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ANINDEPENDENTNEWSPAPER EDITORIALS
Prince George’s turns the page A new county executive, Rushern L. Baker III, and a new day for the county R
USHERN L. BAKER III, who takes the oath of officeMonday as the top official in Prince George’s County, assumes power at a time of troubles. Despite successes in recent years — new devel-
opment, lower crime rates, a triple-A bond rating —the county is caught in a cycle of bad news that is largely the product of poor leadership. Public corruption, bad cops and substandard schools have disheartened investors, employers andmany residents. Mr. Baker has a prime opportunity to write a new chapter and set a new tone for Prince George’s. As county executive, he will have a bully pulpit
to lead by example. In practice, that will mean setting an agenda that addresses the need for honest, accountable government and for im- proved schools, more jobs and better develop- ment. These go hand in hand. The county’s difficulties aren’t simply an image problem; they are substantive and harm the county’s ability to
On second thought
The Obama administration was for oil drilling in the Atlantic before it was against it.
T
HE OBAMA administration announced last week that it will not allow “scoping” of the Atlantic Coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico for offshore drilling, preventing
oil exploration there for at least seven more years. This reverses a decisionPresidentObamamadein March to examine these areas for potential drill- ing, with oil companies possibly bidding for leases sometime between 2012 and 2017. What changed in nine months? One obvious answer: Shortly afterMr. Obama’s
March announcement, theDeepwaterHorizon rig blew up. That should have changed, and did change, administration calculations about drill- ing safety and inspection inadequacy. But the administration isn’t shutting down domestic off- shore drilling; on the contrary, it lifted its post- spill moratorium on drilling in the western and central gulf, where oil companies have been operating for decades, earlier than scheduled. Administration officials have said that they are increasingly confident that risks are low enough to allow drilling to proceed, and regulation will be only more stringent. So why reinstate a ban in the Atlantic or the
eastern gulf? Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says his department wants to use its “critical resourc- es” to supervise areas in which rigs already are operating. One translation: The administration won’t waste time scoping off the Gulf Coast of Florida as long as Congress maintains its own ban
lift its schools, lure jobs and attract investment around its 14Metro stations. Somemembersof the incoming County Council
have refused to say a word about the county’s ethics problem. This is a spineless mistake. Their silence about the arrest of departing County Executive Jack B. Johnson gives the impression that they—or, in their opinion, their constituents — don’t care that he is accused of witness tampering and destroying evidence. They are wrong, as evidenced by the fact that a majority of their peers have urgedMr. Johnson’s wife, Leslie, who also has been arrested for alleged corruption, not to take her seat as a council member. Mr. Baker has a lot that’s positive to work with.
Schools in recent years have begun to improve under the determined leadership of Superinten- dent William R. Hite Jr. The vast majority of county police officers are dedicated and hard- working. The county has a huge pool of highly educated residents, ready access to airports and
Interstate 95, Metro stations, and a seat at the porch of the nation’s capital. Mr. Baker must move quickly, with words and
actions, to make Prince George’s a model of clean government by appointing senior officials of unquestioned integrity and ability, establishing an independent office of inspector general, and taking a hard look at reforming the county’s procedures and political culture.He should move decisively to clean up the police force, which has been tainted by suspensions and reassignments for wrongdoing, including suspected criminal activity.He should press for reform in the county’s housing department, where incompetence and mismanagement long have been a source of concern. As he promised in his campaign, he should aggressively seek ways to reach troubled youth outside as well as inside the classroom. By tapping Prince George’s tremendous poten-
tial, Mr. Baker can restore confidence and meet the high expectations of county residents.
TOMTOLES
MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2010
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
dletters@washpost.com
One fateful encounter, two sentences I was truly sickened and saddened when I read
the story about the behavior that caused Ryan Diviney’s condition [“One father’s unfaltering vigil,” front page, Dec. 2]. As a sports fan, I can’t under- stand on any level how something as trivial as an argument about loyalty to a professional team could result in the horrific beating endured byMr. Diviney. As a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan, I am disap- pointed to hear of yet another incident where a few of our fans reflect so poorlyonthe
majority.My heart goes out to the Diviney family with my hopes for a complete recovery for Ryan.
Fred Shapiro, Chantilly l
Ryan Diviney was attacked and now may live for
up to 10 years in a vegetative state.His attacker will sit in a jail for up to 10 years, contributing nothing to the needs of the Diviney family and little to his own soul or in preparation for living in society again. But the attacker could provideongoing care to the victim and help the Diviney family to not be eaten up by anger, expenses and exhaustion. Why “throw away the key” to such potential?
Tim Siegel, Washington
Public transit worth paying for Regarding the Nov. 29 Metro article “Metro
system ridership declines, hits budget”: Imovedto theD.C. region in 2007, and since then
I have refused to buy a car. Back home in Puerto Rico, you can spend hours at a bus stop because the schedule is anybody’s guess and the one-line train, although efficient, hardly covers much of down- town, making cars a necessity. I’ve loved theMetro’s subway and bus system in the District from day one. But in the more than three years I’ve lived here
I’ve seen fares go up while infrastructure declines. I do not mind paying more to have the convenience of an effective subway and bus system, but it seems all I see are broken escalators and out-of-service buses. An effective public transportation system is not
something anybody should take for granted. If fare increases are necessary, people should be willing to pay and perhaps riders would be less resistant to these hikes ifMetro could show that their money is being put to good use by, say, having working escalators.
Darienne Gutierrez, Washington
How to save $8 trillion I recently read with dismay two articles in The
Post. Thefirst reported that Congressmay extend all of
the Bush tax cuts at a cost over 10 years of about $4 trillion — all of which we would have to borrow [“After meeting, hope for a deal on tax cuts,” front page, Dec. 1]. In stark contrast, the next day’s article outlined the draconian steps, recommended by the deficit reduction commission, that would need to be taken over those same 10 years to pare $4 trillion from our national debt [“Deficit commission sets ideology aside,” front page, Dec. 2]. Sounds to me like the first, which is likely to happen, cancels out the second, which is not. Does that mean that my generation, because of
on drilling there. But that doesn’t explain the reversal for the Atlantic Coast. Both Democratic and Republican governors of Virginia have ex- pressed support for careful exploration. Environmental groupsandliberalsdismayed in
March that the president endorsed aGOP-friendly policy without securing anything in return are
happier now. But policy considerations haven’t changed. America will require oil for years, and a lot of it willcomefrom undersea wells—off Brazil, Nigeria and Azerbaijan if not the United States. Mr. Obama’s about-face may make some Ameri- cans feel better, but it’s unlikely to be a net plus for energy independence or the global environment.
Mr. Putin’s pig An ugly trial in Moscow nears a momentous end. S
OMETIMEINthenext twoweeks,aMoscow judge is expected to announce the convic- tionofandnewprisonsentences forMikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, whose
oil company,Yukos,was the largestprivate compa- ny inRussia before itwas crushed and confiscated by the regime ofVladimir Putin. If that occurs, the notion that Russia might be moving toward the rule of law underMr. Putin and President Dmitry Medvedevwill no longer deserve serious consider- ation. The trial has been a travesty, shocking even in a
country that still remembers the show trials of Soviet times. Mr. Khodorkovsky, Yukos’s founder, was first arrestedin2003 andconvictedin2005on dubious tax charges. The new case, which was brought in 2007, contradicts the first. Now the charge is that the executives somehow stolemost of the oil that Yukos was previously charged with selling and not paying taxes on. The purpose is obvious: to prevent Mr. Khodorkovsky, who once supported liberal opposition groups, fromgaining freedomwhenhis first sentence endsnext year. During 20months in court, the prosecution has
3Join the debate at
washingtonpost.com/localopinions LOCAL OPINIONS
Cut this budget, and more children go hungry In her Dec. 1 Metro article, “D.C. mayor’s
budget plan triggers council debate on possible income tax increase,” Nikita Stewart asserted that outgoing Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s plan to close the budget gap would only delay healthy food being served toD.C. students. While this may be true on
paper, implementation of the D.C. Healthy Schools Act has already begun, and any such delay is apt to paralyze the program indefinitely. Right now, any student in need can receive a
Don’t deprive D.C. children of the healthy breakfasts they need.
tial but also those most in need: the District’s schoolchildren. InMay, theD.C. Council unanimously passed
the D.C. Healthy Schools Act as a landmark initiative to curb the scourges of child obesity and hunger in the District. On Tuesday, the council
should once again defend the health and well-being of D.C.
students. Even in this tough economy, the promise of
free and healthy breakfast in his or her class- room. Further, food contracts worth millions of dollars have already been switched across the District. Mr. Fenty’s proposal would jeopardize not only businesses investing in the city’s poten-
our children’s future should not be short- changed.
Sean S. Miller, Washington
The writer is the education director at Earth Day Network and helped the effort to pass and fund the D.C. Healthy Schools Act.
never seriously attempted to explain its muddled case. Instead it has sought to intimidate former Yukos executives into testifying against Mr. Khodorkovsky. Onemanwhowas imprisonedand suffering from AIDS was offered medical treat- ment in exchange for testimony.He refused—but several formerandcurrent seniorRussianofficials, including a former prime minister under Mr. Pu- tin, have testified that the charges are groundless. Ina closing statement lastmonth,
Mr.Khodork-
ovsky ably summed up the larger meaning of the case. “The obvious conclusion of the thinking person is terrifying in its simplicity,” he said. “The security bureaucracy can do whatever it wants. There are no private property rights. There are no rights at all for a personconfronting the system.”A U.S. embassy cable releasedbyWikiLeaksoffereda more pithy summary: “rule of law lipstick on a political pig.” The government, it said, is “applying a superficial rule-of-law gloss to a cynical system where political enemies are eliminatedwithimpu- nity.” The Obama administration has offered no pub- lic indication that this lawlessness will have any
effect on its “reset” of relationswithMoscow. U.S. officials may believe that quiet diplomacy will be more effective, and they understandably wish to preserve the benefits of their outreach to the regime, such as greater Russian cooperation on Iran. But as previous U.S. presidents have demon- strated, it is possible to challenge and even to penalize Kremlin rulers for their human rights violations while still pursuing initiatives such as arms control. A ready vehicle is at hand: Sen. Benjamin L.
Cardin (D-Md.), chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, has proposed that the State Depart- ment impose visa sanctions on60Russianofficials implicatedinthedeathinprisonofalawyer,Sergei Magnitsky. A committee of the European Parlia- ment recently
endorsedsimilaraction.TheObama administration could send a clear message to the Russian elite by sanctioning all those officials involved in the persecution of Mr. Khodorkovsky,
Mr.Magnitsky and other victims of lawlessness. A Russia where “political enemies are eliminated withimpunity” cannot be a reliablepartner for the United States.
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letters@washpost.com. Submissions must be exclusive to The Post and should include the writer's address and day and evening telephone numbers. Letters are subject to editing and abridgment. Please do not send letters as attachments. Because of the volume of material we receive, we are unable to acknowledge submissions; writers whose letters are under consideration for publication will be contacted.
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our greed and irresponsibility, is now passing along to our children and grandchildren $8 trillion in additional debt?Howabout instead we forgo the tax cuts and take the steps outlined by the commission to secure our nation’s fiscal future? David Morman, Pawleys Island, S.C.
An important, bipartisan START George F. Will’s Dec. 2 op-ed, “Treaty in a time
warp,” claimed that supporters of the New START are “bedeviled by reactionary liberalism.” I had never heard of a “reactionary liberal,” and I won- dered who these oxymoronic characters might be until I read another commentary on the same page by Henry A. Kissinger, George P. Shultz, James A. Baker III, Lawrence S. Eagleburger and Colin L. Powell, urging Republicans to support the treaty [“WhyNewSTART deserves GOP support”]. These secretaries of state for the past five Repub-
lican presidents have shown persuasively why the treaty is in the national interest. Thatmay not make them liberals, but it demonstrates that their views are entitled to more respect than the “deeply informed and rationally skeptical” Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).
Lawrence R. Walders, Chevy Chase l
It was interesting to note in the Dec. 3 front-page
article “Obama, GOP work on tax cuts” the habit of mind and frame of reference of some Democratic lawmakers who complained that President Obama’s top priority—Senate ratification of theNewSTART nuclear arms pact — was “of little consequence to rank-and-file lawmakers.” I thought that the treaty was important to all Americans. Perhaps The Post could do a follow-up giving details on what these lawmakers think is of real importance?
John Hamlin, Annapolis
The Post’s odd view of what is art The Dec. 3 editorial “The censors arrive,” regard-
ing the National Portrait Gallery’s decision to re- move the DavidWojnarowicz video from its “Hide/ Seek” exhibit, would have been more persuasive had the subheadline not resorted to ad hominem attacks on people who disagree with The Post’s liberal viewpoint, accusing them of “small-minded intoler- ance.” After all, it is the video—not the Republicans’ response — that was described as “hate speech” by Catholic League President Bill Donohue. Do I agree with Mr. Donohue on this matter?
Maybe not, but if BlakeGopnick,ThePost’s art critic, finds Norman Rockwell, an exceptional painter of American life, offensive [Arts & Style, July 4], The Post should not lecture us mainstream folks when we question how our tax dollars are being spent on the arts.
James Ryan, Silver Spring
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