Letters to the Editor
We welcome your opinions and letters — with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here
Pendleton Draws a Good Tree
Dear Bay Weekly:
I’ve been a faithful Bay Weekly reader from the start and love the newspaper, and for years I’ve enjoyed Gary Pendleton’s artwork. Since he has become a regular, I look forward to his weekly contribution. I was especially pleased by the piece on the tufted titmouse, one of my winter favorites [Vol. XIII, No. 4: Jan. 27.] The drawing was superb, particularly the sweetgum ball.
I was also happy to see the sweetgum featured because it is so often referred to as a trash tree. I often seen chickadees and titmice (titmouses just doesn’t roll off the tongue) extracting the seed from the ball. It is an important part of the winter diet for many bird species, not to mention the fall colors: just beautiful. Trash tree? Methinks not.
Thanks for giving this tree some well-deserved recognition.
—Kevin M. Smith, Chief of Technical Assistance: Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Gov. Ehrlich’s Empathy Deficit Disorder
Dear Bay Weekly:
Bumbling Bob Ehrlich, our governor with EDD (empathy deficit disorder), is racking up a stunning record of regressive folly. He cares not a whit about the middle class, the poor or the environment. Newspapers exposing his EDD are denied information given other papers.
He routinely vetoes good policy bills: minimum wage, tuition caps, malpractice insurance.
He refuses to adequately fund, man or manage the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, a new holding place for children. During his campaign, he promised to assure its success.
His budget is merciless to poor seniors. He cut all $10 million for cancer screening, all $12 million for drugs and $50 million for nursing-home care. What’s next for poor seniors, the DNR police? They’re good at euthanizing deer, no warrant, no hearing, no appeals.
He tried to reopen a loophole the courts and Assembly just closed that lets his corporate cronies dodge $50 million in Maryland taxes by headquartering in Delaware. Bob also wants to help his developer pals save megamillions in taxes by selling them 3,000 environmentally sensitive acres the state bought to protect.
He’s got $3 billion to build the Inter-County Connector, a Frankenroad across Montgomery that will eat parkland, breed dumb growth and delay the Purple Line Metro. Why ICC? To get corporate bigwigs along I-270 quickly to their private jets at BWI.
His record of regressive folly includes offending minorities by proclaiming on talk radio “multiculturalism is crap” and by joking at a Lincoln Day dinner that the INS may be hunting the Hispanic Americans serving the meal. Bob’s EDD coarsens our political culture.
He ran on the theme It’s Time for a Change. Run on it again in 2006.
—J.A. Hoage, Severna Park
Bruce Bereano’s Misguided Talents
Dear Bay Weekly:
Your article on Bruce Bereano [Vol. XIII, No. 5: Feb. 3] does an exceptional job of describing the activities of a man who uses his great talents for the most crass purposes. I wish he could have used those talents on behalf of our disabled citizens.
It is noteworthy that you were unable to find anyone who would attest to personality and conduct traits that are praiseworthy. He said it all by referring to how he’d be remembered in his obituary.
—John Morgan, Annapolis
Thanks from the Mary Byrd Brown Project
Dear Bay Weekly:
I just want to thank you for the wonderfully, splendid support for the Mary Byrd Brown Project. Your plugs make a big difference for the shows, and your support inspires me to keep on healing and to get back to sharing my music with all of you beautiful souls again.
Thanks for continuing to focus on what matters— Earth, Love, Spirit — and for building a strong sense of community.
—Mary Byrd Brown, Severna Park
