Tag: marty richman
Water Cooler: Should photo IDs be required for voting?
Ruth Erickson: “State voter I.D. cards, which are required in several states, would only disenfranchise those trying to vote illegally. The I.D. cards should be required to keep the voting process legitimate.”
Marty: Christmas memories stirred
Memories are complex because they bring back both the happy and the sad. I do not think that a Christmas will go by that I will not think of Army Staff Sgt. David H. Gutierrez, who died in Afghanistan on Christmas Day 2009; here were my thoughts at the time. I hope the Gutierrez family can find the happier memories in Christmas and I republish this in the hope you will never forget the real cost of your freedom to celebrate as you wish.
Marty: An evening with the veterans
Last Wednesday was the 70th anniversary of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan and the local American Legion and VFW sponsored memorial ceremonies and an informal dinner in honor of the World War II veterans. Appropriately, it was at Hollister's Veterans Memorial Building and a surprising 26 World War II vets attended the event, and I made it too. I came to honor all the vets and in memory of my Dad who served during WWII although not overseas; my father-in-law who spent 3-1/2 years in Japanese POW and labor camps only to die shortly after war's end; and my father's cousin, age 24, who was killed in 1942 during the sea battles off Guadalcanal.
Marty: Sexual abuse and responsibility
The alleged sexual abuse of minors and cover-ups at Penn State, other instances involving the Catholic Church and cases where school administrators concealed educator misconduct in exchange for resignations all form an alarming pattern that must be addressed. The incidents involve two phases and trusted institutions. The first phase is an allegation or suspicion of abuse; the second phase is a failure to report - or attempt to hide – the incident by persons of authority and responsibility. The abuse is more egregious on the criminal scale, but on the scale of moral responsibility, the failure to report the events to law enforcement or social services is as disturbing and even more bewildering.
Marty: Bullet train or the Boondoggle Express?
In November 2008, California voters passed Proposition 1A, the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act, 53 percent to 47 percent. It authorized $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds to help, ostensibly, fund a $40 billion, 800-mile bullet train. Now, only three years later with nothing built the estimated costs have skyrocketed to $98.5 billion, the completion date has been pushed out nine years to 2033, and the maximum annual ridership estimate has shrunk by 18 million. At what point do the misstatements or gross errors that formed the original premise of Prop 1A invalidate the election results?
Marty: The Hoover Dam revisited in 2011
Every politician wants to rebuild the Hoover Dam – at least metaphorically. At one time the national frustration phrase was, "If we can put a man on the moon why can't we...?" Now the moon is "old cheese" and we're invoking the Hoover Dam, but could we even build it today?
