ABC Board is losing a good man Re: “Gray won’t reappoint embattled alcohol board chairman,” March 23
For more than four years, I have observed Chairman Charles Brodsky and the other members of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board at any number of hearings. Under Brodsky, the board deliberated behind closed doors where, its critics maintain, it favored business over residents’ interests and ignored the law, zoning and public space ordinances — even its own precedents.
I am confident that Mital Gandhi, in contrast, decided matters according to the criteria enumerated in the D.C. Official Code. Our case involved the effect of a rogue nightclub on the West Dupont neighborhood. Fifty-six residents of the condominium next door, Ward 2 council member Jack Evans, and ANC 2B all opposed renewal of that establishment’s alcoholic beverage license.
As much as I admire Mr. Gandhi for resigning from the ABC Board on principle, I would have felt better with him on it. The District has lost a conscientious public servant to its government’s pervasive culture of corruption.
John Hammond
Washington
Terrorists attack Israel despite major concessions
Re: “Israel: Bomb rocks Jerusalem bus stop, killing woman,” March 24
It is the standard ploy of both Fatah and Hamas that if Israel does not make concessions without negotiations, both will resort to terror. The murder of a young couple and their three children, including a 3-month-old baby, by the military wing of Fatah was only one of the most recent examples. With checkpoints lifted, Palestinian terrorists have now penetrated into the very heart of Jerusalem, killing one person and critically wounding over 30 others.
Despite its gracious gesture in removing almost 10,000 of its own citizens from Gaza to give control of that area to Hamas, Israel has been rewarded with continuous rocket attacks that are increasing in intensity and range within the past few months. Its only option against the continuous flow of propaganda from Palestinian leaders, media and in the schools is to refuse further concessions and punish the perpetrators of the recent atrocities.
Nelson Marans
Silver Spring
Democrats’ experiment with entitlements has failed
So long as he acts legally, a president with veto-proof congressional support has absolute power. Only three modern presidents have enjoyed such power: Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Barack Obama.
Well-meaning Democrats took the social programs of Roosevelt and expanded them into Johnson’s “Great Society”. Thereafter, Democratic Congresses hung new ornaments on the established welfare structure, expanding and protecting it.
Their alleged purpose? To create the perfect nation in which everyone has a job, a home, a pension and cradle-to-grave health care. But the experiment failed, and that failure has been so expensive that debt directly associated with it threatens the continued existence of America as a great and prosperous nation.
Entitlements will never be restructured until conservative Republicans acquire veto-proof power, or until a coalition of leaders from both sides of the aisle agrees to seek solutions. But the possibility of either of those happening is slim, at best.
Robert E. Kelly
Peabody, Mass.
