill on gang prevention
The editorial "Think prevention first" (Oct. 15) did an excellent job explaining how our current approach to gangs is lopsided and ineffective.
Bills such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein's are fundamentally flawed because of their emphasis on punishment and incarceration, and would only increase the well-documented problems of racial and ethnic disparities in the imprisonment of youths in the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
One positive, effective alternative is the Youth PROMISE (Prison Reduction through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support and Education) Act, which was introduced recently by Rep. Robert C. Scott of Virginia.
Rather than press ineffective gang-suppression techniques that end up putting more black youths in prison, this bill would help build on methods proved to reduce youth violence and delinquency.
Under the Youth PROMISE Act, communities facing the greatest youth gang and crime challenges would receive targeted funding, training and technical assistance to develop and implement a comprehensive plan for prevention and intervention strategies targeted at young people and their families, including increased witness protection and youth-oriented policing.
This bill would do more to make our communities safer, reduce victimization and help at-risk young people lead law-abiding and healthy lives, free from gangs and other criminal involvement.
Tara Andrews
Washington
The writer is deputy executive director of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice.
Drug tests on kids ethically unsavory
There are several ethical points at issue when we consider clinical drug testing on children ("Untested medicine," Oct. 16).
Whose child will be the guinea pig? What is a child's life worth? How much risk is acceptable? And should the parents or guardians of a child who sustains damages or death in a drug trial be considered abusive for endangering the child in the drug test?
But the larger issue is that the concept of "informed consent" in medicine assumes that the participant in a test has been informed to his or her satisfaction about the drug being tested and the purpose of the test, made aware of the risks and possible adverse reactions and understands that there is no guarantee of the efficacy or safety of the drug tested.
A child is not competent to give informed consent to participate in clinical drug trials (although the parents or guardians may do so on the child's behalf).
Yet the physical burden of the testing, including any loss from injury or death, will fall squarely on the child.
The child who cannot decide for himself or herself must then permanently bear the consequences of a life-changing decision made by trusted adults.
Those who support clinical drug research on children seem to see it as their duty to protect the health of the majority of children by exposing a select group of children to the dangers of drug trials.
But as a parent, I object to this notion of acceptable losses for the common good.
Sue Keller
Finksburg
Rosewood provides unique level of care
As parents of a profoundly retarded child who also has severe and challenging physical disabilities, we are constantly beset with anxiety over the well-intentioned but misguided efforts of special-interest groups bent on closing the Rosewood Center ("Coalition persists on closure of Rosewood," Oct. 11).
These groups have made a media spectacle of what amount to minor problems revealed by a routine audit of conditions at Rosewood.
The real problems at the site stem from the transfer to Rosewood of criminal offenders from other closed institutions that the staff at Rosewood is ill-equipped to supervise.
These violent and dangerous individuals have no place being housed in a residential care facility. They should be in more secure quarters, staffed by properly trained and equipped personnel.
We have been overwhelmingly pleased with the level of care and supervision our daughter has received at Rosewood.
As her legal guardians, we chose the Rosewood environment for our daughter over community placement after visiting several group homes and doing exhaustive research into their ongoing issues.
Such settings are just not equipped to handle our daughter's demanding level of care, or the care required for the remaining clients of Rosewood.
James L. Spies Sharon F. Spies Hampstead
Tax plan penalizes Montgomery County
Lanny J. Davis' column on Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to close the state's $1.7 billion structural deficit makes some useful points ("Balancing act good for state," Oct. 3). But Mr. Davis does not speak for Montgomery County.
We congratulate the governor for trying to deal comprehensively with this inherited deficit problem, and we appreciate his continued support of local governments.
The combination of spending cuts and revenue increases he has proposed is a good starting point.
But his plan would have far-reaching impacts on the entire state that require careful review and public debate.
For example, like the governor, we support a more progressive state income tax. But we are also determined to maintain Montgomery County's role as an economic engine for the state and to ensure our competitiveness with surrounding jurisdictions.
The new income tax brackets for high-end earners in the governor's proposal would, when coupled with the county's piggyback income tax, produce tax rates that sharply exceed the 5.75 percent rate in Virginia and the 8.5 percent rate in the District of Columbia.
And an analysis by the comptroller's office projects that more than 80 percent of the new income tax revenue in the governor's plan would come from Montgomery County residents.
The question is whether this is fair, reasonable or sustainable in view of Montgomery County's shifting demographics and the increasing regional competition the county faces.
To solve the state's deficit problem, everyone will have to step up to the plate.
The best plan would be one that enables our county, and all counties, to continue to contribute to the vitality of the entire state.
Marilyn Praisner Mike Knapp Rockville
The writers are, respectively, the president and vice president of the Montgomery County Council.
Tax on club fees won't harm health
Some letter writers seem to think taxing health club fees would be detrimental to the health of Marylanders and could escalate our already high health care costs ("Taxing club fees could boost costs," letters, Oct. 10).
This is an unproven myth because there is no study that shows that health clubs improve the overall health of a large-scale population or that rates of obesity or diabetes actually fall among populations where the rate of health club membership is high.
Health club membership simply does not equal club use.
In America, for some people, health club membership is the equivalent of a golf club membership. It is a status symbol to boast about, like a high-end car or a big mansion, and has nothing to do with exercise.
To some of the dreamers who loathe the sweating, the fast heart rate and the aching muscles that are an inevitable part of advantageous exercise, a health club membership is a symbolic vindication of the actual sloth that plagues their bodies.
They will keep paying for their memberships, even if their visits to their clubs amount to zero, so that, when asked if they exercise by their doctors, they can say they belong to a health club.
All the open spaces of Maryland are free to people who want to exercise for good health; they can find a high school track or a safe place somewhere to move their bodies. Poor people have no choice but to exercise in these venues.
Dr. Usha Nellore
Bel Air
Universities need new funding source
As we approach another legislative session, university presidents prepare again to advocate for the financial resources we need to educate the next generation of Maryland's citizens.
But this year, Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed a budget that takes the bold step of identifying a dedicated funding stream for higher education.
The governor recognizes that access to public higher education must be a right for everyone, not a privilege reserved for the few.
The U.S. Census Bureau ranks Maryland as the richest state in the nation in median household income.
At the same time, the state ranks 40th nationally in higher-education investment as a percentage of personal income.
The disparity between those rankings indicates that we must find new ways to ensure that Maryland's public system of higher education is adequately funded.
The governor's proposed budget takes the first step toward that solution and deserves our support.
Consider this: The 18-year old who began studying at the University of Baltimore this fall will reach retirement age in 2054.
My colleagues and I don't know what our budgets will be next year, let alone what the world will be like during the middle of this century.
Yet we are committed to providing your daughters and sons the skills that will enable them to contribute to Maryland's well-being today and for decades to come.
Their chances for success - and their ability to realize the world of 2054 we cannot even imagine - will depend in large part on what we do now.
Let's not shortchange our future.
Robert L. Bogomolny
Baltimore
The writer is president of the University of Baltimore.
Confront real woes facing city schools
People go into education committed to creating opportunities for children. Those who work in Baltimore's schools have a special commitment to this city's children. And schools CEO Andres Alonso surely came here committed to making a difference in children's lives ("Schools, city union struggle for power," Oct. 18).
Instead of getting hung up on planning time, which is essential for good teaching, let's address some of the city's real obstacles to learning.
For instance, my students endured more than five hours of High School Assessment testing in a 95-degree classroom last spring. This kind of thing is not atypical for city classrooms in May, June, August and September.
Try teaching after 2 p.m. as children begin to wilt in the heat, especially when they have refused to eat another lunch of pizza and fries.
Then, there are the materials: Books are ordered by administrators who are out of touch with students' interests and proficiency levels, and classes often lack the hands-on equipment that could make learning exciting.
No amount of planning time will make up for inferior books, inadequate teaching materials, 90-plus-degree classrooms, malnourished students and a constant parade of novice teachers.
Instead of putting up more obstacles to learning, why not address the conditions that help create the high turnover rate for Baltimore's teachers?
City teachers and school administrators should be partners, not antagonists.
We all want success.
Tom O. Smith
Baltimore
The writer is a teacher at Patterson High School.
Time for Democrats to stop funding war
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has quite a different view of the politics of the war in Iraq than many of us in the anti-war movement do ("Democrats struggle to alter our course," letters, Oct. 12).
We see no "daily struggle" against the war by congressional Democrats.
What we see is that they spinelessly cave in to whatever President Bush asks for lest someone call them "soft on terrorism."
What the peace movement wants is for congressional Democrats to vote against any further funding for the war in Iraq, except for funding for an orderly withdrawal.
Instead, they consistently vote to hand the Bush administration every dollar it asks for to continue fighting the war.
The peace movement cares nothing about the Democrats' meaningless anti-war rhetoric; it's all hot air unless they vote to cut off funding for the war, which most of them never do.
So, because congressmen care nothing about American lives or treasure - all they care about is getting re-elected - the peace movement wants them to be challenged everywhere by real anti-war candidates, both in the primaries and by third-party candidates in the general election.
So that is what you'll be facing in 2008, Ms. Pelosi, unless Democrats do the right thing, and vote to end this war now.
Douglas E. McNeil
Baltimore
The writer is treasurer of Voters for Peace.
Nonlethal methods could control bears
Soon Maryland's bears will once more be under the gun. On Monday, Maryland hunters are scheduled to venture into the woods to eliminate 50 to 70 bears in a pointless hunt designed basically to stock their trophy rooms ("Bears are fair game, says governor's aide," Oct. 16).
Hunting is ineffective as a means of controlling bears because it targets bears at random. And arguments about the efficacy of hunting to reduce bear-human conflicts are merely smokescreens to justify yet another unscrupulous hunt to obtain heads and hides.
Humane groups offered the state $75,000 to cancel the hunt, money that could have been used to compensate landowners for damage caused by bears.
This offer was rejected.
Bears are habitual animals, and once they understand there's no food to be had in our neighborhoods, they will have no reason to visit.
Thus bears can and will learn to stay away from us if we implement corrective measures.
Such measures are simple and nonlethal and are far more effective than hunting as ways to keep bears from rooting through our trash, yards and birdfeeders.
Gov. Martin O'Malley needs to cancel the bear hunt.
Allison Wolf
Elkridge
Citizens need guns to check state power
The Sun's editorial "30,000 - and counting" (Oct. 13) chided state Sen. James Brochin for opposing a state ban on assault weapons, noting that "high-powered guns aren't the usual weapon of choice for target practice."
Call me paranoid, but I have long believed it to be a healthy thing for citizens to own guns - including big ones - not for their personal amusement but as an important check against the power of the state.
Recent political developments have made me more certain of this than ever.
Suppose someone had suggested, just a few years ago, that our government would be spying on peaceful political gatherings, tapping our phones without court supervision, abducting innocent civilians and denying them judicial redress, imprisoning people indefinitely without trial and subjecting these prisoners to physical and psychological torture. Such a person might well have been labeled a nut.
But far from being paranoid fantasies, these are policies of the United States, as one can read in the pages of almost any newspaper.
If this has not resulted in widespread anger and fear, it can only be because most people don't know anyone personally who has fallen victim to these crimes by the state.
I do not own a gun, and I do not believe that the time is imminent when it will be appropriate to take up arms to end these abuses.
But considering how this millennium is going so far, I cannot say that the notion that such a day will eventually come seems all that far-fetched to me now.
Mike Klein
Hanover
Do a Schaefer sculpture now
I definitely agree that a statue of William Donald Schaefer should be commissioned and placed in the Inner Harbor to welcome all those who visit the site for generations to come ("Art or bust?" Oct. 11).
On the day Harborplace officially opened, my husband, Jack Bowden, and I broadcast the event live from the harbor for WMAR-TV, Channel 2.
As lifelong Marylanders, we reported with personal pride as well as professional interest as Mayor Schaefer and other dignitaries, including Rouse Co. executives, sailed in to the harbor to begin the festivities.
What a stirring and memorable sight that was.
We covered many stories leading up to Harborplace being built, including protests against the project. And certainly many other people helped make Harborplace happen, just as a lot of people made many other wonderful things happen in Baltimore during the 1980s.
But Mr. Schaefer was the motivating force. He was the figurehead, the cheerleader and the tireless leader of the new Baltimore.
"Do it now," he'd say. And it got done.
There is no one who deserves this honor more.
And the statue should be as close to an exact likeness of this man as possible - not some creative, abstract version of what Mr. Schaefer represented.
Everyone should be able to recognize Mr. Schaefer as the man who cared enough to make Harborplace happen.
Susan White-Bowden
Finksburg
I can think of no better tribute to the spirit of Baltimore than putting a statue of its most colorful mayor at the harbor.
And the idea of having Baltimorean Rodney Carroll do the sculpture is a wonderful one.
But I think the idea of depicting William Donald Schaefer holding blueprints and pointing suggests the boredom of bureaucracy. Mr. Schaefer may have been many things in public life, but he was never boring.
There is no more iconic image of Mr. Schaefer than that of his dip in the National Aquarium pool, dressed in natty 1920s-era bathing garb.
Mr. Schaefer understood the power of the image. And when he made that appearance, Baltimoreans swelled with pride.
A bronze version of that Mr. Schaefer would certainly get the million or so annual visitors to Baltimore's Inner Harbor posing, snapping photographs and returning home with a smile and a sense of the true spirit of Baltimore.
Cornel Rubino
Baltimore
Instead of placing a statue of former Gov. William Donald Schaefer at the Inner Harbor, I'd prefer to see his likeness replace the current atrocity in front of the railroad station.
I shudder, as many people do, when we emerge from that lovely building and are confronted by the indigestible piece of art.
Mayor/Governor/Citizen Schaefer did a great deal for the city and deserves to be honored.
And I think more people would see his likeness more often in front of the train station than at the harbor.
Janet Heller
Baltimore
Having had the privilege of serving in Gov. William Donald Schaefer's Cabinet, I came to realize that he was dead serious about his well-known motto: "Do it now."
I suggest that all of us apply that same imperative to the plan to erect his statue at Harborplace while he and those who worked with him to transform the city are still around to appreciate the sculpture.
Mr. Schaefer deserves no less.
Luther Starnes
Ellicott City
The writer was secretary of the Department of Human Resources during Gov. William Donald Schaefer's administration.