Work Harder

IF OUR RESPONSE to criticism of this country's work ethic is simply to get mad, we will undoubtedly misdirect our energy and rage at the Japanese competitive challenge, rather than meet it. Our challenge is not to look at ourselves through the imperfect prism of Japanese criticism, but to find ways to work smarter.Without getting hung up on what the Japanese prime minister said, isn't it true that we are producing too few engineers and basic research scientists and too many lawyers and accountants and MBAs?

By several measures, metropolitan Baltimore's economy is doing better than fine. In 2010, median household income was nearly $15,000 higher than the national average, and during the last decade, real incomes grew even as they shrank nationally. Metro employment increased, while it declined across the country, and when the economy went south, the region's unemployment rate remained lower than that of most if its metropolitan peers. But as legitimately rosy as these numbers are, they mask - as averages will do - the steep opportunity challenges facing many of the region's residents.

IN YOUR EDITORIAL of April 3 ("Taxing taxpayers at tax time"), you criticized a pending legislative proposal that would require Maryland taxpayers to sign two checks when they pay their state and local piggyback taxes -- one to the state and one to the local jurisdiction that is imposing and receiving the piggyback taxes.The laudatory purpose of this legislation is to ensure that Maryland taxpayers know and understand when they send in their money that their local subdivisions are taxing their income -- in the hope that this will increase the local government's level of fiscal responsibility and taxpayer responsiveness when they set their local piggyback tax rates and develop their spending plans.

I read the article by Annie Linskey in The Baltimore Sun: "Lesser-known candidates also want to be governor" (July 10). Elections cycles usually seem just like a redundant washing of political laundry, with one of two choices, the Republican or the Democrat being "pressed" into service for the next four years. I hear the two major candidates profess their love for the state and that they will work hard. Suppose for a moment that a lesser-known dark-horse candidate would run and say if he's elected Governor, he will give a small cubicle to Bob Ehrlich Jr. and Martin O'Malley in an anteroom to the Governor's Office.

Next year's Maryland General Assembly will have to work harder and pass more taxes in order to meet the needs of the state that were not addressed during the 1991 session, Gov. William Donald Schaefer said.State employees also may face layoffs this year because state legislators declined to approve the governor's tax-increase plan, Schaefer said."You're in a fairyland down here. You're in a world of unreality," the governor said, referring to the legislature. "The real world is where poor people live . . . where people drop out of school and go to drugs to get money."

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.

Because our temperate climate seldom provides more than one significant snowfall per year (and sometimes not even that), winters in this region pose an aesthetic challenge: With no poetic blanketing of snow to soften the pared-down landscape, one must work harder to find the beauty in one's surroundings -- which can appear quite dreary, even bleak, by the time February draws to its close. But this season provides unique opportunities to study texture, contour and discreet gradations of color, to appreciate a subtler and stark beauty.

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Their father would yell at them and tell them, in no uncertain terms, how they were failing as baseball players, and Rick and Andre Palmeiro never liked that.But their brother Rafael would listen and separate the message -- you've got to work harder, you've got to keep your focus -- from the critical delivery. Rafael Palmeiro wanted to be a big-league ballplayer, from the time he started playing at 9 years old, and his father Jose wanted to help him, in the best way he knew.

Hogan took a short pass from Stephanie Smith on the right side and neatly found the lower near post from 14 yards. Morrison provided the rest of the offense, scoring in the 54th minute and again in the 60th on a strong run and finish from 10 yards. Senior sweeper Kirsten Frank was dominant in back, with junior goalie Jocelyn McCoy turning back three shots for the shutout. "At halftime, we just said, 'Let's pick it up, let's pick it up,' and it was a good team effort," said Morrison. "We know we have targets on our backs, and that's why we're working ... even harder than last year, because we want to take care of the No. 1 spot."

WASHINGTON - Smiles turned to tightened jaws at the most recent reunion of Harvard University's black alumni. The mood shift, as reported in The New York Times, occurred when two very prominent black faculty members reported encouraging increases in Harvard's black enrollment, then raised questions as to where those new black students were coming from. Law Professor Lani Guinier and Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of the African and African-American studies department, reported that 8 percent, or about 530, of Harvard's undergraduates are black.

Hogan took a short pass from Stephanie Smith on the right side and neatly found the lower near post from 14 yards. Morrison provided the rest of the offense, scoring in the 54th minute and again in the 60th on a strong run and finish from 10 yards. Senior sweeper Kirsten Frank was dominant in back, with junior goalie Jocelyn McCoy turning back three shots for the shutout. "At halftime, we just said, 'Let's pick it up, let's pick it up,' and it was a good team effort," said Morrison. "We know we have targets on our backs, and that's why we're working ... even harder than last year, because we want to take care of the No. 1 spot."

Rep. Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania, an Iraq war veteran, is making a push this summer for a congressional repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military. Even back in 1993, when President Bill Clinton first proposed this artless dodge, a majority of Americans favored letting gays serve openly. Sixteen years later, the numbers are overwhelming; a CNN/Opinion Research poll in December found 81 percent of Americans now share that belief. But not in Congress. Mr. Murphy has about 160 co-sponsors, almost all of them Democrats.

Labor Day was conceived by America's labor unions as a testament to their cause. In 1898, Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, called it "the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed ... that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it."...

Richard Ressler wishes he were in the market for a new boat. The New Holland, Pa., man visited the Baltimore Boat Show yesterday to check out the newest models and to get a feel for prices. But after months of hearing about weakening housing values, declining stocks and soaring fuel prices, Ressler said all he could afford to do was window-shop. "Gas prices," said Ressler, who said he'll just hang on to the boat he has for now. "That's probably the biggest problem."

Let 2008 be the year you finally carry through on your promises to pay more attention to your 401(k) retirement savings plan at work. If you are like most people, you have had plenty of good intentions. You have promised yourself that you will save more or figure out just which funds you should really be using. But perhaps you have left money languishing in a savings account in a bank earning a measly 2 percent interest, when you might have earned an average of 8 percent to 10 percent a year in your 401(k)

During the hot real estate market, this Roland Park brick Colonial probably never would have seen an open house. "One and a half to two years ago, this house would have had multiple contracts within three to five days," said Jim Mikula of the Fells Point office of Long & Foster Real Estate, who, with his partner, is listing the property with a $419,900 price tag. "We probably would have had a broker's open on Wednesday, and at that point you basically would...

The door is constantly swinging at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in Rockville: Janet McNichol leaves early some days to take a photography class or watch her sons' baseball games. Colleen Glackin ducks out for a few hours in the morning to go to school part time. Arthur Lynch Jr., who commutes more than an hour to work, has been coming in at 7:30 a.m. or earlier for years so he can be home in time to spend the evenings with his family. "Two kids later, it helps me to have somewhat of a normal family life in the evenings," Lynch said.

From a buzzword in the '80s, "productivity" has become a practical goal for all American businesses in the '90s, and when it comes to increasing productivity, the ability to motivate one's employees is absolutely essential.In her book, "Egos & Eggshells" (Stanton & Harper Books; $20), Margot Robinson tells managers: "Your ability to accomplish your goals and the company's objectives is directly connected to your ability to inspire your employees to perform at maximum capacity. . . . If you want to motivate your employees, give them what they want from their jobs."

Glen Burnie junior Zach Jankiewicz has never shied away from hard work, particularly when it comes to wrestling. In early spring of his freshman year, he broke the L4 and L5 vertebrae in his lower back and suffered a herniated disk during a weightlifting session. With successful therapy and rehabilitation, his doctor said Jankiewicz could possibly resume playing sports in a year. Jankiewicz ended up cleared to play football in the fall and was back on the mat for his sophomore wrestling season.

COLOGNE, Germany - Pope Benedict XVI chose unusually tough language yesterday to tell Muslim leaders they must work harder to combat terrorism and steer youth away from "the darkness of a new barbarism." On the third day of his first foreign trip as pope, Benedict met with 10 representatives of Germany's growing Muslim community as part of his effort to reach out to other faiths. But he quickly dispensed with the diplomatic niceties and zeroed in on what he called the "cruel fanaticism" of terrorism and the responsibility of religious leaders and educators to prevent it. "You guide Muslim believers and train them in the Islamic faith," he told his select audience, who traveled to the Cologne archdiocese to meet the pope.