The Capital from Annapolis, Maryland • Page 8

A CAPITAL, Saturday. November 9, 1996 (Eajrttal PUBLISHED BY THE CAPITAL-GAZETTE NEWSPAPERS AMERICA OLDEST NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS Founded 1727 In Our 270th Year PHILIP MERRILL, Chairman and Publisher BERNiE HOFF Advertising Directo' JOHN BIEBERCH, Circulation Oecto RICHARD MURCHAKE orations -13WAHO A Eiecui MARQIMRDT E3V SHOWN i a a JV HOPE Va-dge- iuNVt teconoog) GEORGE CRUZE. JR Bigness Manage Our say Orioles foolish Parties must now get bacl to real issues Having spent their campaign time and money battling for votes over Medicare "cuts," taxes, and ethics, Republicans and Democrats soon have to return to the real world, where the issues are workers' incomes, entitlement growth, and probable international crises. In addition to the endgame of mounting scandal charges against the Clinton administration, the next four years are likely to be dominated by the need to boost stagnant wages, to save the Social Security Medicare systems, and to cope with crises in Russia, the Middle East, China, Korea, and Bosnia. The scandals are likely to provide the most immediate pyrotechnics, with special prosecutor Kenneth Starr expected to return indict- Iti to leave town THE ORIOLES' Bobby Bonilla might not be back for the 1997 season.

TJ un's pulltl- cal family, if not his personal one. And Congress will be mounting investigations along a broad front, topped by the latest allegations that Democratic fund-raiser John Huang was in constant contact with the White Don't worry. The Orioles had nine players who hit 20 or more home runs last year, and Mr. Wells didn't even finish with a .500 record. Each of these players can be replaced without hurting the team drastically.

But one person who will not be with the Orioles and who cannot be replaced is Jpn Miller, He's the golden-voiced announcer wfio is simply the best baseball broadcaster in the business. Unlike ballplayers such as the Boniilas, Wellses and Zeiles, Mr. Miller did not just stop hi Baltimore to grab a cup of coffee, take his money and run. For 10 years he has been the main man behind the microphone, the person who single-handedly made those three-houjr-plus baseball games interesting even if they were one-sided and interminably long. Echoes of his "tell it goodbye" will still ate in Baltimore come spring, even though the Bay Area native will have returned to his home turf to broadcast Giants games from San Francisco.

Orioles owner Peter Angelos in particular tried to make it sound as if Mr. Miller left on his own. The truth of the matter is that his contract expired with the last out of the 1996 season and, ratheY than offering him a new pact, the Orioles left hu dangling. Mr. Miller was critical of the Orioles when they 'Madame Butterfly' An item in the Arts Entertainment Announcements (The Capital, Oct.

21) incorrectly stated that the Annapolis Opera Company first presented "Madame Butterfly" 15 years ago. Actually, the opera was first performed by the newly incorporated The Annapolis Opera Inc. on Xtet. 25 and Oct. 27, 1973 23 years ago.

I remember it well. I was listed in the program as one of the "Family and Friends of Cio-Cio San" and was thrilled jto sing with the chorus. John Cooper was musical director and Martha Wright was stage director of the opera. Martha was also president and John was artistic director of the opera company. Christopher Rhines was the general manager.

All roles, except the lead, were sung or acted by local artists -Melvin Lowery, Richard Gratton, Jeanne Haughn, David Link, Roger Thiel and others with little (if any) recompense. Lucille Jonason, a lovely young soprano with the American Opera Center at Lincoln Center, sang Cid-Cio San. risks in saying that it is an attack on religion. The bill includes provisions for public hearings before building projects such as hospitals, churches, private clubs, and private schools commence. The issues 40 be addressed concern water, traffic congestion, sewage and trash disposal.

These are land- use matters, not religious matters. The community of Davidson- viuX in which the congregation of Riverdale Baptist Church wishes to construct a "family life center," is home to several churches. To persistently label opponents of this family life center as nonchurch- goers, or as evil, is insulting and inflammatory. In discussing this serious civic issue, it is critical that inflammatory rhetoric be abandoned. Regardless of the outcome, proponents of the Riverdale Baptist proposal should realize that the hurt inflicted now by accusing opponents of being "anti-church" will be long-lasting.

There will be differing opinions on the KlockO'Rice Bill 93-96; But I earnestly hope that, as the process stop. Where are you going in such a hurry? Allow yourself some extra time to get to your destination -then you will not have to drive so fast. When the light turns green, count two seconds proceed. Look both ways before you do this CINDY PURNELL Annapolis Deer hunt The support of Sandy Point State Park's management for a deer hunt is. confusing and does not appear to be based on any urgent need that I have either directly or read about in The Capital.

I live within a short distance of the park's boundaries and have seen very healthy-looking deer in the area and on my own property. I have not observed any signs of malnutrition, nor have the park's own officials been able to claim that there any signs of a problem lead subpoena. Even though there is an emerging consensus that the excesses of 1996 demonstrate the need for campaign finance reform, that won't happen until Republicans fully explore the ethical Morton Kondracke case against the Clinton White House. But will the political atmosphere of 1997 become so poisonous that it's impossible for Congress and the president to get to work on the nation's other business? In 1996, it did not: The Republican Congress managed to mount multiple investigations and still cooperate with Clinton in passing welfare reform, a minimum-wage increase; and legislation that lowered the budget deficit. There seems to be agreement, despite the raucous rhetoric of the campaign season, that Medicare needs to be reformed and that a bipartisan commission is the way to do it.

It's entirely possible that before the year is out, President Clinton will name Bob Dole to sbdrtrig position, and were guilty of bonehead plays. Mr. Angelas didn't understand that this was one of the- things that made Mr. Miller not just a good announcer, but a great announcer. "Think back to the 1980s, when the Orioles were a pretty bad basebaNieam.

It was Mr Miller who made the gamsrtntereting, made you want to be an Oriole baseball fan, and lured you into Memorial Stadium, where this bad team topped 2 million in attendance for the first time in history. The Yankees went after him. So did the San Diego Padres. And eventually the Giants landed him with a five-year contract. And all the while Mr.

Aiigelps had him and waaa't smart enough to keep him. But the Orioles will keep manager Davey Johnson, who mismanaged 1996 team into mediocrity. And they may even keep utility bench- warming shortstop Manny Alexander around for a fourth unexplainabie year. But there are some people you can't replace. Mr.

Miller is one of them, and the fact that the Orioles f.n,n., 1 1 I 1j I mu.i.lLillimi Good move, Peter. Will you get rid of Rafael Palmeiro next? WRONG NUMBER In Tuesday's editor's notebook we warned readers about responding to invitations to pick up a "prize" by calling an area code hi the British Virgin Islands. The warning was correct, but due to a typo, area code number we gave was not. Residents should beware of calling any-numbers with an 809 area code. We apologize for the error.

teers worked to the point of ex haustion to build sets (including a bridge), paint scenery, sew costumes and do all the things necessary to put an opera on stage. It would be impossible to name all of them. It seemed that all of Annapolis pitched iii to help the new opera company make good! And we started the Opera Guild with six members Herta Lagally, Alice Winter, Martha Wright, Gian tslev-Petersen, Rose Flory, and myself. Old-timers will remember that the opera company started on Nov. 30, 1972, with a presentation of Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "The Medium" at a dinner in the ball- 'foom of the Annapolis Hilton Inn.

Singing were Jeanne Haughn, Saundra Sherwood, Elizabeth Flood, Jofin Winner and Sue Snyder. William Howe acted the Mute. Staging was by Martha "music director. The program was repeated on Dec. 1, B.GRIZELLE BEDFORD Annapolis Church bill Religion and religious freedom are not under attack in Bill 93-96, proposed by County Councilmen John J.

Klocko III, R-Crofton, and Bert L. Rice, R-Odenton. The bill deals with land use in Anne Arundel County. There are serious wffl prevail. Adults must set a good example for children.

Name- calling is not a good example. Doesn't the world have enough religious problems in nia and the Middle East witfiout stirring up one more in Anne Xrundel County? GENE WAY Annapolis What's the rush? Where is everybody going in such a hurry? I drive every day and get really frustrated by some of the things I see drivers doing. Why don't you drive the way you were taught to drive? Why do you drive through that stop sign or that red light, or pass someone on the shoulder? What is another few minutes to wait for a light to change? The life that you save could be your own. When you cut in front of someone, you cut off his folloj ie correct following distance is one car length for every 10 miles per hour ofyour--speed-. Remember when you learned this? The following distance should be even greater when the weather is bad.

The speed limit is the fastest speed that you should be going, not the slowest. When you go through that yellow light, consider that someone might also be going through a yellow light and run into you. And lights turn red for a reason so out the deer population. Park officials have claimed that the presence of deer outside the park's boundaries proves that there is a shortage of food inside the park. However, I have seen fewer deer outside the park in the past few years than there were 10 or 15 years ago.

I would therefore conclude that either the food supply has increased or the deer herd inside the park has decreased. Do park officials have herd counts from 10 years ago and 15 years ago? How do they compare with a count from this year? If such statistics do not exist, then my direct observations of 15 years would refute the need for a deer hunt. FRANCIS ROUDIEZ Annapolis giving him the chance to go down in history as the man who saved Social Security and Medi' ITAL-GAZETTE COMMUNICATIONS. 2000 CAPITAL DRIVE. ANNAPOLIS.

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Amapolil Md 21404: This year's election results will boost race relations The election was a great victory for racial harmony in America. By passing Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights initiative, or CCRI, voters signaled their readiness to reject the spoils system that is threatening to divide the nation along racial and ethnic lines. And in an interesting denouement to the recent Supreme Court cases striking down "majority minority" congressional districts, several black members of Con- grtts who had seen their majority black districts redrawn ran successfully in majority white districts. Why is that important? Because the "Civil rights community," the coalition of black and liberal activists who supported specially gerrymandered racial districts to-elect Mack members of Congress, had based their reasoning on one assumption that white people will not vote to elect black politicians. After the Supreme Court ruled that voting districts drawn almost exclusively by race were unconstitutional, Lav lor of the American Civil Liberties Union voting-rights project in Atlanta, predicted that the result would be "a return to the days of all white govern ment." Theodore Shaw, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said, "Eventually, the minority members of Mona Charen Congress could meet in the back seat of a taxi cab." That this is nonsense was reconfirmed by Cynthia McKinney's victory in a majority white district in Georgia, J.C.

Warts' second victory in Oklahoma, Sheila Jackson-Lee's and Eddie Bernice Johnson's successes in Texas, and Julia Carson's win in Indiana. Of course, we have long had the examples of Gary Franks, a black Republican from majority white Connecticut (who was defeated, alas, this time around); Carol Mosely-Braun, a senator from majorit: 'Swell, who, though he never asked for a single vote, was almost declared president of the United States by acclamation. Abigail Thernstrom has studied voting patterns going back 30 years, and she notes in her forthcoming book. "America in Black and White," that the overwhelm ing majority of black mayors in cities with more than 50,000 people were first elected with a majority white Yet, when Thernstrom made the modest suggestion that black politicians ought to venture into biracial waters, she was excoriated. Derrick Z.

Jackson, a columnist for The Boston Globe, called her a "Clorox cranium" for supposing that whites would vote for a black. Of course, when black politicians do run in majority white districts, it forces them to temper their views. The kind of hard-left politics that will sell with black voters won't appeal to whites. Conversely, white politicians had no incentive to broaden their appeal when black voters were segregated into separate voting districts. California voters have furthered the cause of racial harmony as well by eliminating racial, ethnic and sex preferences in State education emnlnvment and almost didn't make it onto the ballot, so skittish were Republican politicians (Newt Gingrich excepted) and donors But on Election Day, it cruised to victory with 54 percent of the vote.

Decried as racist and incendiary. Prop 209 is acvally the reverse. It enshrines into law nothing more or less than the original understanding of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that "each person will be judged as an individual, dn his merit, not as a member of a group. President Clinton disingenuously, suggests that affirmative action is nothing more than outreach to give those who would otherwise face discrimination a chance to "prove their worth," If that were true, only a few nuts would oppose it. But hi the hands of the courts and state and.

federal bureaucracies, as well as private institutions like universities, affirmative action has become a straight quota system and everybody knows it. That's why a corrective like CCRI was overdue. The effect of racial preferences has been a worsening of racial tensions, outright injustice to countless individuals, and a retreat from the principle of equal opportunity. The civil rights lobby (which has noth ing to do with rights) will no dot WOP ifljy as a racfsl reversion. The American Civil Liberties Union has already filed suit to kill it.

These groups are wedded to preferences and set-asides because they cannot see the plain lesson of this election and much else in Ameri can life: that Americans are ready to judge one another fairly as individuals, and governments should do no less. A permanent coalition of this gang is impos Ibktn imifline, but LI iMs a recession.ToT exam le could forge a temporary alliance. And while domestic and ethical controversies break out, there's a good chance that President Clinton and Congress also will be preoccupied with succession crises in Russia and China, and threats to peace in the Mideast, the Persian Gulf, South Asia. Korea, and Bosnia. If a recession hits on top of it all, Clinton might wish he'd lost the election The fact is that the final proposals on Medicare of both parties called for reductions in growth only $40 billion apart over a seven- year period $124 billion for Clinton, $168 billion for the GOP.

Republicans wanted to reduce the annual rate of growth of the program from 7.8 percent to 5.7 percent and Clinton, to 5.9 percent. Why the Republicans never could compose TV ads to make it clear how petty the Medicare differences are is one of the mysteries of 1996. Now, the small differences make a Medicare fix comparatively easy. Coming up with a Social Security rescue: will be harder, partly because the system is not in imminent danger of going bankrupt. A bipartisan commission is deadlocked over what combination of remedies to recommend from a menu that includes extending the retirement age, means-testing benefits, reducing cost-of- living increases, expanding IRA accounts, and investing Social Security funds in the stock market.

ily, a new commission could come up with a politically acceptable combination. Finding a raise wiH betougher. The great paradox of 1996 and boon for Clinton is that people felt good about the economy even as the wage of the average worker remained stagnant, continuing a 20-year trend. In late September, the Census Bureau reported that median household income in the United States rose for the first time in six years, a fact trumpeted by tht administration. Yet the same report showed that average earnings for full-time workers continued to decline and that household income was rising only because people were working longer hours, either on second jobs or overtime Clinton benefited from a growing economy and a low unemployment rate, which meant overtime and second jobs were available, even at depressed wages.

The challenge of Clinton's next administration is to reverse the decline in wages. If this does not happen and especially if the economy dips into recession, as someday it must then populist, protectionist, and isolationist forces are waiting in the wings to exploit the situation. Pat Buchanan didn't get far in 1996, but he began the year setting the GOP agenda, and he was briefly helped along by the New York Tims' monster series on the "Downsizing of America" and Newsweek's cover on "Corporate Killers." Buchanan's view that a conspiracy exists between corporations, lobbyists, and politi- cians to send jobs overseas and depress wages is essentially shared by Ross Perot and his running mate, Pat Choate, and by the left wing of the Democratic Party, including the AFL-.