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THE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | MARCH 20, 2016
David Leibowitz Bill Richardson Glenn Hamer Letters For more opinions visit eastvalleytribune.com
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COMMENTARY
AMERICA: COMEBACK KID OR HAS-BEEN? BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ GUEST COMMENTARY
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he summer of 1973 tattooed on my young brain a lasting impression of America as a serious nation, the best and brightest place on any map ever drawn. I was 8 years old. America, not yet to its Bicentennial, seemed a country of consequence. Our summer vacation days were spent pounding a bald Spalding basketball on the asphalt playgrounds of P.S. 209, across the street from the three-room apartment in Queens, New York. We milked every last minute of daylight because there was nothing on the old Zenith: The Watergate hearings played on every channel. At night, testimony gave way to Walter Cronkite and images of the “Hanoi Taxi” winging home POWs from Vietnam. America launched Skylab that year. Spiro
Agnew resigned as vice president and pleaded to tax evasion. President Nixon declared, “I am not a crook.” What 1973 impressed upon a young boy took more than 40 years to erase. But the other day I was flipping TV channels when the transformation of America struck me as hard as Kenny Norton shattering Muhammad Ali’s jaw back in ’73. America circa 2016 is about as serious and dignified as a “Real Housewives” episode. We keep up with the Kardashians, book our faces in infinite selfies and Yelp over the unbearable indignity of an underdone cheeseburger. Used to be, America was that broad-shouldered big brother who quarterbacked the football team and graduated top 10 percent before heading to college. Now? We’re looking forward to an 18th season of “Big Brother” so we can peep morons living amid hidden cameras while vying for $500,000 awarded for achieving … nothing at all.
TRUSTING LEGAL SYSTEM GOES BOTH WAYS BY BILL RICHARDSON GUEST COMMENTARY
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ne can only imagine how Mesa police officer Phillip Brailsford felt when the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office charged him with murder in the Jan. 18, on-duty shooting death of Daniel Shaver after responding to a man-witha-gun call. Shaver was unarmed but had guns in his hotel room. The investigation and video from the officer’s body camera haven’t been released. Charging Brailsford with murder has sent shock waves though the law enforcement community, especially in Maricopa County. In today’s world, I think it’s a fair to ask if politics and publicity come into play when deciding to charge an officer with murder? The antics of the county attorney during the Jodi Arias trial are still fresh in many minds as are several high-profile killings of other unarmed cit-
izens by police. While the public needs to have trust in the system, so do the police. Cops who don’t trust the system can be hesitant to act at everyone’s detriment. That includes you and me. The elected county attorney wields considerable power when charging officers with crimes and is allowed to conceal the inner workings of the decision-making process. Knowing how politics and publicity can influence some prosecutions, shouldn’t charges involving officer involved fatalities be decided by the presiding judge of the Superior Court who would appoint a special prosecutor and independent investigators, not officers from the involved agency, to decide if charges should be brought against an officer involved in the death of a citizen and not by the county attorney? • Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill. richardson@cox.net.
If 2016 America lived next door, it would have a ’73 Dodge Dart on blocks in the front yard and Wal-mart blow-up pool beside the pitbull’s discarded tire toys. Every so often, it would turn down some crappy Justin Bieber song just long enough to shout for some medical weed and a package of Kettle Brand organic kale chips. Then it would post a misspelled tweet professing “luv” for Donald or Bernie, Hillary or Ted, and go right back to polishing off a growler of craft beer. Yes, I realize I have officially become my Uncle Nat, grumpy in a slipcovered La-Z-Boy rocker, lamenting the state of things in what, back in the day, used to be the best country devised by man. I keep hoping America’s Golden Age of Stupidity is simply a bad dream – that Kanye West isn’t really adjudged a lyrical genius; that Rob Gronkowski isn’t really celebrated for having more touchdown catches than IQ points; and that Election 2016 won’t really produce a president from what feels like
the plot of Dinner With Schmucks 2: Off To The White House. Unfortunately, America as a foolocracy feels as lasting as those memories of vanished summer days when we seemed to be hurrying on our way to some place noble. The country is still young, though, and in youth there is always hope. Sometimes, the big brother destined for great things flunks out of college and moves home to live with mom and dad. Maybe he spends a couple of years bartending before he gets it together and fulfills his promise in delayed adulthood. Maybe, coddled by technology, surrounded by noise, we grow up more slowly now. Maybe this is a blip, and America finds its way. Or maybe this is a reality show, and we’re about to be canceled because of declining ratings. • David Leibowitz has called the Valley home since 1995. Reach him at david@leibowitzsolo.com.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE RULES NEED SPRING CLEANING BY GLENN HAMER GUEST COMMENTARY
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f you’ve read the news lately about the state of our politics, you’ve been inundated with stories of the corrupting forces of political speech and the socalled “threat” it poses to our democracy. You’ve heard less, however, about why efforts that claim to be designed to increase transparency in political debates are actually designed to limit free speech and chill the expression of particular opinions. Politics is a rough sport, but there are rules. If corrupt organizations try to cut corners, they should be identified and dealt with to the full extent of the law. But the vast majority of organizations that participate in the political process operate in bounds and comply with the spirit and letter of the law. What types of organizations are we talking about? Chambers of commerce, industry trade groups, and organizations formed to improve the community. This is “dark money?” On the contrary, these groups seek to shed light on the issues and provide a voice for the Arizonans that make up their
membership. Yet they have become collateral damage - if not the primary targets - of countless grenades that have been lobbed in what is becoming a war on the First Amendment. The attacks on speech have come in the form of ballot initiatives, opinion columnists’ screeds and – despite being invalidated by the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council – a series of unclear, overreaching rules promulgated by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, all designed not to amplify free speech, but silence it. Senate Bill 1516, sponsored by Sen. Adam Driggs in close collaboration with Secretary of State Michele Reagan, would give Arizona’s campaign finance rules a long-overdue spring cleaning and provide the predictability and clarity that citizens look for when seeking to lawfully participate in elections in our state. This commonsense legislation streamlines current law, reducing it from 18,475 words to 9,500, and from 32 statutes to 24. The bill appropriately distinguishes between legitimate and illegitimate actors and applies the law accordingly. • Glenn Hamer, is President and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.