Obstacles

Joshlyn Williams doesn't look down as she reaches the top of the 15-foot pole. Shouts of support are coming from her teammates, but the slight 14-year-old is focused inward, eyes briefly closed, as mind and body align in a fierce effort to stand up without falling.Her eyes open. Her knees straighten, then her back -- and she's upright. Just one hurdle left."Jump, Joshlyn. JUMP!" come the shouts from below.A moment of hesitation -- and she does, harness and wire easing her to the ground amid applause and cheers from other city youngsters and the Maryland Police Corps cadets who are their mentors and coaches.

Bwerani Nettles has adopted a motto to shape his future."Obstacles are what you see when you lose sight of his goals," he said in a rich baritone that earned him a place in the Naval Academy gospel choir.Perhaps no one on the current Navy football team has overcome more obstacles than Nettles, a freshman starting defensive end just two months shy of his 23rd birthday.In many ways, he is a man among boys, earning an invitation to the Academy through hard work, perseverance and a dauntless attitude that helped him survive the warring gangs and drugs of South Central Los Angeles.

Unexpected obstacles -- water and utility lines deep in Leakin Park -- have delayed until spring completion of the Gwynns Falls Trail, a 4.5-mile hiking and biking circuit through West Baltimore's most rugged terrain.Some of the obstacles had lain buried since Tropical Storm Agnes flooded Gwynns Falls Valley in June 1972.Clearing a path through Leakin Park down a hill from historic Crimea Mansion, construction workers discovered a set of utility pipes initially thought to be unused.They were very much in use. "Some were the pipes that supplied Catonsville with its water," said Gary Anderson, construction chief for Beka Industries, the Morrell Park-based firm building the trail.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton now has a report from his task force on how to fulfill his campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it" by making welfare a second chance rather than a way of life.The goals are easy for everyone to endorse. But the real message in the report is that the road to welfare reform is blocked by enormous political obstacles -- imposing enough, in fact, so that the chances of promulgating the program this year seem extremely slim.The essence of the plan is the proposal on which candidate Bill Clinton ran for the presidency two years ago when he used the issue as one of his prime bona fides in demonstrating that he was a "new Democrat" and not another lineal descendant of tax-and-spend liberals.

Freewing Aerial Robotics Inc. and Carroll County economic development officials resemble a squabbling married couple.They obviously have a deep need for each other, but they have erected a variety of artificial impediments that has soured their relationship, hindered frank communication and prevented them from getting on with business. Before this particular couple decides to make an irrevocable split, it should try some marriage counseling.Despite the harsh words exchanged between Freewing, owner and developer of a revolutionary airplane wing design, and Carroll's economic development community, there remains the possibility of a deal.

IT COMES as a surprise to many Americans to hear the occasional suggestion that Israelis and/or Palestinians are not the only obstacles to peace or justice in the Middle East.The key word is "occasional," because that is how often the media allude to the other obstacles, such as repression of liberties in Arab nations, civil wars, tribal and family feuds and the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.Of course, we have covered terrorism, Libya, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon, because terrorism and events in those nations have directly affected us. But you haven't heard much lately about those democratic reforms in Kuwait, have you?

AMERICAN CORNER -- In the heartland of Maryland's 1st Congressional District, where towns not much bigger than their zip codes have such inviting names as Friendship and Harmony, Republican Thomas Jones says the things that make GOP candidates wince."

Over the past few decades, 40 percent of Maryland's forestland has vanished. If the current rate of tree-cutting continues, the state will lose roughly one-eighth of its forests by the year 2020. The result would seriously damage the environment. Trees help control erosion and serve as a kind of sponge to soak up pollutants before they reach the water table. Trees also act as a buffer to protect water quality in lakes and bays -- and that's especially important for Chesapeake Bay cleanup.

Nelson B. Dorsey has worked hard to succeed in business. Anyone has to, he says, whether they're young or old, black or white.But because "all is not well" in the world, minorities often have to work harder, said Dorsey, who is black.He hopes his efforts haven't gone unnoticed by his two sons."My message is if you really want to do it, you can, but you have to prepare yourself, that there will be obstacles along the way," said Dorsey, who lives near Westminster. He works for the U.S. Postal Service and owns rental properties in the county.

Some of Baltimore's movers and shakers are pushing a vision of a regional economy anchored by life-sciences industries, but business people and bureaucrats agree it won't be achieved unless both the public and private sectors rally behind that goal.A random sampling of business and political leaders indicates that they view that goal, articulated this week by the Greater Baltimore Committee, as logical.They said a life sciences economy is achievable but pragmatically noted that significant obstacles must first be overcome.

Arab intransigence is the real obstacle The Baltimore Sun's editorial "Listening post" (Jan. 28) claims that "the underlying issues of the conflict - terrorism, settlements, Jerusalem's future - remain obstacles to a negotiated resolution and two secure states coexisting in peace." At Camp David in 2000 and at Taba in 2001, Palestinian leadership rejected Israeli-U.S. offers of a West Bank and Gaza Strip state, with eastern Jerusalem as its capital, in exchange for peace. Instead of negotiating these offers, they pursued the terror war known as the second intifada.

Lawrence Rudolph has spent his life watching kids in tough situations. He grew up on the east side of Detroit, in a single-family home, in a neighborhood where the average life expectancy for an African-American male was 18. But if he had listened to what people said about growing up in his neighborhood, he would have been dead by 17, he said. "I had a strong mind and a strong mother," Rudolph said. "I learned early on in life that you don't have to be a product of your environment." It seems only fitting that in June he moved to Harford County to become the principal of Edgewood Middle School.

The saga of the golden fence -- the contentious artwork that blocked access to Mount Vernon Place in an attempt to make people see the historic park anew -- started coming to an early end this week after vandals removed bolts from several of its sections, making it unstable. A team of Maryland Institute College of Art students, faculty and staff took down the fence surrounding the east and west quadrants of the park Thursday. They plan to remove the rest, as scheduled, today. The opening act for a nine-work exhibition by MICA students, the fence went up March 17 and met with harsh criticism from perturbed parkgoers, dog walkers and a City Council member who objected to the exhibit blocking access to the park, a National Historic Landmark District.

Cyclocross -- As part of its "Step Up to Health" campaign, Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks will join forces with the Baltimore-based Lateral Stress Velo's cycling club and team to sponsor an inaugural "Rockburn Cross." The event, which is to begin at 10 a.m. Sunday at Rockburn Branch Park in Elkridge, is a hybrid between high-speed bicycle racing and technical mountain-bike racing, and includes man-made hurdles and natural obstacles that require riders to sometimes dismount and run with their bikes.

District B13 is an action movie for the rest of us. Moviegoers who were awed by the treetop martial arts on display in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon knew they could never attempt such feats in their own backyards. And fans of Jackie Chan appreciate his kung fu while knowing such acrobatics are beyond their ken. But the stars of District B13 insist that their leaps, tumbles and jumps can -- for the most part -- be replicated by anyone. The film, released on DVD, introduces to filmgoers a new style of action called parkour, a French term that means using fast, fluid movements to advance through an urban terrain.

WHEN Baltimore schools open next month, Ali Batmanghelidj will stand in front of his students and perhaps ponder the gulf between them. First there's that name. After I assured him that students are almost certain to nickname him "Batman," Batmanghelidj said that was the least of his worries. For the 24-year-old University of Southern California grad, the worst experience with his last name is years behind him. "Can you imagine learning to write that [name] in kindergarten?" Batmanghelidj asked this past weekend as he sat in his sparsely furnished St. Paul Street apartment.

WASHINGTON - The rules of evidence are still being written. There's no witness protection program. Forget impartial judges - the violent insurgency in Iraq has made it difficult to find them at all. And those who have been recruited are so fearful of retribution that their identities are being shielded. The fledgling Iraqi Special Tribunal is facing an uphill climb as it prepares to try Saddam Hussein on charges of war crimes and genocide from his more than two decades in power. "There are enormous obstacles confronting this tribunal," says Richard Dicker, the head of the International Justice Program for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

MOSUL, Iraq -- Lt. Col. Robert Waltemeyer quickly discovered that seizing the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was a lot easier than running it. "We have to protect families and kids, stop bad guys from shooting at us, set up a city council and convince people I don't want to rule the city," said the beleaguered officer and Baltimore native, who led the ragtag forces that captured Iraq's second-largest city this month. But rule it he must, at least for now, because the city's old government vanished in the Mesopotamian mists when the Americans arrived.

Management and union negotiators suspended their public bickering yesterday and met three times in an attempt to move closer to a new labor agreement, but time is running short. The strike deadline imposed by the Major League Baseball Players Association is little more than two days away, and there still has been no breakthrough on any of the three most difficult issues facing the bargaining teams. Ownership negotiators still were waiting late yesterday for a counter-proposal from the union on the enhanced revenue sharing plan and heavy luxury tax system demanded by management.

WASHINGTON - The destination is in plain view but remains out of reach. Many, possibly a majority, of Israelis and Palestinians, plus key officials around the world, agree on how the half-century Israeli-Palestinian conflict will end: Create two states divided roughly along Israel's pre-1967 borders; allow two capitals in Jerusalem, making special arrangements for holy sites sacred to each side; and resolve the problem of Palestinian refugees in a...