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SKETCH VIEW
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July 16, 2015 Daily Chronicle Section A • Page 5
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OUR VIEW
Take steps to avoid West Nile
LETTER TO THE EDITOR Trump: Politics of the past
To the Editor: Just as Adolf Hitler took advantage of a long history of anti-Semitism to rise to power in Germany, Donald Trump is taking advantage of anti-immigrant feelings that have long been part of American culture. The similarities between then and now are striking and no less dangerous today than in Hitler’s day. I know comparing modern-day figures to the Nazis is a popular meme and in most cases, without validity, but that doesn’t preclude the comparison from ever being apt. Occasionally, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past when we forget those lessons or enough time has passed that we simply cannot see those lessons
as relevant. What doesn’t change over time is human nature. We are more or less the same people. We have prejudices, fears, and are not above blaming others for our problems. Hitler characterized Jews in Europe as diseased criminals responsible for Germany’s problems. He exaggerated and exploited isolated instances of crime or immoral behavior, just as Trump exaggerates and exploits isolated instances of undocumented immigrant crimes. The truth is that the 500,000 Jews in 1930s Germany were almost indistinguishable from other Germans. They were middle class, academics, professionals, and mostly lived in cities. The truth of undocumented
immigrants in this country is that they are less likely to commit crimes than the population as a whole, while working hard at low-wage jobs, without benefits, and always in danger of being deported. They are not more likely to come here carrying diseases or tp commit murders, as Trump has characterized them. Hitler also threatened his European neighbors and eventually invaded them. Trump has accused the Mexican government of sending immigrants across the border and has said that they are sending the worst elements of society north. Hitler’s Nazi Party drew support not from the intellectuals of German society, but largely from uneducated, unemployed, disaffected Germans who had ex-
perienced crushing poverty that resulted from Germany’s World War I reparation payments. Trump’s supporters are a disaffected segment of American society who already fear immigrants, thrive on low-information cable news programs, and are, for the most part, older white Americans who suffered financially from the Great Recession. The term scapegoating is often associated with Hitler’s treatment of the Jewish population. Is Trump’s rhetoric any less inflammatory than Hitler’s was? The human race simply can’t afford another charismatic leader willing to say anything to achieve ultimate power. Ted Moen DeKalb
Anxiety over education may shape the 2016 campaign College, once a sure ticket to the middle class, is causing a lot of anxiety these days. People are concerned about its cost, about low graduation rates and about the poor employment prospects for some graduates. Hillary Clinton complained about the burden of student debt in a speech in New York last month. Sen. Marco Rubio devoted much of a speech on economic opportunity this week to his own ideas for reforming higher education. We’re beginning to see the outlines of two rival approaches to addressing these problems. Democratic solutions center on increased federal spending and regulation, and Republican ones on increased competition. As a result, the next election could matter more than most for the future of higher education. In particular, progressives want to use increased federal funding as leverage to get schools to act the way federal policymakers want. Thus, President Barack Obama’s proposal to spend $60 billion to eliminate tuition at community colleges that “adopt promising and evidence-based institutional reforms to improve student outcomes.” A related idea is to have the government publish ratings for colleges, the better to make them responsive to the desires of Washington. The progressive approach exposes newer players, such as for-profit schools, to special scrutiny. Conservatives, on the other hand, increasingly favor policies that provide
VIEWS Ramesh Ponnuru new options for students: new educational institutions, new financing methods and new information for evaluating them. Rubio wants to liberalize accreditation rules to break up what he calls the higher-education “cartel.” He wants to make it easier for private institutions to extend student loans in return for a share of students’ future income. He thinks vocational education should get a greater share of federal funds. He thinks prospective students should have access to data about how well graduates of specific college programs fare at getting jobs. He wants higher-education institutions, whether new or old, for-profit or not, to be accountable to customers rather than the government. There’s some overlap between the two camps. Sen. Ron Wyden, a liberal Democrat, has teamed up with Rubio to sponsor legislation that advances college accountability. Obama has sometimes talked about changing the accreditation rules. Both Rubio and Obama want to let people with lower incomes make lower student-loan repayments. In its coverage of Rubio’s speech, the New York Times said that his proposals “sounded strikingly similar to policies that President Obama has called for during his
time in office,” and quoted a Democratic spokeswoman denying Rubio had any new ideas. It’s easy to exaggerate how much common ground there is, however. The Times cites old bits of Obama’s rhetoric on which he hasn’t followed up. Sen. Mike Lee has a bill to change the accreditation rules, for example. Rubio has praised it while Obama has been silent about it. As his term comes to an end, the president seems more comfortable with policies that fit the liberal paradigm. So does Clinton. But I said that we were “beginning” to see a left-right split on higher education. Republicans haven’t fully embraced Rubio’s agenda of conservative reforms. Senator Lamar Alexander, who is working on a rewrite of the Higher Education Act, has released white papers that are consistent with that agenda. But more recently he wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal making the case that higher education works pretty well as it is. Over time, Republicans will probably reach the conclusion that they’re better off addressing popular anxieties about higher education than trying to talk people out of having them. Once that happens, the debate will be on. Maybe even in time for November 2016.
• Ramesh Ponnuru, a Bloomberg View columnist, is a senior editor for National Review and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Letters to the editor We welcome original letters on public issues. Letters must include the author’s full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. We limit letters to 400 words. We accept one letter per person every 15 days. All letters are subject to editing for length and clarity. Email: news@daily-chronicle.com. Mail: Daily Chronicle, Letters to the Editor, 1586 Barber Greene Road, DeKalb, IL 60115. Fax: 815-758-5059.
THE FIRST
AMENDMENT
It seems the buzz surrounding the West Nile virus in Illinois quiets more every summer. But the virus remains among mosquitoes in our environment, and it’s still a good idea to limit your risk of exposure. The DeKalb County Health Department announced Wednesday that it had captured a batch of mosquitoes in DeKalb that tested positive for West Nile Virus. In nearby Kane County, a batch of mosquitoes carrying the virus was collected last week near Elburn. This summer’s wet weather has left plenty of standing water – just what mosquitoes need to lay their eggs – and the night air has at times been thick with mosquitoes. In 2014, there were 44 human cases of West Nile in Illinois, according to the Illinois Department of Health. There were three deaths. Those figures are down from the 117 human cases and 11 deaths in 2013 and 290 human cases – including one in DeKalb County – and 12 deaths in 2012. Human cases started to spike after only five were reported in 2009. In 2010, there were 61 human cases of West Nile virus, including four deaths. There were 34 human cases and three deaths in 2011. West Nile virus is most commonly spread by infected mosquitoes. It can cause fever, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) or meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord). There are steps you can take to protect yourself from being bitten by a West Nile-infected mosquito. Follow these tips from the health department: • Wear shoes, socks, long-sleeved shirts and pants when outdoors for long periods of time or when mosquitoes are most active – usually dawn and dusk. • When possible, avoid the outdoors during peak biting times – dawn and dusk. • Spray clothing with insect repellent. • Apply insect repellent sparingly to exposed skin by following label directions. Some experts recommend lower concentrations for children. Check with your doctor before applying insect repellent on infants, and wash your hands after using insect repellent. • Look for EPA-labeled products containing DEET, Picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or IR3535. It also is important to eliminate mosquito breeding sites from around your residence. Mosquito eggs can develop in any standing water that lasts more than five to seven days. Follow these health department tips: • Turn over children’s wading pools and toys when not in use. • Drill holes in the bottom of recycling and trash containers that are left outdoors. • Change water in birdbaths twice a week. • Fix leaky faucets. They provide water where mosquitoes can breed. • Drill holes in window boxes and flower planters to prevent water from pooling. • Aerate ornamental ponds or stock with mosquito-eating fish. • Keep pools clean and chlorinated. • Eliminate standing water on your property. Take proper precautions this summer to reduce your exposure to the West Nile virus.
ANOTHER VIEW
Pluto visit shows what NASA can do The first detailed glimpse of Pluto was a stunner: A mottled, multicolored orb, shimmering 3 billion miles from Earth. It has craters, “great mounds,” a mysterious dark belt along the equator – even suggestions of snowfall. The photos came from the NASA spacecraft New Horizons, which has reached the outskirts of the solar system after a nine-year journey. By almost any measure, the mission is already a success, and serves as a fitting capstone for the era of exploration that the U.S. began half a century ago. The next space age will probably look quite different – private enterprise can play a greater role, and NASA should let it – but it will be an exhilarating one all the same. It’s worth dwelling for a moment on NASA’s latest achievement. Traveling at more than 30,000 mph, New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft ever launched. At about $700 million, it was a modest expense by spacefaring standards. And its measurements may yet yield crucial clues about how the early solar system evolved and how life began on Earth. The U.S. is now the only country to have visited every planet in the solar system (Pluto’s unconscionable downgrading to a “dwarf planet” notwithstanding). More to the point, if the U.S. wants a sustained presence on Mars, it will need the help of private enterprise. Companies such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences have made substantial progress in pushing down the costs of rocketry. Occasional (and useful) failures aside, they’re also doing commendable work supplying the International Space Station. SpaceX and Boeing intend to start ferrying humans there by 2017. There’s good reason to think that such companies – under NASA’s supervision – could eventually develop far cheaper ways to get to Mars. Such an arrangement could even serve as a blueprint for the next era of space exploration. The New Horizons mission is the latest confirmation that the American space program is still capable of accomplishing great things. It shouldn’t be the last.
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