Reality's rules reveal no higher purpose
I read Dinesh D'Souza's column "What atheists can't refute" (Opinion
Commentary, Oct. 28) with interest. But I must take issue with some of its assumptions and conclusions.
I do not believe in "god," as most people apparently mean the word. However, I suppose that I am not an "atheist" by the author's definition, either.
I agree with Immanuel Kant that there is more to the world than our senses can apprehend, and more to what we apprehend than our minds can understand. Further, there is more to what we understand than our language can express, even in poetry and music.
None of this leads me to believe in a god or gods, however, and none of it leads me to have "faith" in the ways religious people commonly define it.
I do not believe in things for which I have no evidence.
It is one thing to admit that you do not, and cannot, know everything. It is quite another to fill in that blank space in our understanding with theism and then stop looking for more understanding.
Further, it is people's insistence that their version of the way to fill in that blank spot is the only real truth that leads to most of the world's suffering.
Carl Aron
Catonsville
Atheists understand the limits of reason
In his column "What atheists can't refute" (Opinion
Commentary, Oct. 28), Dinesh D'Souza is mistaken about what atheists believe.
Mr. D'Souza suggests that atheists do not recognize that human knowledge is constrained "by a limited sensory apparatus of perception" and therefore do not recognize "that we have no basis for assuming that a material perception of reality ever resembles reality itself."
In short, Mr. D'Souza claims, "Atheism foolishly presumes that reason is, in principle, capable of figuring out all that there is." This is hogwash.
Atheists recognize all of the above; we recognize there may be realities we cannot know because human intelligence and human senses have only evolved to a certain point.
All that atheists claim is that we should not pretend to know what we cannot know.
It is religion, not atheism, that is guilty of this kind of pretense.
Henry Cohen
Baltimore
Leave smokers, taxpayers alone
With all the talk about Gov. Martin O'Malley's tax explosion swirling around us, I wonder why there hasn't been talk of raising the tax on alcohol ("Stakes high at session eve," Oct. 29).
The government socks it to smokers without hesitation, citing the use of tobacco by teenagers and the dangers it poses to their health. But doesn't alcohol do just as much damage?
Alcohol is deadly, and its use is accelerating now that cigarettes are more expensive.
I would suggest that the state impose a stiff additional tax on alcohol and let the smokers be for a while.
However, generally, I am not in favor of any tax increases. The state should strive to live within its already enormous income, just as we individuals are expected to do.
My widow's wallet is already thinner because of the rising prices of almost everything, and Mr. O'Malley wants it to lose even more weight by nickel-and-diming me to death.
Reduced spending is the only sensible way to manage the state's finances.
The future looks dismal if raising taxes at the drop of a hat is to become the norm.
Edith Hustvedt
Annapolis
Some cities given a boost by gaming
The writer of the letter "Slots a sucker's bet over the long term" (Oct. 31) mentions gambling centers such as Las Vegas, Atlantic City, N.J., Dover, Del., and Detroit and suggests that "as Maryland citizens, most of us wouldn't want to live there."
He's right when it comes to Dover Downs and Detroit. But Las Vegas and Atlantic City are among the fastest-growing cities in the nation.
Gambling may be what most people think of when these two resort towns are mentioned. But the fact is that they have many other amenities visitors can enjoy without even stepping in a casino.
Atlantic City, for example, has improved enormously with a brand-new town center, nationally known steak houses and top restaurants, new facades on the boardwalk and an upscale shopping mall on a pier that extends over the ocean.
But just like Maryland racing today, Atlantic City was in dire straits when legalized gambling was approved in the 1970s.
Steve Liebowitz
Owings Mills
Spending simply must be controlled
At a time when gasoline prices are skyrocketing, home heating expenses are increasing, food prices are creeping up and the cost of other necessities is rising nearly out of reach, some people are concerned about maintaining open space funding ("Cuts could imperil open space funding," letters, Oct. 29)?
I enjoy being outdoors in our parks and open spaces as much as anyone, but Maryland legislators need to consider alternatives to tax increases.
If it is necessary to reclassify $55 million from open space funding to pay for education, then I say that education is more important. Volunteer groups can help to maintain open spaces and parks.
I know that everyone has a pet project, but the spending has got to stop.
The state has spent too much taxpayer money already - more than taxpayers can afford, especially at a time when households must make budget cuts to make ends meet.
Take a cue from your constituents, legislators: The well has gone dry. Vote against tax and fee increases. Your electorate will be watching.
John D. Wafer
Ellicott City
Where would critics cut state spending?
The Sun gets a lot of letters on taxes like one Wednesday that argued that "we need to hold the line on spending, and cut wasteful spending and programs that don't work" ("No need to impose new taxes and fees," Oct. 31).
But such letters rarely identify exactly what health care, child protection, education or public safety programs to cut.
The fact is that state government has slimmed down a lot.
For instance, the Department of Human Resources - which protects children and elderly adults against abuse and neglect and tries to help low-income citizens - had 8,273 employees in fiscal 2002 and now has 7,049.
Public education still is not adequately funded in this state, despite the Thornton law, and now the governor is calling for cuts in that law's inflation allowance.
Those complaining about modest revenue increases should at least have the sense of responsibility to identify where they think the waste and inefficiency is when they complain about spending.
Joan Cooper
Baltimore
The writer is a former assistant director of the Baltimore County Department of Social Services.
Gay rights aren't just a white issue
"I get really bent out of shape when you talk about gay and lesbian rights as a civil rights issue," says Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr. "Whites can hide their gayness; I cannot hide my blackness" ("Group seeking black support of gay marriage," Oct. 25).
I, for one, was unaware that the question of what constitutes a civil rights issue is predicated on how easily members of a particular group can conceal their identity.
By this reasoning, I imagine the good reverend (Mr. Burns is a Baptist pastor) must not consider religious freedom an important aspect of civil rights - since religious affiliation can easily be concealed (and is merely a lifestyle choice as well, not an immutable characteristic).
Mr. Burns seems to have fallen into the common misconception that gay rights are a white issue. But, of course, being a racial minority and a sexual minority are not mutually exclusive propositions.
Before publicly speaking on the matter again, perhaps Mr. Burns should take the time to speak with some black gays, since they have the perspective necessary to compare the issues faced by gay people and racial minorities.
He might find some of his assumptions challenged - not least of all the assumption that it is always easy or desirable to hide one's sexual identity.
Brendan Baker
Baltimore
Schaller slights Afghan successes
Thomas F. Schaller's column concerning the war in Afghanistan was misleading, to say the least ("Facing the reality of America's lost war (no, not that one)," Opinion
Commentary, Oct. 24).
This isn't "America's lost war," as Mr. Schaller stated. In fact, 38 NATO nations have troops in Afghanistan, and fewer than half the Western troops there are U.S. troops.
Mr. Schaller claimed that six years after the United States and its allies arrived in Afghanistan, "that country remains chaotic and unstable."
He conveniently ignored the fact that, according to NATO's June report on reconstruction and development, 83 percent of the population now has access to medical facilities, compared with just 9 percent in 2004, thanks in no small measure to the 4,000 medical facilities opened since 2004.
Mr. Schaller didn't mention that 76 percent of Afghan children under age 5 have been immunized against childhood diseases.
He remained silent about the fact that over 4,000 kilometers of roads have been completed, that work has begun on 20,000 new homes for Afghans returning to Kabul, and that 17,000 communities have benefited from development programs for wells, schools, hospitals and roads.
And while he proclaimed that "many innocents are living on the run, refugees inside their country or abroad," he somehow forgot to mention that 4.8 million refugees have returned to the country.
And what about the 10,000 women who were able to set up their own businesses thanks to micro-finance loans?
He didn't mention that, either. Nor did he mention that there are now 10 universities in Afghanistan compared with only one when the Taliban was in power.
Sorry, Professor Schaller, but I'll have to give you an F on this report.
Richard Seymour
Baltimore
State must mandate control of infections
The Sun's editorial "Being sensible about staph" (Oct. 19) suggests that the public not overreact to the recent reports of antibiotic-resistant staph infections. But what exactly is a sensible response to what health care officials are calling a huge crisis?
According to at least two studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Maryland, and Baltimore in particular, have among the nation's highest rates of certain hospital-acquired MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections ("Deadly staph infection spreads," Oct. 17).
The largest survey ever conducted on MRSA found that the nation has as many as 1.2 million infections annually and that Maryland is among the states with the highest rate of infection ("Hospital infection rate on rise," June 25).
Yet some Maryland health leaders suggest that we are "leading the nation" in confronting the crisis ("Hospitals striving to stop infections," letters, Oct. 27).
Most health care institutions in Maryland do not conduct the kind of screening that would enable them to identify all the carriers of MRSA and isolate them to control its spread. Most Maryland hospitals are, in fact, fighting not to do so, despite the demonstrated efficacy of such an approach.
However, that kind of screening has been successful across entire regions and countries as well as when used by a growing number of domestic institutions. It is increasingly being recommended and implemented by large hospital groups across the nation and is now required by four state legislatures. More states stand poised to do likewise.
The Sun's editorial opines that state Sen. Lisa A. Gladden's proposed bill is an understandable reaction but that "legislative requirements" are not the answer.
Many Maryland citizens who have been injured or have lost loved ones over the last three decades because hospitals have failed to control MRSA are of a different opinion.
Turning to legislators to force health care institutions to do what they should have done long ago to save lives and prevent suffering is not only sensible, it is long overdue.
We are all potential patients.
Michael Bennett
Baltimore
The writer is president of the Coalition for Patients' Rights.
Trust the teachers to measure progress
As a 30-year veteran teacher in the Baltimore County schools, I have always been interested in what SAT scores indicate about students as opposed to what their grade point averages tell us.
The experience of Towson University suggests that the four years spent earning a GPA should count more than the four hours spent earning an SAT score, and that perhaps the totality of teacher evaluations represented by the GPA is a more accurate indicator of academic progress than the results of a multiple-choice test are ("Towson scraps gender effort," Oct. 25).
However, under the No Child Left Behind law, secondary education is locked into behaving as if the opposite were true.
In Maryland high schools, one of the most important measures of progress is the scores on Maryland's High School Assessments.
Each of the core academic subjects (English, math, science and social studies) has an HSA test, and the scores on these tests are considered an important indicator of the adequate yearly progress that the NCLB law requires.
But unlike the scoring of the SAT, scoring of the HSA is a complete mystery.
We know the minimum passing score for each test. But we don't know anything about how much each question counts or what percentage of the questions must be answered correctly to pass.
In response to the NCLB law, testing has proliferated.
In Baltimore County, "short-cycle" and "benchmark" assessments are given in the core academic areas every quarter. But no one has shown that success on any of these assessment tests predicts success on the HSA.
And since students have to spend several classes taking these assessments, they must be used as part of the grade. But what does a 68 percent score on a benchmark assessment test issued by a county curriculum office mean? We don't know.
Like the members of the College Board quoted in the article, I believe the SAT has a place in assessing student learning.
However, there are too many tests and practice tests in high schools now.
If the colleges trust the teachers to evaluate students accurately, why can't the counties and the state trust the assessments that teachers make in the classroom as a measure of students' progress?
Mark Lund
Towson
The writer is chairman of the English department at the Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, a Baltimore County magnet high school.
Towson University callous toward men
I couldn't help but shake my head after reading about Towson University scrapping its program to admit freshman with high SAT scores but average GPAs ("Towson scraps gender effort," Oct. 25).
While students of both genders were admitted under this program, it was specifically designed to address Towson's woefully gender-imbalanced student population.
According to Associate Provost Deborah Leather, the program's 70 percent student retention rate after two years of data is sufficient cause to terminate it.
But the university admits that many of those who did well in the program transferred to more-selective schools - which decreases the retention rate at Towson but not the overall college retention rate.
So a Towson admissions program aimed at male students, with a success rate of more than 70 percent, is deemed a failure?
If a program of this nature had been oriented toward urban minorities and had the same retention rate, I believe that it would be touted as a national model of success.
Is it any wonder men are avoiding Towson University?
Michael D. Rausa
Forest Hill
Scranton's assets belie 'loser' image
Here are a few tidbits Kevin Cowherd didn't bother to mention about the city of Scranton, Pa. ("Loser image: We wear it well," Oct. 31):
The city has its own baseball team and stadium and a fine ski resort within the city limits.
The area boasts three institutions of higher learning: The University of Scranton, Marywood College and Lackawanna County Community College.
The Steamtown railroad museum is a state of the art attraction for railroad buffs from all over the East Coast.
The Everhart Museum is a great place to see fine paintings and sculpture.
You can hear classical music performed by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic at the Scranton Cultural Center.
The city's college nightlife could rival that of Fells Pont and Canton.
Exquisite examples of 19th-century architecture, which are mostly byproducts of the immense wealth generated by "King Coal," are in evidence everywhere.
Scranton's beautiful mountain location is also convenient to the Poconos, Lake Wallenpaupack and many other natural attractions.
You can actually buy a nice house at an affordable price in Scranton.
Scranton doesn't even approach Baltimore in the percentage of its population that is homeless, living in poverty or addicted to drugs.
So, Mr. Cowherd, life in Scranton isn't all that bad!
Daniel Kuc
Baltimore
The writer grew up in the Scranton-Wilkes Barre area.
Homeless shelter is a threat to Greenmount West revival
I was distressed by The Sun's editorial about the proposed 300-bed homeless shelter at the old Mildred Monroe Elementary School ("Shelter from the cold," editorial, Oct. 29).
It appears the editorial writer got his or her information from the mayor's office, not from those who live in this community - the decent and conscientious people who moved here because of its racial, cultural and economic diversity.
But Greenmount West residents do not oppose housing for the homeless.
We do not oppose housing for the homeless in our neighborhood.
Many of us oppose a 300-bed shelter in Greenmount West or, indeed, in any neighborhood.
We are concerned that the shelter will accept too many people and not enough support services will be provided.
We believe that it is inhumane to house 300 or more individuals in a building that has been vacant since 2001 and has been severely vandalized.
We oppose a site selection process that excluded consultation with local residents.
We oppose a mayor who waits until the 11th hour to find a "solution" to the problem of homelessness that amounts to merely warehousing people.
We are for homes, not shelters. We are for small-scale, scattered-site, high-quality housing that is linked to social services that address the root causes of homelessness.
We are for a comprehensive, citywide approach to homelessness - because finding homes for our distressed populations is the responsibility of all Baltimore communities.
Greenmount West is still struggling with too many open-air drug markets, prostitution rings, liquor stores and vacant buildings; we have too few affordable homes, youth programs, local businesses and employment opportunities.
Mayor Sheila Dixon claims that her team assessed 20 sites and felt the Mildred Monroe school was the best location for a shelter.
But I believe our neighborhood was chosen because it does not have the political and economic clout of Baltimore's tonier communities in areas such as Roland Park, Canton and Federal Hill.
P. Kelly
Baltimore
I moved to the Greenmount West community four months ago and have been nothing short of impressed with the passion and drive my fellow residents have shown in fighting the plan to put an overcrowded homeless shelter in our neighborhood.
In June, my husband and I purchased a home in the Station North townhouses.
Before, during and after our purchase, we scoured the news to find out information about the Station North and Greenmount West neighborhood.
We found enough promising information about the mayor's dedication to rebuilding this area to move us to invest money in our new home.
We are exactly the sort of people that the builders and developers in this area are looking for - commuters to Washington with Washington salaries looking for a home that's an easy walk from Penn Station.
It was with much delight that we read over the summer that the mayor was pumping money into the Station North Arts and Entertainment District and hiring prominent developers to get it going. Much of this development is supposed to take place just one block west of our new home.
But it was quite a slap in the face to receive the news that a homeless shelter with a capacity of 300-plus residents would open one block east of our new home.
Talk about the city sending mixed messages.
This shelter could reverse all of the positive development in the area and dismantle the community that we have fallen in love with.
It is a mystery to us how the mayor plans to continue to develop the Station North/Greenmount West area while 300 homeless people are invited to live in confined quarters in our neighborhood.
Melissa Wallace-Johnson
Baltimore
It is good to see that discussion of the homeless shelter proposed for Greenmount West has finally begun, albeit a little too late.
But responsibility for the fact that there is suddenly a shelter crisis as cold weather approaches falls squarely on the shoulders of Mayor Sheila Dixon. The Greenmount West neighborhood should not bear the burden of our mayor's short-sightedness.
Ms. Dixon has been mayor through most of one winter and was on the City Council for many winters before. Why, then, this last-minute decision?
This shell game of annually rotating placement of winter emergency shelter through fragile communities is a disgraceful attempt to keep the homeless out of sight by placing them in neighborhoods neglected by city leaders.
This must stop.
Jeff Leone
Baltimore