Pledge

TO WIN an election, a candidate often makes promises that prove difficult to keep. Parris N. Glendening has put himself squarely in that uncomfortable position.During last year's gubernatorial election, Mr. Glendening pledged to put 1,110 more teachers into local classrooms to tutor kids in reading and math. That commitment neatly neutralized a somewhat similar pledge by his opponent, Ellen R. Sauerbrey, to hire an extra 1,000 reading teachers.But after he was re-elected, Mr. Glendening decided not to include any money in his budget for these educators.

City Council President Lawrence A. Bell III urged all mayoral candidates yesterday to pledge that they will not accept the kinds of financial incentives proposed to lure NAACP President Kweisi Mfume into the race.Bell, a mayoral hopeful in this year's election, issued a statement with a three-point pledge he is asking mayoral candidates to take.Candidates should pledge to turn down an increase in the mayor's salary and to use speaker's fees for charitable purposes, until the city's financial crisis is resolved.

WASHINGTON -- A month after the Wye Plantation summit put the Israeli-Palestinian peace process back on track, representatives from 42 nations pledged yesterday to bolster it with more than $3 billion in promised aid over the next five years -- much of it from U.S. taxpayers.Announcing the biggest single contribution, President Clinton proposed to give $400 million to the Palestinian Authority, bringing the administration's planned five-year spending on the West Bank and Gaza Strip to $900 million.

Just the other day, Nailah Shami's ex hung up on her. They had been civilly discussing their daughter Esprit's middle school graduation, but when the topic turned to her child-support check, communication ceased."

WASHINGTON -- "Wouldn't it be interesting," Charles Demere muses, "to ask people to fill in that blank? 'Money is ... Money is ...' You'd learn a lot about them, don't you think?"Demere, 69, a semi-retired Episcopal priest, is sitting over a simple lunch of black beans and rice at Potter's House, a church cafe-bookshop in Washington's Adams-Morgan neighborhood. The subject at hand is one of life's two sure things -- taxes -- and this leads invariably to the meaning of money.He plays his own game.

Christopher J. Merdon, a Republican County Council contender who is making the issue of managed growth the centerpiece of his campaign, pledged at a fund-raiser last night not to accept contributions from developers.Merdon, 27, is running to succeed Republican Darrel E. Drown in a conservative district in northeastern Howard that includes Ellicott City and Elkridge.One of the oldest populated regions in the county, the district is sensitive to development that is filling out its few remaining empty spaces.

NEW YORK -- Mayor Rudy Giuliani sits comfortably in shirtsleeves in his City Hall office and explains why, in his successful re-election campaign just past, he declined to pledge to finish his second four-year term, a refusal that didn't stop New Yorkers from voting for him overwhelmingly anyway.''Lots of people have made that pledge and something has come along,'' he said. ''I've always tried, when I'm running for office, to avoid pledges.'' And he recalls how President George Bush got in such hot water for reneging on his 1988 ''read my lips, no new taxes'' pledge that he lost his bid for re-election.

MAHMOUD Abdul-Rauf has made his peace with Allah and the National Basketball Association. In the future, he will stand for the playing of the National Anthem at Denver Nuggets games, but he will pray. A relieved NBA says this protects the sanctity of its contract, which requires all players to take part in this little secular ritual.So a happy compromise has resolved an ugly quarrel. But as the controversy played out, I remembered my own first encounter with the eternal dilemma of poor mortals who must choose between the God's commands and Nation's demands.

CAN A PROMISE improve behavior in Howard County schools? That remains uncertain. But leaders of student, teacher and parent groups are convinced that incivility rules too many county classrooms; alas, it's a lament in schools nationwide. The recently adopted good-conduct pledge for Howard's school system aims to instill more respect and courtesy in students.It is worth noting that the pledge was not a mandatory construction imposed by county officials. Rather, the PTA council, the Howard County Education Association and student government came up with the idea because of their frustrations over escalating misconduct.

Can Howard County's new voluntary student conduct pledge end misbehavior in the county's classrooms? Not by itself, say county educators and school discipline experts.But, they say, the pledge can set new standards for classroom conduct that allow teachers to spend more time on instruction -- leading to improved academic performance that is the real key to better student behavior.The new voluntary code also has the potential to draw more parents into the schools, another essential component to improving discipline.

A month after more than 100 area animal-lovers pledged to get paw-print tattoos to lure Rescue Ink to town, the TV tough guys are bringing their act to Baltimore. Rescue Ink, a nonprofit group based in Long Island, N.Y., is a band of muscled and tattooed men with a message of compassion for animals. The tattoo pledge began in late September on the The Baltimore Sun's n the aftermath of a summer of incidents of animal cruelty in the city, and caught the attention of producers of the show Rescue Ink does for the National Geographic Channel.

The Anne Arundel Medical Center Auxiliary has pledged $3 million to support the expansion of the Annapolis hospital campus, officials announced this week. The pledge, the largest in the volunteer group's 64-year history, will help fund the $400 million "Vision 2010" project at AAMC, which includes two new buildings, four parking facilities and two bridges. "The Vision 2010 Auxiliary Pledge is a big source of pride for us," said Ann Kier, president of the auxiliary. "Every volunteer wants to contribute, leaving our mark on the hospital we believe in."

Maryland Transit Administration officials are offering discount cards for area businesses to students who pledge good behavior on city buses, an incentive that transit administrators hope will help curb disrespectful and violent behavior. The discount card will offer 10 percent to 20 percent off purchases at 12 city establishments, including Dunkin' Donuts, Cold Stone Creamery, Shoe City, Downtown Locker Room and other places. MTA administrators registered students for the first time yesterday at the Johns Hopkins Metro Station, where about 100 took the pledge, according to spokeswoman Jawauna Greene.

WASHINGTON -- Ban Saadi Abdallatif still has trouble sleeping some nights, remembering her uncle and cousin, shot dead by the militia, or thinking about her brother's narrow escape from kidnappers. But it's nothing like the fear she lived with back in Diyala, where law and order broke down after U.S. forces invaded Iraq, and insurgents targeted her mixed Shiite-Sunni family. "I feel relief to be in the United States," said the 31-year-old former teacher, who arrived in Laurel with her 9-year-old son in September.

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany -- The world's leading industrialized nations pledged $60 billion yesterday to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis mainly in Africa, a gesture that drew criticism from human rights groups that called it insufficient and part of a pattern of unfulfilled promises. The agreement on African aid, half of which would be provided by the U.S., came as the Group of Eight's three-day summit concluded at this Baltic Sea resort. The money is part of a series of measures to reduce disease and spur economic growth on a continent racked by poverty and corruption, where more than 2 million people die each year of AIDS.

If Hollywood ever decides to do a remake of the movie Groundhog Day - the one where a TV newsman finds himself covering the same event day after day - and is looking for a scenario suitable for a never-ending time loop, it won't have to search any further than the repetitive calls for and ceremonial signings of pledges to save the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. If such a movie were made, it would, unfortunately, not be a comedy like the original flick. It would be a farce. The latest request for a bay cleanup pledge comes from river-protection environmental groups representing five states and the District of Columbia.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley promised yesterday that if he is elected governor, neither he nor his running mate will meet with lobbyists who have been convicted of felonies, a stab at two prominent Annapolis paid advocates who are close to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Ehrlich, O'Malley's Republican opponent in the governor's race, campaigned in 2002 on a pledge to end the "culture of corruption" in Annapolis, but the mayor is accusing him of doing anything...

It has pledges from 180 industrialized nations, but the effort to provide free universal primary education for all children in the developing world by 2015, which is part of the United Nations Millennium Project, is still short on a key ingredient: money. Last month, the United Kingdom pledged $1.5 billion a year for the next 10 years to the cause. The United States, which has an economy six times as large as that of the U.K., is way behind. It's time for America to step up and pay more of its fair share.

Cleared of ethics charges stemming from a shoving match in the House of Delegates office building last spring, two Baltimore-area lawmakers are asking their political opponents to sign a "pledge of decency" so a debate on immigration issues can proceed with civility. Republican Dels. Patrick L. McDonough and Richard K. Impallaria say they will retaliate with ethics charges of their own if certain Democratic delegates and lobbyists don't sign the two-paragraph pledge within a month. "We have never, and would never, engage in name-calling," McDonough, a talk-show host on WCBM radio in Baltimore, said in a statement asking his opponents to sign the pledge.

CHICAGO - The Pledge of Allegiance case had everything you could want: God, country and squabbling parents. Two years ago, a federal appeals court struck down use of the phrase "under God" in the Pledge, and the Supreme Court decided to resolve the issue. But this week, it backed off - frustrating those involved in the lawsuit, depriving the public of guidance on the First Amendment and leaving the whole issue to fester. And maybe that was the right thing to do. The case arose because a California atheist, Dr. Michael Newdow, thought his daughter shouldn't be subjected to a daily expression of religious faith as part of her public schooling.