Letters

Or would they do what the administration tells them to save their jobs and incentive pay?

Rick Wade, Lutherville

The writer is a teacher in the Baltimore County public schools.

Added alcohol levy could ease fiscal woes

It's time for Maryland to follow the lead of California and propose an extra nickel a drink tax on beer, wine and distilled spirits to help reduce the state's budget shortfall and, at the same time, provide critical support for programs that reduce alcohol-related problems.

The state could avoid cutting essential programs through this long-overdue alcohol tax increase, which could bring hundreds of millions of new dollars into the state budget.

Maryland has not increased the tax on alcohol for decades, and given the economic crisis and the epidemic of alcohol-related tragedies, the time to add a "nickel a drink" tax is now.

Michael Gimbel, Timonium

The writer is a former director of substance abuse programs for Baltimore County.

Bishops right to speak against killing of unborn

This is the United States of America. Right now, everyone in the United States has freedom of speech. This includes the Catholic bishops of the United States, whether you like their opinion or not ("Bishops cross the line with political intrusion," letters, Nov. 14).

Today, live children have more rights than unborn children. It's legal for a mother to kill unborn children, but kill a live child and you will be prosecuted for murder.

But abortion is also murder, even if it's legal murder. And what kind of people have we become when trying to save unborn, innocent lives is treated as a religious agenda?

Timothy Weber, Baltimore