Four Years

Matt Birk has made his home in Baltimore for nearly four years. Only quarterback Joe Flacco has a longer consecutive games streak among Ravens. The center has played against all but two teams in his 60 games with the Ravens - and the team closest to Baltimore isn't one of them. That's right, the closest Birk has come to crashing into something with a Washington Redskins logo is when he passes cars with Redskins bumper stickers and license plates around Baltimore. "I see a lot of Redskins stuff.

Great nations and proud empires have always collapsed from within before they were conquered from without. President Barack Obama's re-election mirrors the self-indulgent, greedy and envious nation we are rapidly becoming. Pollsters Michael Barone and Dick Morris got it horribly wrong. Both predicted a 300 electoral-vote win for Mitt Romney. It was President Obama who reached that mark. The central message coming out of the election seems to be that we are no longer the America of our Founders, or even the America that existed during World War II, which produced our "Greatest Generation.

In her letter ("Four more years," November 3), Rae Abbot suggests that we give President Barack Obama four more years. Her reasoning is that it "...doesn't make sense for us to hand the reins over to a less capable and more narrowly focused man simply because instant gratification has not been ours. " As to capabilities, Mr. Obama' was a community organizer, law professor and state and federal politician. No private sector experience in that resume. Mr. Romney has been a governor, turned around the troubled 2002 Olympics, and was an executive working with businesses (i.e.

For four years, President Barack Obama has had a shot. We, as a collective society, have defined his actions as successes or failures, and we have frequently been very harsh in those judgments. Because of that, I have to put in a word about expectations. The economy, not only the U.S. economy but the international economy as well, was in a state of devastating decline from 2007 to 2011. We lived through the worst drop in international trade the world has ever seen. The Obama administration has done its best, but we can only expect so much from a government that, compared to other countries in the world, doesn't have very much power to intervene in the economic sphere.

Old Mill senior Alli Cislo has never craved extra attention, but what she does on the soccer field leaves no choice. Opposing coaches spend hours planning to stop the All-Metro first-team forward. During school on the day of a game, her classmates routinely tell her they're expecting nothing less than a goal or two. The attention increases at game time, starting with the two defenders who are often assigned to mark her. And then Cislo gets the ball. The opposing coach cringes.

Recently I was asked whether I considered myself better off today than I was four years ago ("Are you better off?" Sept. 5). My shoot-from-the-hip response was that, yes, we have made great strides, but there is much more to do. It occurred to me later that it isn't about just me. I've been just fine this past four years. There's been income in my house; I'm still in my house. My life is just fine. What makes me proud is that I have a president who concerns himself with those who are not fine.

This time last year, Thomas Johnson Elementary/Middle School librarian Sharon Smith used the only technology she had — a laptop and a projector — to bring color and excitement to her students by shining animated books from the Internet onto a barren wall. But on Wednesday, as she looked around the new books, technology, and wraparound murals of the bright, renovated 2,000-square-foot space, complete with quaint reading nooks and comfortable public spaces, she breathed a sigh of relief knowing that she could give her creative wheels a break.

Anxiety over federal budget cuts has big U.S. defense contractors slimming down, but an Israeli aerospace company is counting on expansion here. Israel Aerospace Industries' new ELTA North America subsidiary officially opened its headquarters in Howard County on Monday with a plan to go from nine employees to 100 in the next four years. ELTA, which makes radar and other defense electronic systems, will manufacture products from a small Fulton location with room to grow. The company's ribbon-cutting event drew both of Maryland's U.S. senators, Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, the governor and the lieutenant governor, all eager to praise the company for picking Maryland after considering six states.

Democrats and Republicans can surely agree on one thing - if the presidential election were a popularity contest (which it isn't, as Al Gore famously observed when he ran against the affable George W. Bush), the current incumbent would be a shoo-in for reelection. No offense to Ann and Mitt Romney, but if there's one thing that Barack and Michelle Obama have, it's star power, a point made clear early in the Democratic National Convention. But President Obama isn't running for class president or Homecoming King.

The Baltimore City Council gave final approval Monday to a scaled-down version of a bill to require regular audits of major city agencies, some of which have not had a detailed financial review for more than a decade. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she would sign the proposed charter amendment, meaning it will go before voters on the November ballot. The amended legislation would require financial and performance audits of 13 city agencies at least once every four years.