Common sense doesn’t always make sense

Maryland Del. Donald Dwyer’s rejection of same-sex marriage on the grounds that it isn’t common sense is not only short-sighted (and looking in the wrong direction), it’s also dangerous. I want more from my elected officials than common sense, especially when it comes to protecting vulnerable innocent people.

» It was common sense less than 100 years ago for “Negroes” to know their place.

» It was common sense less than 100 years ago that whites and blacks could not marry.

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» It was common sense less than 200 years ago for African-Americans to be slaves.

Thank goodness people change. Thank goodness we have moral and political leaders who inspire and educate people away from the errors of common sense. It’s too bad that the good folks of Eastern Maryland are represented by someone driven by yesterday’s common sense. Thank goodness there are wiser leaders making the case that treating all loving couples with civility and respect is how we will become a better society.

Mark McElreath
Baltimore

BGE deal no deal for consumers

The headline says, “Ehrlich, Constellation cut deal on lower BGE rates.” And the sub-head says, “Average BGE customer will save $450 over 10 years.”

But seven paragraphs into Len Lazarick’s article, it is revealed that “BGE customers will need to opt into the program if they want the rates discounts, and then they will have to pay the company interest on the loans it will take out to help cut the rates.” Further: “Customers can choose to take the original 72 percent rate increase, paying market rates this July, and not pay a $15 a month charge beginning June 2008.”

So, really there is no deal to “lower BGE rates,” only more chatter about numbers that don’t make much sense and don’t change anything at all.

How can we continue to allow the BGE monopoly to set the market price for us, the market? Why is there no public outrage at this mess?

M. Cohen
Baltimore

Examiner quick and to the point

I love your newspaper! I’ve been heartily sick of the Baltimore Sun and its only-game-in-town attitude for years (and don’t even get me started on their so-called home delivery service)!

I like The Examiner’s smaller format and being able to get all the news items one right after the other, bam-bam-bam. It’s the first paper I’ve been able to sit down and read, from front to back, in one sitting. I like that.

Mayo M. Lucas
Baltimore

Mercury dangerous for children

I was very disturbed by the message that reporter Megan McIlroy was proposing in her April 18 article on mercury in fish. Even the title, “Doctors: Mercury is safe, in moderation” is a dangerously misleading statement. Emergency room visits for the type of death-defying exposures to high levels of methyl mercury that occur in industrial and other such settings are, in fact, a rarity.

However, learning disabilities, attention deficit, and poor test scores are all on the rise. And while these “symptoms” associated with mercury exposure do not bring children to the emergency room, they are the symptoms that prevent children from achieving their fullest potential in the classroom and life, in general.

The author is associate professor and director of the Environmental Health Education Center at the University of Maryland School of Nursing in Baltimore.

Barbara Sattler