Recent editorials from Georgia newspapers:
July 30
The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle on the 40th anniversary of the 1972 terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics:
Confronted with one of the largest television audiences in history, Olympic organizers could’ve made a statement for peace.
They chose politics instead.
We appreciate NBC Olympics host Bob Costas’ indignation at the Olympics’ bizarre decision to ignore the 40th anniversary of the 1972 terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics that killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches.
The conscious, unrelenting decision to dishonor the dead by refusing to acknowledge them on a milestone anniversary speaks volumes …
The Olympics should not just be about athletics; they should be about world peace as well.
As much as any event, the Munich massacre was the beginning salvo in a decades-long torrent of terror by Muslim extremists against nearly the entirety of the rest of the human population. This year’s Olympics opening ceremony could have used the anniversary to make a historic, healing statement about hatred and racism and peace. Nope.
Instead, we got a peculiar bit of propaganda about the British National Health Service — socialized medicine. One sports website called it the “most political Olympics opening ceremony since Berlin 1936.”
And maybe a bit delusional too. British political commentator Iain Martin opined, “Most Britons will not accept the truth about the NHS. It is not that it produces uniformly terrible results, as its harshest critics say. The truth is that its performance, in terms of comparison with sophisticated mature economies, is middling. Yet, just as the minority of critics tend to overdo it, so its defenders sound completely barmy when they hail it as the best and the envy of the world. It isn’t. …”
The likely effect of the ceremony, Martin laments, is that “Anyone attempting to make the system more responsive to consumer demand — to drive improvement, innovation and productivity and thus deliver better health care for patients – can forget it for another 20 years.”
Just like the Israeli athletes, one supposes.
Online:
http://www.chronicle.augusta.com
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July 27
Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal on congressional worthlessness:
As measured by a recent Gallup poll, the U.S. Congress has a public approval rating of 17 percent. It is a dubious honor the lawmakers have worked hard to earn.
At the end of the year, the members of Congress will face a situation whose resolution — it can be said with only slight exaggeration — is a matter of life and death for the U.S. economy.
At midnight Dec. 31, the Bush-era tax cuts are scheduled to expire, which the Obama White House says will mean an average tax increase next year of $1,600 for 114 million families, a body blow to the economic recovery.
Simultaneously, a 10-year, $1.2 trillion, across-the-board cut is to be imposed on federal spending, also likely to be very damaging to the economy.
Combined, the two would total $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts — and, in the opinion of the Congressional Budget Office, would push the country back into recession.
The automatic spending cuts are part of the Budget Control Act passed last August to defuse a crisis largely manufactured by tea party-led House GOP conservatives. In return for raising the debt limit, the Republicans agreed to leave the spending cuts they were demanding in the hands of a “supercommittee.”
To the surprise of few, the supercommittee failed in its mission. It became clear the lawmakers had voted for it, confident that the unthinkable fallback position — the automatic cuts — would never happen. …
The House Republicans are now arguing to scrap the automatic cuts in defense and to make up for them by slashing the budget elsewhere. The Democrats would raise the needed funding by letting the tax cuts expire for families earning more than $250,000 a year. In other words, they are willing to risk the nation’s safety in their quest to punish certain Americans with higher taxes.
Neither solution is acceptable to the other side.
Faced with this difficult and perhaps intractable problem, what is Congress planning to do? Take off for a five-week vacation starting Aug. 3. The Congress-watching newspaper The Hill scolded members: “Do your job — you’re lucky to have one.”
Online:
http://www.mdjonline.com
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July 30
The Times-Herald, Newnan, Ga., on UGA president search:
Who will be the next president of the University of Georgia in Athens?
It’s much too early to answer the question, but the committee appointed to find Michael Adams’ replacement met for the first time recently.
The committee has a list of ideal qualities desired in the new president. The short summation of those qualities is “a visionary fundraiser who has integrity.”
More and more, the job of a college president has focused on fundraising in the past decade or more, and that was a strength of outgoing President Adams, who had plenty of detractors. Even those detractors gave him high marks for fundraising. The integrity component may be even more important as the committee begins its work.
The committee will not have the final say on the next president. That will be up to the Board of Regents. During the coming weeks, the committee will cull a list of candidates – which may number between 30 and 50. The group will develop a short list of three to five finalists to be presented to the regents.
The initial long list is being developed, and the committee is expected to meet again in six weeks to begin the process.
This is an important decision for Georgia’s flagship university and an important decision for the future of higher education in our state. UGA has made positive strides during the tenure of Adams, who retires next July, and his predecessor, Charles Knapp.
The next president will be the key figure in continuing to improve the university and the quality of education it offers.
Online:
http://www.times-herlad.com
