Maryland needs adoption partnershipAs an agency which...

Maryland needs adoption partnership

As an agency which places special-needs children for adoption into families in Pennsylvania and Maryland, we follow with great interest any reforms in the child welfare system of either state.

We are hopeful, too, that the governor's commission headed by Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend will be bold in its thinking and achieve real change.

One of the factors we hope they will look at closely is the encouragement and support of public-private partnerships among agencies in Maryland.

We private child-welfare agencies have much expertise to offer and years of experience which could be shared with good results.

This has occurred in Pennsylvania through the State-Wide Adoption Network (SWAN) with good results. Such a model could be replicated in Maryland.

It would, of course, require trust and cooperation among agencies, but surely we grown-ups ought to be able to manage that.

Barbara Holtan

Baltimore

The writer is director of adoption services at Tressler Lutheran Services.

Population growth is cause for fear

John McIntyre asked in his May 6 column, "What have we to fear?" As he made clear, people in this country do not need to fear the races, cultures, religions, languages or any other differences among immigrants. What we have to fear is an insupportable population growth that will overwhelm our natural resources before long.

The United States has such vast open spaces -- mountains and deserts, plains and forests -- that it is hard for many people to believe that it can become over-crowded. Trouble is, few people can make a living on a mountain or in a desert, so they crowd into more congenial areas until those areas are overwhelmed.

For example, the population throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed is growing by leaps and bounds and is expected to double in a decade or two. Do we really believe that the bay can be protected and restored as more and more people move to its shores, pave over the watershed area and add their various forms of pollution? It is people who pollute.

Immigration should be linked to a population policy that will discover and maintain a balance between people and resources. The vital word is "sustainability" and an obvious lack of it is what we have to fear.

Carleton W. Brown

Elkton

Helping the poor by enriching the rich

The House Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, have a great plan for helping people who work hard for the minimum wage.

They believe that these people can best be helped by a tax cut for the rich.

Marvin H. Kolodkin

Baltimore

Rights don't disappear at school door

As a Baltimore County teacher, I feel compelled to write after reading about the recent pepper-spray incident.

I feel especially compelled after reading Donald I. Mohler III's comments in the April 29 edition of The Sun. ''The hearing usually doesn't get into whether the child is a good child or not,'' he said.

If that is the case, why have a hearing? In the real world -- and I thought I was supposed to prepare my students for that world, not the Baltimore County schools' world -- an accused's character and background are certainly considered. In the real world, a judge or jury decides punishment after the hearing or trial, not before.

When I was a guidance counselor, my classes used to enjoy moral dilemmas as prompts to discussion, such as: "Should a child stealing bread because he is starving be treated the same as a child stealing bread for kicks?''

According to Mr. Mohler the answer must be "yes." Most of my young students answer otherwise.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees due process. I do not believe that students and teachers give up that right when they walk through the schoolhouse doors.

Kenneth J. Shapiro

Baltimore

Towson by any name is a fine school

Your recent editorial chastising Towson State University for aspiring to a higher level of recognition reminded me of Spiro Agnew's admonition to college graduates not to set their goals too high, lest they be disheartened when their dreams are not achieved.

Making light of my view that a re-named Towson University would have the ring of a world-class institution, your editorial mocked Towson State for even dreaming of such a stature.

I write not to defend a suggested new name, although, as a graduate of Tulane University, there is for me a familiar cadence in the sound of Towson University.

My purpose, instead, is to inform The Sun editors that, notwithstanding their parochial attitude toward the suburbs, Towson State University is already a world-class institution.

Not only does Towson State University have student and faculty exchanges with distinguished universities in Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, China, Russia, Germany, England, Wales and Korea, but there are currently 746 international students from 60 countries studying at Towson State University.