Editorial

Your Feb. 23 editorial "Shall we pray or prey?" was offensive disrespectful of the clergy, inconsiderate of the great majority of people who are Christians and uncalled for.You criticized a prayer that you did not read, and made charges that are not true.My Feb. 13 prayer in Annapolis was in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Prayer Proclamation, adopted by the U.S. Senate, which called on Americans to "confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow," and plainly stated: "We have forgotten God. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us."

Is the quaintness starting to get to you? There's something about Christmas, isn't there, that just brings to the fore a sugarcoated view of years gone by, with the present suffering by comparison. "Who but turns, when Christmas comes, to take a retrospective view of the past, and in doing so, how numerous are the happy scenes and blissful hours which rise in strength and beauty upon the scenery of the mind." The Sun said that, in its first Christmas editorial, back in 1837. Yes, even when the city and the paper were young, there was a sentimental tendency to look backward at this time of year.

THE WRITER of the April 4 editorial, "Dark days for public employees," has to be from another planet. His portrayal of the economic status of public employees is far out, to say the least.Take this statement: "Once, private sector working class citizens felt a certain kinship . . . with public employee unions . . . If public unions scored a victory" -- a pay raise -- "they considered it a victory for working people everywhere." Hogwash! For many years public employees were generally looked upon as drones serving at the pleasure of political bosses.

As the attorney for the Mangione family and Hayfields, I take exception to your editorial "Destroying local history" (Feb. 4) for two reasons.First, the editorial's focus is on the demolition of historic properties. To include Hayfields in this category is a careless error.The historic buildings and the stone wall are being adaptively reused. A great deal of attention has been given, and continues to be given, to making this an award-winning project. The historic buildings and even the nonhistoric structures are being restored to their former grandeur as the centerpiece of the country club campus.

The Sun's latest anti-gun editorial, ''Armed against crime'' (Oct. 2), begins with the premise that ''Gun-toting city shopkeepers make a bad situation even worse.'' The editorial then criticizes and second-guesses a liquor store owner who shot and killed an armed robber.The Sun next alleges that the Northeast Police District, where the store is located, ''is served daily by more than 230 police officers.'' Citing a string of criminal shootings, The Sun goes on -- to warn shopkeepers against arming themselves.

I take special satisfaction, being a former Baltimorean who moved to Frederick County nearly 20 years ago, in sending you this letter which is an appreciation of your recent editorial (June 29) about Rep. Roscoe Bartlett of the 6th District.You rightly note that Congressman Bartlett is a freshman congressman who does not have the well-oiled political machine that his opponents have enjoyed for too long in Maryland. You further endorse his good character by referring to him as a high-profile, outspoken conservative whom Democrats delight in criticizing.

RIINGG. The office phone sprang to life. At first the woman's voice was pained and frantic. Then she got angry. And she wasn't shy about who knew. You have to help me. It's unbelievable. I'm gonna scream. Writing newspaper editorials, it's a job where you hear a lot of things. Not so nice things. Women in distress, that's par for the course. But this one was different. She'd been getting letters, threatening ones. And she'd been forking over money. Quarterly. Been doing it for years.

THERE IS a strong human urge to lament the sorry state of things and point out to the dunderheads in charge how to make them better. Maybe nowhere does this find a purer voice than on the editorial pages. Always the bad news -- it's unrelenting. And yet, although you'd never know it from the tone, there's a kind of built-in, necessary optimism to this way of thinking. An editorial, by definition, has to have faith that problems can be fixed -- and, once fixed, stay fixed. But today is Saturday, so let's take a break from the belief in a brighter future in places like Iraq or the federal budget or the Baltimore City public schools.

Your editorial, "Making the Disabilities Act Work" (Nov. 24), was both misguided and misinformed.I am not referring to the specifics of the incident or the subsequent complaint filed by Roberta Stein or her relatives. What I object to is the editorial's stance that persons with disabilities should call "an unfamiliar restaurant in advance to alert the owner about her special need" just as "any parent who wanted to know if the place had high chairs" might do.It is quite clear that such advance notice is not required under ADA, as the editorial correctly notes.

Administrators at the Catonsville campus of the Community College of Baltimore County briefly blocked distribution of the most recent edition of the student newspaper, which featured an editorial critical of their hiring practices. A college official denied that the action was an attempt to censor the student publication, Red and Black. But the editor of the monthly newspaper says basic press freedoms were impinged. "This newspaper doesn't belong to the administration. It belongs to the students," said David Morey, editor in chief.