Grocery stores and alcohol don’t mix

I strongly agree with the recent letter to the editor from David Holmack disagreeing with the idea of allowing supermarkets to sell alcohol (“Why reward price-gouging grocers?” Dec. 30). The greed machine has already taken over the health care and banking industries and that success has wetted their appetites to rip off even more Americans.

Our elected leaders have failed to protect us. Once a month, I share lunch with friends at a supermarket and I buy a 20-ounce cola that has fluctuated in price from $2.20 to $2.80 and back again. These prices cannot be justified. The grocery lobby must be busy in Annapolis having seen how successful the health care and banking industries have been at convincing state leaders that Maryland voters and taxpayers can be played as suckers. So far, they have been right, but I sense a change is coming as the electorate is fed up.

I also don’t like the way supermarkets treat their employees. Employees who spent most of their careers as cashiers now struggle to stock shelves. Let’s stop pretending that all corporations treat their employees and customers well. It is all about the bottom line.

Now that I have to scan and bag, I should receive a discount — or be placed on the payroll.

— Edward McCarey McDonnell, Baltimore

There are no others like Ron Smith

Count me among those sorely missing former radio talk show host Ron Smith (“Ron Smith is sorely missed on the airwaves,” Dec. 30).

One of my favorite recollections from his program was the time when Smith offered a critical criteria for evaluating a candidate running for office. It was during Pat Buchanan’s bid for the Republican nomination for which he was gaining traction. A caller asked Smith what he thought of the former Richard Nixon speechwriter.

“Well, he irritates all the right people” was his response. By that he meant not only Democrats and the mainstream media, but also big-government, establishment Republicans. And in this modern era, no one does that better than Donald Trump.

I have fervently searched for a suitable replacement on the airwaves, but there isn’t one.

— Dave Reich, Perry Hall

Don’t tie the late Ron Smith to the dreadful Donald Trump

The recent article, “Ron Smith is sorely missed on the airwaves” (Jan. 2), about Ron Smith was an excellent commentary on an outstanding radio personality and analyst of issues great and small. As the headline observed, he “is sorely missed.” However, calling Smith “Trumpian” is an insult to his memory and I’m amazed that his widow (one of the authors of the article) would allow such a calumny to stand.

Smith would have quickly recognized Donald Trump for the blowhard, phony and braying jackass he has always been and never would have supported such a liar and con man. Of course, Richard Vatz, the other author, had to further sully the otherwise enlightening commentary by gratuitously informing the reader that he “voted for Trump.” Of course, he did. Though Vatz proclaims himself to be a “Howard Baker Republican,” his past letters and commentaries have proven that he is far from it.

Former U.S. Senate Minority Leader Baker of Tennessee, who died in 2014, was much too smart to have ever been a supporter of Trump. Ron Smith was great at what he did; Donald Trump not so much.

— Harris Factor, Columbia

Gaza strip searches are objectively inhumane

Strip searches and forced marches when temperatures average between 42 and 53 degrees (as they are right now) is not a time when I would want to be outside in my underwear (“Weather report changes outlook on strip searches,” Dec. 30). At this time, all the people of Gaza are all hungry with many only having one meal a day.

American doctors who have returned from Gaza report every child they saw was malnourished. Withstanding lower temperatures while being malnourished is difficult. There is very little clean water so many children have diarrhea. I hope that people read about what is occurring from other news sources rather than commercialized news.

I listen to Democracy Now and feel much better informed. Thank you, Baltimore Sun, for having a platform to write my thoughts.

— Kathy Bartolomeo, Greenbelt