IMPROVE SECURITY, BUT DON'T CLOSE THOSE STREETS

Column:LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Monday, November 7, 1994

While everyone would agree that the president should be protected as much as possible, I was happy to see that he does not intend to allow the recent shooting incident to serve as an excuse to close Pennsylvania Avenue and E Street {front page, Oct. 30} .

Surely patrolling the perimeter of the White House grounds can be improved by the Secret Service and the police without either disrupting the daily activities and travel of thousands of people in the District or making the White House less accessible to the hundreds of thousands of tourists who wish to see it every year.

I hope the actions of one apparently unbalanced individual will not be used to justify closing the streets that so many use every day, while turning the White House into a fortress.

It is worth noting that the gunman was on foot and not in an automobile. Likewise, the other recent incident had nothing to do with people driving on the roads around the White House but rather with a suicidal pilot flying a small plane.

DAVID B. GRAHAM

McLean