Mentors can turn kids away from life learned on streets
Julie Bykowicz captures the pessimistic attitude of city's juvenile justice system in "Arrest a child, rescue a life" (Dec. 23) - an article that underscores the incongruous correlation between incarcerating a child and delivering that same child from harm's way.
But it is no wonder that expectations are so low for a child caught in a city juvenile justice system that is more often measured by its failures than its successes and in a city where we are more likely to note the number of yearly homicide victims and shootings among the young than the number of high school graduates and youth leaders.
The streets are the classrooms for these kids, whose crimes are cries for help and guidance.
And isn't it ironic that the offending youths are often returned to the same community that was the original breeding ground of their criminal activity, or to parents or guardians who have already proved unable to supervise and control these youths?
An effective governing force leads by example, proving its leadership by enforcing laws and sentences and giving positive reinforcements to those whom productively give back to the community.
Our focus needs not to be on community detention programs but on mentoring programs, which are now inadequately staffed and funded in this city - programs that give kids hope for a future that may break the cycle of dependency and institutionalization.
Mentors can set positive examples for the youths and guide them away from the kind of life learned on the streets.
Melissa McDonald
Baltimore
The writer is co-executive director of StandUp for Kids, a group that provides services and support to homeless youths and other at-risk children.
Bethlehem Muslims drive out Christians
Perhaps it's in the spirit of the season that the article "Pilgrims return to celebrate Christmas" (Dec. 25) explored neither the extent nor the true reason for "Bethlehem's ever-shrinking Christian population."
But Bethlehem's Christian population declined drastically after the Palestinian Authority took control of the area in 1995.
Once 90 percent of the local population, Christians now are less than 25 percent, with some estimates putting their numbers as low as 12 percent.
How did this happen? And why is it continuing, with hundreds of Christians emigrating per year?
This article follows the media's usual pattern, implying that part of the reason is "the presence of Israel's massive separation barrier."
Well, Israel did build a barrier between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, with a tiny segment, facing a major Israeli roadway, being a concrete wall to stop the targeting of Israeli motorists by gunmen. But Bethlehem is not surrounded by any wall.
How this Christian exodus actually happened can be summed up in the words of a Bethlehem Christian community leader quoted in a WorldNetDaily report in 2005: "You want to know what is at play here, just come throughout the year and see the intimidation from the Muslims. They have burned down our stores, built mosques in front of our churches, stole our real estate and took away our rights. Women have been raped and abducted. So don't tell me about Israel. It's the Muslims."
Muslim hostility has also taken the form of gangs defacing and confiscating Christian property, of the Palestinian Authority under President Yasser Arafat replacing Christian leaders on public councils with Muslims, and of armed Palestinian factions stirring up tensions.
The article quotes Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, who refers to Israel as "a land of humiliation of one people at the hand of another."
Ironically, this phrase more aptly describes the treatment of area Christians by Muslims.
Nelson L. Hyman
Randallstown
Crossing a border shouldn't be crime
The author of the letter "Securing our border doesn't negate faith" (Dec. 27) wrote that he opposes illegal immigration and wants "our borders closed and sealed."
I also oppose the idea of "illegal immigration," but in a very different sense. I oppose the very concept that immigration should be illegal.
It's not a crime to cross a river or arbitrary line in the middle of the desert.
I welcome all peaceful and honest people to be my neighbors, regardless of where they were born or what imaginary lines they crossed to get here.
Mike Klein
Hanover
Leave the leaves to decay in place
Janine Wood's column "Good time to set aside suburban squabbles" (Opinion
Commentary, Dec. 18) caught my eye.
Ms. Wood described her yard as including a border of woods where the leaves fall, decay and enrich the soil. A neighbor, upset that some leaves blew into her yard, suggested that if she could afford to live in their neighborhood, she could afford a weekly landscape service.
I had to laugh, as the first time I mowed the lawn at my present home, neighbors asked what I was doing.
That conversation has been on my mind as I watch armies of landscapers removing every leaf from my neighborhood's acre-sized yards - and I ponder the cumulative costs of manpower, fuel, trucking and extreme noise in the interest of what I see primarily as environmental degradation.
If my neighbors just left the leaves in place, they would decompose and enrich the soil - as Ms. Wood noted.
In my yard, I'm trying to get native plants established, destroy invasive species, decrease lawn area and provide chemical-free habitat for birds, foxes and other wildlife.
Until I eliminate most of the lawn, I'll continue to mow; the mower mulches the leaves, and they rapidly decompose.
I enjoy the exercise and never gain weight. I hope the neighbors understand.
Daniel A. Levy
Pikesville
Treatment shortage fuels drug diversion
As two of the French experts interviewed for The Sun's recent series on buprenorphine, we were dismayed that the major public health benefits of French policy were not properly reflected ("The 'bupe' fix," Dec. 16-Dec. 18). We feel that the response by The Sun's public editor to the criticism of the series by several leading public health professionals demonstrates a continuing disregard for the evidence ("How Sun took on bupe," Dec. 23).
In 1994 in France, heroin overdoses claimed more than 500 lives - most of them injecting drug users who often shared needles. Opioid substitution treatment and needle exchange programs were not available.
In 1995, France began a comprehensive harm reduction program, including drug user outreach and education, needle syringe exchange programs and the rapid expansion of opioid substitution treatment, mainly through making buprenorphine part of primary health care (funded through national health insurance).
Opioid substitution treatment now covers about 70 percent of drug users in France, and most receive buprenorphine. This change in policy has achieved:
An 80 percent reduction in heroin overdose deaths (from 500 to 100 per year).
A 75 percent reduction in HIV prevalence among drug users (from 40 percent in 1995 to 11 percent in 2004).
A 75 percent reduction in drug-related crimes.
While France was rapidly expanding buprenorphine treatment, inadequate access to opioid substitution treatment was the rule in many European countries. The size of the black market for buprenorphine in these countries is an indication of the very large number of drug users who badly want effective drug treatment but are unable to obtain it.
As in many other countries, the risk of buprenorphine diversion exists in the United States because of the grossly inadequate access to drug treatment.
Indeed, the more access to opioid substitution treatment is restricted, the higher the risk of its diversion.
If the U.S. further restricts access to buprenorphine because of potential abuse, even more people will suffer.
The French experience shows that harm reduction slows the spread of HIV and reduces heroin overdose deaths and drug-related crime.
The U.S. could learn from the experience of France and many other countries.
Patrizia Carrieri Beatrice Stambul
Marseille, France
The writers are, respectively, a researcher at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research and the president of the French Harm Reduction Association.