Freedom

Royal Caribbean International has put to rest the skeptic's question: "What's there to do on a cruise ship?" If the line's new Freedom of the Seas is any indicator, the answer is "everything." The 160,000-ton vessel, which debuted last month and nudged out the Queen Mary 2 as the largest ship afloat, brings with it an ever-widening world of whiz-bang amenities. Frankly, there's so much to do onboard this behemoth, it could stay put and not sail anywhere at all. Freedom -- huge and jam-packed with options -- really mimics a city at sea. (If you include its elevators, you could say it even has a local transportation system.

The speaker of the Russian State Duma, Boris Gryzlov, called former Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin a man "who did much to ensure the creation of our state" and "for the development of democracy in Russia." The head of the nation's energy monopoly, Anatoly Chubais, praised his role in taking the nation from "non-freedom to freedom." And the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, called the nine years of Yeltsin's leadership "a breath of freedom for the country" and "his biggest achievement."

The teens seated at the back of the auditorium at Reservoir High School in Fulton yesterday were supposed to be talking in hypotheticals: how to explain American freedoms to hypothetical residents of a hypothetical country where a popular hypothetical orator preaches hatred of the United States. But real life kept intruding. The students, from all 11 high schools in Howard County, frequently turned their discussion to recent events in Iraq and to the ostracism of those people and nations - particularly France - critical of U.S. actions in Iraq.

To keep pace with demands of growth projected for the next 15 years, Carroll County will need about $46 million in improvements to the water and sewer systems in Freedom, paid largely by new homeowners in its most populated area.New residents will pay for the upgrades, through fees assessed on construction, according to the $70,000 engineering study by Whitman, Requardt and Associates of Baltimore.It costs about $10,000 a home to hook into the Freedom utility systems. Proposed increases would add about $4,000.

It was ironic to me that in the same week Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple, Gov. Martin O'Malley outlined a new definition of freedom as holding a job. The worldview of these two men could not be more different - and the one we choose as a nation could not be more important for the future of our country. Steve Jobs told Stanford University graduates in 2005 that "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

Freedom Area Citizens Council will meet at 7 p.m. today in Freedom Christian Church in Carrolltown Center on Liberty Road. Guest speakers will be Mount Airy Mayor James Holt and Councilman John P. Medve. All residents of the Freedom District community are welcome. Information: Nimrod Davis, 410-795-2896.

When will politicians learn that robocalls lose votes? ( "That ringing in voters' ears," Oct. 28.) Robocalls, by politicians and businesses alike, should be banned! This not a freedom of speech issue. It is a freedom from irritation issue. Bernard J. Sachs, Pikesville

A new study well worth reading by every elected official in Maryland is entitled "Freedom in the 50 States. " You can find this study on the web at http://mercatus.org/freedom-50-states-2011. It ranks Maryland as 43rd out of the 50 states, meaning that Maryland is one of the least free states in the country. This study is very insightful and addresses both economic freedom (taxation) as well as unnecessary restrictions on personal liberties. A prime example of the type of bad legislation that deprives Maryland residents of their freedoms is the recently enacted HB 88, which makes the shipment of cigars and pipe tobacco into Maryland illegal.

In America, we pride ourselves on the supposed freedom and opportunities that our people are offered. In order to have that freedom, we need armed forces. By refusing to allow the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community to serve in our armed forces, you are eliminating a large population of people who are willing to fight for our freedom. Just because someone has a sexual orientation that is stigmatized and unaccepted by a large number of people should not mean that the armed forces should refuse their offered services.

"The view of life I communicated in my pictures excludes the sordid and ugly," the painter Norman Rockwell once said. "I paint life as I would like it to be." Over his 65-year career, Rockwell painted America better than it ever was and possibly better than it can ever be. In his paintings there is no poverty, racism or war; no greed, meanness or intolerance. And on those rare occasions when the darker side of life intrudes into his idyllic America, it's always transmuted into a more hopeful key, as if life's cruelties were somehow temporary intruders in a world that's basically good.