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.
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.
Marc Fisher
(The Washington Post)
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Read today's column: Sullying the Grave Of a Slain Child (Post, Jan. 29)
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.
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NW D.C.:
In my humble opinion, the Mayor of Washington, D.C. should not have to stop mismanaging our city to show support for every mother who has lost a child to gun violence or the drug trade in this shooting gallery we call a city. Does anyone realize that if this were the case, Williams would be at something upwards of 150 funerals/wakes, etc., a year? There's a reality check for you.
Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, everyone. Lots of reaction to today's column, which, like Tuesday's, examined the Princess Hansen murder and the city's response to it. We'll get right to that debate, but first, the Yay and Nay of the Day:
A shamelessly ingratiating Yay to Post readers, hundreds of whom have volunteered to do what they can to help the Hansen family and others who live in the city's dreary and disturbing Sursum Corda housing project.
And Nay to the local school systems that chose to close or open late one, two, three, even four days this week, after a rather small snow and a tiny bit of ice. What's most arrogant and remarkable about these decisions is that they assume that somehow people who work in schools have a harder time getting to work than do the rest of us. Metro reports that 75 percent of the usual riders showed up on Tuesday -- somehow, we all got to work, yet school employees are given a free pass for a smidgeon of ice. Attempts at explaining this are welcome.
Now, as to this first post, the mayor has no obligation to attend every funeral in town. But the shooting death of a 14 year old girl who was a potential witness to a murder is not an everyday occurrence, is it? It's a dramatic and appalling story, and one that the city had an obligation to respond to in a convincing manner, if only to send a message to other potential witnesses in future cases.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
I know that Mayor Williams doesn't always "get it," but most of the information about the Hansen case that most of us got (the two brothers in D.C. jail, the refusal of police protection, a young girl "running wild" in a tough neighborhood) was from the Post. Whether this 14-year-old had a child or not only adds insult to injury. Hansen's mother has been dealt an unthinkable loss. If Bullock or any member of the mayor's cabinet made a derogatory reference to discredit a grieving mother, then they should be called on the carpet for it. The fact that Chief Ramsey and his stupid Gonzaga lanyard doesn't target the drug market that immediately surrounds Gonzaga H.S. tells me that the bonus he recently received is unwarranted. Plenty of blame to go around. Ugly story.
Marc Fisher: It is an ugly tale, and you can be sure that the police are providing saturation coverage of the Sursum Corda area right now. Residents there told me yesterday that they now see the police 24/7, whereas previously they came pretty much only when shots were fired.
But this sort of post-shooting reaction never lasts long. The real question is whether the city will get serious about breaking up drug markets and using some of those newfound tax dollars from the nearby apartment towers to improve the availability of affordable housing.
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Washington, D.C.:
Twice in today's column you reported on "off-the-record" conversations with a source. Why are you allowed to do that, and won't breaking that agreement put any other conversations by you or your colleagues in jeopardy?
Marc Fisher: Glad you asked. I did not report on any off the record conversations that I may have had. I heard in the course of my reporting about what the mayor and his aide were saying in off the record comments around town; I then made calls and found people who were willing to talk about what they'd heard the mayor and his aide say. What I had in the paper today was based on that reporting.
You're right that this is a touchy and difficult sort of reporting, and it raises basic questions about the nature and purpose of "off the record." Most reporters take that term extremely seriously, and most would go to jail rather than break the confidence of a source. But it's also true that many public officials use off the record chats to put out information that they don't want attributed to them, and it's important for the public to know when officials are operating behind the scenes in this way. It's just very difficult to get the information on the record in a usable way.
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Washington, D.C.:
I am not defending the mayor's comments but we need to stop expecting the government and police to raise our kids after parents have failed. I don't know the story behind Hansen's life or death but what I do know is we can avoid certain things by teaching our children right from wrong. Parents are neglecting their role as head of the household in exchange for peace from their troubling children. The district has child and family services available for all district residents. We shouldn't have to wait until a child dies to seek refuge.
Marc Fisher: I agree with you and the mayor that it is essential that both government and the larger community demand a higher level of personal responsibility from those who fail their children. And had the mayor said all that in an open and public way, I'd be cheering him. But to go around town putting out that message in a backhanded and quiet manner and then show up at the mother's house to express his sorrow seems hypocritical at best.
The bottom line is that any family, no matter how dysfunctional, deserves attention and support when a tragedy of this magnitude comes along. The larger question of how to fix social ills is one where the mayor has some strong and good opinions, but he needs the courage to back them up with public talk and real programs.
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Washington, D.C.:
I recently renovated a house on New York Ave. that backed up to Sursum Corda. I think it could best be compared to the wild, wild west. Open air drug markets, drug use and prostitution are as visible as restaurants in the food court at Union Station. And what shocked me even more was that all this was taking place right across the street from the Housing Authority Headquarters. Do you think this most recent murder will have any real impact on the amount of police presence in the area?
Marc Fisher: Any high profile crime has an immediate impact on patrol levels. But those patrols get squeezed the next time commanders find themselves in a labor crunch, and in this town, that's very often. The recently announced realignment of patrol territories in the city may make the police department's numbers look better, but it doesn't seem to boost the overall presence of officers on the street.
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Washington, D.C.:
"The Mayor ... should not have to stop mismanaging our city to show support for every mother who has lost a child to gun violence or the drug trade in this shooting gallery we call a city ... if this were the case, Williams would be at something upwards of 150 funerals/wakes ..."
Uh, hello! Williams should be doing a better job of making sure so many children aren't shooting each other over drugs in the first place. Maybe if he started actually talking to the families who fall victim to such violence, he'd be better poised to start fixing problems instead of perpetuating them with poor leadership.
Marc Fisher: Many of the calls and e-mails I've received today connect the mayor's behavior on the Hansen case to the perception that Williams is disdainful of the poor. I think the mayor has a good and strong record on redeveloping the city and creating new housing opportunities not only downtown, but in many neighborhoods. But I agree that he is often tone deaf when dealing with the human suffering in the city and with the very public crises that demand a mayor's presence.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
On Sunday, I read in the Post that Hansen was killed the day after D.C. homicide detectives visited her mother and spoke with her. I'm certain that the words "ma'am, there's a possibility that your daughter witnessed a homicide or may have information about it" were used at some point. So, mom just said, "Oh, well. My daughter doesn't know anything, have a nice day?" I don't care if Hansen didn't know an attorney, D.C. homicide had to have gotten an inkling, a hunch, a vibe that this young lady knew something. How'd they end up at her house in the first place?? We may all be guilty of watching too much TV, but cops have to be smarter than the criminals and play the percentages. First, the mother should have never let this girl out of her sight if she wanted her to stay alive and now she has to live with the guilt of being out on Benning Rd. the evening her daughter was shot (Washington Post, Sunday.) Second, I know that an unmarked police unit and an undercover patrol could have kept up with a 14-year-old girl who went over to a friend's house to watch Juwanna Mann. D.C. police dropped the ball on this one. Why not tail this girl who didn't want protection and possibly foil the execution/home invasion before it happened?
Marc Fisher: Chief Ramsey was on WTOP this morning explaining that the Hansen mother rebuffed the police's first approach and stated in very clear terms that her daughter knew nothing about the murder in question. Given that response, what should the police have done? Ramsey says the police offered protection, but if the family insisted that the girl was not a witness, then there's no witness to protect. And if the family thought Princess was in trouble, they could have asked for protection.
On the other hand, the mother says she wishes the police had made their initial contact by phone rather than just showing up, thereby alerting the gang thugs that Princess was a potential witness. The city's response is not impressive: We didn't have their unlisted phone number.
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Maryland:
"Off the record" should be for aides and peons who value their jobs but who are trying to do the right thing. Public officials in any kind of capacity should be willing to put up or shut up. Giving them the protection of "off the record" interviews and comments is just not cricket.
Marc Fisher: Agreed -- yet we live in the world capital of anonymous quotation. It's all too easy, both for reporters and for sources, to hide behind anonymous sourcing, and I've been too free with granting anonymity, just as have many of my colleagues. It's a daily struggle to get public officials to stand behind their words, and a tough tradeoff when you need to get the information to readers.
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Annandale, Va.:
I give money to the Salvation Army in D.C. as much as I can. It is my favorite charity because they provide food, shelter, and jobs to drug-addicted people. I also gave out food during the 90s working for a food bank in Falls Church. I would stand every Monday nighte for three years at a spot in Arlington and hand out food to illegal immigrants, drunk homeless people, poor people and even someone that resembled my mother one time.
Having said that, I want to state that I do not idolize these people and wonder why you are idolizing this family in your column. If you want to raise some money to bury the child, good, do it. I might even contribute ten dollars. But there are a lot of children of hard-working District families that could use some attention rather than a woman whose children were running amok. If you want to see your column do some good, why don't you (and maybe some of your colleagues like Courtland Milloy) delve into the school system to root out some real evil?
Marc Fisher: I hardly think I've idolized a family that I've described as hugely dysfunctional, with two kids in jail on crack cocaine charges, drug dealers insinuated into the family's lives, and so on. What I've said repeatedly is that these are people who have shown a powerful inability to cope with life, and a gaping hole where proper parenting should be. Still, as you say, there is an obligation to help those in need -- however irresponsible they may be.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
Are we really to believe that a major metropolitan police force can't stop the illegal activities of a bunch of TEENAGERS who don't have degrees from M.I.T? A bunch of high school dropouts decide to turn their neighborhood into New Jack City? Eight blocks from the U.S. Capitol? Spielberg couldn't write a better script himself.
Marc Fisher: The police can and do stop this sort of illegal activity, but it takes a big commitment of manpower and money. At the height of the crack epidemic, the D.C. police and the prosecutors ran very effective sting operations that shut down open air drug markets in Shaw and elsewhere. But you can't do that on routine patrol. And the drug markets are not exactly top priority these days.
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Arlington, Va.:
How or why does this or any city allow an open air drug market to exist. I am assuming that open air means right out in the open. If you know that a group of people are breaking the law on a regular basis, then do something about it.
Marc Fisher: There are dozens of open air drug markets in this city. Police roll through, sales halt for a couple of minutes, and then start up again. Only a concerted campaign by police, backed up by neighbors, really has any impact. And as I said, that takes a huge commitment of time and money.
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Arlington, Va.:
There was some wondering in your chat last week about that "Read Orwell" sign before Key Bridge as you head into D.C. from Arlington. I can explain it: It's on the right side of the road. Directly across from it, on the left, is one of those "Report Suspicious Behavior" signs that went up after 9/11. Whoever painted the "Read Orwell" sign was making a point about the government urging citizens to report "suspicious" activity. Genius, really.
Marc Fisher: Fabulous. Much better than the explanations we concocted here last week.
We'll get back to the Hansen case a little later on, but first, some snow.
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School Closing:
C'mon Marc, you know what the deal is:
No administrator wants to be second guessed for failing to close schools after there is a weather-related bus accident that gets kids injured or killed.
This is pure risk aversion. Nothing more and nothing less -- and from the perspective of the administrator it makes perfect sense.
Marc Fisher: Yes, right after school officials whine about how employees can't get to work (but somehow everyone else manages to), and right after the standard plaint about school bus schedules (so just tell parents to take their kids to school on their own), they fall back on the liability excuse. Oh my, we wouldn't want to be responsible if a child got injured in or near a bus. But by closing school, the systems guarantee far more injured children -- both those who stay home and play on the ice in the streets and those who are carted off to their parents' offices by frazzled adults who have far fewer ice-driving skills than do the bus drivers.
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D.C. native in Philadelphia:
Marc,
We had five inches of snow this week and Penn (where I go to school) didn't blink.
Maybe that's because they actually plow the streets in this city. Perish the thought ...
Marc Fisher: The snow panic line seems to run through central Maryland. Virginia has been virtually shut down all week. Maryland has been mixed, and I should note here that Montgomery schools opened on time today, while Fairfax and Prince George's were on delay. A big cheer for MoCo's courage!
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Maryland:
We live in Howard Co., drive to Metro Glenmont. Taking it slow (and having AWD), we made it to work every day this week. Had we left the house, felt like to roads were too bad, we would have headed back home. Seems like the best policy is the Fed's unscheduled leave. Not sure why schools and gov'ts just don't make it the general policy in inclement weather. Of course, that makes it a "personal" responsibility, rather than a "state" responsibility, which would never fly in Maryland.
Marc Fisher: At no point this week were the main roads impassable or even difficult. Closing schools should be reserved for snowstorms of 10 or more inches.
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Washington, D.C.:
This city's reaction to snow is getting worse every year. On Tuesday night, when we were debating whether there would be school on Wednesday, my son said, "Of course not. There is still snow on the ground." He was quite serious. This seems to be the standard he has grown up with. At least D.C. had the sense to open yesterday.
Marc Fisher: I lost $11 in wagers to members of my family this week by betting that school would be open on Tuesday -- and here I thought I was sufficiently skeptical. Not.
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Clifton, Va.:
Marc,
Out here in Clifton/Centreville we got about seven inches of snow total. The roads in most subdivisions are still ice and snow covered as are the sidewalks. Maybe D.C. did a good job but VDOT didn't.
Marc Fisher: But should the school systems make their decisions based on whether people can get out of their cul de sacs? Shouldn't schools be open as long as the main routes are passable, thereby making it each parent's responsibility to get their kids out of the subdivision?
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Silver Spring, Md.:
Explanation of the school employees getting a day off from work -- THE KIDS GOT THE DAY OFF. Stop whining and deal with it. If you want the day off, go be a teacher!
Marc Fisher: Hold on -- why shouldn't teachers have to report even on days when the kids are allowed to stay home and play in the snow? Why is it assumed that teachers have a special incapacity to get to work? Why not plumbers, nurses or accountants?
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Olney, Md.:
On school closings: If administrators close schools at the slightest hint of snow due to fears of liability, why don't school districts just push the state to pass a law stating that schools are not liable for negligence based upon a decision to open or close schools in inclement weather? If parents want schools to be open except when truly bad weather occurs, wouldn't this law receive sufficient support?
Marc Fisher: Fine idea! The first state legislator to introduce this one wins a Yay of the Day, for whatever that's worth.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
This should serve as a wake-up call for Metro (but probably won't) --
As a daily Metro rider I decided to drive in Monday morning so I could make it in easily. And I did. On Tuesday too.
Yesterday I was back to Metro. Then, the Red Line train on which I was riding broke down on the platform at Metro Center in the height of evening rush. At least we were told it was inoperable. After all of us had to get off, it seemed to drive off with no trouble. You can imagine the resulting chaos and delay of having this train sit in the station for more than 20 minutes.
Although it appears that the Red Line did actually do OK on Monday and Tuesday, it's a total crap shoot. I gave up on Metro in the snow when we had a three-inch slush (not ice) storm in the suburbs in December. However, the Red Line was in chaos. One four- car train came through Silver Spring between 8-8:30 a.m. Why? Who knows?
When did this become the world's most fragile subway system? Subways, escalators, and elevators are tried and true technologies. Not here it seems.
I guess this is what you get when your subway cars are made in warm and sunny Spain. I've had it. Adios Metro.
Marc Fisher: My impression from talking to Metro folks is that the system is not nearly as fragile as the bosses make it out to be. In fact, it was designed to operate in a fair amount of snow, and the underground portions were designed to keep going in any weather, no matter how severe.
It's a combination of the liability hysteria and the aging of the fleet that have produced the unreliable service you're seeing.
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Washington, D.C.:
On the other hand . . .
D.C. police appear to have done a good job in solving the Colonel Brooks' Tavern slayings.
Marc Fisher: Yes, it took quite a while, but the detectives on the case were unrelenting. The key, as is often the case, was the willingness of ordinary people to step forward -- and that's why the Hansen case is so important as a symbol. The D.C. police, like any force, must make clear to the public that citizens who help catch bad guys will be protected and treated right.
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Washington, D.C.:
I would like to comment about your column today. I have known Judyan Hansen for more than a year. I have represented one of her sons as an attorney. Ms. Hansen always cooperated with any suggestions that I made. She attended each and every hearing. She supported her son emotionally. She did the best that she could to help her daughter. She is a loving mother and a beautiful person. She deserves our compassion, sympathy and respect. Thank you.
Marc Fisher: Thanks -- I've found Judyann Hansen to be cooperative and earnest in my conversations with her. She's been through a world of trouble and she's frank and honest about her inability to cope with her kids.
I'd like to speak with you if you have a chance -- please email me at marcfisher@washpost.com
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Washington, D.C.:
I had never heard of Sursum Corda before this incidence (and I live a mere 15 blocks west). Is it a project? Section 8 housing? What is the origin of its name?
Marc Fisher: It is a housing project, built as a cooperative by Catholic lay benefactors. Sursum Corda is Latin for "lift up your hearts" and has been used as a title and lyric in music by Liszt and other composers. The Hansens and most of the other residents live there through Section 8 vouchers.
As projects go, it doesn't look so bad from the outside, but its 1970s design, with lots of cul de sacs and dead ends, make it perfect for open air drug markets and very difficult for police to patrol.
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Arlington, Va.:
The most striking part of your column today for me was the fact that four (!) city workers shoveled a path of snow specifically for the mayor and his entourage. Did you or anyone else ask him why that was done? Does he not own a pair of boots?
Marc Fisher: I didn't ask the mayor about it -- should have. I did ask the guys who got assigned to shovel. They said word came down from on high that the mayor was coming and they had to dig him a path. They did a fine job on that little stretch of sidewalk and then went inside. The rest of the complex remained uncleared.
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Washington, D.C.:
Part of the protection that you pay for when you get an unlisted phone number is protection against the police just getting your number whenever they feel like it. A subpoena is required to release an unlisted number. When the police say that they had no quick way of getting the Hansens' unlisted number, they meant it.
Marc Fisher: That may once have been true, but there are some very good databases of unlisted numbers, and while I don't know that every officer has access to them, I do know some cops who do. And certainly there are plenty of businesses that pay for those databases and use them for far less important purposes.
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Washington, D.C.:
Because D.C. is not a state the president performs the role a governor would over our National Guard. Yet President Bush has not attended either funeral of the dead D.C. members of the D.C. National Guard. Why are you not criticizing him?
Marc Fisher: The president has indeed been called to task for that oversight, in the pages of this newspaper. But I don't know that I buy the analogy. Doesn't the mayor serve the ceremonial role here that a governor serves in the 50 states? The president very rarely makes any District-related appearances, and this particular president's utter disdain for the District would seem to preclude him from taking any such interest, except when he needs a roomful of black schoolchildren as a backdrop for one of his photo opps.
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Washington, D.C.:
Can you explain to me who makes up the base supporters for Lyndon LaRouche? He seems to have a regular flow of dollars coming in to support his Web page, plus all the ads he runs. And he seems to have enough manpower to have his people turn up at various local functions handing out literature. This has been going on for years. But to me he's just an oddball. What's the deal here?
Marc Fisher: The LaRouchies are a grand old standby of American conspiratorial politics, with roots in the lefty U.S. Labor Party of the early 70s. Those annoying airport literature stands they man pull in a fair amount of money, and LaRouche had plenty of his own cash. Their supporters are the usual lost souls to whom complex conspiracies seem reasonable explanations for the coincidences, tomfoolery and deal-cutting that make up so much of foreign and domestic policy.
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Teachers don't really get the day off:
Even though the teachers don't go in on snow days, they have to go in on the days that are made up. You can't make the teachers go in on the days when the students don't or at the end of the year the students would be in class when the teachers would not be required to be because they had already put in all the days they were paid for by contract.
Marc Fisher: Ah, but every school system has five or so days of fudge in its calendar, and those days are not made up at the end of the school year. So if staff stay home on those days, they are being paid for going sledding. The day-limit in the contracts only comes into play when the number of snow days goes over the limit, which it's about to do in most of our local systems.
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Washington, D.C.:
Hello, Gonzaga Alum here. Sursum Corda is what can been termed a "self cleaning oven." Few people -- the police, the city government, the residents themselves -- have any feelings for the place. Take a cue from more successful nascent urban centers, and raze the place to the ground.
Marc Fisher: Yes, I'm with you there, except where do the residents go? Every single person I spoke to at the project yesterday wanted out, and most have been trying to get out for years. But this is not exactly a region teeming with available housing for the poor. And some alternatives are even worse than Sursum Corda.
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Washington, D.C.:
If Sursum Corda is a cooperative, why don't the residents shovel their own darned snow? Aren't co-ops owned by the people who live there?
Marc Fisher: It's a townhouse/apartment complex. I've spent most of my life in apartments and the residents don't shovel the snow, there's staff to do that. Same is true at Sursum Corda. Of course, if the staff doesn't do the job, the residents should pitch in, if only out of frustration, but that doesn't happen much in places where people generally cower inside because of all the shootings.
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Washington, D.C.:
Just to link today's topics. I wonder what kind of trouble older children get into on these unnecessary snow days. Teens are usually left at home alone -- rather than carted to work -- on these days.
Marc Fisher: Teens get into the usual trouble -- sex, drugs, hacking -- and more power to them. It's the younger kids who get carted to work, or, worse, left home alone.
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Washington, D.C.:
Marc, I think you are turning into a writer who exploits tragedy, which I bring up because I think you are otherwise outstanding.
Marc Fisher: Sorry you feel that way. I plead guilty to trying to pick topics that have an emotional impact, that have meaning in our lives. Is that exploitative? Only insofar as all of journalism is.
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Washington, D.C.:
I am particularly angered that it took the death of a child for D.C. to suddenly realize that it could ask for help from other quarters to deal with the drug problems in that neighborhood. I guess it took caring first. I am sick of Tony Williams and the whole pathetic lot of those he hired to waste my tax dollars mismanaging this city. Bring on the recall.
Marc Fisher: This is not one of the mayor's finest hours. But the recall campaign against him seems a particularly bitter and random one, and as long as there is no better alternative in the offing, I think the city's best off waiting for an actual election. Remember, we just reelected this guy, and by a very strong margin.
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Arlington, Va.:
Marc, given D.C.'s status as a city (with a lot of federal jurisdictions built in), when would the murder of a child in D.C. involve a federal agency, such as the FBI, rather than the D.C. police? It seems like any number of agencies (both local and federal) should be involved in the Hansen case.
Thanks for always looking for stories in the places in this city that most people are afraid to talk about.
Marc Fisher: As I understand it, the feds get involved only if there's a cross-jurisdictional angle or a connection to a federal crime. I don't see anything federal in this case.
Thanks for the kind words.
We're over our allotted time -- I'll toss in a couple of quick ones.....
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The Metro:
... cars are made in Italy not Spain ...
Marc Fisher: thanks for the correction
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Montgomery County, Md.:
Marc -- I think one of the real culprits in the annual snow closing debacle is just the sheer size of the school district. I grew up in another Montgomery County, outside of Philadelphia, which is geographically similar to the one I live in currently. My school district, however, was just a tiny sliver of that County. Living just outside of the city, I regularly, and safely, made it to class on days when school districts 30-45 minutes away were closed. Any chance of that happening here?
Marc Fisher: Parents have been begging Montgomery County for years to split the county into two zones, letting the northern half close for half the winter while the relatively snowless inner suburbs open their schools. The county system doesn't want to deal with the busing headaches that would entail.
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Maryland:
I'm in B'more, not D.C., but had to respond to the comments about why "open air drug markets" are immediately closed. Get real. I'm in a middle-class, blue collar neighborhood where I know most of my neighbors. I call when I see people who don't live around here loitering. In the 15 minutes it takes for the patrol car to show, 30 deals can be made. The 5-year-olds yell when the cops are around the corner, so there's nothing the cops can do -- they can't even legally move them along (thanks to the ACLU for that one).
B'more is trying to do something -- they're cracking down on loitering, panhandling, and agressive behavior by groups of kids -- well, not for long, because suits have already been filed to force them to stop.
I've officially been driven out of the city -- suburbs, here I come.
Marc Fisher: Once the thugs gain control of a block, it's awfully hard to wrest it away. It takes not only police action, but courage on the part of the upstanding residents.
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Fairfax, Va.:
Teaching is one of the most underpaid, underappreciated professions in this country. I make twice as much money sitting at a desk all day writing software than a friend who teaches most of the day then goes home to grade papers and plan lesson plans. Even with a few snow days off per year, she is still making about minimum wage considering all the hours she puts in.
Marc Fisher: Absolutely right -- teachers are woefully underappreciated and underpaid. But that shouldn't be a factor in deciding when and whether schools close for snow.
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Clinton, Md.:
Mine is sort of a statement to your article today. You stated that you received many letters or e-mails criticizing the mother. Let me say something to those people. It is so easy to have something to say when you don't have to do with life as this woman has. You can sit on your soap boxes and judge, but most of you aren't parents either if you think about it. You probably rely on someone else to take care of your children for you, especially with the day to day care. These are the same people who have never gone to any neighborhood to help out in any capacity. I commend your readers who saw this woman as a mother who lost a child, because in the end that's all she really was. To your other readers, your not that far away from that mother either.. financially or emotionally.
Marc Fisher: Thanks...and the last word goes to the other side of this argument:
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Lanham, Md:
I am a proud 5th generation Washingtonian. Although I still own a home in the Brightwood section of DC, my husband and I recently moved to a home that we built in Lanham, MD. Interestingly enough, I went on-line to read today's headline stories, and happened upon your article about the sullying of the name of a dead child, Princess Hansen. I have very mixed emotions about your article in general, but more specific, the circumstances involving the late Miss Hansen's death and the District government's response.
I watched a repeat episode of the Corner on HBO a couple of nights ago with my husband. Although I distinctly remember the episode from 3 1/2 years ago like it was yesterday, I was captivated because I could remember observing the same type of dysfunction when I grew up in another Brightwood location as a child. I have no doubt in my mind that the characters depicted in the Corner resemble real life for the Hansen family.
On the one hand, my heart aches for the innocent children of these socially dysfunctional families, but on the other hand, I am more sickened by the depictions by some in the media and elsewhere that the government is somehow behaving irresponsibly. Irrespective of whether the Mayor's office incorrectly credited the late Miss Hansen with a 1 1/2 year old child, the larger story is the chaos and dysfunction that you appear to want your readers to ignore. Tony Bullock is right, and I hope that for the sake of political correctness he does not back-off of his position, which is the parents have a much bigger role to play than the government. So what if the Mayor visited the Hansen family, and so what if the funeral expenses will be paid? Who is going to step up to the plate and end this cultural cycle of moral ineptitude? Without knowing the Hansens, I am willing to bet that I could write a chapter about a day in the life of the Hansens. There are "Hansen families" in many pockets all over the DC area. I can't believe that you put pen to paper to assign blame to the government for the small role it has played in this moral tragedy.
As I mentioned previously, I observed a similar family of another name with generations of out-wedlock births, drug-dealing, drug-using, high-school drop-outs, multiple families residing in a single-family home, gang activity, premature and unusual deaths, malnutrition, etc.
I completely understand Bullock's frustration, and I am glad that I no longer live in a city that uses my tax dollars to rid itself of the misplaced guilt and shame that should be bestowed on these so-called parents.
Marc Fisher: Two very good arguments on either side of the issue.
Thanks to all of you and apologies for those I couldn't get in.
Back here next Thursday, and the column returns on Sunday.
Don't slip on the ice and write if you get work.
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washingtonpost.com:
That wraps up the discussion. Thanks for your questions.
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