Matters of Opinion

End political pressure

   The lead editorial in today's Buffalo News takes a very dim view of some of the latest goings-on at Buffalo City Hall.
- End political pressure
   As reported in The Buffalo News Monday, several City Hall employees have received weekly e-mails from the commissioner, Tanya Perrin-Johnson [right], basically assigning them extra—unpaid—duties and hours on behalf of Brown’s reelection campaign.
   ... This reeks of nothing but a clear violation of both the City Charter and the city’s own Code of Ethics, both of which forbid any abuse of a city official’s position to command political activity or to extort personal favors.
   News follow-ups from Tuesday and Wednesday.  

   Also on today's Opinion page:
- Girls should face off
   Buffalo News editorial
   It’s hard to imagine, in some ways, that girls’ hockey remains a backwater in this region’s high school sports programs. Whatever the reason, the problem will soon be solved if plans to create a regional girls’ varsity ice hockey league come to fruition. Prospects are encouraging.
   News background.

-  Medical bankruptcies must factor into debate 
   by Jeffrey Freedman
   Today, too many Americans are just one serious illness away from bankruptcy. Most health insurance policies have loopholes, copayments and deductibles that can bankrupt a family in a short time.
   Harvard, Ohio University study.

- Let’s rename Buffalo the Emerald City 
   by Frank J. Hotchkiss/The Apollo Alliance 
   Buffalo and the surrounding region have the potential to become the greenest location on the Great Lakes. The Emerald City will be the city that recognized the opportunity and seized the moment to build the yellow brick road to prosperity as the largest green manufacturing and services city in the United States.

-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News  

Trials and tributes

   The Thursday edition of The Buffalo News Opinion page holds forth thus:

- No pay for no work
   Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced last week that, despite questionable constitutionality, he would withhold the pay of senators until they resolved the power struggle that has paralyzed government in New York. It’s hardly unfair. According to DiNapoli, the standoff has cost local governments $741 million, New York City $902 million and the state $1.3 billion. If senators don’t care about that, maybe they’ll care about having their paychecks withheld.
   Latest news. Editorial commentary from Newsday [Gov. David Paterson rolled a metaphorical grenade into the State Senate yesterday, blowing up power-sharing negotiations between the deadlocked sides.] The New York Times [The Governor's Mr. Fix-It], The New York Post, The New York Daily News [a bold and masterful stroke], The Albany Times-Union [The Senate, which in fact has not been discharging its own constitutional duty for the past month, asked for this.]    

- Gibson leaves legacy of activism
   The East Side community activist who died last week at the age of 78 tended more than flowers and vegetables, she tended the civic life of Buffalo. Founder of a neighborhood Crime Watch program, leader of the Community Action Information Center and former president of the Concerned Citizens of Masten Park Community Block Club No. 1, [Rosa] Gibson was a tireless advocate of the real people who live in Buffalo, too often below the radar of public officials of all levels and stripes.
   News article. Obituary.   

- Planning board foes condemn our region to decline
   by George Grasser
   News background. Our editorial. Donn Esmonde column. County executive's statement.   

- Using the written word in tribute to a teacher
   by Kevin J. McCue
   I traveled down to Allegany in October last year to visit an old friend. After lunch, I drove up the street to visit my alma mater: St. Bonaventure University. Nostalgia enveloped me as I crossed the bridge and spied the lovely venerable brick buildings off to my right.

-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News 

Cleaning up messes.

   Today's Buffalo News Opinion page sez:

- Honduras poses a test
   President Obama is facing his toughest test yet in Central America, the June 28 coup against President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras [right]. Whether he passes that test may depend upon how he responds to baiting by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
   [News update. Editorial commentary from The Arizona Republic, The Dallas Morning News, The Poughkeepsie Journal, The Nation and The Wall Street Journal. Statements from The White House and SoS Hillary Clinton's news conference with video.]     

- Improve jail care
    There have been far too many suggestions in recent years that people in the custody of the Erie County Holding Center were not getting the kind of attention they need. ... That’s why it is good news that the Erie County Legislature, at the urging of County Executive Chris Collins, has moved to put the county’s doctor — Health Commissioner Anthony J. Billittier IV — in charge of the health care provided to the inmates of the downtown holding center and the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden.

- State must change rules on lieutenant governorship 
   by State Assemblyman Robin Schimminger
   A little over a year ago, the Rockefeller Institute of Government held a public policy forum on “Gubernatorial Succession and the Powers of the Lieutenant Governor.” We were then two months into the current vacancy in the lieutenant governor’s office created when then-Lt.Gov. David A. Paterson replaced Eliot L. Spitzer as governor.

-  Mom’s love of garden finally takes root 
   by Pam Henel
   It is a labor of love to tend a garden, or a child. It requires time, thought, and diligence. It especially requires patience, waiting and watching as your plants or children grow. Truly a labor of love, but the rewards are bountiful, and bring joy to your soul.

-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
[Map of Honduras from www.cia.gov and its World Factbook, one of the coolest Web sites out there.]   

It might have been

   While the federal government was basically doing for the big national banks what those young "escorts" were doing for Eliot Spitzer, Spitzer [right] was trying to do something about it. About the  banks, that is. The Bush administration and the federal courts wouldn't let him.
   Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court said Spitzer was right and the feds were wrong. [Article.  Ruling.  Poem.]
   In today's lead editorial -- Victory too late -- The Buffalo News argues that if Spitzer's probe investigation had stopped the practices of some banks to steer minority families into high-interest, high-risk mortgages, it might have prevented, or at least eased, the global financial meltdown that resulted from the burst of the housing bubble.
   It is a case of closing the barn door, for sure. But it demonstrates that, when it comes to making sure banks don’t cause the downfall of the whole economy, the more eyes on them, the better.

   Also on today's Opinion page
- Locking through
   If it was important to Buffalo to restore the western terminus of the Erie Canal, imagine what it means to Lockport — and the rest of Western New York — to rehabilitate the canal’s famous "Flight of Five" locks in the city. This is an important project and it is now under way. [Article. History.]  
- Allegany State Park needs a good master plan 
   By Larry Beahan
- Bingo tradition is humbly assumed 
   By Stefan Mychajliw

-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News 
  

The Paragraph Factory

Welcome to today's chapter of The Paragraph Factory, an occasional (usually monthly) on-line live conversation on the art and craft of writing. Mike and Charity Vogel will open the discussion at 2 p.m. today, and the topics will include anything you want to discuss -- although Charity just may have something to say about book-length writing.

Program note: The Paragraph Factory

For those of you who enjoy the give-and-take of a live on-line chat about the art and craft of writing, the next chapter of "The Paragraph Factory" will open right here at 2 p.m. Tuesday (July 7). Join Mike and Charity Vogel for some conversation about books, journalistic writing or whatever else in the writing biz may be on your mind.

 

U.S. Welcomes New Americans

As editorial writers, we don't get out much (you can probably tell?) but a recent trip to video and familiarize myself with the swearing in of newly-minted United States citizens was a true honor.

U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny presided at the ceremony welcoming 50 new Americans from 32 countries, including Iraq. Young and old, families and singles all gathered at the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society for a momentous life occasion.

Given the unrest in other countries such as Iran and Honduras, the freedoms we enjoy here in America are made that much more clear.

Skretny spoke of eloquently of responsibility and honor. Words we should all live by.

—Dawn Marie Bracely / Editorial Writer

Read the full editorial.

What the hell goes on in New York?

   It is Independence Day Weekend. And if I still had a Betamax player I'd get out my pirated copy of the musical "1776" and make my family watch it with me again.
   Yes, I know. This comic opera version of the drafting and approval of The Declaration of Independence has all kinds of historical inaccuracies in it -- John Wilson wasn't a wimp. Caesar Rodney wasn't dying [yet]. Martha Jefferson was way too ill to come to Philadelphia. Richard Henry Lee wasn't going to be governor of Virginia.
   But I love it anyway. And at least two bits of that play/movie's wonderful dialog seem not only accurate about then, but about now.
   This first one, a bit involving Continental Congress President John Hancock and New York Delegate Lewis Morris, makes more sense than ever. [It helps to know that, throughout the play, New York always abstains. Courteously.]:
Morris: [as Hancock is about to swat a fly] Mr. Secretary, New York abstains, courteously.
[Hancock raises his fly swatter at Morris, then draws back] 
Hancock: Mr. Morris,
[pause, then shouts] 
WHAT IN HELL GOES ON IN NEW YORK?
Morris: I'm sorry Mr. President, but the simple fact is that our legislature has never sent us explicit instructions on anything!
Hancock: NEVER?
[slams fly swatter onto his desk]
Hancock: That's impossible!
Morris: Mr. President, have you ever been present at a meeting of the New York legislature?
[Hancock shakes his head "No"]
Morris: They speak very fast and very loud, and nobody listens to anybody else, with the result that nothing ever gets done.
[turns to the Congress as he returns to his seat]
Morris: I beg the Congress's pardon.
Hancock: [grimly] My sympathies, Mr. Morris.

   Also, reading the statement from U.S. Rep. Eric Massa on why he voted against the climate change bill -- no funding for hydrogen fuel cell research -- reminded me of the pained complaint raised by one delegate who found something missing from Thomas Jefferson's draft of The Declaration of Independence.
Joseph Hewes: Mr. Jefferson, nowhere do you mention deep sea fishing rights.
John Adams: Oh good God! Fishing rights? How long is this piddling to go on? We have been here for three solid days! We have endured, by my count, more than eighty-five separate changes and the removal of close to four hundred words. Now, would you whip it and beat it 'til you break its spirit? I tell you, that document is a masterful expression of the American mind!

Indeed. Even without the songs. Read it here.

-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News 

 

Better air. Better airlines.

    Click here to see the offerings of today's Buffalo News Opinion pages. They include:

- Action on climate change 
   This time, we’re all going to the moon.
   The climate change bill that narrowly passed the House of Representatives Friday recalls nothing so much as President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 call for the United States to send a man to the moon within a decade. [Video.]
   There are differences, of course. While Kennedy’s challenge was mostly about inspiration and politics, the task before us now is about planetary survival. And, instead of watching intently on TV, we are all going to take part in the bold venture, soaring to success or crashing to failure.
   Related comments from The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, The Lufkin (Texas) Daily News, The Houston Chronicle, The New York Times, Thomas Friedman, Andrew Sullivan and The Salt Lake Tribune.     

- Toughen airline rules
   The Federal Aviation Administration’s quick action to revamp rules for airlines may offer small comfort to the families of Flight 3407 victims and can never return those 50 persons to their loved ones and friends, but it shows that the agency has learned a valuable if costly lesson.
   Related comments from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Greenville (N.C.) News, the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times and this really sobering post from The New York Times Freakonomics blog:
   Isn’t it great to know that you have the newest, least-experienced, exhausted, starving young cockpit crew that this regional airline could find? Good for you!  

- Universal health care is a blessing, not a curse
   Williamsville's Brian Pawley explains what Americans are missing by not having the kind of universal health care he took for granted living the United Kingdom.

- State will take steps to ensure group home safety
    Gladys Carrion, commissioner of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, promises improvements in the wake of the death of a young woman who worked at a group home in Lockport.

-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News

Bad Senate. Better FAFSA?

   Today's Buffalo News Opinion page sez:

- Senate still failing
   The outbursts of anger against [Gov. David] Paterson by some frustrated senators, including Buffalo’s normally restrained Sen. Antoine Thompson, are less a proper assignment of blame than they are more evidence that the Senate is not capable of governing itself, much less the rest of us.
   Latest news. Editorial commentary from Newsday, New York Post, New York Daily News, Albany Times-Union, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and The Times Herald-Record of Middletown.
   Of course, California, Illinois and Arizona are falling apart, too. And their legislatures are meeting.        

- Welcome simplification
   Good on President Obama's education secretary and IRS commissioner for announcing plans to greatly simplify the process college students and their families use to apply for loans, grants and scholarships.
   The much feared FAFSA — for Free Application for Federal Student Aid — is so long, complicated, redundant and intimidating that, for many, it might as well be called AHAYWEH — Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here.

- Realtors stand for open space and lower taxes
   by Mike Johnson, president of the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors.

- Bridge improvements can’t wait any longer 
   by Barbara Palazzo 

-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News