A4
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Vicksburg Post
THE VICKSBURG POST
EDITORIAL
Founded by John G. Cashman in 1883 Louis P. Cashman III, Editor & Publisher • Issued by Vicksburg Printing & Publishing Inc., Louis P. Cashman III, President Charlie Mitchell, executive editor | E-mail: post@vicksburg.com | Tel: 601.636.4545 ext 132 | Letters to the editor: post@vicksburg.com or The Vicksburg Post, P.O. Box, 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182
JACK VIX SAYS: Plenty of predictions on how health reform will play out, but no one knows.
OUR OPiniOn
OLD POsT FiLes
D.C. vouchers
120 YEARS AGO: 1890 A.M. Cox, longtime storekeeper for the LNO&T Railroad, resigns. • Charles F. Gross, advance manager of Eugene Robinson’s Floating Palace Shows, arrives in the city.
110 YEARS AGO: 1900
Program works, but unions don’t like it The district in question is in the nation’s capital, but the underlying principle is nationwide. Arne Duncan, President Barack Obama’s education secretary (a position that shouldn’t exist at the federal level, but is hardly likely to be abolished), has been somewhat less the tool of the education establishment and teachers unions than might have been expected. He has pushed for higher standards in testing regimens and more accountability for teachers. On one issue, however, he and the administration have been craven and, perhaps, even cruel. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program since 2004 has allowed some 1,300 District of Columbia students, mostly poor minorities, to attend private schools through a tuition voucher program. Some of these children have moved from dangerous government schools to safer private schools, all have found a healthier learning environment, and the parents of these children are almost universally happy with
the program. Because the District is a federal enclave, funding for the program has come through the federal budget. However, the administration asked for only $9 million in its education budget, deemed to be enough to cover only those already enrolled, and said this would be “the final request” for the program. Teachers unions, significant supporters of the Democratic Party, hate voucher programs as much as vampires hate sunlight, and their opposition to this successful program seems to have been the deciding factor. However, a bipartisan coalition headed by nominally Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, has crafted an amendment to restore the program. Other co-sponsors include Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and John Ensign, R-Nev. D.C. School Chancellor Michelle Rhee, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, former Mayor Tony Williams
and most D.C. council members also support the program. The Washington Post has also been a strong supporter. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who earlier made a commitment to Sen. Lieberman to allow a vote on the amendment, so far has not done so. Last Tuesday, when Sen. Lieberman tried to tack his amendment onto something called the American Workers, State and Business Relief Act, it was ruled out as “not germane” to the underlying legislation. The Washington Post’s editorial says Sen. Reid is reluctant to schedule a vote because it would be embarrassing for many Democrats, in obedience to the teachers unions that pull their strings, to vote against a program with a strong record of helping poor minority children. The choice could not be more clear. Do what’s proved to be best for the kids or cater to the unions. No wonder Reid wants to avoid an on-the-record vote.
W.H. Bruser is putting up the roof for the big P.P. Williams warehouse. • Work on the long distance phone between Vicksburg and Leland is started, according to Manager W.H. McCullough.
100 YEARS AGO: 1910 Announcement is made that the steamboat “Belle of the Bends” is now for sale. • Sheriff R.M Kelly is preparing the delinquent poll tax list.
90 YEARS AGO: 1920 Peach trees here look beautiful in their pink blooms. • Professor J.H. Culkin shows buildings can be constructed cheaply now. He built a teacher’s home at Jett and at Culkin for $2,000 each.
80 YEARS AGO: 1930 Maj. Gen. Lytle Brown is here on an inspection trip. • Dr. Norman Stout, W.F. Laughlin and R.L. Dent Jr., members of the Y’s Men’s Club, return from Monroe where they were present at the presentation of the charter to the Y’s Men’s Club of that city.
70 YEARS AGO: 1940 Randall Cashman is much improved from a recent sinus attack. • Acie Henry Hearn, resident of the Redbone community, dies.
60 YEARS AGO: 1950 More than 2,500 persons filed through the Navy’s trailer-truck exhibits here. • The local group of Alcoholics Anonymous sponsors its first meeting of the kind held in Vicksburg.
50 YEARS AGO: 1960 The 24th annual convention of the Children of the American Revolution opens here. • Funeral services are held for Francis Ross, Port Gibson resident.
40 YEARS AGO: 1970 Robert Dix stars in “Five Bloody Graves” at Showtown USA. • According to reports, sales tax collections in February rose about 5 percent over last year’s totals.
30 YEARS AGO: 1980 Freddie Hutton resigns as Vicksburg High School principal to accept a position as principal of the Brandon Attendance Center. • Clarance Grant Hobbs celebrates his first birthday.
20 YEARS AGO: 1990 Duff Green Mansion owner Harry C. Sharp buys five homes on First East and Adams streets and asks the Vicksburg Board of Architectural Review for permission to demolish them.
10 YEARS AGO: 2000 A Satartia man is arrested for robbing River Hills Bank. • Dr. Randy Easterling makes good on his promise to kiss a pig after River Region Medical Center employees raised $3,000 for the Heart Association.
VOICE YOUR OPINION Letters to the editor are published under the following guidelines: Expressions from readers on topics of current or general interest are welcomed. • Letters must be original, not copies or letters sent to others, and must include the name, address and signature of the writer. • Letters must avoid defamatory or abusive statements. • Preference will be given to typed letters of 300 or fewer words. • The Vicksburg Post does not print anonymous letters and reserves the right to edit all letters submitted. • Letters in the column do not represent the views of The Vicksburg Post.
MODERATELY CONFUSED by Bill Stahler
Good questions asked on reform, but not answered Sunday evening was consumed by the concluding episodes of the long battle over health care reform. Indeed it was the Super Bowl for policy wonks. The immediate thought while watching the television flashes back and forth among the 24-hour news channels was that we are two separate nations living among each other. While debate over health care legislation was the topic of the moment, there is ample evidence that we intend to avoid agreeing with each other as much as possible. Both sides appear intent on making the gap that divides us wider and deeper than it already is. The philosophical disparities are beginning to permeate every aspect and every level of American life. The point of departure for these differences is obviously the question of what role the government should play in our lives. While this is obviously not a new question, now we have so many more ways of knowing what the other side is thinking, and we are given a daily smorgasbord of reasons why we do not like what we are hearing. For example, in the health care debate, there is the much-talkedabout concept called the “public
marty
wiseman
In arriving at this impasse each side simply does not accept the premise of the other. This same entrenchment is reaching into every facet of public life.
option.” It is a mechanism that would enable the government to offer a government-funded and administered health insurance plan to those rejected by the private sector for coverage. Conservative lawmakers consider the public option as the ultimate affront to the sanctity of the free market economy. On the other hand, those at the other end of the political spectrum, acceptably referred to as “progressives,” view this as government’s way of accomplishing what the private sector refuses to do. History provides us with the example of the Tennessee Valley Authority bringing electrical power to the Tennessee Valley when the private sector was unable to do so. Even today there are detractors who
view that public option provision as an unfair and expensive intrusion of government into the private sector, while others give thanks for the day electricity came. Those on the right liberally use “socialist” and “communist” to describe in harshest terms those on the left who respond with their characterizations of the right as immoral and insensitive to those left behind by the free market system. In the process, when the question is asked of conservatives, “What will you propose that we do with the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans?” The answer is usually one that avoids a solution, but rather turns to issues of cost. Conversely, when the left asks the right how they propose to
pay the enormous costs of extending health care to the bulk of the uninsured, there is admitted uncertainty as to the ultimate price. Both sides leave the listener quite unfulfilled. In arriving at this impasse each side simply does not accept the premise of the other. This same entrenchment is reaching into every facet of public life. In fact, I was told Sunday by an acquaintance who had attended morning services at a different church from my own that the minister in a prominent Mississippi pulpit asked the Lord in his morning prayer to guide our lawmakers to reject health care reform legislation. Several studies have recently pointed out the steady decline in the proportion of the American population attending mainline protestant churches. One set of theories attempting to explain these numbers holds that when churches take sides on the very divisive political and social issues of the day, they tend to divide their congregations into “winners” and “losers.” All too often, the losers feel compelled to find other outlets for worship or cease attending church altogether. Thus, are we witnessing the social and political
divide visit us in the very inner sanctums of our communities. Neighbors and those sitting across the table at the Rotary Club are not only becoming deadlocked in their opinions, but they are going beyond in labeling old friends as being “on the other side.” If we persist in finding ways to build permanent fences between each other, we ourselves may become the biggest threat of all. Is there a resolution to the fallout that results when a friend labels a friend a communist for being a Democrat? Likewise, can two friends recover their relationship when one labels the other as immoral and insensitive with little concern for his or her fellow man if he wears a Republican label? One can only hope that our Democratic system will always be a haven for spirited debate, but that civility will return as the order of the day. Friends are hard to come by and the spirit of community is too important. •
Marty Wiseman, Ph.D., is director of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University. E-mail reaches him at marty@ sig.msstate.edu.