Face To Face

At the urging of student leaders, the county school system has formed a committee to look at weighted grading -- a system in which grades in tougher classes count for more points.Weighted grading was among several issues that students brought to the table in a first-ever meeting yesterday that put the five Carroll County Board of Education members face to face with eight Student Government Association members.Linnea Pagulayan, a Westminster High School senior and student representative to the school board, said after the three-hour meeting that she never dreamed the dialogue would be so satisfying -- and go on so long.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- If you ask Tom Ridge to identify an issue his fellow Republicans in Washington might use to nationalize the congressional election campaign next year, he is stuck for an answer.It is not he lacks political perspicacity. After 12 years in the House of Representatives and now two as governor of Pennsylvania, he is a ringwise politician. And a successful one: Looking ahead to a campaign for re-election next year, he enjoys approval ratings above 60 percent. Already has put together a $10 million-plus campaign fund.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- With a hesitant handshake and words of peace, negotiators from the two warring sides in Zaire opened their first face-to-face negotiations here yesterday.Mediators hope the two sides will agree to a cease-fire and set a formula for the future governance of the chaotic Central African republic, steps that could involve direct talks between Zaire's ailing President Mobutu Sese Seko and rebel leader Laurent-Desire Kabila.Kabila's rebel forces have seized control of a quarter of the country in six months and are now heading toward Lubumbashi, Zaire's second-largest city.

ATLANTA -- It was, as Dexter King kept saying, an "awkward" moment. What does a son say to the man who once confessed to killing his father?Twenty-nine years after the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader's son met yesterday with a dying James Earl Ray.The two men shook hands and made small talk.And then King, looking Ray in the eye, slid ever so gently toward the heart of the matter. He asked the question he'd traveled from Atlanta to a Nashville, Tenn., prison hospital to ask: "Did you kill my father?"

Pagotto sentencing miscarriage of justiceI have written letters to the editor in the past, however, nothing has prompted me to write as much as the manslaughter sentencing of Sgt. Stephen R. Pagotto.I am affected by this sentencing in several ways: foremost by the fact that my son is a police officer and every working day he puts his life on the line while performing his duties. I hear firsthand about life on the streets, and the stories are often very upsetting.If my phone rings late at night, I am always afraid it is a call that I would not want to answer.

Mike and Amy Sircy were married in Chicago on April 6. But, by their own admission, it hasn't been the most important event of this month.The couple -- he from his computer in Florida, she at her keyboard in Chicago -- first exchanged greetings in cyberspace about two years ago in romance "chat rooms" organized by America Online, a commercial on-line service provider.Encouraged by their conversations, Mike drove for a face-to-face meeting in Chicago in September. So it made sense that Amy, a homemaker, and Mike, now a computer programmer for the Air Force stationed in Germany, would spend their honeymoon in Baltimore.

'Twas the night before Christmas, and 'twas a safebetNot a creature was stirring on the whole Internet;The children were nestled by the large-screen TVWatching visions of Super Mario Brothers Three;And Papa in his Reeboks and I in my GapHad just settled ourselves to try out our new Mac,When up on the screen there arose such a clatter,I sprang into cyberspace to see what was the matter.The high-resolution red, blue and greenGave the luster of midday to words on the screen,When what to my wondering eyes should I seeBut an e-mail from Santap.

In the fall of 1994, Lisa Bowes, now a graduate student at the University of Maryland, decided to give up her computer.As an undergraduate in California, she'd spent so much time chatting with strangers on the Internet that she made close friends in places as far away as Sweden and Germany. And a man from Pennsylvania she met on-line came to visit her, with romantic intentions she did not reciprocate.Nearly all of her free time -- up to seven hours a day -- was spent with the computer.Enough was enough.

C Charging that her Democratic opponent has "ducked and dodged" opportunities to meet her face to face, GOP gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey is challenging Prince George's County Executive Parris N. Glendening to a debate televised on a network-affiliated station.In a letter dated Oct. 7 and released to the news media yesterday, Mrs. Sauerbrey said she was "appalled" that the first face-off between the two since the primary election will be at an untelevised debate tomorrow night in Ocean City before the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.

Letters, calls and the roar of the crowd:A. E. Nye, Kalamazoo, Mich.: You are a brain dead idiot! Calling Slick Willie -- or is it Slimy Willie? -- a Christian is the biggest blasphemy I have ever listened to from a so-called member of the human race!Slick and Jezebel are both children of the devil -- murderers, thieves, baby-killers, homosexual lovers, serial adulterers, Marxist-socialist, pathological liars, et al, ad nauseum.When you stand face to face with your God -- as we all will -- remember your foolishness in falling for the "Evil Two"!