Letters to the Editor

Volume VI Number 28
July 16-22, 1998

Thanks for the Pause that Refreshes

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

NBT editorial analyst Bill Lambrecht's recent thoughts on life and culture at home in Bay Country while sitting in a Paris cafe [June 25-July 1] made me think of that French pause that refreshes.

Having traveled to Paris, I know the clarity that comes sitting in a cafe, sipping a glass of wine in an antique city, watching the world go by.

France has long been a country that fiercely protected the purity of its language and passionately pursued the preservation of its past -- art, literature and month-long summer vacations. Keeping a culture intact in a country that invented the phrase "avant garde" is a trick Americans might contemplate.

Here at home, we Americans are often too busy to sit back and take stock ---of our country or Bay country. Maybe we should. Summer, which calls up memories of small-town America, is a good time to sit on a deck or enjoy a Bud on the Bay and think about a culture that is vanishing all too quickly.

Thanks for reminding us to take the pause that refreshes -- French style or any style -- to think about where we've been and where we're going.

-D.C. Bourne, Churchton

What AA County Voters Want

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

I've been following Anne Arundel Councilwoman Diane Evans' criticism against County Executive John Gary. I know Mr. Gary, but he doesn't know that I'm writing this. I'd like to clear up a few things about her challenge. What Ms. Evans mistakenly calls "bullying tactics" is something different. It's called having some backbone to stand up for what you believe in. It's called being a leader.

Ms. Evans seems like a nice lady and I wish her well, but she can't even make up her mind about which political party she wants to serve and be associated with. She's just switching parties as a way to get elected. But it won't work. Anne Arundel County voters are too smart to fall for her political posturing tactics. Citizens want a county executive with backbone, with resolve: someone who doesn't go which ever way the wind is blowing. In other words, a leader.

-John Douglas Parran, St. Leonard

Editor's note: Parran is a Republican candidate for a seat on the Calvert County Commission.

Buy a New Leadbelly Stamp; Send a Message

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

The Postal Service issued commemorative stamps to honor [blues singer] Leadbelly and [folk and protest singer] Woody Guthrie last week. My mom would sing Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" as well as his other blues and spirituals when I was a child. This was in an era when entertainment was family generated, not passively received.

It was sad to read that Texas GOP Gov. George Bush revoked Leadbelly's pardon. Why recall the pardon of a man who died in 1949? The GOP presidential front-runner Gov. Bush appears bitter and petty to attack Leadbelly 49 years after his death.

If you agree, buy the Leadbelly stamp and send Gov. Bush a message.

-Steven R. Eastaugh, Berlin

Editor's note: Eastaugh was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the First District in 1996.

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