Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion of the latest news and a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.
This week's Post columns:
Marc Fisher
(The Washington Post)
|
|
Zero Tolerance -- For Mistakes or Second Chances l (April 29)
Honored To Have Known Mary McGrory (April 27)
Lewd, Crude And in Need Of Rules (April 25)
In his weekly show, Washington Post Metro columnist Marc Fisher veers wildly from serious probing to silly prattle, and is open to topics local, national, personal and more.
A transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
________________________________________________
Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, comrades! (I'm in a Soviet mood, having just returned from the World War II Memorial, which is even more banal and Soviet in style and substance than I had feared. But it's worth the trip, if only to see the spectacular and graceful restoration of the Rainbow Pool--magnificent.)
This week's columns focused on the drunken driving arrest of Alexandria schools superintendent Rebecca Perry, the passing of Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory, and the debate at the University of Maryland over how and whether to curb naughty language on the part of overzealous hoops fans.
The Yay and Nay of the Day:
Yay to Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and the strong-spined state senators and courageous House delegates who crushed the anti-tax diehards and accepted the harsh reality that the Gilmore car tax rollback was going to bankrupt the state.
Nay to the Alexandria school board for deliberating in secret over the fate of Supt. Perry. Parents and other voters want to be part of this process, and they have a right to hear their school board's thinking and decision making about the future of their children's schools.
Your turn starts now....
_______________________
Bethesda, Md.:
Your column on what should be done about the Alexandria school superintendent's drunk driving argues that since 'zero tolerance' is bad policy, it ought to be applied more broadly. This doesn't actually make any sense -- after all, a little sanity is better than none.
Marc Fisher: Really? Is a little sanity applied only to the powerful authority figure, while none is granted to the students, really a good thing? Obviously, the board should take into account Perry's performance, past and potential. But if the policy is not to consider such factors when punishing students, then how can we justify being discerning when an adult's behavior is in question? Consistency is at the heart of any attempt to teach the young, no?
_______________________
Boston, Mass.:
I think it would be great if she got fired. I always felt the insane zero tolerance regulations were ridiculous when I was in school there. It would be a fine smack in the face to everyone who feels children will run amuck without draconian rules and threats hanging over them if even an ounce of the same responsibility had to fall on the adults as well.
No middle ground just like for the kids, off with her head!
Marc Fisher: And that's the other side of the argument.
I am hearing from lots of Alexandria parents today who really like Perry and don't want to lose her, but also from some who cannot figure out how to explain to their kids why two wildly different sets of criteria are used in judging kids vs judging adults.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.:
Did I hear the story correctly that the suspect in the shooting of the Ballou student this week is a 16-year-old junior high student, i.e., in junior high, not a junior in high school? Seems to me that one of the ingredients in this recipe for disaster was the fact that a 16-year-old was in junior high. I'm all for giving troubled students a helping hand, but part of the answer to solving the crisis of violence in the D.C. schools is to identify, isolate, and perhaps exclude the worst of the worst.
Marc Fisher: Yes, 16-year-old junior high student. A disturbing fact, but not terribly unusual in the DC schools. All you'd have to be is someone who was on the older side of his grade and was left back once and you could well be 16 in 9th grade. Which means that if he makes it through high school, he'd be 19 or even 20 at graduation. Makes you think.
_______________________
Alexandria, Va.:
Interestingly I wrote to the Alexandria School Board expressing almost exactly the same views as your column today about our superintendent, but I came to the opposite conclusion -- I think they should eliminate the rigid, tunnel-vision zero tolerance policy and give the supt. another chance.
Marc Fisher: Yes, I agree--that's what I said in the third paragraph from the bottom: Reform the zero tolerance policy for students and then judge Perry on the merits of her case. But I can't imagine that the board will really do that, and in that case, she needs to go.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.:
So, how many Posties stumble out of the Post Pub everyday and get behind the wheel of a car? How many of them lose their jobs because of it?
Marc Fisher: None, I would hope. But let's say some do. Ideally, they'd be arrested and punished, preferably by losing their driving privileges. If that Postie had been a columnist who crusaded against drunken driving, I'd hope that person would have the honor to resign. But short of that, the drunken driving matter would have little to do with that person's job. In the Alexandria superintendent case, public behavior off school premises is still very much fodder for kids and parents to talk about, and therefore that person's behavior is part of the education process, and should be judged as such.
_______________________
Laurel, Md.:
The lesson for kids from the Perry incident is a simple one -- the rules are made by and for those who vote. No one held at Guantanamo can vote so they don't have rights.
I grew up in the 70s and could buy beer at 18 because we had just gotten the vote. When the pols realized we didn't use it, they took our rights away again.
Marc Fisher: And isn't that an injustice? I'd like to hear from someone who can explain how it is that an 18-year-old is trusted to decide who is president of the United States but is not trusted to have a can of Bud.
_______________________
Cal:
Comrade Fisher, what a glorious grey
day in the Capital! In fairness to the influence of Speer's Berlin, shouldn't you describe the WWII Memorial as "totalitarian"? Hitler's
plans for Berlin are strikingly similar to
Stalin's massive monuments, which loops the
fascist with the Soviet into, if anything,
an assault on individualism, a hallmark of
American values, if not the core value.
Marc Fisher: Yes, I heard quite a bit of chatter down at the Memorial this morning from visitors who were trying to decide whether it is more Soviet or more fascistic. That said, I also spoke to a number of folks who just love the whole thing.
_______________________
Southern Maryland:
Last weekend I drove west on Virginia Route 7 from the Beltway to Leesburg. I saw for myself that you're right about Loudoun County sprawl. Subdivision after subdivision filled with oversized, overpriced McMansions.
Maybe it's because I'm not familiar with Washington economics, but I don't understand who can even afford to live in a $750,000 home. Where do these home owners work? Wouldn't a couple both earning $100,000 working for the federal government still find that price out of reach?
Marc Fisher: Depends. Folks who already owned property in this area are generally sitting on huge unrealized profits. Anyone who has owned property in the District or most of the close-in suburbs has likely doubled their money or more if they've held on to a house for a decade or more. So then those $750,000 houses are affordable for people in two-earner, six-figure income families.
What I don't understand is who buys all those houses that are double that cost. The number of houses going for $1.5 million, $2 million and even $2.5 million is astonishing, and I don't get the economics of that. I mean, there are just so many AOL executives to go around, right?
_______________________
Not trusted to have a can of Bud:
Anyone who willingly chooses to have a can of "Bud" shouldn't be trusted with the Franchise either.
Marc Fisher: Well, you got me there. But don't tastes improve with age?
_______________________
Takoma Park, Md.:
As a old U of M attendee, I am here to tell ya, the silliness at the College Park campus has been going on for a while. You can't imagine how bad we used to act back in 1987-88 when we were never on TV and had nothing to fear.
So ... what about the 35k+ bonus "parting gift" for the interim school super? Kinda funny ... NOT.
And I don't know how I feel about the Alexandria school super situation. Having been picked up for drunk driving, I would HATE to lose my job over it. But you make a valid point about the supposed higher standard. I mean, if a kid going through puberty is expected to function under a policy of "Zero Tolerance" I suppose that what is good for the goose ... but it more makes a case for the stupidity of zero tolerance and mandatory sentencing than addressing the issue of individual accountability.
Marc Fisher: Right--TV is a big factor in the public pressure for UM to crack down on the Duck Fuke signs--well, you know what I mean.
Yes! Thanks for bringing up the DC school board's big parting gift to fleeing superintendent Elfreda Massie. Where is the outrage, comrades? She comes in, takes a quick look at the system, and says, Hey, guys, I am so outta here, and runs away before anyone can even start a search for her successor. And then the board turns around and says, Gee, thanks for slamming us in the gut, have a nice pile of the taxpayers' money--they don't care, why should we?
_______________________
Nuremburg Revisited:
Greetings,
The photos of the WWII
Memorial in the Post today suggest two things
1. The beast is HUGE, which is why they refused to make any mock-ups of any of the columns
knowing it would be reduced in size, thereby
severing its links with Speer's plans for a
New Berlin.
2. Repetitive rows of "victory" wreaths on cold grey repeating columns is symbolic of
faceless masses of unknown soldiers, dying
without names, and representing 1/100th of
a gold star per person. How generous!
WELCOME TO SPARTA!
Marc Fisher: Sparta had more character and oomph than this memorial. The wreaths are so repetitive and so lacking in context that they recede into the background granite--you don't even notice them after a few seconds. The whole thing feels like a cemetery in which the gravestones have been pushed together and their inscriptions rubbed off. Empty. Meaningless.
_______________________
Arlington, Va. :
There's a contest here somewhere ... Name the most "Soviet" or "fascist" memorial in D.C. My nomination: The Teddy Roosevelt statue on Roosevelt Island. Big statue. Middle of the woods where nobody can see it. Worthy of the people's struggle, comrade!
Marc Fisher: Really? But the TR, while wildly overdone, is sort of attractively bombastic, I've always thought. I love the fact that hardly anyone knows it's there--you can just discover it and hold it as your own secret place. Kids love it--it's great for playing and running. And on weekends, there's sometimes a ranger there who carries a real Teddy bear and a copy of that splendid children's book about the origins of the Teddy bear.
_______________________
Vote for president?:
Forget vote for president. How about the 18-year-olds carrying guns in Iraq. They are trusted to handle that but not drink.
Marc Fisher: I wonder how or whether they enforce drinking age laws in the Iraq military theater. Anybody know? Can we at least hope that the military adopts a don't ask, don't tell approach on this?
_______________________
Springfield, Va.:
Amen to your common sense approach to our stupid drinking age laws. When you can get married, buy a house, join the Marines, and vote at 18 -- but can't buy a beer -- something is wrong. Instead of punishing a group I'm for harshly punishing drunk drivers with a minimum one year in jail and loss of your car! Two years in the slammer if you ar over 0.15!
Marc Fisher: Right--in several European countries, they have a zero tolerance law (wow! a ZT law that actually makes sense!) regarding drinking and driving--and the impact is astonishing to American eyes. You just don't see cars swerving around the roads late at night, and you really do see designated drivers at every party and every bar.
_______________________
It's not so complicated:
We trust sober 18-year-olds, not drunken ones.
Marc Fisher: Man, somehow I missed the testing regimen that tells us ahead of time which 18-year-olds will be the drinkers and which will be the voters. Please send me a link to that test.
_______________________
Alexandria, Va.:
The 4/23 Post had a story by Al Kamen on how a shouting James Moran had abruptly evicted some American Legionnaires from his office because the Legionaires had asked him to support legislation that would protect flags. Wild Rice (Post, April 23)
I ask this in all seriousness: are we at the point now where we can legitimately consider the possibility that James Moran is not merely a lousy congressman but is also mentally ill?
Marc Fisher: Well, I don't know about mentally ill, but there are certainly some strong indications that anger management is an issue for the congressman.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.:
Why have the media effectively given Jim Moran a pass on his broken promise to fire his campaign manager for the personal attacks he engaged in against Andy Rosenberg? For that matter why have you, never one to shy from criticizing our contemptible congressman, let him slide on this? To me it's just another example of his dishonesty.
Marc Fisher: I never saw where Moran made that promise; no, what I heard Moran say is that it wasn't his campaign manager's fault that he denied Moran's statement about blaming the Jews for the Iraq war. Rather, the congressman said it was his own fault for having led the campaign manager to believe that he denied the comments. Moran has now reiterated that he did indeed make those comments, but that he was talking about the ability of any and all faith groups to influence policy. And Dan Lucas, the campaign manager, has apologized for his own statements.
All that said, I've also wondered why Moran keeps on someone who engages in that kind of sleazy attack.
_______________________
Fair Lakes, Va.:
Marc,
Can we really blame the superintendent for her behavior when her roles models are people like Rep. Moran?
Marc Fisher: Goodness! Is it Moran World over there in Alexandria?
_______________________
Takoma Park, Md.:
How drunk was Perry? Falling out of the car, driving on sidewalk drunk? Or had two beers but weighs 100 lbs. drunk (drunk on the breathables but not impaired)?
Not that this matters in the lovely zero-tolerance world.
Marc Fisher: Well, the chart that the police and hospitals use to gauge the impact of alcohol says that a woman of Perry's stature--let's be charitable and say she's about 100 pounds--would have to drink at least three drinks in relatively quick succession to reach the .12 blood alcohol level at which police recorded her.
The Post is seeking the police recording of the arrest to get further details of the incident, which also involved an Alexandria school board member, though she was not arrested. Police said Perry's car weaved across the double yellow line several times.
_______________________
Alexandria, Va.:
I'm a resident of Alexandria City though I don't have school-aged children yet, and I'm appalled that Ms. Perry hasn't resigned.
Where's her sense of decency and honor? What kind of example is she setting? This kind of behavior is too pervasive ... public officials should be people of integrity and ought to resign when they behave badly.
Marc Fisher: Sounds right, but then again, a good superintendent is a very hard thing to find. Is there a case for keeping her as an example of the power of rehabilitation and education? Or is the message sent to kids just too devastating when she gets to stay and their friend who's caught with a beer can is expelled?
_______________________
Arlington, Va.:
On the issue of whether the Alexandria School Board meetings should have been open, I have to wonder if after the "American Idol" travesty, how can the public ever be trusted with important business again?
Marc Fisher: Yikes! If we're going to start judging the people by our collective love of the dumb, we're in deep doodoo. We're a hi-lo kind of society; we love The Gong Show and Lincoln, Jerry Springer and FDR.
_______________________
Alexandria, Va.:
So if you get held back a bunch of times, can you stay in high school and avoid the draft this December even if you reach 20 years of age?
Marc Fisher: Ha!
I'll bet you lunch that the draft is not reinstated in your lifetime or mine. Don't you think this country has grown way too soft and selfish and disparate to accept a draft again? (Though I think it would be a good thing--with a national service option.)
_______________________
Fairfax, Va.:
In response to your question, American soldiers don't drink in Middle East theater in a Muslim country. Those who do are punished, regardless of age.
Marc Fisher: Thanks--but here's a dissenting bit of reporting:
_______________________
Re: drinking in the military:
From what I've heard from my friends in Iraq, it's mostly a blind eye to underage drinking.
That's when they can find beer. Coca-cola is hard enough to get (at at $6 for a 6 pack!)
Marc Fisher: That conforms with what I've heard--the beer's there, just quietly and expensively.
_______________________
Derwood, Md.:
"I wonder how or whether they enforce drinking age laws in the Iraq military theater."
Halliburton isn't in the beer distribution business, so there isn't any beer supplied
to the military there ...
Marc Fisher: Touche!
_______________________
Crofton, Md.:
Hi Marc
Students aren't dismissed from school. They are suspended. Shouldn't she get the same treatment, a suspension w/o pay?
Marc Fisher: Well, actually students are expelled from school, more often than you'd think. But yes, suspension is more common. I don't know what good suspension would do in the case of a schools superintendent. Either you want her there and she needs to repair the damage immediately, or you want her gone.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.:
In regards to media coverage of the "movement against zero tolerance" policies: from a journalist's perspective, do you consider this coverage more "proactive" (meaning there is substantial self-initiative on the part of journalists to cover this issue in their respected beats), or "reactive" (meaning only when an incident presents itself do journalists cover the issue)? Does this movement lend itself to more human interest-style coverage? And if so, how has coverage helped advocates' efforts to eradicate this policy as a disciplinary measure in school systems?
Marc Fisher: Great question--nearly all of the coverage I've seen around the country on zero tolerance has stemmed from wacky incidents in which kids have been tossed from school for possessing a spork, a Midol, a sharp piece of jewelry, and other such stuff that violates the letter of the law, but seems totally reasonable to any rational person. So in that sense, the coverage has been reactive. But I'd be lying if I didn't add that most reporters and editors love that kind of story because it appeals to the common sense of most readers and most Americans and it portrays the bureaucracy as a bunch of narrow ninnies, which is always a popular theme. So yes, we're probably more likely to go for that sort of story than we might be for some more nuanced or difficult story.
But I should hasten to add that I have not seen any case in which such coverage has led to a rollback of zero tolerance policies. Alas.
_______________________
Silver Spring, Md.:
Has Steinbrenner approached you and Weingarten yet about taking over the Yankees?
Marc Fisher: My conversations with the Boss and his representatives must remain confidential, but I can tell you this: Jose Contreras saved his rear end last night, if only for a few days. And poor Don Mattingly is going to find himself the hitting coach of the Summit, N.J. Babe Ruth League if A-Rod and Jeter don't start hitting soon.
_______________________
Wheaton, Home of the Snakehead:
Marc, the "we don't have to answer to anyone" attitude of numerous local and state officials (Alexandria school board meets in private, Maryland Public Utilities firings, D.C. School Board) comes from the Bush administration that believes it answers to no one (maybe the president thinks he answers to Jesus) and Justice "Quack Quack" Scalia who take the view the "the public be damned." Maybe just maybe some day "We the people" will wake up!
Marc Fisher: How about them photos of the Snakehead! How'd you like to meet that critter in a dark alley at midnight?
My wise editor missed the opportunity of a lifetime this week--he could have treated you all to the Animal Stories Trifecta, with stories on the Pandas, the Snakehead and the Cicadas, all in one historic edition of Your Washington Post. But he held the cicada story back--don't storm the doors, you'll get it soon enough.
I agree with you on the anti-democratic tendencies of too many of our local authorities, but I don't buy the connection to the federal secrecy. The District and our other local governing bodies were into secrecy in their own special way--often exceeding federal secrecy--long before W and his crowd came along.
_______________________
Tucson, Ariz.:
Just as a matter of curiosity ... has Jack Kelley's wife continued in her VP position at USA Today after his departure?
Marc Fisher: Last I heard, she was still there.
_______________________
Germantown, Md.:
Submitting early because otherwise I'll forget.
I agree with your column about student behavior. The first time Indiana University students started chanting obscenities at a basketball game, Bob Knight grabbed the P.A. microphone and informed the student body that if it didn't stop immediately, he would pull his team off the floor and forfeit the game. It worked.
Of course, it helped that it was Bob Knight making the threat. Still, wouldn't it work equally well for Coach Williams or Coach K?
Marc Fisher: Williams--or should we now say Million-Dollar Gary--has done exactly that, but I agree that that's the sort of move the university should make, more frequently and more aggressively.
_______________________
Wheaton, Md.:
Oh snakehead fish
Oh snakehead fish
Your presence we were missing.
Oh snakehead fish
Oh snakehead fish
Why do you get much dissing?
Your fangs they are so big and tough
Your legs take you across the rough
Oh snakehead fish
Oh snakehead fish
Distract us from our problems.
Marc Fisher: Go back to poetry class.
_______________________
Falls Church, Va.:
Under a zero-tolerance policy we might have a different president.
Marc Fisher: The one-liners are coming fast and furious today, another reason we should thank Al Gore for inventing this medium.
_______________________
Alexandria, Va.:
Please tell the Post reporters that are trying to get the video evidence of the superintendent's arrest which shows the behavior of the superintendent and the school board member to move quickly.
It is being said that Mrs. Perry has made a deal to plead guilty TODAY as long as that evidence is destroyed.
Marc Fisher: Hard to imagine that the police or prosecutors would buy such a deal, seeing as how it would be incredibly illegal.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.:
I don't think you could have done the WWII Memorial with individual's names. It is impractical due to the sheer number of the deceased. Just out of curiosity -- which war memorial is your favorite?
Marc Fisher: Right, but couldn't you have done something with the idea of 400,000 dead, something that symbolically connected their sacrifice to the inspiring story of what people did back on the homefront, and to the bonds forged with our allies (who go wholly unmentioned in this memorial.)
I find the Vietnam the most moving and most effective in telling a story, but Gettysburg remains the ultimate memorial in my mind.
(I heard lots of grousing today at the memorial about the prominent place given to George W. Bush's name; several folks said that the other war memorials in town don't mention the name of the president who was boss when that memorial opened. Anyone know if that's true?)
_______________________
Anonymous:
The WWII memorial is ugly, sterile and almost Soviet-like. But, then, we're in a time where military exploits are glorified as Pax Americana, including the president who dodged the draft, strutting across an aircraft carrier deck in a borrowed flight uniform pretending he's a war hero, and members of his party lambasting Kerry, who was wounded in combat, as unpatriotic because he dared to criticize U.S. government policy in Vietnam. The memorial may be depressing but it seems to fit the times.
Marc Fisher: Ah, but a memorial's purpose is to stand for all time, to serve as a reminder to generations to come, and to do that, it must tell a story that is comprehensible to future generations. This one simply does not.
_______________________
Alone?:
Maybe I'm the only one here, but I've lived in the former Soviet Union and found their monuments not only powerful, but simple. No need for words or a narrative -- just the feeling of what was trying to be memorialized -- whether it be commemorating farmers sowing wheat fields or VI Lenin holding Kapital with a trench coat on. Reading today's spread on the WWII memorial, and its pictures, indeed reminded me of a Soviet style -- and I like it.
Marc Fisher: The great Soviet war memorials--Treptow in East Berlin is my favorite--are wildly overwrought, but also tell a story. You come away with a sense of what the conflict was about and a gut feeling about the pain and anguish it caused in that society. The WWII says nothing about how this country came together in common purpose.
_______________________
Springfield, Va.:
Hi Marc,
I am a little disturbed that House Speaker William Howell is upset at some of the Republicans that were working with the governor on this budget. Isn't that how it's supposed to work. I think the people of Virginia will benefit from this passing. So why in your opinion does Howell and the radical anti-tax crowd have such a problem with a little compromising that will help the people of Virginia?
Thank You
Marc Fisher: Ideologues cannot stomach the notion of compromise. As our government at all levels becomes more polarized, relatively ordinary compromises such as the one Gov. Warner and the Virginia legislators just pulled off come to seem like monumental achievements. Howell was never an honest broker in this deal, and the GOP is now torn between those who see their role as winning an ideological battle and those who want to govern well.
_______________________
Reminder to generations to come:
It is. It's a reminder of the present society's amazing stupidity and triviality.
Marc Fisher: Ouch!
_______________________
Washington, D.C.:
I'm glad someone else noticed the nature-theme to the Metro section today! I could barely keep myself from giggling out loud on the bus as I read about Pandas in heat and crazy walking Snakefish!
Marc Fisher: Hey, it's springtime. Birds do it, etc. I want to get a male and female snakehead and set up a stand on K Street and charge folks to watch them cavorting.
_______________________
Tysons Corner, Va.:
An hour has gone by, and no mention of the Virginia tax deal. Not my earlier message or anyone else's. I'm surprised.
Marc Fisher: Not a lot of response on that today--sorry. I posted what I had.
_______________________
Fairfax Station, Va.:
I live in a part of Fairfax where both my delegate and senator are anti-tax blowhards. It just set my teeth on edge to hear these guys (who've been quoted and printed in the Post) act as if they're creatures of the Angels; meanwhile the schools were wondering what was going to happen with summer classes, fall startup, etc.
For the record, I've lived in parts of the country where the tax burdens were much higher than Virginia's. So I don't have a problem with the solution they finally hammered out, especially if it maintains some fig leaf of fiscal sanity and prevents Virginia from becoming just another underfunded Southern State, doomed to be left behind in the realities of 21st century economic competitiveness. The last thing we need is more fiscal Bushonomics at the state/local level.
These idiots won't get my vote anytime soon.
Marc Fisher: That's the only other one I had lurking in the ranks of the unposted.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.:
Thanks for the laugh (Al Gore and the invention of the Internet). I got a good chuckle this morning driving to work -- saw a bumper sticker that said, "Re- Defeat Bush"!
Marc Fisher: Lots of those signs around town. But not much in the way of pro-Kerry signs. And how far can a pure anti campaign really go?
_______________________
Arlington, Va.:
Not only should possessing a "spork" be grounds for expulsion, but mere use of the word should merit a suspension.
Marc Fisher: I'd prefer if spork became the name for a species of awkward bird.
_______________________
Arlington, Va.:
Any comments on Bob Edwards leaving NPRs "Morning Edition?" (seeing as tomorrow is his last day)?
Marc Fisher: I think the NPR folks were genuinely shocked by the vehemence and size of the protest against Edwards' removal. He's a steady, calming presence on the morning airwaves, and there's no one quite like him. That said, NPR News executives say they need someone who reacts faster and with sharper interviewing skills to breaking news. I think that's a misreading of NPR's function; listeners turn to TOP and cable news for breaking events, but want public radio to offer the deeper reporting and features and analysis that longer, more serious work can provide.
_______________________
East Falls Church, Va.:
Re: Alexandria Superintendent -
What do you think of the argument that she 'can't' leave, seeing as two major school systems in the area (D.C. and Fairfax) are currently looking, thereby limiting the pool of qualified applicants?
Marc Fisher: That's certainly going to be a factor in the school board's decision. The competition for supts is fierce these days, and so the inclination to cling to one who is good will be powerful.
_______________________
Navy Yard:
The three young men who were falsely charged with rape have been repeatedly named by the WP, and one was pictured. But the WP is still protecting the identity of the young lady who falsely accused them -- is that fair?
Marc Fisher: It's a very difficult issue and to be frank, I don't really know where I stand on it. Increasingly, these decisions are being made case by case, and perhaps that's how it has to be. We still have a general rule that we don't name rape victims, but increasingly, they want to be or are willing to be named, and there are strong arguments for destigmatizing the crime by treating it like other assaults. On the other side of the issue, we have a general policy against naming juveniles charged with crimes, but we make lots of exceptions--kids charged as adults, kids charged in especially heinous acts, kids charged as kids whose names come out elsewhere. You won't find a huge amount of consistency here, but that's probably the fairest way to go right now, in a period of tremendous flux in social mores on these questions.
_______________________
Marc Fisher: We're way over our time limit, folks, so the rest of the fine posts will have to roll over to next week. Come on back then, and I'm back in the paper Tuesday. Enjoy this spectacular day, and write if you get work.
_______________________
