Voices From The Readers – March 24, 2017

Voices From The Readers – March 24, 2017
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Anonymous Generosity Much Appreciated

Editor

Last year I wrote a thank you letter to an unknown couple who dropped off a couple of bags of groceries and a coffee can full of bills and coins. My letter was from the volunteers and the community we serve at the food pantry Shepherd’s Crook at Talbot Street and Baltimore Avenue. I have since called this a “drop by donation” and I believe that we have at least two couples and possibly more that made a total of eight donations in 2016 for over $1,500.

Well, here it is 2017 and we have received two more this year. I again want to shout out a great big thank you to our donors. This just doesn’t seem to be enough of a thank you but since our friends wish to remain unnamed, this is the best that I can do. We are very grateful.

Shepherd’s Crook food pantry is sponsored by 6 churches with both volunteers and funds. We are open 5 days each week from 10am till noon, closed on Wednesday and Sunday. We serve between 40 and 50 people each day in the off season and in season we serve as many as 120 in a day. There are no restrictions for who can come in and all are welcome. We even have vacationers looking at shops during the season that come in and ask what it is that we are selling. When told that we are a food pantry, it is not unusual for them to make a cash offering to help.

To our “drop by” donors, your message to all of our volunteers is heard loud and clear. We thank you in return.

Bruce Young

Ocean City

(The writer is the volunteer coordinator for the Shepherd’s Crook.)

Styrofoam Dangers Important To Note

Editor:

Expanded polystyrene foam is a huge problem in our ocean, bays, rivers, harbors and on our beaches here in Maryland. EPS foam is also known by its trademarked name Styrofoam. The “Trash Wheel” on the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor finds polystyrene containers to be the second most prevalent item polluting the bay. It is lightweight, it floats and it does not breakdown in our environment. It only breaks into smaller and smaller pieces.

These qualities make it an enormous litter problem in our ocean beaches and back bays as well. Much of this is from disposable food packaging in the form of cups, plates, trays and “clamshells” containers, which are meant to be used only once, only for a few minutes sometimes, but the litter left behind is long lasting and widespread.

To deal with this scourge of litter, places like Washington DC, Prince Georges and Montgomery County have banned EPS foam food containers. This has reduced the amount of litter found in river trash traps on in cleanups in those areas substantially.

Now a bill introduced into the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate aims to ban EPS foam in takeout containers statewide. This is an opportunity for the rest of the state to reap the benefits of less litter and for our part of the state to see cleaner beaches and waterways. We at the Surfrider Foundation urge our local lawmakers to support this bill and have the entire state see the benefits at few northern counties have already realized. This will be a great step towards cleaner oceans waves and beaches in Maryland.

Erica Amalfitano

(The writer is the vice chairman of the Surfrider Ocean City Chapter.)

Officials Commended

Editor:

On a positive tone and simply put, I would like to commend all Ocean City Council members and Mayor Meehan for your continued efforts and hard work in making Ocean City a better place.

No doubt, the love and passion that each and every one of you has for Ocean City is evident to me as a resident who at times attends public City Council Meetings when my schedule permits. I enjoy experiencing the opportunity to watch my local government at work.

No doubt that holding an elected position such as yours, you also hear from residents from the flip side who may not be supportive over an item. Residents expressing their individual concerns of disagreement onto you, although appropriate and reasonable, what I find most unfortunate the level of negativity about our local elected officials that I read about from some of our local residents. As residents we have the right to express our thoughts and opinions and understandingly not all will be expressed in a positive light. It appears to me from what I continuously read in local publications that some of our residents seem to take objection with a great number of topics and may not be happy with officials at all.

I am a resident of Ocean City and in my ninth year here and see our local town government elected officials in a positive light and do appreciate the tough job that you all are doing. There is no doubt in my mind that you are passionate about Ocean City, you care about its residents, and you make decisions that you feel are best for Ocean City.

It’s a given that not all your decisions as a group will be pleasing to all, but that comes with the job. From one resident who wanted to express my overall thumbs up to you all. Thank you for serving Ocean City.

Doug Antos

Ocean City

School Choice Welcomed

Editor:

HR 610, the School Choice Act, will eliminate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which was passed as a part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” Federal funds that are now given to schools will be given to parents who choose to enroll their children in private schools or to homeschool their children.

Finally, the right to choose. Oh, but wait, the liberals don’t like this. I thought they support the right for a women to choose. I was just told that that only applies to choosing whether their unborn child lives or dies but not the right for her to choose where her still alive children can go to school. These same women don’t like the right to choose where their Social Security money can be invested, or the right to choose to have a gun, or the right to choose not to bake a cake that supports something they do not believe in, or the right to choose same sex privacy in the bathroom, or the right to choose to turn away dangerous foreigners from our shores, or the right to choose who can rent their property, or the right to choose not to wear a seat belt or a helmet, or the right to choose to have a commercial establishment that allows smoking, or the right for a priest to choose to write a sermon promoting a politician, or the right to choose to speak about conservative values at a college, or the right to choose to speak freely on a college campus outside of a free speech zone, or the right to choose to where your union dues go, or the right to choose to pay employees what you want to, or the right to choose to burn as much fossils fuels as you can afford, etc. Those that are opposed to these free choices are called liberal, progressives and have found their home in the Democrat party. They illustrate here, and in many, many other examples of their profound hypocrisy.

They argue that HR 610 abolishes the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act. It is not the state’s or county’s responsibility to feed children. Hey liberal, flash, it is the PARENT”S responsibility!! They also argue school vouchers for private schools have mixed results. Catholic and private schools are enjoying phenomenal success rates at a far less expense then public schools. It is a disgrace that Worcester County educates our children at over 18 thousand per student per year and this May the school employees will scream for more money at the budget hearing as they always do. The county commissioners should demand an itemized listing of where all this money is being allocated before a budget approval. Why can private schools and Catholic schools educate so well for so much less?

Remember this, Vladimir Lenin said, “give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted”. The liberal/ progressives want public schools and the ridiculously liberal colleges to continue to influence our children and instill in them, directly and indirectly, that America is not such a great place and capitalism is harmful for all mankind and especially the earth.

Tell Rep. Andy Harris that school choice is part of our American freedoms and to continue to support HR 610.

Dennis W Evans

Berlin