Don’t omit Hispanics
From: Patricia Hatch
Barrie Klaits
Columbia
Thank you for Lan Nguyen’s special report, “Tolerating Intolerance” (Howard County Sun, Sunday, April 19). You opened for examination a wide range of attitudes and experiences in race relations, especially among young people in Howard County.
Your statistical discussion defined the student minority population as “Blacks, Asians and American Indians,” noting that that population increased from 17 percent in 1980 to more than 20 percent (close to 6,300 students) in 1990.
We wish that your otherwise excellent report had mentioned another rapidly growing minority population of Howard County: Hispanics.
U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that this population grew 149.2 percent in Howard County between 1980 and 1990, bringing the total to 3,600 persons. Howard County public school representatives told this office that the growth is seen predominantly at the elementary school level. The Howard County Health Department has many young Hispanic women coming to their clinics.
We understand how the omission might have occurred, as the term “Hispanic” incudes people who may describe their race as white, black or other. Nevertheless, for a more complete picture of the racial-ethnic complexity of Howard County, it would be useful to include this group, which is projected to represent 4.9 percent of the county population by the year 2000.
Our non-profit human service organization, FIRN (Foreign-born Information and Referral Network) provides job counseling and placement, volunteer tutors and interpreters, and information and referral for immigrants from every ethnic background. Last year we served 1,796 clients from 70 countries of origin. Many of our clients are from Mexico, Haiti, Vietnam, El Salvador, Korea, China, Russia, Taiwan, Jamaica, and Liberia, to name just a few. For more information on FIRN, call 992-1923.
We hope you will continue to print articles which encourage Howard countians to learn to appreciate the diversity among us, learn to live together in harmony, and stop tolerating intolerance.
This county is also fortunate to have a group known as Community-Building Howard County, which has for several years been bringing together people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds for meetings aimed at appreciating and understanding each other. Community Building and the Howard Community College office of Continuing Education will be sponsoring several Prejudice Reduction and Conflict Resolution workshops in May and June. Your readers can call 964-4944 for more information.
(Patricia Hatz is the director and Barrie Klaits is assistant director of FIRN.)
William Waff endorsed
From: Carol Filipczak
Columbia
An open letter to the County Council:
The board of directors of the HCCA [Howard County Citizen’s Association] believes the appointees to the Howard County Board of Appeals should bring geographic balance to the board and should have demonstrated interest in countywide land use — issues through participation in the public process.
Mr. William Waff has experience with and knowledge of countywide issues and, most importantly, represents the neglected southeastern part of the county.
Mr. Waff has served as vice president of HCCA and has demonstrated an interest in land-use issues by participating with a countywide perspective. He brings a practical, common-sense point of view to issues.
It is important that the Savage-North Laurel area be represented on the Board of Appeals. The southeastern area of the county has undergone substantial growth in the past few years and will continue to change in the near future.
Mr. Waff’s experience in community activities, dating back to the Savage-North Laurel Master Plan Study Group and continuing with the Savage Community Association, provides background on the issues and familiarity with the area communities. This would add a valuable perspective to the Board of Appeals’ deliberations. We urge the favorable consideration of Mr. William Waff for appointment to the Howard County Board of Appeals.
(Carol Filipczak is president of the Howard County Citizens Association.)
Praise for police
From: Daniel Schmidt
Savage
At a time when law enforcement agencies are coming under scrutiny, we’d like to offer public praise for the courtesy, professionalism and helpfulness of the Howard County Police Department.
On Saturday, May 2, our church sponsored the Countryside Classic 10K. This is the third year for this race, and, as with each previous outing, the local police were key to its success. They came early, carefully marked the course and made sure runners could compete safely. Comments from entrants after the race noted especially their efficiency.
Our thanks to the Howard County Police Department for their help and co-operation in making this community event possible.
(Daniel Schmidt is pastor of Countryside Fellowship Church.)
Lend a hand to recycling
From: Julia Stephens
Ellicott City
Did you know that 220 million tons of garbage are thrown away a year? Did you know that’s equal to the weight of about 270,000 elephants?
Most of the garbage we throw away ends up in landfills. Landfills are places where you can dispose of trash and garbage by burying it under layers of earth in low ground.
But this is not a good way to get rid of garbage. It pollutes our environment and it also takes up a lot of precious room. Some landfills get up to 20 stories high. You and your family are probably only adding to the mess. The average American family throws away 100 pounds of garbage every week.
But there are other ways of getting rid of our garbage. For example, there is incinerating. Incinerating is when you burn your trash so it becomes just ash. This can also be bad for the environment. The fumes from burning the trash pollute the air.
So we’ve started to recycle. Recycling is when you reuse old glass, paper, plastics and metals, and make them into other useful products.
We’ve been recycling for many years now. In fact, steel industries have been recycling since the early 1900s.
Did you know that you can help recycle, too? It’s easy! All you do is collect recyclable items that you and your family are going to throw out, group them into papers, plastics, glass and metals, and bring them to your local drop-off site.
Even without recycling, you can still help with the recycling program. Here are some recycling tips for you to try:
* Buy recycled paper whenever possible.
* Use cloth towels and napkins instead of disposable ones.
* Recycle your junk mail, or use it as scratch paper. (According to the U.S. Postal Service, every man, woman, and child receives an average of 248 pieces of junk mail a year.)
* Don’t waste paper. Use both sides of a piece of paper before recycling it.
* Buy rechargeable batteries and other rechargeable items whenever possible.
So, remember, instead of adding to the landfills and harming the environment, give us all a helping hand and recycle!
(Julia Stephens is a seventh-grader at Patapsco Middle School.)
