Voice Mail
July 2005

The Takoma Voice welcomes all correspondence. We remind readers that the opinions expressed here are those of the writers. Letters may be edited for length or clarity. While we strive to print every letter, we reserve the right to refuse any which we deem inappropriate for a community forum. Name, address, and phone number must be included.

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The Takoma Voice
P.O. Box 11262 Takoma Park, MD 20913
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This is our town; these are our values A reaction to President Bush's visit to Montgomery Blair by Elliott Wolf Montgomery Blair H.S. class of 2004 My decision to take part in the June 23 demonstration at Montgomery Blair against President Bush's visit had absolutely nothing to do with political ideology, social security, or the war in Iraq. Neither President Bush, his supporters inside Blair, the political figures seeking to capitalize on the demonstration outside, or the demonstrators themselves truly know what is "best" for Social Security, and I certainly don't. I accept that Bush has a duty to explain to the American people whatever agenda he intends to push and allow for discussion of that agenda, and I am willing to listen to what he has to say. I marched that day precisely because Bush has utterly failed in this obligation. If he planned to come to Blair and into our community, he should have to address members of this community. But throughout his presidency, he has filled audiences with supporters and avoided tough questions about his policies--implicitly suggesting that all of the communities that he visits warmly welcome him and support him. He tried to do the same thing with Silver Spring and the community surrounding Montgomery Blair. Photo: Julie Wiatt Elliott Wolf And unfortunately, at the end of the day, Bush had successfully used a Montgomery County facility that was guarded by Montgomery County law enforcement for propaganda purposes, all while the people of Montgomery County were kept outside. Afterwards, County Executive Doug Duncan clearly distanced himself from the president's remarks, but that doesn't change the substance of what happened. Despite the county's complicity in Bush's use of Blair, we can still thank the police involved for not going as far as they could have--and other departments have--during other Bush events. They should be applauded for their decision to close a section of University Boulevard after several hundred protesters surged into the street and began marching. The police thankfully chose to avoid a serious confrontation where they would have been significantly outnumbered, and allowed us further opportunity to express our message. However, there were instances where they did go further than their basic obligation of allowing traffic flow and protecting the safety of the demonstrators, and tried to keep us out of sight. After receiving a series of radio calls, officers pushed people on the sidewalk along Colesville Road northward and away from the route of the motorcade, all in the name of our own "personal safety." Were it not for a group that got there early and physically struggled with officers to prevent being moved too far, the demonstration would not have been able to deliver the one-fingered salute, en masse, to the departing President. Even after the President and other dignitaries had left, we were still kept far away from the school as Bush's supporters left the building. And throughout this whole event, it wasn't the Secret Service keeping us out of the school that I attended for four years; it was the Montgomery County Police Department and the Montgomery County Sheriff. Officers kept reassuring us of their respect for what we were doing and that they didn't politically disagree with us, but that didn't change the fact that they did help the political mission of Bush's visit and kept us far from the supporters brought in to represent us. As Blair alumni, we had to watch those supporters step off of the same Montgomery County school buses that we rode to school and take their seats inside our auditorium and represent us to the nation. They went in to cheer the President and make statements of unquestioning adoration, sentiments that were meant to be attributed to us. By bringing in Blair alumnus Ben Stein (one of the very few conservatives to ever come out of Blair), and by seating bleachers of young RNC interns behind Bush as if they were students, the scene was complete and the Bush Administration had a relatively convincing picture of a strongly supportive Montgomery Blair High School. Luckily, the people of Silver Spring, Takoma Park, and the larger Blair community (on extremely short notice, rallied by a slew of angry emails and announcements) prevented Bush from succeeding, and almost every news account of the speech included some reference to the demonstrations outside by actual Blair students and local residents. The public perception of the event was of a staged town hall meeting where the town was outside protesting. That is why I marched, and that is why so many people came out as well. Bush came to our community, and that community would have the chance to weigh in on what he was saying, whether he liked it or not.

Dear Mayor Porter,

While I have been aware that the City has engaged in a sidewalk enlargement project,
surely you do not have plans to reduce the yards of our most prestigious homes in half.

If the City enlarges   410 and/or "the sidewalk" as currently marked, you will ruin our properties. The entire property value of Takoma Park will plummet.  

Those homes are our showcase homes. Reducing the yards of such stately homes to a mere few feet will ruin their value, forever. They will look absurd.

We will never be able to recover the essence that they create, that of a stately, leisurely and well kept area that is part of a grand, respected pedestrian life.

You are going to be responsible for ruining the character of Takoma Park.

-- Janie Casey
Takoma Park, MD

WMATA shows contempt

I am outraged at the contempt shown to the residents and Metro-commuters of Takoma Park, MD by WMATA in its determination to proceed with the building of 65 to 95 townhouses on the green space at the Takoma Metro.   Not content with pushing development right up to the Takoma DC/Takoma Park line, WMATA, in its short-sightedness and greed, seems intent on destroying the very thing that is drawing new residents and development: the unique character of Takoma Park.

Even before the block-long apartment complex being constructed on the D.C. side next to the Metro has opened, additional traffic is already adding stress, danger and pollution and causing a creeping deterioration of the quality of life in Takoma Park.   Another 65-95 residential units directly at the Metro will seriously increase the traffic problems on all the feeder roads.   The increased population caused by Takoma D.C. residential construction is already causing a rise in crime in Takoma Park; a recent University of Illinois study found that the destruction of green space leads to increased crime in the surrounding residential area.

It's only a matter of time before many of the long-time residents who have ensured Takoma Park's stability and safety will be forced to try to find quality of life elsewhere.   That's not hyperbole:   the historic and Old Town areas of Takoma Park are very small, and it is indisputable that by the green space at the Metro has provided a crucial buffer.   Takoma Park will lose its essence, and something unique to the entire D.C. metropolitan area will be gone forever.   But I guess WMATA doesn't care about the cost to the entire metropolitan area it serves any more than it cares about the Metro commuters who support it in Takoma Park.

Takoma Park, Maryland, has fought to preserve its character as a quiet, green, safe community for many decades.   I don't know if there are laws granting a community the right to preserve its nature against the intrusion of outside development that will destroy its character.   Nor do I know if Takoma Park may find a way to sue for the detriment caused to its entire community.   But when a community has fought as long, hard and consistently to protect its nature as Takoma Park has, there certainly should be a law.

-- Linda O'Brien
Takoma Park, MD

Farewell to a young ambassador

We are saying goodbye to a young Egyptian,   Ahmed Kassab, an exchange student with the
Program for Academic Exchange (PAX), who has been staying with the Keller family on Lincoln Avenue in Takoma Park.

Ahmed attended 10th grade at Blair High School. He's played teen coed softball with the Babe Ruth league, using his nickname "Rocky," and has vowed to start a baseball league in Giza,.

He is a young man of intelligence, grace and confidence.

At a time violent with global cultural misunderstanding and mistrust, PAX--a State Department program for academic exchange--is a valuable way to plant seeds of understanding and trust for the future. We have learned from Ahmed, and enjoyed his company. His visit here gives us hope.

We are sad to see him go, and will miss him, because he has become a friend.

-- Julie Wiatt
Voice Assistant Editor

Intolerance not homeless in some hearts and minds

Beyond alarming statistics, we've all seen these human beings.  Some congregate under the
awnings of local storefronts for shade, especially in the region's unforgiving summer weather.  In my neighborhood, several homeless people have made a home out of abandoned buses owned by a neighborhood church.  

I was concerned for the residents of the buses, guessing that no one would prefer to live in a bus.  But I was jarred back to reality when a neighbor reminded me that our property values are at risk because of the "human waste."  Of course, my appraisal is far more important that someone living in an abandoned school bus in sweltering heat.  What was I thinking?

Aside from the homeless issue in communities across the County, is the ever-growing immigrant population, specifically the Latino immigrant population, and continuing outreach issues.  I hadn't made the correlation except to consider perhaps that some Latinos, especially new immigrants, are the most disenfranchised from social services, particularly those who may be here illegally.  

That's what I thought, until still another neighbor pointed out that most of the homeless in our community seem to be Hispanic, and that homeless Hispanics are illegal which explains why they do not or have not availed themselves of the County's social services.

I sent this person a note offering my guesses that perhaps the insinuations were not correct.  That not all immigrants are illegal and, maybe, not all immigrants are Latino.  I think it would follow then that not all Latino immigrants are illegal and not all Latinos are immigrants...but, hey, I'm only an American-born Latina who is a homeowner with a Master's degree, I could be wrong.

I'll pose here the same question I asked my neighbors:  How many of us, if we were homebuyers today, could afford to purchase the very homes we are blessed to live in today...in the communities in which we live?

After all of this, I've learned one very important lesson:  for some, home values and tolerance have an inverse relationship.  And until the latter matches the former -- or at least is reaching to be higher -- there is a lot more that needs to be cured in our communities other than homelessness and immigrant transition.

-- María Elena Montero
Silver Spring, MD

I like Ike!

Kudos to former Montgomery Council President Isiah "Ike" Leggett for his strong public support of the original design of the Silver Spring Civic Building and Veterans Plaza, one undiminished by County Council budget cuts and cost savings.

At the last meeting of the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board, Mr. Leggett recalled the promises made to the Silver Spring community by County Executive Doug Duncan that our downtown Silver Spring would have a shimmering public gathering space, incorporating a Great Hall equal in size to its predecessor, a community pavilion, and a public skating rink.  

Mr. Leggett said that this vision was in jeopardy because the County Executive, County Council, and their budget planners have forgotten the "compact" that was made between our neighbors and the County authorities when they tore down the Silver Spring Armory. Mr. Leggett, a military veteran, said that the old Armory was an powerful tribute to all Americans who have served in our armed forces, and that a new veterans memorial would be an important symbol of our community's history and values.  

Mr. Leggett reminded us, as Silver Spring's economic development moves forward, that it's important to place the people's needs ahead of developer's profits and shortsighted government spending cuts.   That is a very important message.

--Alan S. Bowser
Silver Spring, Maryland

Alan Bowser is co-Chairman of the Neighborhoods Committee of the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board.

Saturday Market has been farmed out

I am dismayed by the treatment of the farmers of the Silver Spring Farmers Market. Under the new rules, the Montgomery County farmers cannot work with the out-of-state company imposed on them.

Only one Montgomery County farmer, Charles Koiner, has been able to stay--and only because the county is paying his fees.

FreshFarm is using its nonprofit status to take advantage of free county space. But this is not a local nonprofit that benefits the county's farmers: according to the Silver Spring Voice, it is a corporation sizeable enough to be recognized by the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times of London as "one of the top farmers' markets in the United States."

The market like so much else in Silver Spring is hype and out-of-state chain business. In light of what is really happening--that our local farmers have been displaced by show biz--the celebrated ringing of the bell to open the

market is just nauseating pretense that this is an old world farmers market. The French do not have circuses at their farmers markets. We do not need jugglers, chefs and noisy sideshows. We do not need to transform every aspect of life into entertainment.

The French understand the importance of farmers markets. Markets are places where people not only purchase locally produced, healthy food but learn about food--from the farmers as well as neighbors. They are also places for neighbors to meet. Farmers markets are not consumer circuses. Furthermore as the costs of fuel rises, the importance of local farmers and their produce to food prices will become clearer. Increasingly the value of fresh, locally produced foods is being understood as a foundation of health. To see the relationship between food and health demonstrated, look at the French.

I am disappointed that the county has overlooked something as simple as supporting the farmers who provide the people of the county with local, fresh and affordable food. Food systems experts like Joan Gussow have written extensively about the urgent need to relocalize the food supply--it is costly to import food, even from nearby states, and will become costlier as the formerly hidden cost of fuel has to be incorporated in the cost of food, as we are now seeing happen.

Fresh food contributes to health. Local farms reduce greenhouse gases by reducing fuel needs for transportation and organic farms act as carbon sinks (Rodale Institute study) as well as produce healthy food without significantly lower petroleum inputs. Our local farm community should be treated as the asset it is, not as a liability.

--Elizabeth Nobbe
Silver Spring, MD