Letters to the Editor

Volume VII Number 31
August 5-11, 1999

The Real Heroes

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

I am a first time-reader and have enjoyed reading your New Bay Times~Weekly. I saw something that caught my eye in Christopher Heagy's Commentary. He used the word "hero" to describe John Kennedy Jr. While Mr. Kennedy was an extraordinary person and one I had respect for during his short-lived life, he was not a hero. The term has been cheapened in the past and I believe lost in use such as this.

Hero was what I grew up calling my uncles who were Marines and soldiers who fought for our country in the many wars. In particular Marines who hit the beaches in the Pacific with a very short life expectancy. The too many names on the wall in Washington, D.C., identify the heroes of the Vietnam war.

Those are heroes and I would hope that Christopher would describe Mr. Kennedy properly - a good husband, a loving son, a family person - but not a hero. Let's save that term for real heroes.

-Bob Lloyd, [email protected]

Poplar Island Should Go the Way of Site 104

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

I keep my boat in Maryland and paid the sales tax. Like many other out-of-state boaters, I have no vote: only the editorial page.

What is proposed with Site 104 is criminal and should be stopped. What I am amazed at is the acceptance of what is being done at Poplar Island. The same chemicals in the muck will still leach into the Bay. Not as great an insult as Site 104, but still an insult.

By rebuilding the islands, tidal flow will be altered. Poplar Island Narrows is shallow now; it will just get shallower. The flats on the east side, which are now productive crab and fishing grounds, will get shallower plus marine life will be exposed to the chemicals in the muck.

The rebuilding of Poplar Island is a $25 million plus boondoggle and pork barrel project. Who will it benefit? Migrating waterfowl that will add to the nitrogen waste washing into the Bay?

Let's stop this before any more gets done. Let's really save the Bay.

-Ernest M. Kraus,
Woodbury, New Jersey

Asphalt Land: Coming Our Way?

Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:

Isn't it amazing how we view things when we're hot hot hot? Last week on my way to visit close friends in lower Waldorf, I was suddenly aware of how much land is covered by asphalt down Waldorf way. As we turned down St. Patrick Drive, I could see birth being given to new areas for asphalt. I said to my husband, "I feel like we are driving in downtown New York City. Look. Can you see any significant areas of green grass or large trees?"

There sat those big yellow things that push trees down and move dirt.

"Cool it," my husband said.

"What happens to the rain when and if it comes? There is no land, or any reasonable amount of land, for it to soak into. The drainage system here must be immense. Where does all the water go? And the litter, grease, dirt?"

"Will you shut up?" he said.

Later that evening, as we were returning to good ole Deale, I again pointed out that the huge four lanes of traffic are bigger than two football fields. On both sides of the road, stores, stores, and more stores for 10 miles more or less. It really upset me to think about the cost to our air quality, loss of little critters, birds, bees and nature's own air conditioning system.

I hope that we all here in Southern Maryland never, never, become so greedy for more and more that we kill our land and wildlife with growth of this nature.

But as I daily travel down Route 2 through Edgewater, I can see where in 15 years or less we may look like the Asphalt Land of Waldorf.

-Vicki Lee Marsh, Deale

| Issue 31 |

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