Letters to the Editor
Volume VII Number 2
January 14-20, 1999

Name It Joe Tausig Circle

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

Please allow me to weigh in with a few counter comments in regard to your editorial "In Annapolis, Circle Wagons for Unity" (January 7-13) discussing your views as to an appropriate name for the new West Street Circle in Annapolis.

As someone who lives within two blocks of the circle, I too have pondered names. If you go by a long-standing tradition in Annapolis, the best name would be one that relates geographically to it, i.e., State Circle and Church Circle.

If you depart from this standard, the next category you'd get to is famous people who would be honored by having the circle named after them. Usually, such people are dead. I am pushing the proposal to name the circle "Joe Tausig Circle." He's a genuine hero with many connections, including living in Annapolis. What's more, he's alive.

As perhaps the most junior officer board the Battleship USS Nevada at Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, Joe Tausig responded quickly to the attack and with a skeleton crew got the ship underway in the face of the Japanese air assault. The ship was hit several times, afire but moving and fighting. Joe and his crew realized that damage was so severe that the Japanese pilots would try to sink her and block the main ship channel. So they beached her.

I have talked to over 50 Pearl Harbor survivors and almost everyone who was within sight of Ford Island recalls one thing. They recall the thrill and pride they felt as they saw the Nevada moving as a man o' war flying the Stars and Stripes.

While much of this was going on, Joe Tausig was lying in his own blood on the deck with a shattered leg. Yet he kept barking orders and getting things done.

That's a hero in my book and the kind of people we should be talking about to your generation, which doesn't remember the sacrifices made by the men and women of the World War II generation.

Oh, by the way. There's another reason why Joe Tausig is a hero in my eyes: He foxed the Navy for many years to stay on active duty serving well. He had lost a leg, but Navy's BuPers just never quite found out about it.

What we'd like in Annapolis is an open forum so that all names for the circle can be considered.

If anyone wants to help me get it named for Joe Tausig, they can call me at 410/280-9652.

-Tony Evans, Annapolis

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

On occasion, and fortunately not too often, your editorial displays a genuine lack of understanding of the political process. Such was the case in your editorial Dec. 17, "NBT's Guide to Political Pitfalls." I am referring, in particular, to your shallow and flawed assessment of a personnel matter in North Beach.

My decision to replace the Town's Code Enforcement Officer was not made in haste, nor do I repent that decision. You fail to take into account that new administrations, at every level of government, make changes in personnel at the beginning of their terms.

In this case the individual was not a "county" official and whether he was "popular" is certainly a debatable point. That he had ties to the old regime was indeed the case, but even a quick glance at the North Beach election returns would have disclosed the fate of that "regime."

Had you had the interest or courtesy to contact me about this (or any other matter), following the election, you could have avoided stumbling into the "pitfall" of inaccurate journalism so easily entered by way of careless research and unbalanced reporting. If this is a sample of your paper's advice to elected officials, thanks but no thanks!

-Mark R. Frazer, Mayor, Town of North Beach, Md.

Editor's note: Like the mayor, we call them as we see them.

| Issue 2 |

We welcome your letter and opinions.
We will edit when necessary.
Mail them to NBT at
P.O. Box 358, Deale Md 20751
Click here to email.
Please include your name, address and phone number for verification.

| Homepage |
| Back to Archives |