For many Wichita working stiffs, the news surely prompted a double take: $61,440 in cash and stock for each of the 4,000 Machinists at Spirit AeroSystems. The startling bonuses will be the result of last week’s initial public offering of Spirit’s stock. For Spirit’s Machinists, they’re also the realization of a promised trade-off for the wage and benefit cuts accepted after the Canadian investment firm Onex Corp. bought the former Boeing commercial division in June 2005. As the bonus news revives local debate among union and nonunion workers, it leaves some out — including Spirit workers represented by the Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (who didn’t take wage cuts) and the more than 1,000 workers laid off in the sale. But the windfall promises to sweeten the coming months for thousands of area families and the broader local economy, further confirming that Spirit’s success is Wichita’s success.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Pope Benedict’s XVI’s trip to Turkey this week offers a rare opportunity to promote, in his words, “dialogue and brotherhood and the commitment for understanding between cultures . . . and for reconciliation.”
Granted, such values were in short supply in September, when many Muslims were insulted when the pope noted a medieval quote about Islam being an “evil and inhuman” religion.
Turkey, the most moderate and pro-Western majority Muslim nation, provides a good venue for the pope to clarify his views about Islam and Christianity and to work for reconciliation.
Benedict has said that he wants a “frank and sincere” dialogue with Islam. The question is: Does the Muslim world want it? Or are moderate Muslims willing to let the radicals set the terms of their relationship with the West?
The pope should continue to press his message about the dangers of fanaticism in religion, as well as the need for reciprocity, the principle that Christian churches should be as protected and welcome in the Muslim world as mosques are in the West.
It’s a risky trip, but the payoffs could be huge if Pope Benedict says the right things. Let’s hope that Muslims, too, see this as an opportunity for real dialogue.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Here are the essential reasons little happens on immigration reform, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote: “Businesses want low-wage workers; intellectuals are wed to global visions of cross-border prosperity; politicians want Hispanic loyalty and the Hispanic vote.” Another reason is that politicians get stuck trying to agree on long-term, comprehensive answers, rather than taking incremental steps. “They are like people in a burning house who sit around discussing the long-term efficacy of various kinds of water hoses while the house burns down around them.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
After Sen. Sam Brownback had concluded his interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” by suggesting he’d say more soon about a 2008 presidential run, the conservative Kansan’s chances were debated on the roundtable.
Columnist George Will observed that there is room for a Ronald Reagan conservative in the GOP primary, “but they don’t grow on trees. If you want potato chips, you increase the demand for potato chips. Someone makes potato chips. You can’t just say, ‘We demand a Ronald Reagan’ and Ronald Reagans appear, with due respect to Mr. Brownback.”
Columnist E.J. Dionne noted that “what’s striking is the thinness of the crop on the conservative side of the Republican Party, which is why I think Sam Brownback is perfectly smart to try to fill that void. There are really only two candidates there that I can see right now. One is Brownback. The other is Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Very interesting candidates.” He added: “Is Romney of Massachusetts going to grab the evangelical and conservative heart? Well, we don’t know that, so Brownback has as good a chance as anyone of occupying that space.”
Democratic strategist Donna Brazile suggested the Kansan would seem to be a good fit for the Iowa caucuses. “I think he’s someone that you should look at in terms of the early states. He’s someone that I believe has broad base appeal,” she said. And when someone at the table observed the glee with which Brownback said he was doing a December event with Democratic sensation Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Brazile added: “Guess who’s coming to dinner all over again.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Most of the criticism of the Kansas Supreme Court has been political. Last week found some that was geographical, with the Johnson County Sun’s opinion page editor, Bob Sigman, lamenting that the state’s most populous county does not have a candidate among the top three nominees for the latest opening on the court. Noting that only one “bona fide” Johnson Countian has ever served on the court and that four county residents were among the 14 applicants this time, Sigman said, “Surely no other place in the state has a superior talent pool — judges and lawyers — than Johnson County.” He added: “On an ideal, balanced court, it should be appropriate for the most heavily populated county in the state to have a place at the table.” The final three, by the way, are former Wichitan Tom Malone, a member of the Kansas Court of Appeals since 2003, as well as Court of Appeals Judge Lee Johnson, who formerly practiced law in Caldwell in Sumner County, and Douglas County District Judge Robert Fairchild.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
