Burton right about stadium* Congratulations to Bill Burton...

Burton right about stadium

* Congratulations to Bill Burton for his courageous column (July 19) concerning the new stadium. Some will accuse Bill of not having a vision of the future or the Big Picture. Mr. Burton obviously has his own agenda for the $200 million the stadium will cost; however, this shouldn't distract the reader from the most important point of the article: moral vs. political and economic priorities -- who makes the decision.

I question the economic benefit of a new stadium as an investment. Too few will share the wealth that the new stadium will generate. There are better human investments this state could make with $200 million. I also resent being held hostage by the greed represented by our investment in major-league baseball. We have all the risk, and they get all the profit. This stadium is nothing more than extortion. Furthermore, I am tired of being taken for granted by arrogant politicians making unilateral inept political decisions. Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about this until the next election. Even then, it will be too late to change this decision.

If you add it all up, you will find that there are probably many Bill Burtons out there who feel frustrated by a system that seems not to care anymore. So we do the only thing we can do. We vent. It makes me feel better. How about you, Bill?

George Laufert

Baltimore

New twist on 'The Yard'

* Bill Burton was justified in complaining about the $200 million to be spent on the new stadium. He mentioned the lack of funding to clean the Chesapeake Bay and the state's unwillingness to pay for longer available hours at the state parks.

Instead of a ballpark at Camden Yards, the state could have built a thousand-bed Camden Yards prison for half the cost of the stadium. Since 1985 the state has been under a federal court order to reduce overcrowding in the prison system. A new prison might have prevented this year's prison disturbances.

Why were the citizens of Maryland allowed to be railroaded by their politicians into subsidizing a new ballpark for a private business corporation when there were much more critical priorities to be addressed?

Joseph Saffron

Baltimore