INACCURATE?
Laurence Britt is entitled to his own ideas about what the D&C covers and how it covers it,
however fuzzily and self-referentially he may present those ideas (“Following
the Paper Trail,” May 11). But at least one of his hip shots should not go
unchallenged. He writes: “Coverage of national and international stories
is based on wire service copy with D&C headlines (often inaccurate) the only local contribution. Apparently, the
belief is that anyone wanting more information is already reading the New York Times.”
Is this to imply that the D&C should have its own bureaus and reporters around the
country and the world? Or that reporters should be
dispatched from Rochester to cover
major events? All that would be nice, but not realistic. Even the Timesuses wire
services and puts its own headlines on wire service stories, like every other
newspaper (and TV news report, and website, etc). For what it’s worth, local
perspective on national and international stories and issues does appear
regularly on the editorial page.
Perhaps most egregious is Britt’s unsupported assertion that
D&C headlines are “often
inaccurate.” As a part-time editor on the D&C copy desk, I have observed that the professionals who edit,
check, and proofread every word in the newspaper, and who also write the
headlines, are dedicated to accuracy as the absolute prime concern. If mistakes
are made — and nobody’s perfect — it is not for lack of marshalling a great
deal of effort and expertise to avoid them.
A more experienced and thoughtful media observer than Mr.
Britt shows himself to be would think twice before
impugning the professionalism of an enterprise about which he seems to
understand very little.
Jeffrey Owen Jones, Parker Drive, Pittsford (Jones is an occasional
freelance contributor to City Newspaper.)
Laurence Britt’s
response: The intent of the article was to challenge the D&C to produce a better product and
devote the resources to be able to do that. No one expects the D&C to be the New York Times. The question is how it can be a better local paper,
given that it has no daily competition.
There is a lot of dissatisfaction in the community and it is
growing. Understandably, criticism is never easy to accept. In terms of the
headlines, I stand by my statement that they are often inaccurate. I’m not
saying that headline production is easy and not prone to inadvertent
inaccuracies. In addition, what makes a good headline, like beauty, is often in
the eyes of the beholder. But I have heard the comment about inaccuracies from
many other people in the community.
BUILDING ON WILSON’S SUCCESS
Congratulations to Wilson Magnet for its Number 27 ranking
in Newsweek’s Top 1,000 High Schools.
I awoke to a phone message from home announcing the news, and later found the
list at The Civil Rights Project at HarvardUniversity, a fitting place to
celebrate the success of a RochesterCitySchool.
Wilson is one
reality that proves the research: Urban students, when provided with
challenging academics and necessary support, will perform better and have
greater post-secondary school success. Congratulations also to the University
of Rochester for its guarantee of
free tuition to Wilson IB graduates, and to George Wolfe, well-respected Wilson
teacher, for his initiative.
As a graduate of East High, I am compelled to ask what the University
of Rochester is doing for the high
school on the other side of the city, and for all other Rochester
city high schools. Moreover, I challenge all local colleges and universities to
meet and exceed the U of R’s efforts.
If schools really do want to “keep bright inner-city
students in Rochester,” as Jon
Burdick, U of R’s dean of admissions, is noted as saying in Newsweek, then they must work harder to
make the grade in their commitment to the city of Rochester
and its students.
Mary Doyle, Cambridge, Massachusetts
PROGRESSIVE IDEAS ON MONROE’S
BUDGET
Thank you for your excellent article on MonroeCounty budget woes (Metro Ink, May
11). Metro Justice has long advocated public policy changes that would address
the county budget problems. This year we chartered a bus to Albany,
and our members urged legislators to have the state assume the county portion
of Medicaid costs. (The current formula has the federal, state, and county
government paying 50 percent, 25 percent, and 25 percent respectively).
Medicaid would then be paid through our progressive state income-tax system
rather than the regressive county sales and property taxes.
Furthermore, as a member of the Interfaith Health Care
Coalition, Metro Justice has long advocated for a single-payer health-care
system. A single-payer system would relieve the county of paying for private
health insurance for county employees (up to a whopping 15 percent of the
budget). It would also relieve the city and all the school districts of the
heavy “tax” of insurance premiums.
Universal health care is currently on the table in Albany,
and Metro Justice members have been urging their state
legislators to take the first steps toward it by supporting the legislation
proposed by Democratic Assemblymember Gottfried of New
York City.
Although County
Manager Maggie Brooks calls our Medicaid system a “Cadillac,” the reality
is that the United States ranks 37th in the world in health status, and
Rochester has one of the worst rates of infant mortality and low-birth-weight
babies in the country. In both situations, we lag behind dozens of other
countries, including some third-world countries.
Finally, for years Metro Justice has advocated to replace
the county property and sales tax with a countywide income tax. Sales taxes are
regressive: MonroeCounty
residents with a low or middle-class income pay a larger portion of their
income in sales and property taxes than wealthier residents of the county.
Income taxes can be set up to be progressive: If you make more, you pay more.
In 2003, Metro Justice released its Revenue Fairness Plan
for MonroeCounty,
designed to capture a portion of the tax windfall from Bush’s and Pataki’s tax
cuts for the rich. (For example, the Bush and Pataki tax cuts enriched MonroeCounty residents earning $625,000
by about $24,000; our revenue fairness plan would capture less than half of
that). Under our plan, an average family in MonroeCounty would pay less tax.
Maggie Brooks’ proposal to create workfare for Medicaid
recipients is a cynical attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the most
vulnerable residents of the county. Besides, where are these 22,000 jobs she
speaks of?
Bill McCoy, Magee Avenue, Rochester (McCoy is a member of Metro
Justice.)
KNOCK IT OFF!
I can’t believe that there are still people who really
believe there is a “Social Security Trust Fund-Lock-Box” in existence
(Laurence Britt’s “Social Security: Lies, Lies, and Damned Lies,” April 6). The
unvarnished truth is that both the Republicans and the Democrats alike have
been raiding these funds for decades, and they spent every dime almost as fast
as it came in.
Only a very few weeks ago, the president himself said in a
televised speech that the trust fund does not exist. And let me quote from an
editorial in the May 2 edition of the Wall
Street Journal:
“On the latter point, what we do know with confidence
is that, between now and 2017, the payroll tax will
raise at least $2.2 trillion more in taxes than will be paid out in benefits.
That ‘surplus’ cash will not go into some vault waiting for the Baby Boomers to
retire but will instead be spent by Congress-on things like one more bridge in
Alaska.”
So to Mr. Britt and his like-minded readers, please knock it
off. There are too many people out there who already believe you. Save them the
disappointment of eventually learning the truth.
Bill Harter, Pinellas Park, Florida
Laurence Britt’s
response: Let me get this straight. When it comes time to pay off US
government bonds held by the Bank of Japan, it’s no problemo. But when it comes time to
cash in the same bonds to pay American retirees who have paid into Social
Security during their working lives, then it’s a myth.
The shocking part is that this president would mouth such
irresponsibility. These obligations will be met, either with tax revenues or by selling still more bonds in the
marketplace — as has been done since the beginning of the Republic to meet
current obligations.
As for the quote from the Wall Street Journal editorial, just consider the source. After all,
the Journal has opposed Social
Security from Day One. And who will benefit most from Social Security
privatization? Could it be Wall Street?
THE PEOPLE CHOSE
Regarding Laurence Britt’s “Absolute Power” (April 27): The
fact is, the Republicans were elected by the people of the United
States to control the presidency, the
Senate, and the House of Representatives. This gives them the right to nominate
and confirm judges at all federal levels. Mr. Britt
decries what he called the “overturn of 200 hundred years of Senate
tradition and rules to take advantage of the current Republican majority.”
He fails to mention all the changes the Democrats have made to the “200
hundred years of Senate tradition and rules,” which have forced the
consideration of the changes he is so afraid of.
Until the last few years, the only points that were supposed
to be considered was whether judicial nominees were of good character and the
legal community found them competent to serve as a judge. The Democrats have
stated that nominees would be considered more by political and religious
beliefs than by any other standards.
The Democrats also fundamentally changed how the filibuster
is used. Prior to this point, the filibuster was used to stop individuals that
the minority — whether Democrat or Republican — thought was unfit for
office by qualification or character. The Democrats have stated that they will
use it to stop all high-level judges with whom they do not agree politically.
The requirement for stopping a Senate filibuster used to be
67 votes. When the Democrats were in control of the Senate but did not have
enough votes to stop a filibuster, they changed the rules and lowered the
requirement to 60 so they could force anything they wanted into law.
But Mr. Britt’s most outrageous suggestion is that the
country does not have the right to vote to bring about a more moderate judicial
system, one that will not change the 6,000-year tradition of marriage of one
man and one women, will not consider the Boy Scouts so evil that they can not
be allowed in public buildings, and will not make it illegal to recite the
Pledge of Allegiance in school.
Mr. Britt mentions polls regarding the president’s
popularity. Mr. Bush has the courage of his beliefs to make the hard decisions
without regard to the ever-changing views of those who have less information
than him.
John Cook, Rochester
Laurence Britt’s
response: The Republican-controlled Senate during the Clinton
administration blocked a vote on approximately six times as many judicial
nominations as the Democrats have done during the Bush administration. The
difference is that since the Republicans controlled the Senate during the Clinton
years, they simply did not allow the nominees out of committee for a vote.
The Democrats did not “fundamentally change” why
judicial nominations are opposed. It has almost always been for political
reasons and certainly was during the Republican blockage during the Clinton
years.
Mr. Cook claims to want a moderate judicial system, but the
judicial nominees being held up are far from moderate, which is why the
Democrats opposed them. As an aside, the 6000-year history of the tradition of
marriage was a pretty miserable bargain for most women for about 5900 of those
6000 years.
THE REAL CALLAN
I disagree with both letters written about Chad Oliveiri’s interview with Jim Callan
(“The Way Out” and “Churches, Rebuilt,” The Mail, May 11; “Truth to Power in
the Church,” April 27). Both writers take extreme views, in my mind, on what I
see as the deep, deep spirituality of Father Jim.
I too am a member of Spiritus
Christi Catholic Church and was a member of Corpus Christi Roman Catholic
Church. In total, I am 11.5 years in these faith communities — and 70 years
as a Catholic.
In my work, I encounter the fresh goodness of Father Jim’s ministry as he brings great hope, in
God, to patients of all ages and people of great diversity. His humility is
unique, and his faith in God is an anchor he shares readily with struggling
people.
A neurosurgeon I met when my son-in-law was having brain
surgery in 1999 said. “I don’t agree with all he does, but I see Jim Callan in here at all times of day and night. Whether it’s
sudden illness, a poor turn, or an accident — and he’s usually in the corner,
not front and center — he’s someone people can count on. I’ll probably never
go to his church, but I know I can count on him too, to be here whenever he’s
needed.”
So I feel it’s not about protests. And he, I believe,
doesn’t seek to break rules. But he is there for the people. And if and when he
“errs” (who doesn’t?), it is always on the side of the people. For me, that’s
what really matters.
Life is a process. Church is a process. Theology
(understanding who and how God is) is a process. And the process is God’s.
Trust the process, trust God, and love your neighbor as God loves you, and you
will have an understanding of Father Jim’s spirituality and motives.
Joan Kessler, East Avenue, Rochester
WRITING TO CITY
We welcome and encourage readers’ letters for publication.
Send them to: themail@rochester-citynews.com or The Mail, City Newspaper, 250
North Goodman Street, Rochester14607.
Our guidelines: We don’t publish anonymous letters — and
we ask that you include your street name and city/town/village. We don’t
publish letters that have been sent to other media — and we don’t publish form letters generated by activist groups. While
we don’t restrict length, letters of under 350 words
have a greater chance of being published. We do edit letters for clarity and
brevity. And in general we don’t publish letters (or longer “op-ed” pieces)
from the same writer more often than about once every two months.
This article appears in May 25-31, 2005.
