Plight

During much of the ongoing Washington wrangle-a-thon over our debt ceiling, Republican officials have repeatedly reminded us that our poor, overworked millionaires aggregate tax payments account for 26-27 percent of the government's tax revenue, while the bottom 50 percent of earners pay "virtually" no taxes at all. It's a scandal, but the representatives want us to be scandalized about the wrong thing. The fact that 50 percent of our country's earners don't make enough money to be taxed is an overwhelming scandal - imagine this half of our workforce living near, at or below the poverty level!

It's amazing that in a city, state and nation where families have been massively uprooted by the economic downturn, your paper puts the "plight" of Filipino children on the front page below the fold ("Limbo for children of Filipino teachers," May 8). Where was your concern when we had to uproot and separate our family by half a continent for the sake of employment? You ask what "legal explanation can justify the disruption of a [foreign] child's life," yet express little concern for the disruptions experienced by tax-paying citizens.

As Baltimore struggles with an unprecedented 6 feet or more of snow this winter, it's reassuring to know that our fellow citizens in the rest of the country sympathize wholeheartedly with our plight. They would never, ever, ever taunt us when we are down. "Our roads are clear and dry. How are yours?" asks Peter O'Connor, commissioner of public works for the city of Syracuse, N.Y., which so far this year has had more than 74 inches of snow. Matt Smith, a spokesman for Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation, expressed a praiseworthy willingness to lend a hand.

Homelessness among children is a serious issue in today's society. Over 2 million children are suffering from lack of food and shelter. Children are commonly born into this situation and have no control over their living arrangements. Most of these children go through life living on the streets or in homeless shelters. Health care is very limited or even nonexistent for these children. Physical, psychological, and emotional damage is very frequent in homeless cases. Also, it is common for a child to leave their home because of abuse and violence.

Among the zillion or so media words that have been lavished on Cal Ripken's consecutive-games streak, some of my favorites came from WJZ-TV news anchor Denise Koch."

WHEN VICE President Dan Quayle came here to DePauw University, his alma mater, last fall for a speech, he was greeted ++ enthusiastically by an impressed student body. Most undergrads cheered as he defended the Persian Gulf troop deployment of his boss, President Bush.But in late February, the college newspaper asked 100 randomly selected students: "If something happened to President Bush, are you confident that Vice President Quayle could lead the nation in the war with Iraq?" Some 53 percent said no, to 47 percent who said yes.Compared to similar polls of general public opinion, that was a considerable improvement in terms of confidence in Quayle.

It's amazing that in a city, state and nation where families have been massively uprooted by the economic downturn, your paper puts the "plight" of Filipino children on the front page below the fold ("Limbo for children of Filipino teachers," May 8). Where was your concern when we had to uproot and separate our family by half a continent for the sake of employment? You ask what "legal explanation can justify the disruption of a [foreign] child's life," yet express little concern for the disruptions experienced by tax-paying citizens.

Consider the pitful plight Of America's paranoid right: No longer do reds # Hide under our beds And somehow we got through the night

Secy Baker has seen the Kurdish plight up close, so we don't have to worry about that any more.Justice Souter turns out as a jurisprudential twin of Justice O'Connor. The same wisp of a smile, the same inscrutable mystery about which way he'll jump.Nostalgia for the '80s! Her biographer says that Nancy was more interesting than you thought.Cheer up. The umpires are working.

The Maryland Senate gave final approval last night to a bill that would require public schools to teach children about the Irish potato famine.The bill passed 26-20 with no debate and goes to the House of Delegates, where its prospects are uncertain.The legislation sponsored by Sen. Perry Sfikas, a Baltimore Democrat, would require public elementary and secondary schools to teach children about a tragedy that killed 1 million of Ireland's 8 million people and set off a historic wave of immigration to the United States.

Native Londoner Kimberly Marie Freeman lives and works 200 miles north of Baltimore, but she's enthusiastically joining the effort to save one of the city's cultural treasures. Shutting the Edgar Allan Poe House, she says with a hint of exasperation, would be a shabby way to treat such an internationally renowned figure. "There would be outrage in England if anyone ever considered shutting down Shakespeare's home," said Freeman, artistic director for New York-based Bedlam Ensemble, a performance group putting on several shows in Manhattan this month and next to raise money for the beleaguered museum.

During much of the ongoing Washington wrangle-a-thon over our debt ceiling, Republican officials have repeatedly reminded us that our poor, overworked millionaires aggregate tax payments account for 26-27 percent of the government's tax revenue, while the bottom 50 percent of earners pay "virtually" no taxes at all. It's a scandal, but the representatives want us to be scandalized about the wrong thing. The fact that 50 percent of our country's earners don't make enough money to be taxed is an overwhelming scandal - imagine this half of our workforce living near, at or below the poverty level!

A TV helicopter buzzing overhead. Baltimore County firefighters and Maryland Natural Resources Police officers on the scene. Defying a police order, two men in an inflatable boat braved the elements on the icy Patapsco River. Last week's much-publicized incident in Linthicum had all the elements of a daring rescue, except the victim was no capsized fisherman or stranded swimmer. It was a deer — as in a wild animal. You know, the kind that live out there , where they take their chances with cold weather and rivers and other of Mother Nature's challenges.

Sgt. Miguel Antia, a U.S. Army Airborne Ranger whose body is peppered with seven gunshot wounds from a 2005 attack in Iraq, survived that incident only to find himself suffering from a debilitating disease he contracted while fighting in South America last year. Antia has spent the last five months at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, battling Leishmaniasis, a disease that causes sores on the flesh and nearly paralyzed him permanently. Bedridden until the last couple of months, Antia has since undergone a speedy and somewhat miraculous recovery, leaving him strong enough to participate in a 20-mile bike ride through Baltimore today designed to help other injured veterans.

I am an avid sports fan. I love football and hockey and am a novice fan of other sports. As much as I love sports, I have very little patience for the overpaid, greedy, self centered pro athlete. With the impending 2011 NFL work stoppage on the horizon, one has to ask, when is too much money enough? We look at the pure greed in pro sports. The 1981 and 1994 Major League Baseball strikes, the 1992, 1994 and 2004 NHL lockouts, and the NBA lockouts are a testament to the greed in pro sports.

As Baltimore struggles with an unprecedented 6 feet or more of snow this winter, it's reassuring to know that our fellow citizens in the rest of the country sympathize wholeheartedly with our plight. They would never, ever, ever taunt us when we are down. "Our roads are clear and dry. How are yours?" asks Peter O'Connor, commissioner of public works for the city of Syracuse, N.Y., which so far this year has had more than 74 inches of snow. Matt Smith, a spokesman for Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation, expressed a praiseworthy willingness to lend a hand.

Thomasena Hester said she wasn't fighting alone.She was right.An Evening Sun story about the 73-year-old grandmother and her young grandsons, who were facing eviction from their lead-contaminated West Baltimore home, moved city officials to quickly find her a new home.News of their plight generated a series of telephone calls from the offices of Mayor Kurt Schmoke and Housing Commissioner Robert W. Hearn."There was a sense that, 'My God, something's got to be done for this lady,' " said Bill Toohey, spokesman for the city housing authority.

WHEN Ross Perot quit he freed President Bush and Governo NotBush to avoid the subject, and they have since been avoiding it with zest. The subject, of course, is: "What's it going to take to haul the economy out of the pit?"Mr. Perot decided the answer was, "Sacrifice." The word gives off noble vibration, but everybody knows that, after we enjoy the pleasure of being called to sacrifice, pain cometh swiftly to all but the canny and the well connected. That's why seasoned politicians handle sacrifice gingerly.

If anyone deserved a lunchtime indulgence Monday, Barry Robinson did. His normal 60-minute drive to work, from Accokeek to Baltimore, took four agonizing hours, much of it spent on a ramp to Interstate 495, waiting for the tractor-trailer in front of him to unstick itself. "I was thinking there's got to be a better way," says Robinson, Baltimore's chief of transit and marine services. Seeking the type of consolation that comes only between two slices of rye, he waited in line at Attman's Deli, just east of downtown, for a corned beef sandwich: "A big one," he said.