A18
R
KLMNO
FGHIJ A vote for Adrian Fenty
an independent newspaper EDITORIALS
In a hard-charging first term, the mayor has delivered on his vision for a better city. M
AYOR ADRIAN M. FENTY swept into office four years ago vowing to take on the District’s most daunting problems. The city had made progress during the
eight-year mayoralty of Anthony A. Williams (D), but the public schools were still the worst in the nation, crime remained high and government struggled to deliver basic services. Mr. Fenty at- tacked these challenges with his trademark en- ergy and an almost intimidating single-minded- ness. He has delivered: The District of Columbia today is a better place to live and work than it was four years ago. It is for that reason that we enthu- siastically endorse Mr. Fenty in the Democratic primary for mayor. He should have another four years to entrench the progress he has made. Mr. Fenty’s chief rival in the Sept. 14 primary,
D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, is a devot- ed and sober-minded public servant; the other candidates are Ernest E. Johnson, Leo Alexander and Sulaimon Brown. In government and the non- profit world, Mr. Gray has been a champion for the city’s most vulnerable citizens. As chairman of the council for the past four years, he has worked tire- lessly to reach out to people and build consensus on key issues. But Mr. Gray’s campaign for mayor seems driv- en more by animus toward Mr. Fenty, and his style of governing, than by any agenda of his own. In- stead of a substantive program, he offers the pledge of “one city.” Visitors to his Web site are in- vited to check back later for his plans in areas such as public safety. On the city’s most pressing issue — reform of the troubled schools — Mr. Gray is alarmingly vague. He promises a cradle-to-college approach to schooling but offers little hint where the money would come from; he refuses to say whether he would try to retain Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, though he spent much of his tenure as chairman criticizing her. There is no such ambiguity in Mr. Fenty and his
take-charge, do-it-now approach. Four years ago, when we first endorsed Mr. Fenty, we noted that the scale of the problems facing the city required a
Low voltage Electric cars and the latest tax
break for the rich
from government-owned General Motors. The Energy Department paid half the factory’s $300 million cost, using funds from a $2.4 billion ad- vanced vehicle technology grant program in the president’s economic stimulus plan. The admin- istration says that this is a smart bet on the green economy of the future. Skeptics argue global pro- duction capacity for advanced batteries is already rapidly outstripping demand. Roland Berger Strategy Consultants predicts a job-destroying “massive consolidation” five years from now. We have a related concern: For the near future,
P
electric cars will be far too expensive for anyone but upper-income Americans. The only way to sell them, even to the well-off, will be with a large federal subsidy. The average new car sold for $28,350 in 2008, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association. GM has just announced that the plug-in Volt, by contrast, will cost $41,000. Nis- san’s all-electric Leaf is projected at about $33,000. (Both vehicles are smaller, and, because they take hours to recharge, less versatile, than comparably priced gas-powered cars.) Tesla’s Roadster costs more than $100,000, though the company has committed to building a $57,000 se- dan. The advanced-vehicle business model makes sense only because of a $7,500-per-car fed- eral tax credit to the first 200,000 purchasers of each model. Even then, gas savings may or may not offset the higher total cost of owning an electric car, un- less excise taxes go way up or fuel prices spike permanently. (A cap-and-trade bill might have changed the calculus, but it just died in Con- gress.) The cars also need an in-home charging station, which costs a couple of thousand more, after federal tax credits. Common sense suggests the likeliest purchas- ers will be upscale consumers who already own gas-powered cars for heavy-duty driving, live in a single-family home with an electric outlet in the garage — and can afford a green experiment. De- loitte Consulting’s interviews with industry ex-
RESIDENT OBAMA was back in Michi- gan recently, breaking ground on a plant that will make batteries for the Volt, the plug-in hybrid electric car forthcoming
leader who wouldn’t play it safe. Mr. Fenty has not disappointed, displaying the political fortitude to make unpopular but sound decisions, from man- dating meters in taxicabs to closing underutilized schools. The courage he showed in fighting for mayoral control of the public schools — and then standing behind Ms. Rhee unflinchingly — cannot be overstated. Imagine any other incumbent al- lowing his schools chief to fire hundreds of underperforming employees just weeks away from an election that will decide his political fu- ture. Most important, that dedication has delivered results: Schools are improving. Test scores are up, student enrollment has stabilized, an innovative teachers contract is being implemented and school buildings have never been in better shape. For thousands of children whose futures depend on the District’s schools, it would be tragic to slow down now.
Cathy L. Lanier as police chief was greeted with widespread skepticism, but the success of her crime-fighting strategies has made her a popular neighborhood figure. There have been similar suc- cess stories in transportation, AIDS policy, eco- nomic development and key social service agen- cies; even the long-maligned Department of Con- sumer and Regulatory Affairs is getting good reviews for improved services. Crime is down and the population is up; people want to move back into the city. Notwithstanding claims to the con- trary, Mr. Fenty has invested in every part of the District, from his mobilization to rebuild Eastern Market to the unprecedented number of new li- braries and recreation centers east of the Anacos- tia River. Mr. Fenty has made mistakes. Some were just
N
silly, such as his refusal to share baseball tickets with D.C. Council members. His political enemies
or has progress been limited to the schools. The Fenty administration is peo- pled with top-flight talents who are get- ting results. Mr. Fenty’s appointment of
have overblown others, such as the fuss over the planned donation to the Dominican Republic of a firetruck that turned out to be virtually worthless. However, secrecy about his travels, an almost pathological unwillingness to consult outside his inner circle and the awarding of a few suspect con- tracts to friends raise unsettling questions about his judgment. Like many others, we’ve wondered why the mayor would allow stubbornness to en- danger the good work being done by his adminis- tration. We understand that Mr. Fenty’s determi- nation to shake up the status quo was bound to provoke antagonism. But you don’t have to be aloof or highhanded to move fast.
S
till, Mr. Fenty has taken the city forward in a remarkable way — and, maybe even more remarkably, his vision for a second term is as clear, sensible and substantive as it was
for his first. His top second-term priority is the same as his top first-term priority, and rightly so: improving the city’s schools — and, yes, Ms. Rhee would stay. Meanwhile, Mr. Fenty would seek to continue progress in public safety and services to residents. He is unhappy that he didn’t have time in his first term to do more on public housing, and he talks movingly about the need to fix a situation where people languish for years on housing wait- ing lists. As further evidence of his willingness to wade into rough political waters, Mr. Fenty says he hopes to work with the governors of Virginia and Maryland to improve Metro management and service. It is the one aspect of city life, Mr. Fenty notes, that has deteriorated during his term. Washington is fortunate this year to have a choice between two able politicians of integrity. But it is also, in our view, an easy choice. Four years ago, Mr. Fenty laid out a clear and well- thought-out agenda; he then proceeded, to a de- gree unusual at any level of government, to do pre- cisely what he had said he would do. Those who believe the District is headed in the right direction should maintain that momentum with a vote for Adrian Fenty.
TOM TOLES
SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2010
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
dletters@washpost.com
No more ‘outs’ for child molesters
The disturbing but excellent July 25 front-page arti- cle “Lurking in the schools,” about teacher and sexual predator Kevin Ricks, provided fantastic insight into the “grooming” capabilities of child molesters. They will often ingratiate themselves into the community or families and look like model citizens. When a molester is caught, people in the communi-
ty are in such a state of disbelief that they will immedi- ately jump to support the abuser — before the facts are known. These predators move from job to job just as people begin to get suspicious and are adept at de- flecting accusations. They delude themselves into be- lieving that the good they do justifies their misdeeds. They learn to prey on kids who are vulnerable (e.g., ex- change students, or those whose parents are recently divorced) and they learn how to manipulate these kids into becoming dependent on them. These per- petrators rely on the innocence and naiveté of chil- dren to keep quiet about this unseemly conduct — at least until the statute of limitations runs out. It is time for Maryland and the District to provide residents with the tools to identify and weed out sex- ual predators. It is time to eliminate any statute of lim- itations for child sexual abuse.
DAVIDLORENZ, Bowie
The writer is director of the Maryland chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
Cases of mistaken baby identity I was most interested to read the July 28 front-page
article “After son’s birth, a ‘horrid’ discovery,” about an incident at a Virginia hospital, and similar cases else- where, in which a mother was mistakenly given the wrong baby to breast-feed. Shortly after I gave birth to my daughter in 1972, at
George Washington University Hospital, the nurse brought me the wrong baby, and I breast-fed her. When a nurse came in later to tell me they had brought me the wrong baby, I was very concerned that my milk might harm this child. I went across the hall to see the mother of the child they had brought me, told her what had happened and asked whether the hospital staff had told her about the mistake. She said they had. To my knowledge, no one from the hospital thereafter investigated the matter, and I never heard another word about it. For years I would periodically check my daughter’s
bracelet in her baby book to make sure I had the right child.
SONIAPRESSMANFUENTES, Sarasota, Fla.
Let me see if I got this right: The couple were in- formed by the hospital that the woman who breast-fed their baby tested negative for HIV and hepatitis the next day. This happened in January, six months ago. And, per your article, “other mix-ups have occurred in recent years, including two at other Washington area hospitals where babies were given to the wrong moth- ers but not breast-fed.” So, in summary, in area hospitals, there is one known case of mistaken breast-feeding in recent years. This is front-page news? I guess it was a slow news day. KENC. MAHIEU,McLean
Balancing security and democracy The July 19-21 “Top Secret America” series and the
July 26 front-page article on the WikiLeaks release of classified documents from the war in Afghanistan call into question how transparent our intelligence com- munity should be. “Top Secret America” identified areas in the vast U.S.
intelligence network where bureaucratic inefficiencies need to be remedied. But I strongly disagree with the media’s decision to give WikiLeaks the same platform and opportunity to report classified information. While most of the leaked information appears benign, it still set a disconcerting precedent for the ease with which classified information was rapidly made public. Whether their information was derived from open or closed sources, the “Top Secret America” series and the WikiLeaks articles provided information-gather- ing and other advantages to our enemies, especially within the domain of domestic information opera- tions. I understand Americans’ appetite for information to inform their opinions about our government and its war efforts, but we also need to balance the desire for transparency against our need to protect strategic na- tional security assets. Our enemies certainly do. AARONSADUSKY, Arlington
The writer is an Army major and an Army Interagency Fellow at the State Department. The views expressed are his own.
It was the revealing of the truth about the Vietnam
perts and 2,000 potential buyers suggest that “early adopters” will come primarily from house- holds making over $200,000 a year. To be sure, the Obama administration assumes
that electrics, like cellphones before them, will swiftly move down-market as production ramps up and costs shrink. The whole point of the U.S. investment and purchase subsidies is to speed that process. Deloitte’s study, however, suggests that, even with government aid, the electric-car demographic a decade hence will encompass
only 1.3 million potential buyers, drawn from households making $114,000 per year and up. With sales reaching 465,000 by 2020, “achieving profitability and manufacturing efficiencies will be a challenge,” Deloitte concludes. In a nation of more than 250 million passenger vehicles, half a million new electrics a year would barely dent foreign-oil dependence or carbon emissions. And these modest savings will come at the price of federally supported income redistri- bution — toward the top.
War through dramatic media coverage and the release of the Pentagon Papers, the Vietnam equivalent to the WikiLeaks document release [“Leaked files lay bare war in Afghanistan,” front page, July 26], that turned Americans against that war in the 1960s and ’70s and eventually forced the political leadership to stop it. The media have not covered the wars in Iraq and Afghani- stan as they did Vietnam, and that surely is a factor in the failure to have the same sort of popular movement against these wars. But now we have electronic media. The release of
documents and videos online helps Americans know more about the wars they are funding, and in which their relatives and friends are dying. Those doing the leaking are patriots breaking open the democratic process. They are tearing down the official walls block- ing the truth from the citizenry. America owes them deep gratitude for the risks they take to let the people know what is done in their name. WILLIAM SAMUEL, Silver Spring
LOCAL OPINIONS 3Join the debate at
washingtonpost.com/localopinions
Unions’ grip on Montgomery County government
Regarding the July 27 Metro article “Time may heal budget wounds”: Gosh, to motivate the bloated, union-dominated workforce in Montgomery County it is necessary to give them the equivalent of 117 years of paid vaca- tion? How about another motivator: “unemploy- ment”? That Montgomery County has been “forced” to trim its budget after 40 years of increases is mute testimony to many years of incompetent financial management by multiple County Councils and ex- ecutives, and to their willingness to bend to the de- mands of the unions that dominate the county’s workforce.
Over the years, Montgomery has never seen an
excuse not to spend more of the taxpayers’ dollars to meet union demands on the assumption that
“there is always more where that came from.” Now, to compensate union employees for their sacrific- es, they get paid vacations courtesy of the county taxpayers. This increases the effective cost of work, because employees are being paid for not perform- ing their jobs. If these paid vacations have no impact on job
performance, about 117 man-years of cuts can be made, for a start, to be followed by a renegotiation of all of the union contracts for county employees to reflect the current fiscal and financial realities. Taxpayers will not, and should not, be expected to fund unending budget increases because our elect- ed representatives do not have the will, or the wis- dom, to recognize that they have become pawns of the unions that dominate the county’s workforce. DOUGLASHURLBURT, Potomac
ABCDE
EUGENE MEYER, 1875-1959 • PHILIP L. GRAHAM, 1915-1963 KATHARINE GRAHAM, 1917-2001
BOISFEUILLET JONES JR., Chairman KATHARINE WEYMOUTH, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer News pages:
MARCUS W. BRAUCHLI Executive Editor
RAJU NARISETTI, Managing Editor ELIZABETH SPAYD, Managing Editor
SHIRLEY CARSWELL Deputy Managing Editor
Editorial and opinion pages: FRED HIATT
Deputy Editorial Page Editor
STEPHEN P. HILLS, President and General Manager KENNETH R. BABBY, Chief Revenue Officer/GM, Digital
Business and advertising: Vice Presidents
ROGER ANDELIN ......................................................................................... Technology BENJAMIN C. BRADLEE .................................................................................... At Large USHA CHAUDHARY..................................................................... Finance & Admin/CFO JAMES W. COLEY JR. ......................................................................................Production L. WAYNE CONNELL ......................................................................... Human Resources LEONARD DOWNIE JR. ...................................................................................... At Large WENDY EVANS ............................................................................................. Advertising GREGG J. FERNANDES .................................................................................Circulation JOHN B. KENNEDY ............................................................................................... Labor ERIC N. LIEBERMAN ......................................................................................... Counsel CHRISTOPHER MA ................................................................................... Development STEVE STUP ..................................................................................... Digital Advertising
1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 (202) 334-6000
The Washington Post Company: DONALD E. GRAHAM, Chairman of the Board
Editorial Page Editor JACKSON DIEHL
The writer is president of the anti-violence nonprofit group Consistent Life.
A storm victim’s generosity
The July 28 Metro article “Storm victim was hap- pily committed to family, community” captured the love and dedication that Michelle Humanick showed toward her friends and neighbors. For nearly 10 years, as chairman of the College Park Recreation Board, I had the honor of working with Ms. Humanick. For much of that time, she was vice chair of the board, which coordinates community events and recrea- tional programs. She was always available to help out and shared her time and efforts for the benefit of all. Former College Park mayor Joseph E. Page was of- ten known to share the quotation that “what a person does for himself dies with him, but what he does for their community lives forever.” I can think of no better tribute to Michelle Humanick than to say that she will live on for so many of us by virtue of her true spirit of community.
JEFFREY SMITH, Nottingham, Md.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152