Time to move ahead with light rail line
Any time a worthy project comes along, there will be NIMBYs who oppose it, just as is now the case for the Red Line ("Canton organizing to oppose transit plan," April 26). But much of this opposition is based on ignorance.
Some people don't want "trains" on Boston Street. But there is an enormous difference between a light rail vehicle and a 100-car coal train.
People are also concerned about noise and vibration on the streets. Well, just stand at the corner of Howard and Lexington streets. Listen to the light rail vehicles slide by. Then to the buses, crashing over potholes, making buildings vibrate and belching diesel exhaust.
Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco have had light rail systems running underground downtown and above ground in neighborhoods for years, and the sky did not fall.
In those cities, people actually use the light rail and buy property because it is close to the lines.
If I could get the bus in front of my house replaced by a light rail line, I'd jump at the chance.
Baltimore is already too far behind the curve on decent transit.
Let's get on with the Red Line.
Theodore Feldmann, Baltimore
Coercion helped protect the nation
I am disgusted that the Obama administration could be, as the editorial "Bring it on" (April 22) puts it, "going after the government lawyers who crafted the legal rationale for the Bush administration's torture policy."
Indeed, Richard Saccone's column, "Confusing coercion with torture" (Commentary, April 22) - a welcome relief from the usual "blame Bush" rhetoric - makes a good argument defending the Bush policies.
And whether or not we love President Barack Obama, we should all be greatly concerned that we are more vulnerable since he released top-secret information about our interrogation techniques to extract information from the terrorists that kept us safe from another attack while the tactics, as Mr. Saccone put it, fell "below the threshold of torture."
Elizabeth G. Brown, Woodstock
Cheney learns late virtue of openness
What chutzpah: The poster boy for secrecy for eight long years now champions transparency ("Bring it on," editorial, April 22)?
But never mind. Each time former Vice President Dick Cheney opens his mouth, he reminds us what a mess he and his neoconservative coterie made.
Grenville B. Whitman, Rock Hall
Focus on building a brighter future
