SUNDAY,MAY 30, 2010
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You can’t tax obesity away
Last week, Mary M. Cheh’s penny-per-ounce “soda tax” was
defeated by the D.C. Council, only to be resurrected, in spirit at least, by the council’s decision to apply the city’s 6 percent sales tax to sodas and other sweetened drinks. Obesity in the District is a serious problem. But it is also a complex problem, and taxing sugary drinks is an overly simple solution. The Los Angeles Times put it well in a September 2009 editorial: “The widening of the American silhouette is more complicated than the tax proposals imply, and is not yet fully understood.” Many nutritionists have identified high-fructose corn syrup as one of the main reasons obesity is on the rise. But the reason this product has become so ubiquitous in the food we eat may lie in the tax code itself. The food industry favors high-fructose corn syrup over sugar because it’s cheaper. And one reason it’s cheaper is because corn is so heavily subsidized by our Agriculture Department. Reducing or eliminating these subsidies would force manufacturers to use a better product (sugar), cause the price of these products to increase and perhaps narrow the price gap between healthful and unhealthful foods. But the role of parents cannot be understated. Like many parents, my wife and I are concerned about the foods our daughters eat, and we make sure they eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Educating kids about healthy food choices begins at home. Taking the time to explain to kids how to read labels in simple terms — “If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it” — and emphasizing the link between nutrition and exercise will probably result in those kids turning into adults who eat healthful foods and maintain a healthy weight. Finally, lost in the hue and cry over “soda taxes,” “yoga taxes”
and “theater ticket taxes” is the true purpose of taxation. The primary reason we tax is to raise money for essential services we all need. Because these programs and services benefit everyone, the costs of these programs should be borne by all. Taxing certain groups is divisive, supports the idea that we can get a free lunch and encourages lawmakers to overspend. Constantly examining people’s lifestyles to find ways to tax them is no way to fund our government. The problem of obesity is serious. Let’s find a way to tackle it together.
The writer is a Republican candidate for D.C. Council in Ward 3.
Dave Hedgepeth, Washington
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Cuccinelli forgets the spoonful of sugar
Elected officials often seem like two-dimensional cartoon
characters, and that can be especially true of Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II. Like all politicians, they speak to us mostly through a few
paragraphs in a newspaper, a brief statement on television or an online video. Their words give only a glimpse into the person speaking them, inciting endless speculation. But who are the real Bob and Ken? Some say they share views but communicate them differently. Others place the AG so far to the right he seems about to tip off the political spectrum into utter insanity, while giving the governor a seat closer to the middle. Cuccinelli seems to chalk it up to personality differences.
McDonnell is “a lot more sensitive to people’s view of what goes on in government,” while Cuccinelli sees himself as more “coldly logical,” he told me a few months ago. “My minus is I don’t always deliver the medicine with a spoonful of sugar,” he said. “The spoonful of sugar doesn’t stop the medicine from working, but it makes people feel better when they get the medicine.”
Cuccinelli correctly identifies his propensity to move ahead without worrying about the feelings of others. He seems to delight in rocking the boat, while McDonnell does everything he can to quiet the waves. From how hard McDonnell strives to look like a peaceful
moderate, I would have guessed that he bemoans his sidekick’s attention-grabbing style. But a Time magazine article suggests that Cuccinelli’s conservative sideshow has enabled McDonnell to look like a moderate — a wonderful gift to a governor who spent last fall dodging a conservative thesis he wrote at Regent University 20 years ago.
Cuccinelli likes to contrast his left-brained self with McDonnell’s right-brained ways. He hasn’t backed away from any of the moves he’s made in his new seat. But during our conversation the AG acknowledged he could learn something from the agreeable governor: “In terms of the political consequences, I get in my own way a little bit once in a while.”
Paige Winfield Cunningham, Old Dominion Watchdog
STENY HOYER MECHANICSVILLE TOM DAVIS VIENNA
A fitting celebration at Abe Pollin’s house
On Wednesday, the Pollin fami- ly once again made working fami- lies in Washington their focus, honoring employees at Verizon Center and more than a dozen civ- ic and public service organiza- tions with a free concert featuring the legendary Stevie Wonder. How typically “Pollin” it was that they again gave to all of us. We wanted, in turn, to recognize them. Not long ago, in the mid-1990s, the District was on the brink of fi- nancial collapse. The city couldn’t make payroll. Families were flee- ing to the suburbs for better schools, better jobs, better quality of life. We in Congress did what we could to help the nation’s cap- ital get back on its feet. But in large part, the rebirth of
Washington can be attributed and traced to the remarkable efforts of one man: Abe Pollin. As owner- ship of the Washington Wizards and the Verizon Center transfers from the Pollin family to another
visionary, Ted Leonsis, let’s take a moment to reflect on all that Abe did for our community. He didn’t have to bring the Bal- timore Bullets here, or the Cap- itals. He didn’t have to build Veri- zon Center, with his own money, in the heart of downtown D.C. He didn’t have to build the Linda Pollin Memorial Housing Project in Southeast Washington, em- ploying some of the first racially integrated construction crews in the District. He didn’t have to con- tribute to UNICEF and dozens of local charities such as the I Have a Dream Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club, or establish the Pollin Prize, a $200,000 annual award for pediatric research. But he did, because above all else, Abe Pollin was a builder — of buildings, of sports franchises, of communities, of dreams. Verizon Center is “The House That Abe Built.” And, for many of us, so is downtown Washington. With the Pollins’ imminent sale
to Leonsis, the houses that Abe built are in good hands. And that is good for the Wizards — and all Washingtonians. Abe saw in Ted someone much like himself: a striver from an immigrant family who knows the meaning of hard work, believes in giving some- thing back to the community, and practices a management style that is hands-on, people-oriented and fan-friendly.
Abe understood that life is a lot
like sports. There’s a beginning. Then there’s the event itself, with all its joys and sorrows. Then there’s the end. And, when it’s over, the real score is not how many points you put on the board, but the love and loyalty you leave behind in the hearts and souls of your family, your friends and all your fellow human beings whose lives you have touched. We are sure Abe Pollin was smiling on Wednesday. He al- ways liked to say he was a “nutty optimist,” and we think he would
be quite optimistic about the Wizards’ upcoming season after the team landed the first pick in the 2010 NBA draft. And he would have loved the free con- cert. We can think of no better way for the Pollins to end their ownership of Washington Sports and Entertainment — in quintes- sential “Abe Pollin” fashion, a fi- nal reflection of his commitment to the people of this community. And we know that we speak for not only ourselves but also for tens of thousands of Wizards fans and area residents when we thank the Pollin family for all they have done for the nation’s capital.
Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, is majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives and represents Maryland’s 5th Congressional District. Tom Davis, a Republican, represented Virginia’s 11th Congressional District from 1995 to 2008.
I stand under an aged oak, and the rows of simple white head- stones extend in their heart-stop- ping sweep across the Virginia hills of Arlington National Cem- etery. Each stone sentinel is dressed and at attention, calling to mind both the life and the death of the soldier who lies be- neath. Solid, steady and unyield- ing, the markers stand in coun- terpoint to the soft green earth and capricious light that dances across their faces. One weekend in May, each of these white uniforms is decorat- ed with a small American flag, placed there by a living soldier’s hand. These flags are brilliant in the afternoon sun, and it is my privilege to walk among these honored ranks to remember those who died in service to me. But the men and women who sleep in these rolling hills didn’t know it was for me that they fought in the forests of the Ar- dennes or in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. They didn’t know it was for me that they left behind wives, husbands and sweethearts, children and par- ents, friends. I, too, didn’t know until life’s experience began to teach me how precious my free- dom is. Only by examining my life — taking stock of all the blessings and opportunities that have been mine because of the freedoms I can count on as an American citi- zen — could I begin to under- stand the purpose of their service and the meaning of their sacrifice. Here, in the staggering seren-
ity, it can be hard to feel worthy of the price they paid. I stoop to read the headstones — this one so
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PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Brandon Robbins places a flag at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday.
old the inscription is nearly gone, that one so new the sharply chis- eled name and date take my breath away. Who are you, young soldier, and how did you come to be here? How far from home did Basra, Hue, Inchon, Corregidor, Verdun or Bull Run seem when you were in harm’s way? The shadows lengthen, and I am a dot among ranks of white that advance toward the horizon in all directions. Here and there a canopy above a fresh grave briefly interrupts the procession, but still the warriors continue their silent march. These are the gen-
erations who fought to preserve the freedoms that our forefathers bequeathed us, and though I do not know their names or faces, they are a part of me. So on this day of memories, I come to tell them thank you. I come to tell them I honor their service and the heritage they have given me. Most of all, I come to tell them that they are neither alone nor forgotten. I will be here for them, in spirit and in deed, and for their fellow soldiers try- ing to make a safer world so the children of every mother and fa- ther can sleep securely at night.
I turn to leave as a bird alights on a headstone and chants a twi- light benediction. I realize that I, too, am like this little bird — free as well to sing my own song wher- ever and whenever I choose — be- cause someone I never knew died to ensure I could. I am grateful for the gift.
The writer’s parents, Col. Lewis F. Townsend Jr. and Mary Carr Townsend, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. She wrote this essay while visiting the cemetery grounds on Memorial Day weekend in 2009.
STEVEN L. KATZPOTOMAC
In Montgomery, a wall speaks volumes about county government
Only halfway through 2010, the
award for “What Were They Thinking?” in Montgomery Coun- ty has already been sewn up by the Montgomery County Public Schools, the Montgomery Board of Education and the Montgomery County Council. This dubious honor is for the Cabin John Mid- dle School retaining wall — un- safe, ugly and, until it was almost halfway built, local government’s version of a closely held secret. The 11-foot-high wall is rising
like an inverted Vietnam war me- morial along two streets, with its apex at the heart of a 40-year-old residential neighborhood at Gainsborough and Bells Mill roads in Potomac. The wall will reach a height of 14 feet once an “ornamental guardrail” is added. Walls are symbols. The Cabin John wall is a symbol of the dys-
functional relationship between the County Council and the school systems that The Post has written and editorialized about recently. The “What Were They Think-
ing?” award is merited in large part because of the dangers the wall creates. Did school officials, planners and architects forget that this site will house hundreds of students? I’m not looking for- ward to seeing the first 40-pound backpack, cellphones, school lunches and more fly over the wall. Look out below! You can’t win this award for a lack of common sense alone, how- ever; it helps to have compounded the error by trying to prevent the public from pointing it out. The school community and neighbor- hood (where I live) are rightly up- set because no one appears to
have known anything about the wall until it began going up. Not a single drawing, blueprint, photo, report or Web page available to the public depicted or described the wall until after residents called an emergency meeting. Near as anyone can determine, the first public admission by MCPS’s school construction chief of plans for the wall came at an emergency community meeting on May 17. At this meeting, that other wall
— the one between the County Council and the school system — was also on display. Council mem- ber Roger Berliner (D-Potomac- Bethesda) welcomed those in at- tendance and pointed the finger at the schools, saying, “We give them the money, but we can’t control what they do with it.” Then he left for another event. That left the two-hour meeting
to James Song, MCPS construc- tion director, and a stone-silent cast of architects and construction officials. Song skillfully used a “kill ’em with kindness” approach to lull and bore the angry and frus- trated residents and parents. It worked. He insisted that there will be a wall.
But the Cabin John wall is equally the County Council’s fault. What legislature grants some 57 percent of its budget to one entity — MCPS — then says “we give them the money, but we can’t con- trol what they do with it”? Where is the council’s backbone and its checks and balances? In truth, this retaining wall is rising because the County Council has passed responsibility for ad- dressing growth to MCPS, and as a result, the new Cabin John Middle School is practically bursting onto
the street. The emergency meeting appears to have forced MCPS to slow the pace of construction, go back to the drawing board and dis- cuss the wall with residents. Yet Song wants residents to lower their expectations without lower- ing the wall. Progress on the Cabin John re- taining wall could show that the County Council, the school board and the school system realize that legislative backbone, government oversight and accountability, and better collaboration are sorely needed. The project is moving toward completion on time and under budget, but surely a good landscape architect and engineer could help MCPS develop a safer, and more attractive and appropri- ate, solution for the school and the neighborhood. What are they thinking now?
STEVEN L. KATZ
The retaining wall being built at Cabin John Middle School.
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