Voting someone because we "owe" them is utterly ridiculous. What Schaefer is owed is a proper send off. Yes, he did great things for this city and state.

What we owed him, was a vote out of office before he disgraced his legacy any further.

I was having trouble understanding why the paper has been full of articles about Schaefer of the sort that are usually printed when someone dies. WDS is still alive and claims he won't be retiring anytime soon, so why the obituaries?

Your column today gave one good explanation. Those who only remember him these last 5+ years need to know who WDS really was.

I too remember the mayor; before Harborplace. The original City Fair was held at the vacant inner harbor. As a young married couple we bought a house in Waverly for $15,000. The Mayor sent us Christmas cards because we had given him a shamrock for his office. A true public servent.

Thank you!!!! I chose to remember Mr. Schaefer as a dedicated public servant who loves our city and state and its citizens. We need more public officials with such integrity, honesty, and compassion.

He will be sorely missed.

You got it straight from Willie Don. It wasn't sugarcoated. It was to the point. So what if the presentation wasn't PC we understood and beleived in him. We need more politicians with grapefruits instead of raisins. I will miss him.My wife won't, but I will

Nice column today. Even though he's been a horse's ass of late, he was fiscally conservative, and got the job done.

We will always love him, respect him and appreciate his longetivity, and service to BALTIMORE AND MARYLAND. As city council member then council President when I was working downtown, I would see him walking up to Lexington Market with his brown "re-usable"shopping bags in his searsucker suits, getting groceries for he and his beloved Mom. Remember when he put on the bathing suit, straw hat and got in the pool with his rubber duckies? But, isnt it time he went down to OCEAN CITY and relaxed, retire, and enjoy himself --the man has worked for BALTIMORE AND MARYLAND for waht seems like his entire lifetime. I am not saying put him out to "graze in the pature" but have some fun in the sun -- he certainly deserves it!

I agree with the reader that said we owe Schaefer. He might have been a
real pain to all the politicians he had to deal with but we always felt
it was all for us.
I also think you guys did a pretty good hatchet job on him. It was
pretty one sided. When he made the great Grandmother crack it was in
response to being
referred to as an old Grandfather that needed to take the car keys away.
Now for anyone over 60, that would set them off. Most articles just
concentrated on what Schaefer
said. So you got what you wanted.

Political correctness is mostly for the pundits. I think if you took a
vote in this Country the vast majority would prefer the person in the
drive thru speak English. Somehow we are getting away from what made
this country the great melting pot. It was the new people assimilated
into the Country not the other way around. But that is another debate. I
do admit that thing with the girl was bad. I guess he was just trying to
show he wasn't too old to look.

Anyway, here is a Schaefer story. My best friends grandmother had
several heart attacks and was constantly in and out of City Hospital.
Somehow the billing got screwed up and she owed several hundred thousand
dollars. The hospital had collection people harassing this sick old lady
over an incorrect bill that should have been sent to Medicare. The
hospital wanted this sick old lady to handle it and she just couldn't.
City Hospital wouldn't even deal with my friends mother regarding the
billing error.

My friend's mother got so frustrated that she called the mayor's office.
She told the secretary that her and her mother lived in Baltimore all
their lives and they needed to talk to the Mayor.
The secretary took the message and Mayor Schaefer actually called them
back. Not only that, he promised he would take care of it and he did.
She never heard about that bill again.

It's true we owe him.

Thanks so much for your terrific article about Gov./Mayor Schaefer. Younger friends of mine recently told me they thought he was a clown. It was so hard for me to try to recount all of the wonderful leadership he gave the city during the 70's and 80's.

I was very active in my neighborhood in northeast Baltimore during a time of panic selling and fear of integration. Mayor Schaefer gave us all the courage to work together with the support of city government. We formed a coalition of neighborhoods called the Northeast Community Organization (NECO) and held realtors accountable for their unscrupulous tactics to scare original homeowners from their homes.

The first City Fair was our "coming out party" held in the new Inner Harbor. Neighborhoods showcased their communities and residents actually ventured downtown for the first time in many years. This was particularly notable as it occurred after the riots in 1968 and after the Flower Mart riot in 1969.

I had hopes that the current mayor might inspire similar community spirit and drive. I believed (as he asked) that he could make city government work toward those ends. He has shown nothing to me and, in fact, has demonstrated the very worst leadership the city has seen in my lifetime. Instead of Mayor Schaefer's requested epitaph of "he cared", Mr. O'Malley should be remembered that "he cared - about himself and his political aspirations".

I'm so sorry that Gov. Schaefer has had to endure such a fate. He deserves so much more.