A new survey reports that many state authorities, including in Kansas, routinely allow a 5 to 10 mph “cushion” before issuing tickets for speeding.
Is that appropriate? Most drivers probably think so. A better question might be: Are there enough police and traffic courts to handle the caseloads if speed limits were strictly enforced?
The survey must not have included Eastborough.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
It’s interesting how a column can sometimes take on a second life. Such is the case with “If men could breast-feed,” a column I did a few months back defending breast-feeding in public (somebody had to do it). It apparently was posted on LACTNET, an online breast-feeding support network, and in the past two weeks I’ve been inundated by e-mails from moms around the country who are sick of being hassled in public.
Here are a few excerpts:
“I wanted to thank you for your blunt humor and openness to the struggles that many of us face. It is a rough road to nurse my own very demanding 6-month-old in public, and find myself also being stared at and looked down on.”
Another reader: “As a nursing mother, I have struggled with nursing discreetly in public, without drawing unwanted attention from critics. It is so refreshing to see this important matter addressed in print, and in a manner that might actually change some attitudes about breast-feeding.”
Said another: “My favorite was being asked to nurse my son in a washroom. When the manager refused to join us by bringing his lunch into the bathroom as well, I politely declined. Here’s a new slogan: Breasts: not just for selling cars anymore!”
Based on the responses, it seems “lactivists” are starting to get organized in support of right-to-breast-feed legislation. They’re not going to take it anymore. Good for them.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The Kansas State Board of Education is making a lot of news these days, though not for what it’s doing to promote student achievement, unfortunately. Particularly disturbing — and revealing — was this comment from Connie Morris, as the board squabbled about her newsletter criticisms of fellow board members: “There were attacks. But that’s part of the game, isn’t it? That’s part of informing people what is going on.”
Hard to see how any of this serves the board’s core mission of “promoting student academic achievement through vision, leadership, opportunity, accountability and advocacy.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Republican congressional leaders are now telling President Bush that it’s time to find an escape route for his unpopular plan to partially privatize Social Security, The Washington Post reported in this article.
But Bush has stubbornly insisted on ignoring public opinion all along on the issue of Social Security. If the 62 percent of Americans who disapprove of the way he’s handling the issue couldn’t convince him to change course, I doubt a handful of lawmakers will shake him.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Whatever the state and local school boards decide to do about evolution, chances are that science teachers will ensure that kids still know what they need to know. But a Hays High School physics teacher made a great point in a recent Harris News Service story: “When supernatural causation is allowed to be an official scientific explanation, that opens up the door to anything and everything,” said Cheryl Shepherd-Adams. “If a student answers on a test, ‘God did it,’ and if that answer is marked wrong, what sort of consequences could we face?” More evidence that we don’t pay teachers enough.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Former Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., an Episcopal minister, wrote an interesting commentary for The New York Times discussing the differing positions of moderate and conservative Christians.
“It is important for those of us who are sometimes called moderates to make the case that we, too, have strongly held Christian convictions, that we speak from the depths of our beliefs, and that our approach to politics is at least as faithful as that of those who are more conservative. Our difference concerns the extent to which government should, or even can, translate religious beliefs into the laws of the state,” he wrote.
Let’s hope that others follow his advice and make that case more often.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Although Wichitans have been focused on the local union battles, there is a national debate taking shape, too. The New York Times reported in a recent article that five labor unions plan to join forces to aggressively increase union membership. The unions involved, which make up one-third of AFL-CIO members, decided to form the coalition because they thought the AFL-CIO was doing too little.
With union membership nationwide down from about one-quarter of the work force in the 1970s to just one-eighth today, union leaders are right to take action. But labor unions have plenty of forces fighting against them as it is. It’d be nice if they didn’t have to fight among themselves, too.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
