Apparently, U.S. officials thought that two Jews participating in a victory of any kind in Germany would embarrass Hitler; therefore the change was ordered.
The athlete describing this incident recalled how disgusted he was by the behavior of the U.S. officials and coaches. The man speaking was Ralph Metcalfe.
Louis Cohen
Columbia
Games brought out worst and best
The explosion of hate July 26 at the Olympics was followed by an expression of love July 27. Bobby Kersee, coach and husband of Jackie Joyner-Kersee, reversed his roles and told his wife, ''No more.''
The championships, the medals, the adoration were already earned. Bobby looked at Jackie and realized the pain of withdrawing was no match for the physical pain.
While watching his moving interview explaining the reasons for, ''No more,'' I felt the tears.
A 57-year-old black male, I was taught that a man ain't supposed to cry. No more.
McNair Taylor
Baltimore
If you're poor you shouldn't gamble
After Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke completely disenchanted many Baltimoreans by rubbing elbows with Louis Farrakhan, who seems to try to drive a wedge between races and religions, he pulls yet another no-brainer by supporting legalized gambling in Baltimore.
Hey, I'm no hypocrite, and I readily admit to frequenting Atlantic City and sometimes contributing toward Donald Trump's mortgage. But when I gamble out of state or play the lottery in Maryland, it is with money I can afford to lose, because chances are I will.
If Mayor Schmoke wants to help the Baltimore population, he should educate them as to how remote a chance anyone has to come out a winner in a casino or with the lotteries. I believe that most of the people who buy lottery tickets in Baltimore probably shouldn't.
The same problem will occur if casinos are in close proximity to indigent populations. If Mr. Schmoke is adamant about having casinos in Maryland, he should keep them out of populated areas. That would partially limit the clientele to those who at least have the resources to afford the commute.
K. Flynn
Baltimore
Population growth imperils Chesapeake
Time after time, in article after article, the story is told of changes affecting Chesapeake Bay unfavorably, but mention is rarely made of the basic driving force behind such changes.
Writer Ellen Gamerman gave readers of The Sun (July 22-23) a full story of the grandfathered lots that permit developers to build houses within the critical areas.
The basic force behind all the pressures upon Chesapeake Bay is the steady increase in the population of the state. Maryland and the rest of the United States are suffering from a galloping population growth rate that is unsustainable.
Our country is so big that the threat of overpopulation seems remote, but projecting the present rate of growth into a future of just a few decades will find us overwhelming our natural resources, fouling our water supplies, crowding everywhere and making restoration of our bays, streams and lakes impossible.
The United States is in desperate need of a population policy. Why is such an obvious need so difficult to achieve?
It should not be difficult to devise a way to measure sustainable growth in tune with our needs, and to find methods to control that growth. Obviously, the first step should be to slow down the immigration flow, legal and illegal.
Until we do have a workable population policy, more people will move into Maryland and many of them will choose to live near the rivers and Chesapeake Bay. Protection and restoration will lose out unless a national policy is enacted soon.
Carleton W. Brown
Elkton
Clinton doesn't share Harding shadow
Peter A. Jay's ''Doleful state of the presidential race'' column (July 25) doesn't have it quite right. Mr. Jay says Bill Clinton is an ''amiable windbag'' (most good politicians are), but Mr. Clinton is not Warren Gamaliel Harding.
H.L. Mencken succinctly summed up Harding: ''A cipher only.'' Clinton is no cipher -- he is a very intelligent man and, to date, a somewhat unfocused president.
Mr. Jay, interestingly enough, cites Francis Russell's biography of Harding, ''The Shadow of Blooming Grove.'' The shadow over Blooming Grove was the rumor that Harding had Negro blood.
Francis Russell compared Harding to Dwight Eisenhower, saying Eisenhower should never have risen above the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army and that he was a terrible president, on a par with Ulysses S. Grant. Most historians rank Eisenhower high as a military commander and above average as a president.
Tom Gill
North Beach
Not the LeBoutillier that friends knew
Since the Charles LeBoutillier whose obituary appeared in The Sun on July 15 is not the person my husband and I knew for many years, I am mentioning several facets of his life through which numerous friends became acquainted with him.
