Bangor Daily News, Feb. 25
Maine cannot escape the national and global urge toward economic efficiency that sends jobs to where they can be done most cheaply, homogenizes downtowns or erases them altogether, that makes once-thriving rural communities all but obsolete. But it can preserve its memory of what makes Maine the place it is and honor the best of what has come before by teaching to generations its history, culture, art and its spirit.
Since 1999, the state’s New Century Community Program … has used a small amount of money to large effect for saving the best of Maine. It has given seed money to hundreds of projects all over the state to improve libraries, help local museums, support area arts organizations, develop cultural tourism and enhance school curriculum.
One of the largest and most impressive projects … was the Maine Historical Society’s Maine Memory Network, a splendid online collection of Maine history. New Century has been able to do all this on a very small budget because the agencies that comprise it have worked together to an unusual extent. Last year, the Institute for Government Innovation at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government honored New Century by naming it among the top 100 innovative programs nationwide.
There’s no secret for this level of success: It requires endless dedication by local arts and cultural organizations, guidance and skill from the statewide groups and a small, consistent amount of money from the state each year that gets leveraged, sometimes several times over, to fund these important projects. Because of a series of state budget shortfalls since its inception, New Century has never gotten that third piece. But legislation this year, LD 1787, would provide the council with $4.5 million for New Century. …
It is difficult to think about adding an expense to the state budget, no matter how comparatively small, when the state budget itself is in so much trouble. But the work done by these agencies not only provides Maine with an enduring sense of itself and its possibilities, it provides legitimate means for countless small communities to attract people – visitors, former residents, potential new residents – who strengthen these communities and help them survive. …
Time runs out on excuses
Chicago Tribune, Feb. 20
Presumably, University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman saw the full tape of football coach Gary Barnett’s Wednesday exchange with reporters before placing him, involuntarily, on “paid administrative leave.” And presumably Hoffman satisfied herself that Barnett truly was as boorish and insensitive as the excerpts shown repeatedly on television made him appear.
But even if his remarks were “misconstrued” … as Barnett later suggested, the cascade of ugly allegations and disclosures about the football program at Colorado suggests he already was a captain out of control of his ship. …
It shouldn’t be hard for the other 116 schools in the NCAA’s Division I-A to decipher the message that the Colorado case should be sending them: The old ways of doing business simply won’t be tolerated any longer; the recruiting game is going to change; sexism and the use of women as bait or rewards are out, and “We didn’t know” or “Boys will be boys” just won’t be acceptable as excuses. …
Oversight needed for Guantanamo
The Cincinnati Post, Feb. 21
The U.S. Supreme Court came to the right decision … when it agreed to decide whether the Bush administration can hold U.S. citizens indefinitely, without access to lawyers or courts, when they are suspected of being enemy combatants.
This administration has made a sweeping and highly questionable assertion of government power. It has established an extralegal maximum-security prison at Guantanamo that now holds 650 prisoners, mostly captured in Afghanistan and alleged to be hard-core Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. …
The administration has a still-evolving plan for military tribunals to try some of the prisoners, but none have been yet. …
The Supreme Court, it appears, will eventually address all the major legal issues involving the Guantanamo detainees. In the meantime, Congress ought to provide stronger oversight of the Bush administration’s legal improvisations …
Still wanted, after all this time
Aftenposten, Oslo, Norway, Feb. 20
They are wanted for war crimes (in Bosnia). These two, Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and general Ratko Mladic, have been on the run from the international community’s justice system for eight years. All attempts to arrest them and bring them to trial have been fruitless, even though NATO has had tens of thousands of soldiers in Bosnia in recent years.
Have they looked hard enough? …
The contrast is striking when compared to the massive hunt American forces undertook for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his closest associates. …
Karadzic and Mladic managed to get away. … If NATO has not taken seriously the task of finding war criminals in an area where they have large forces, it is a serious blot on the alliance’s record. … War criminals must be brought to justice as quickly as possible.
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