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This Strikes Us …
A Sojourner’s Truth Editorial
The Scott High School situation just doesn’t get any easier,
does it?
The mantra these days that both school administrations and
school parent and watchdog groups employ with ease is that
more community involvement is necessary to improve
conditions at the schools.
Transparency is the key. Everyone wants to be involved, not
necessarily with kids while they are doing their homework,
but in the decision-making process of the district.
So it is in the Scott community where the debate rages over
building a new Scott or renovating the old one. The
community, which the administration called in to apparently
assist them in this decision, has forcefully come down on
the side of renovating rather than rebuilding. Keep the
façade, say community activists, even if it means gutting
the interior.
But keeping the façade and renovating turns out to be a lot
more expensive than starting from scratch. The renovation
estimates hover around $39 million. The state, concerned
with the shrinking student population, which is currently
around 950, will not provide the same proportion of funds it
has provided for schools in the early phases of the Building
for Success program.
Naturally, this has those in the community more than a bit
concerned – mad as hell in some cases. They want to know why
the Toledo Public Schools administration bothered to ask
them if they had no plans to heed their counsel.
This one was pretty easy to forecast – the community would
want renovation of the historic building and the whole issue
of delaying any sort of improvement of the building for so
long would cause a great deal of consternation.
On the other hand, funds are limited. We always knew this
would have to be a problem in the latter stages of the
building program. And as student populations continue to
dwindle, it seems as if the administration has deliberately
stalled to see if the student population for Scott would
simply disappear altogether. It hasn’t.
At some point, the administration has to step up and act
with a little more courage and wisdom than they have shown
thus far. If they are serious about responding to the wishes
of the community, there is no better time than now to start.
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* * *
If you are an advisor to a presidential candidate in this
day and age, a family member, a volunteer … whatever, you
really need to keep your mouth shut in those places where
cameras or recorders might be located. Avoid reporters at
all costs. Do not explain your actions. Just shut up.
This week, a John McCain advisor offered the opinion that a
terrorist strike between now and the election would benefit
the election chances of his boss. It seems, and this is a
theory that most pundits agree with, that such a strike
would remind voters that McCain would presumably be tougher
on terrorists than would his Democratic opponent, Barack
Obama.
That’s quite a gruesome calculation. Nevertheless we are
surprised by the almost unanimous opinion that McCain
benefits from such a calamity. We are surprised by the
calculation because the only defense anyone ever offers of
the Bush presidency is that at least he managed to keep us
safe and prevent another terrorist attack.
If a terrorist attack occurs, we argue that it will reflect
badly on the Bush presidency and legacy and McCain will
suffer as a result. It will be one more item in a long list
of Bush failures and miscalculations.
* * *
* *
Obama, meanwhile, has a very real dilemma to confront, not
just in order to win an election – it probably doesn’t
matter – but to display his basic sense of human decency.
He has been running against suspicions and rumors of a
connection to Islam as hard as he possibly can and doing his
utmost to assure voters that he is a devout, mainstream
Christian.
Last week in Detroit, in a ham-handed attempt by campaign
volunteers to make sure there would no visual connection to
Islam, two women wearing religious head scarves were
prevented from sitting in the background which would show up
on camera.
The volunteers took it upon themselves to make such a
decision, but there is little doubt they were inspired by
recent statements from Obama and his campaign.
Political expediency drives Obama to deny any hint of a
connection to Islam, we understand that. What we also
understand is that somewhere, at some point, the candidate
has to make it clear that he happens not to be Muslim but
even if he were, there would be nothing wrong with that.
Since he is a constitutional scholar and law professor, we
are sure that at some point he came across a phrase noting
that this country is proscribed from establishing any
particular religion … or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof. |
