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Praying for a miracle
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EDITORIALS
main unaccounted for. Not since a 1984 fire in Utah has there been such loss of life at a coal mine. And it shouldn’t have happened. After the 2006 Sago mine disaster in West Vir- ginia, Congress passed the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act. Its provi- sions included a requirement for emergency re- sponse plans and a mandate for breathable air underground that could be accessible in the event of an accident. Civil and criminal penal- ties were also increased for violations of safety standards, and the Mine Safety and Health Ad- ministration was given the authority to tempo-
T
Say no to no
On financial reform, the GOP
should get with the program.
W
ITH HEALTH CARE behind it, Con- gress seems likely to turn next to finan- cial regulatory reform. As a matter of policy, this project is both necessary
and complex. As a matter of politics, it would be difficult under the best of circumstances to achieve a bipartisan solution before memories of the financial crisis begin to fade — much less by Memorial Day, as the White House wishes. Unfor- tunately, these are not the best of political circumstances. The Senate Banking Committee has reported a bill on a party-line vote. This was something of a surprise, because, until the end, Republicans on the committee, with Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) taking the lead, were negotiating with their Demo- cratic counterparts. What happened next is a mat- ter of some debate, but it’s clear that the process got caught up in an all-too-familiar dynamic of po- larization. The Senate Republican leadership balked at a deal, and an exasperated White House pressed Banking Committee Chairman Christo- pher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) to pull the plug on his at- tempt to achieve consensus. It is very noteworthy that the Republican most deeply involved in the talks, Mr. Corker, characterized this outcome as “a strategic error” by his party. Since then, the Obama administration has been sending clear signals that, on this issue, it believes it has the upper hand — and that it is not going to let the banking lobby or the Republicans get in the way of a bill. “Be careful whose voice you listen to,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner warned an audience at the conservative American En- terprise Institute recently. Plainly, the White House has calculated that there are political points to be scored in November by advocating a measure that would create a consumer financial protection agency and shield taxpayers from “too big to fail” institutions — and accusing the GOP of shilling for Wall Street. For its part, some Repub- licans calculate that the party can make hay by ar- guing that the bill is a formula for more bailouts.
A West Virginia coal mine explosion demands action.
HE HEARTACHE that has gripped Montcoal, W.Va., is unfathomable. A huge explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine on Monday claimed the lives of 25 miners. Four miners re-
rarily shut a facility for nonpayment. Would that Upper Big Branch had been shuttered. Last month alone, Massey Energy, the owner of the Upper Big Branch mine and the fourth- largest producer of coal in the United States, racked up dozens of safety violations. It was hit with about 50 citations, many of which were for failure to maintain proper escape routes, inade- quate protection from roof falls and for poor ventilation of dust and menthane. A buildup of the toxic gas is believed to be the cause of Mon- day’s explosion. Between 2005 and Monday, Massey Energy has been hit with 1,342 vio- lations worth $1.89 million in fines. The com- pany’s safety violations over the past year have cost it more than $382,000. Gov. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) described the ex- plosion as “a really horrific blast.” Rescue at-
tempts had to be called off because of dangerous levels of methane. Four holes are being drilled near where the missing miners are believed to be in order to ventilate the gas and allow rescu- ers to go in and find them. But the drilling op- eration won’t be complete until sometime Wednesday. Everyone is hoping for a miracle like the one
in Sago where, 40 hours after an explosion, Ran- dal McCloy Jr. was pulled out alive. It could be that the Montcoal miners are safe in an airtight chamber that has four days’ worth of food, water and oxygen. Whatever the outcome, regulators — or Congress — must find out what happened and ensure that if safety violations are involved, those responsible are held accountable. Coal mining is dangerous, but that doesn’t mean that mines can’t be operated safely.
TOM TOLES
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 2010
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
dletters@washpost.com
Blaming and defending the pope
Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl’s April 4 op-ed, “Res-
urrection and redemption,” which addressed clergy’s sexual abuse of children, manifested a blindness that seems to afflict so many, if not all, of the Catholic hierarchy. The problem with his affirmation of the bishops’
extensive efforts to prevent continuing sexual abuse of children is not what is said but what is not said. No mention is made of the massive failure of so many bishops who covered up the sexual abuse. No serious effort has been made to sanction the bishops who reassigned abusers to other parishes, where abuse continued. Can anyone imagine the top leaders of business, government or school systems remaining in office to institute rigorous prevention programs in the future when they themselves failed to correct abuses or face sanctions for their failures? The only offenders Archbishop Wuerl finds are priests. What better way to vilify “the vast majority of [priests] who faithfully live out their promises to serve Christ and his people”? One of the abuse survivors who met with the pope during his visit to Washington in 2008 told the pope he needed to address a “cancer” in the church. Until the pope and the bishops accept full responsibility and hold offending bishops as well as abuser priests accountable, the needed healing and hoped-for “redemption” will not happen.
BILLCASEY, Alexandria BOB STEWART, Chantilly
Bill Casey is chairman of the board of trustees of the national Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic lay group that addresses issues related to sexual abuse by clergy. Bob Stewart is a member of the steering committee of the Voice of the Faithful affiliate in Washington.
Though it was irresponsible for The Post to publish Richard Dawkins’s vicious, purely emotive comment [“Should the pope resign?” On Faith, April 3] that the Catholic Church is a “profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution,” That comment perfectly vindicated the point of the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa’s Jewish friend. The friend had told Cantalamessa that the way the enemies of the church were taking advantage of the suffering of the abuse victims to slander the church was repulsive and reminiscent of the scapegoating and vitriol that have been hallmarks of anti-Semitism [“Vatican priest fans fire on abuse,” front page, April 3]. Mr. Dawkins’s hateful statements have no place in
rational discourse. It would be merely ironic, if it weren’t so ugly, that the man who purports to ground himself solely in science and logic could give voice to an emotional, hate-filled outburst devoid of any reasoning.
DANIEL J. HETTICH, Fairfax
Timothy Shriver’s April 5 op-ed, “Converting the
pope,” was pernicious. He conceded that “the pope may not be guilty of any wrongdoing, but the [church] culture is.” But if the pope is not guilty — and there is not a shred of evidence he did anything wrong — then what allows Mr. Shriver to toy with the idea of his resignation and then conclude he must “convert”? Institutional cultures exist, and those at the top must be held somewhat accountable, but if that’s all there is in the way of culpability, then it’s a pretty thin reed to hang a man on. And if this is to be the new standard of justice, then those who run The Post (and every other organization) need to have their lawyers’ phone numbers ready.
BILLDONOHUE, New York
The writer is president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Politically, the White House may well be correct.
President Obama and congressional Democrats can afford to play hardball: If they get a bill that reflects mainly their ideas, they win; if the Repub- licans kill it with a filibuster, Democrats win any- way. This only makes the Republican leadership’s apparent strategy that much more puzzling. By all means, the GOP should leverage its 41 Senate votes
to obtain reasonable concessions on genuine is- sues. But it should not play the politics of no. And if the GOP does offer to bargain in good faith, even at this relatively late date, the administration should respond positively. Whatever the politics, contributions from both sides would produce the best — and most politically sustainable — finan- cial regulatory reform for the country.
Airbrushing Virginia’s history
Gov. McDonnell and the politics of historical omission
I
T WAS only in 1997, 132 years after the Civil War, that Virginia finally retired “Carry Me Back to Old Virginia” as its state song, ac- knowledging that the lyrics (including “this
old darky’s heart” and “old Massa”) offended blacks, among others. Now, inexplicably, Gov. Rob- ert F. McDonnell (R) has issued a proclamation that blatantly airbrushes the history of Virginia, the Civil War and the United States, again raising questions about how far the Old Dominion has evolved, or not. It’s fine that Mr. McDonnell decided to proclaim April as Confederate History Month; the Confeder- acy is an important chapter of history that merits study and draws tourists to Virginia. But any seri- ous statement on the Confederacy and the Civil War would at least recognize the obvious fact — that slavery was the major cause of the war, and that the Confederacy fought largely in defense of what it called “property,” which meant the right to own slaves. Instead, Mr. McDonnell’s proclamation chose to omit this, declaring instead that Vir- ginians fought “for their homes and communities
and Commonwealth.” The words “slavery” and “slaves” do not appear. Even more incendiary is the proclamation’s di-
rective that “all Virginians” must appreciate the state’s “shared” history and the Confederacy’s sac- rifices. Surely he isn’t including the 500,000 Vir- ginia slaves who constituted more than a quarter of the state’s Civil War-era population, who cheered the Union and ran away to it when they could. As James McPherson, dean of Civil War scholars, commented on learning of Mr. McDonnell’s procla- mation: “I find it obnoxious, but it’s extremely typ- ical. The people that emphasize Confederate heri- tage and the legacy, and the importance of under- standing Confederate history, want to deny that Confederate history was ultimately bound up with slavery. But that was the principal reason for seces- sion — that an anti-slavery party was elected to the White House.... And without secession, there wouldn’t have been a war.” It’s difficult to understand why Mr. McDonnell, who in his inaugural address paid eloquent hom- age to former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the grandson
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A monumental lack of vision
Columnist John Kelly’s April Fools’ satire, “A
fool’s monumental errand, in more ways than one,” revealed a sad truth: Our monument to George Washington has never received its intended land- scape setting. The vast grounds are a void
at the center of the Mall’s cross axis. The McMillan Commis- sion of 1902 planned for the monument grounds to be “the gem of the Mall system” with lush gardens and water features to furnish a wel- coming destination for visitors and a fitting set- ting for the obelisk “so great and so simple that it seems to be almost a work of nature.” Yet in the 1930s, Congress abandoned the McMillan concept out of concern that construc-
The vast grounds around the Washington Monument are a void at the center of the Mall’s cross axis.
tion could undermine the monument’s founda- tion. In 2004, security walls added a completely new design feature. Meanwhile, at the original intended symbolic location for the monument stands a simple granite block unno- ticed by the Mall’s 25 million annual visitors. The Mall desperately needs
a vision for the monument grounds that responds to the modern needs of our country
and capital city but also gives expression, at long last, to the great legacy of the historic visions. Next time you’re down there, take a hard look.
JUDY SCOTT FELDMAN, Rockville
The writer is chair of the National Coalition to Save Our Mall.
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of slaves, and spoke movingly of slavery’s evils, would now trade in such glaring historical omis- sions. Charitably, we might suspect sloppy staff work; less charitably, we’d guess he is pandering to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that lionizes the Confederacy and pressed for the proc- lamation. It’s possible the governor thought he was being sensitive by eliminating the obnoxious glori- fication of the Confederacy’s “cause,” a word that appeared in a similar proclamation by former gov- ernor George Allen (R), whose idea of office decor ran to Confederate flags and nooses. If Mr. McDonnell was unable to draft a histor- ically honest statement, the best course would have been to follow the example of his direct predeces- sors, former Democratic governors Timothy M. Kaine and Mark L. Warner, who sidestepped the is- sue. After all, Virginians have studied and recog- nized the Civil War for generations without in- structions from the governor. And as Mr. Warner said, such proclamations are too often lightning rods that exacerbate racial wounds rather than soothe them.
Michael Maccoby, an anthropologist and
psychoanalyst, expressed the feelings of many when he said, “When there are errors or crimes in an organization, leaders need to decide whether they are caused by a wayward individual or a faulty system. The challenge to Pope Benedict XVI is not just holding people to account or increasing policing to prevent child abuse. It is transforming the priesthood so that it neither attracts nor shelters abusers” [“Has Pope Benedict led effectively amid the sex scandal?,” On Leadership, Business,” April 5]. Celibacy is an unnatural human condition and leads to unnatural consequences. Allowing priests to marry and ordaining women would be a bold act of leadership.
ESTELLE JACOBS, Chevy Chase
Excuse me while I text and drive
In response to the April 4 front-page article “Eyes and minds off the road,” I found myself nodding in [left turn] agreement that most people [downshift] believe that they are [check scores] more skilled than other drivers [brake] and can [sip coffee] multi-task. As our society [accelerate] is delivered more electronic [check e-mail] gadgets, the chal- lenge will be to [text girlfriend] balance the time and place in which we [update status] use them. For me, [download app] the challenge is to type my re- sponse to [change lanes] this article on my phone while driving without getting into an [ACCIDENT!].
GRAHAMKING, Washington
How to change the citizenship law
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The April 3 letter from Donald Kerwin dis- agreeing with George F. Will’s March 28 column concerning immigrant babies and citizenship [“A citizenship birthright? Maybe not.”] mentioned the Dred Scott decision but failed to note that the pur- pose of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amend- ment was precisely to undo this decision by granting citizenship rights to freed slaves. The then-Republican administration was moti-
vated by fear that if freed slaves could not vote, only Democrats would be returned to Congress from states of the old Confederacy. The amendment was never intended to grant citizenship to persons who entered the country illegally — at the time there were no restrictions on immigration.
An ample body of legal scholarship regarding the citizenship clause indicates that this provision could be altered by federal statute without amending the Constitution. Thus, for example, Congress could pass a statute stipulating that for a person born in the United States to acquire citizenship at birth, at least one parent must be either a citizen or a lawful resident. Very few countries, if any, emulate the anachronistic U.S. practice — and for good reason. In the case of the United States, it is a powerful in- centive for young women to enter the country ille- gally, give birth and then use these “anchor babies” as a rationale for remaining in the country in vio- lation of U.S. law.
ALLANWENDT, Washington
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