SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2010
KLMNO Sunday OPINION
Amina Luqman Freelance writer and part-time staffer for a nonprof- it education group in Petersburg, Va. It can be tough to be black in President Obama’s America. With Obama the world is complicated. With Obama we are both awestruck and a little disappointed. On the eve of Obama’s inauguration, we believed.
In 2008, African Americans had the highest increase in voter turnout, 4.9 percent. For a time we cast aside our wisdom that Obama would likely be unwilling to focus on the black community’s high needs. Since then the political water has grown muddy. African Americans are facing the highest unemploy- ment rate in 25 years. Black American home foreclo- sures are twice the rate of whites. We hesitate to face growing evidence of Obama’s unwillingness to fight for progressivism in general and for African Amer- icans in particular. Obama has toed a strict policy approach of rising waters will raise all ships. But if African Americans aren’t even in a boat, these meas- ures may not prevent our drowning. The president can hardly cloak the desperation in his voice to jump-start the enthusiasm of dissatisfied Democrats. In contrast to his race-neutral agenda, the reality may be that he needs African Americans. Will we, yet again, put aside the personal and vote for the larger political implications?
Nancy Goldstein Communications professional and journalist in Brooklyn Here’s one advantage FDR had over Obama: Pic- tures of breadlines constantly reminded Roosevelt that people in the street were not doing well, no mat- ter what his advisers had to say. A trip to my food co- op would do the same for this administration. Because those breadlines still exist: Technological
advances just make them less visible. Many of Amer- ica’s nearly 15 million unemployed applied for ben- efits online and receive them through direct deposit. With the advent of the electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card, no one can tell the food stamp users from folks using a regular debit card. My guesstimate is that the number of EBT users I
serve from behind my cash register has nearly dou- bled in two years. It has broadened to include people new to food stamps. A former neighbor gamed by Bernie Madoff. Out-of-work teachers. Consultants whose work has dried up. Team Obama doesn’t see the breadline, but its members can certainly see and hear Team Obama. Perhaps the president should drop that line he used regarding the economic crisis in Des Moines — the one about how his administration “stepped in and stopped the bleeding.” It’s a painful reminder that the president is closed off to reality.
Paul Rosenzweig Visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington Imagine the day after the first atomic bomb ex- ploded. Settled assumptions had all come unglued. Even 17 years later the confusion was so great that the Cuban Missile Crisis nearly engulfed the world. We’re about to experience that same sort of tumultu- ous time. Stuxnet is the name of a new piece of malicious computer software. Stuxnet is the first piece of mal- ware found in the “wild” with the demonstrated ca- pability of changing how mechanical systems oper- ate. Imagine a computer program that can infiltrate the Hoover Dam and order the software to open all of the dam’s sluices. That’s Stuxnet. It’s been found in the operating control systems of nuclear reactors in Iran and now, reportedly, Russia. There’s nothing to stop the next version from ordering the reactor to shut down (or, possibly, even melt down). Who developed Stuxnet? Nobody knows. Many
speculate that the Israelis had the knowledge and the motive for the attack, but other countries might have had the desire. So, is Stuxnet the first salvo in the first true cy-
berwar? If it is, it’s a very different kind of war from what we know. The enemy is unknown. Our vul- nerabilities are as vast as our cybernetwork. And no- body has any idea what a successful defense might look like.
William Cunion Assistant professor of political science at the Univer- sity of Mount Union in Ohio I’m finding it difficult to get enthused about the midterm elections. I live in a district that is embar- rassingly uncompetitive. I live in the heart of Ohio’s 11th Congressional Dis-
trict, represented by Democrat Marcia Fudge. She has held the seat for two years, but it will be hers for as long as she likes. The district is overwhelmingly Democratic. The Republican Party doesn’t even try. In the primary election, the poll worker handed me a Democratic ballot without asking my prefer- ence. I couldn’t tell whether she was repulsed or sim-
The pundit finalists
Four weeks ago, we invited read- ers to compete for a chance to be- come America’s Next Great Pun- dit. We were thrilled with the response to this contest last year, and we hoped to find another fresh voice that would complement our regular columnist line- up.
About 1,400 people took up the chal- lenge. Among the entrants were col- lege students in their teens and re- tirees in their 80s; people boasting Washington insider knowledge and people claiming to represent average Americans; devoted Democrats, die-hard Republicans and all political perspectives in between. Their opinion es- says were smart, provocative, funny and inspiring. What you see on this page is the result of a difficult process. We identified five editors’ picks and then asked readers to vote on the rest of the top 50. Here we present abridged versions of the entries by the 10 finalists. (The full versions are online at
washingtonpost.com/pundit.) In the next two weeks, we will ask these finalists to prove themselves as bloggers, hold their own on video, and take questions and criticism from Post readers. We hope that you will follow the contest, as we will be relying on readers to tell us which pundit they most want to hear more from. After several challenge rounds, the last pundit standing will have the opportunity to write for The Post. Please help ensure that the most promising pundit wins.
ply shocked when I requested the Republican one. Nearly every office had just one option: “No candi- date filed.” Ultimately, a candidate garnered just over 200 write-in votes, so he will represent my party next month. Elections are important occasions for political dialogue. With no real opponent, there is no election —just a vote. Party leaders must recruit qualified candidates. Doing so will create inroads into portions of the elec- torate that have been ignored. Imagine how different our politics would be if just 20 percent of black vot- ers became Republicans. Even in the year of the Tea Party, close to 90 per- cent of incumbents will be reelected. Not even fun to watch, really.
Lauren Hogan Lives in Washington and works for the National Black Child Development Institute The first thing I noticed in the GOP’s recently re- leased “A Pledge to America” was the grammatical error in the second sentence. But it was the pictures which caught my eye. “A Pledge to America” has 45 pictures that include people. You can find six people who are plausibly individuals of color. John Boehner does not count. There are two explanations: Either the authors were intentional in their selection of photographs or they were not. Both raise concerns about the GOP’s ability to unify.
If the failure to feature even one black or Latino person was accidental, then I have some questions about the cluelessness within the leadership. Whites will make up less than 50 percent of the population within the next 40 years. And yet I find it hard to believe that the pledge’s lack of diversity was pure oversight. Looking to this November, they decided to target the people they think they can win. If this is true, then the Republican Party is declaring itself to be one of exclusion. The GOP also decided that children weren’t worth inclusion. There isn’t a picture of a kid. You want to see “the priorities of our nation” ac- cording to Republicans? The pictures tell you all you need to know.
Anthony Tata Chief operating officer for D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, former deputy commanding gener- al in Afghanistan War is hell, and sometimes it produces criminal
tie suspended construction of the Hudson rail tun- nel connecting New Jersey and New York City. To increase America’s productivity and energize the economy, we must make public transit effective and exciting again.
Ted Reinstein A reporter for WCVB-TV in Boston
When you grow up with a mom who taught school passionately, you have respect for teachers. And when you grow up with an uncle who was a labor or- ganizer, you have a soft spot for unions. All of which I have. But even Uncle Murray might bellow: "Meshugga-
nehs!"
So infuriating is the current state of American public education. And so confounding are the ac- tions of those involved. Like teachers unions. American students now rank 32nd in math scores;
12th in reading; 10th in science. All the fault of teachers? Hardly. Parents fail to do their job, as do school administrators. Politicians have dodged real reform. The good news is that education reform is hap-
pening, haltingly. The bad news involves who is do- ing the halting.
THE WASHINGTON POST
Some teachers unions often seem to be on the wrong side of progress: against charter schools, against longer school days, against tougher teacher evaluations, against merit pay. Citing opposition to charter schools, New York’s United Federation of Teachers lobbied against applying for what might have resulted in $700 million in federal “Race to the Top” funding. It was one more move by a union that seems more
ossified than enlightened. Teachers’ unions will make few new friends this way. But they sure are los- ing old ones.
Conor Williams
PhD candidate in government at Georgetown Uni- versity, former Teach for America Corps member Vince Gray’s primary victory has refocused na- tional attention on education policy. Central to his victory was Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Un- fortunately, Gray’s call for a more collaborative ap- proach has emboldened reform’s opponents. These are hardly problems specific to the District.
episodes. Not only the perpetrators but also those who enabled the crimes should pay. The most recent example occurred in Afghani-
stan. The war produced an atrocity akin to the in- famous Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Twelve enlisted soldiers, calling themselves the “Kill Team,” allegedly conspired to confront Afghan farmers, lob grenades in their direction feigning an attack, unload with au- tomatic weapons, and then claim that the Afghans started the whole thing. The ringleader reportedly possessed a marionette made of the finger bones of his victims. Worse, a sol- dier intending to report the war crimes to his chain of command was viciously beaten by his fellow sol- diers.
One soldier used Facebook to inform his father of
the exploits, because he was rightfully afraid of his chain of command. The father reported the atroci- ties to the army’s inspector general, to no avail. The “Kill Team” went on to allegedly murder two more Afghan citizens, and the whistleblower is now charged with murder. If prosecutors can demonstrate the father accu-
rately reported his son’s claims, the recipients of the calls for help should be named as accessories to the crimes. Their acts of omission enabled the ensuing murders.
Ryan McElveen Master’s degree candidate at Columbia University, living in Suffern, N.Y. Hu Jintao is the Dwight D. Eisenhower of the 21st
century. But while Eisenhower built the Interstate High-
way System, Hu seeks the contrary. Hu realizes that all of the bicycles on Chinese streets will soon turn into cars — a scary proposition. In China as elsewhere, the car is the most basic
conspicuous consumption. Yet an increase in cars will not only hurt China’s air quality. It will lead to traffic jams that hurt productivity. In some places, Hu’s fear has become reality. In August, the world was transfixed by the world’s long- est traffic jam, lasting 11 days, outside of Beijing. Hu’s solution was to restructure the railways. On July 1, the high-speed rail line between Shanghai and Nanjing went into service, cutting the trip by more than half. I was transfixed by the hundreds of youth- ful Chinese beaming in anticipation. In 2008, we were endeared to Joe Biden and his tales of friendship with Amtrak conductors. But projects for rail expansion are on hold. Despite hav- ing received $6 billion, New Jersey Gov. Chris Chris-
In a multistate study on teacher performance, re- searchers found that effective teacher-accountabil- ity systems are rare: Though 81 percent of adminis- trators believe that at least one of their school’s ten- ured teachers is performing poorly, over “half of the districts studied did not dismiss a single non- probationary teacher for poor performance.” In- effective teachers are being identified — not only by test scores or by single-measure assessments — but not dismissed. Teachers unions dismiss standardized tests as in-
adequate; they claim holding teachers accountable to absolute or relative standards ignores the di- versity of student backgrounds; and they allege that systems for holding teachers accountable may be abused. This approach — relentless in criticism but vague in alternative solutions — sounds familiar. It was at the core of Gray’s campaign. While demanding greater teacher accountability, Rhee also presented a new contract raising teacher pay by nearly 22 per- cent with bonuses for effective teachers. Promising to reform education without upsetting those with an interest in maintaining the horrifyingly unjust sta- tus quo is both insincere and unproductive.
Robert Lehrman Political speechwriter in Washington For days the world watched workers drill toward 33 miners trapped in a Chilean copper mine. As it should have.
But each of those days, about 20,000 children died, mostly from malaria or diarrhea. We could res- cue 33 of them for the price of a dinner at Sizzler. The miners’ story is dramatic — but not more than
the victims in flood-stricken Pakistan, waiting for rescue teams now struggling to reach them. Why don’t they get attention? The response from
liberals like me is to show how little it would cost to help. For about $3 billion a year, we could control malaria — saving 3 million people every year. But people respond to stories. So why can’t editors dig for stories of big rescues
underway? They exist. Doctors in Pakistan’s refugee camps work desperately to prevent cholera from sweeping through. Health workers in Malawi race to reach women giving birth alone. Politicians in Sen- egal risk their lives to outlaw the way grownups yank a young girl from her house to cut off her clitoris. Those are much bigger stories, just as compelling, just as visual. In the days before the Internet, maybe reporters had an excuse to ignore such stories. It was hard to make dying kids in far-off countries visible. Now we watch people 7,000 miles away, trapped be- low a half-mile of solid rock. That excuse is wearing thin.
KR
A19
OMBUDSMAN ANDREW ALEXANDER All news, print or online, is local
the paper’s expanding local coverage. Jo-Ann Ar- mao, then the top editor for local news, described an “extraordinary transformation” of the Metro desk into a journalistic juggernaut of 110 reporters, 30 as- signing editors and dozens of lower-level editors and assistants. The Post’s Maryland coverage team had swelled to 38 reporters, with news bureaus in eight counties. For Virginia, there were 32 reporters and bureaus in seven counties and the state capital. Only in the Dis- trict had staffing been reduced because its popula- tion had declined, Armao said. Today, that vast network no longer exists. Neces-
N
sary cost-cutting has shrunk the Metro desk by about 40 reporters, and its editing ranks have been reduced by more than half. Only a small number of reporters remain in the suburbs. Most work out of The Post’s downtown newsroom. Over the past year, I have received a crescendo of complaints from suburban readers who say Post coverage of their communities is too thin. Candi- dates have complained that little attention has been paid to their races. And suburban parents have said
early a decade ago, during a planning retreat at a posh coastal hotel in Florida, Post news- room leaders heard an upbeat assessment of
The Post virtually ignores news about their school districts while providing saturation coverage of Mi- chelle A. Rhee, the high-profile D.C. schools chancel- lor who announced her resignation last week. Longtime Fairfax County schools spokesman Paul Regnier has seen a “noticeable reduction” in Post coverage of Fairfax County schools, including a shortage of stories on the heated debate over the school budget that directly affects taxpayers. “There just doesn’t seem to be that much interest in the day-to-day of what’s going on in the school system,” he said. Post leaders should not be faulted for staff reduc- tions. Dramatic cuts were required because of the devastating recession-related drop in advertising that sent Post finances into the red. And there is log- ic to the way the much smaller local reporting staff was restructured to emphasize topical, rather than geographical, coverage that can resonate with read- ers across jurisdictions. But there are two problems with the current local
news operation. First, coverage is out of balance. An examination of roughly 450 recent local news stories shows that about 40 percent focused on the District. That’s far more than were written about Montgomery, Fairfax
and Prince George’s counties combined. Yet daily and Sunday Post circulation is dramatically higher in Montgomery and Fairfax than in the District, and only a little lower in Prince George’s. The disconnect is greatest in Fairfax, where Post circulation is high- est but coverage is comparatively sparse. Why the disparity? The District’s heated mayoral
primary surely caused a bump in recent coverage. And interest in the District is high because it is the region’s hub for employment and entertainment. But coverage also may be influenced by where
Post Metro staffers live. An examination of home ad- dresses shows that more than half reside in the Dis- trict, with far fewer in Maryland and even fewer in Virginia. Like readers, journalists tend to focus on their own communities. The bulk of local reporters also work out of The
Post’s downtown newsroom, and that’s the second problem. More should be based in the suburbs. Re- porting from the scene produces superior journal- ism. It leads to stories with greater depth, nuance and impact. Managing Editor Liz Spayd said these issues are being discussed. While stressing that the “very newsy” District is of “infinite interest” to readers throughout the region,
she said that geographic balance in coverage is “an issue we need to pay more attention to.” Many in the suburbs “want to see their communities reflected in our coverage,” she said. And Spayd said moving more reporters to the sub- urbs is under consideration. “I feel that’s what ought to happen,” she said. Deployment decisions will be made soon after a replacement is named for The Post’s top local editor, Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, who is be- ing shifted to a new role involving digital projects. Local news is complex and competitive. It’s also being redefined on the Web as The Post battles new online rivals. Post editors say the audience increase for the “PostLocal” section of The Post’s Web site has been exceeding the growth for the entire site. That underscores the inevitable shift to digital news, as well as the insatiable appetite for local news. But whether in print or online, Post local coverage will succeed only if it is geographically rebalanced and more reporters are shifted from the newsroom to walk the beat.
Andrew Alexander can be reached at 202-334-7582 or at
ombudsman@washpost.com. For daily updates, read the omblog at
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ ombudsman-blog/.
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