susanives.com: Express-News columns

Express-News Columns
I started writing a weekly op-ed column for the San Antonio Express-News in April 2003. It now appears on Sundays. Not all of the columns are archived on the paper's Web site, but you can read them all here.

August 28, 2005	Shooting down Robertson's suggestion "Most Christians would recognize and reject Robertson's approach as utilitarianism, a moral system that claims there is no absolute right or wrong; the main ethical principle is the greatest good for the greatest number. But even as a utilitarian solution, it stinks."
August 21, 2005	Future of Gaza Still Looks Bleak "The disengagement is a hopeful sign but Gaza will still be poor, still be traumatized and still be the world's largest open air prison."
August 14, 2005	Military recruiters go back to school "One thing is clear, though: high schools must inform parents of their right to have their child's names, address and phone number withheld from military recruiters."
August 7, 2005	On this and every day, glance back before charging forward "Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. That great thunking sound you hear is my husband keeling over in shock. I never remember our anniversary. This is even more pathetic than it seems, as I am the unofficial keeper of anniversaries for the peace movement."
July 31, 2005	Understanding terrorism not same as condoning it "It is perfectly possible to explain without excusing, to understand without condoning. One can hope to understand why a man shakes his girlfriend's crying infant to death without conceding that it's a nifty idea to murder babies."
July 24, 2005	High court nominee's interpretation skills "Strict constructionism is a myth. Words are human constructs and subject to human interpretation. It is naïve to believe otherwise."
July 17, 2005	Concept of wrongdoing escapes those without a conscience "Rove's acts transgress the bounds of decency. He was wrong. He was soooo wrong. It's not enough to send him to bed without his supper. I say: fire him."
July 10, 2005	What if U.S. gave peace a chance? "One could argue that gang peace summit was insignificant, or that its effect was fleeting. The one thing that can't be said is that it caused more violence, more killings. That would be a lie."
July 3, 2005	Body language exposes president's lies "We talk about democracy, liberty and freedom for the Iraqi people but when all is said and done we have used them as live bait."
June 26, 2005	Evil chapter in their history is closed "On June 21, 1964, as we've recently been reminded, three civil rights workers were set up by the Ku Klux Klan: lured to Neshoba County, falsely arrested, released, hijacked and brutally murdered. After six weeks of investigating, an informer led the FBI to their grave, the hollow of an earthenwork dam, covered with tons of dirt."
June 19, 2005	Islamic fundamentalism not the cause of suicide bombings "Pape's scholarly analysis leads him to conclude that 'the use of heavy offensive force to defeat the existing generation of terrorists is the most likely stimulus to the rise of the next." Our invasion of Iraq, he maintains, has "generated support for anti-American terrorism and given al-Qaeda a new lease on life.'"
June 12, 2005	Flag etiqutte creates a flap "Once again, Congress is considering a constitutional amendment to make desecrating the flag a crime, in bills introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in April and Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA) a few weeks ago."
June 5, 2005	No embryo left behind "Some have been in the deep freeze for almost 20 years. Most will remain there forever, or will be destroyed, or are already, unknown to anyone, dead or damaged. Each year, more frozen embryos, many of them unwanted and unneeded, stack up in freezers across the country."
May 29, 2005	More is at stake than the filibuster "Filibuster, filibuster, filibuster. Say it three times, fast, and try not to crack a smile."
May 22, 2005	Strings on Aid to Palestinians is a slap in the face "The importance of the $150 million was that it could have showed optimism and trust in the new Palestinian régime. By failing to give Abbas and his administration control over one cent of the aid, the bill has demonstrated exactly the opposite. It was, indeed, a slap in the face."
May 15, 2005	Council turns down pro-Aquifer Zoning nominee "If you're not a City Council groupie you might think that turning down a board nominee is an everyday occurrence. It's not."
May 8, 2005	Proposed ban on gay foster parents bad idea "A similar regulation of the Arkansas Child Welfare Agency Review Board was struck down by the courts, which found that 'the evidence overwhelmingly showed that there was no rational relationship between [the blanket exclusion of gay and lesbian foster parents] and the health, safety, and welfare of foster children.'"
May 1, 2005	Linear Parks "Advocates of Proposition 2 are calling the project "pennies for parks," and I checked their math."
April 24, 2005	TV Turnoff Week " When we peek into this typical American home it is filled with isolated, sedentary and passive people. But not next week. April 25-May 1st is TV Turnoff Week and more than 7.6 million people are expected to pull the plug. "
April 17, 2005	Cure for bankruptcy injures the ailing "If you're rich, though, don't worry. The bill preserves the "millionaire's loophole," which allows the wealthy to establish asset protection trusts. Five states - Alaska, Delaware, Nevada, Rhode Island and Utah - exempt such trusts from the federal bankruptcy code. Trust holders do not have to live in one of the five states; they need only open their trust in an institution there. "
April 10, 2005	Installing public toilets downtown the humane way for city to go "My fellow potty mouths, known as the Ad Hoc Committee for Public Amenities, figure that we need 10 public toilets that are open 24 hours in the downtown area. They'll cost about $2 million. This is one issue that we can't let the City Council flush out of the agenda."
April 3, 2005	Hardships, loneliness: This is their life "'Otherwise Occupied,' which had its premiere at the Jump-Start Performance Co. on Saturday night, opens with static. An annoying crackling noise that lets you know something has gone wrong."
March 27, 2005	On this day of forgiveness, an example to follow "But when Jesus comes back he doesn't yell. He doesn't retaliate. Instead, he shows up, blood still oozing from his wounds, and says, by some accounts, 'Peace be unto you. Do you have any fish? Let's have breakfast.'"
March 20, 2005	It's easy to see that war has already cost Americans too much "Iraqi companies could handle our tax money at least as responsibly as — oh, let's pick a company at random — Halliburton."
March 13, 2005	March is march month "The month of March, Martius* to the Romans, refers to Mars, the god of war. It heralded the beginning of spring and hence the start of the military campaigning season, which lasted through October."*
March 6, 2005	Faster than a speeding connection, bill aims to unplug cities "Buried amid 332 pages of regulatory gobbledygook is a proposal to make it illegal for local governments to offer free or cheap high-speed Internet connections to citizens."
February 27, 2005	Seeking fair pay, women march on "On her first payday Margie joined me at the lunch table, trembling with rage. The two male dishwashers were making $2 an hour, they bragged. She worked just as hard as they did. It's not fair!"
February 20, 2005	We care about freedom, but not the lives in Iraq? 'It was a tiny pair of red patent leather Mary Janes that finally made me cry. A thousand pairs of civilian shoes to represent who knows how many Iraqis. Some say 15,000. Others say 100,000. But even a thousand pairs of empty shoes leave you with an immense sense of loss."
February 13, 2005	'I was hungry and you arrested me' "In a recent survey, 28 percent of San Antonio's homeless people said they had been turned away from a shelter in the past year. If they don't have a home, can't get a bed in a shelter and will get arrested if they are caught sleeping in public, what are they supposed to do? Disappear?"
February 6, 2005	Election in Iraq just the same old song "How did we convince the world that an election held in a country occupied by a foreign power connotes democracy? This is impossible: a country cannot be occupied and democratic."
January 30, 2005	Bucking the tide of deadly poverty "If eliminating poverty in the Third World is liberal, you can add the CIA, the Pentagon, the Bush administration, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to your list of pernicious liberal institutions."
January 23, 2005	Save the world — on the cheap "I've heard a lot of good Christians quote John 12 as an excuse for ignoring the poor. No use trying to do anything about poverty, they say. The poor will always be with us. Jesus said so. This isn't the Jesus that I know, the Jesus who invited poor people to the banquet and called them blessed."
January 16, 2005	MLK marchers in step with peacemakers "You would think that with all of these trailblazers clearing the path to peace and justice that the way would be deeply incised and easy to follow. No so. There are other roads that beckon us: the well-worn ruts of war, interstates of oppression, the streets of greed, paved with gold."
January 9, 2005	Assaults on democracy ring in new year "A few of my friends have accused me of going soft. I admit it. I overdosed on cookies over the holidays and got lost in a sugar-induced miasma of peace, love and grooviness."
January 2, 2005	Time to get started on life's to-do list "I ticked off one of the items on my list last week: my first tamalada! Presided over by Marie Falcón, who has been making tamales for most of her 83 years, a group of us laughed all afternoon as we learned how to pat the masa into the corn shucks just so and put in just the right amount of filling and fold the bundles the way people have for generations.."
December 26, 2004	Caring for poor is itself a blessing "I began to see a pattern. Wenceslas. Stephen. Boxing Day. The day after Christmas is a day for caring for the poor!"
December 19, 2004	Peace on minds of Palestinians "In an interview with Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, a pan-Arab daily newspaper published in London, Abbas said that 'the use of weapons was a mistake and should stop.' Uprising, yes. Armed uprising, no. It's a crucial distinction."
December 12, 2004	Britain listening to Quaker lady "Janet Southwood assumed the young man with the video camera was just an enthusiastic amateur, so she didn't give another thought to the brief interview she gave last year during an anti-war rally in downtown San Antonio. Until the e-mails started coming."
December 5, 2004	In the name of Ashcroft's drug war, states' rights take a hit "It's understandable that the Justice Department would be worried that legalization of marijuana for medical use would make it harder to regulate its street use. But there is another way to handle this in lieu of sending DEA agents into a sick woman's back yard to stomp all over her six puny cannabis seedlings."
November 28, 2004	Scholar bridges Islam and West "Ramadan, a Swiss-born Islamic scholar, quit his job as a professor at the University of Fribourg to accept a yearlong visiting professorship at Notre Dame. In August, four days before he, his wife and four children were scheduled to fly to the United States, the State Department rescinded his visa at the direction of the Department of Homeland Security."
November 21, 2004	For a holiday as perfect as one glass bead, slow the spending "A couple of weeks ago I mucked out the garage. The full details are too embarrassing to share, but I will confess to unearthing an expensive backpacking tent that had been consumed by rodents; a gotta-have-it exercise machine still sealed in the box 10 Christmases later and six weed whackers."
November 14, 2004	Tossing Pebbles in the Jesus Pot "My favorite election story doesn't involve paper trails, lines in Ohio or even the inequities of the Electoral College. It's an African tale, told by Barbara Kinsolver in her 1998 novel 'The Poisonwood Bible.'"
November 7, 2004	Kristallnacht a reminder of the horrors we, sadly, do forget "In this bleak November, as our Jewish and Sikh neighbors gather to remember their pogroms, their holocausts, their genocides, their tragedies, we must remember with them. Suffer with them. And repeat with them, 'Never again!'"
October 31, 2004	Reclaiming America over a cup of joe "At the Wednesday evening drink-latte-and-fight-about-politics club, one of the regulars announced he had decided to vote for President Bush."
October 24, 2004	Bush administration flunks civil rights "Let's cut right to the chase. A report released by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights earlier this month concluded, 'President Bush has neither exhibited leadership on pressing civil rights issues, nor taken actions that matched his words.'"
October 17, 2004	The airwaves belong to the people "Enough about stolen honor. How about a documentary on stolen airwaves?"
October 10, 2004	Only in the chaos of free speech do viewpoints gain clarity "After confessing that I wasn't president of the Bibi Netanyahu Fan Club (who spoke at Laurie Auditorium as part of Trinity's distinguished lecture series in 2000, by the way) I quoted the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who said that the remedy for bad speech is more speech. "
October 3, 2004	The art of debate "In 1992, the town hall audience could ask anything. Follow-up and clarification questions were nixed in 1996. In 2000, as this year, questions had to be screened by the moderator ahead of time."
September 26, 2004	Open minds, and dialogues, make for a more peaceful world "Many of my friends lament that they don't know how to discuss politics with their families."
September 19, 2004	Kid from Kenya a lesson in risk "This is the water tank. It serves the 500 families in the village. These are the latrines, two of them, side by side, that serve the same 500 families."
September 12, 2004	Pouring oil on world's troubled waters "The two Texas "oilmen" have established the Farouk & Friedman Charitable Association for Peace, which is marketing first cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil from the Holy Land, from olives grown on Shami family land south of Jerusalem. All the profits will go to charities that support Palestinian and Israeli children."
September 5, 2004	Nonviolence only way to expose Israel "The majority of Palestinians are nonviolent. They, too, are being held hostage by the small percentage of their countrymen who plan, conduct and condone violence."
August 29, 2004	Fighting peacefully in a war-torn land "It couldn't have been a more appropriate place: the grandson of the man who started the salt march that led to India's independence being welcomed to occupied Palestine at the saltiest place on the planet."
August 22, 2004	Voters deserve right to dissent "Don't worry, Democrats. When the time comes to tap my touchpad at Hobby Middle School, I'll be voting for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. But that doesn't mean I've bought into the platform lock, stock and Swift Boat."
August 15, 2004	Poll watchers to keep eye on election "It's a smart move on the part of the Bush administration. If we recommend observers to emerging democracies, it's only fair that we be willing to undergo the process. OCSE had observers in Macedonia in April. They'll be in Afghanistan in October. They'll be here in November."
August 8, 2004	Protecting rights, maintaining patriotism "The San Antonio City Council resolution is largely symbolic, mostly reminding city officials and employees that they have taken an oath to defend the Constitution and uphold the rights of residents."
August 1, 2004	Remember yesterday's nuclear fallout when making policy today "We rightly worry that Korea may have a nuclear bomb, that Iran is developing nuclear capability, that India and Pakistan now have a handful of nukes pointed at each other. We worry that China has the bomb. And who knows where all the nuclear material stockpiled in the former Soviet republic will end up? But the rest of the world worries about us."
July 25, 2004	Closing the polls not an option "Free elections? You're a democracy. No free elections? You're a dictatorship. If we want to remain a democracy, we will have an election Nov. 2 come hell, high water or Osama bin Laden."
July 18, 2004	Path of Israel's wall, not its purpose, is the main argument "The court's objection is that the route of the wall has caused intolerable hardships for the Palestinians. The route, not the wall."
July 11, 2004	Saddam right about one thing: Who's running this tribunal? "Somewhere in Iraq there must be a judge or a lawyer who has experience in international criminal law, who isn't closely related to Saddam's most bitter political rival and who doesn't have close ties to the United States and Israel."
July 4, 2004	Celebrate with the pomp befitting a free people "I had my own copy of the Declaration, one of those crinkled brown faux parchment copies that we had bought on a trip to Independence Hall. I'd ceremoniously read the best bits to the gathered family, proud that I had mastered the cramped calligraphy. "
June 27, 2004	Celebrating 'We the People' "I would love to see a Constitution Center in every state. A place where we could excite our children about liberty and law. A place where adults could discuss the issues of the day. A place where we could celebrate 'we, the people.'"
June 20, 2004	Religion and politics kept apart for a reason "The Republicans might be surprised. The same religiously inspired reverence for all life that has turned some churchgoers against abortion have turned others against the death penalty, against war, against torture, against greed, against lying."
June 13, 2004	Reunion and candidacies, a posteriori "When the Cold War ended and attention focused on domestic policy, he said, many argued that the presidency had become less important. This is a similar to what the nation experienced at the close of the 19th century, from 1876 to 1892."
June 6, 2004	Memorial speaks to those who remember "At the base of the state slabs, at the foot of the pavilions, memories are displayed. A purple heart. Flowers. A cap, a unit patch, a corporal's stripes, a major's gold oak leaf. At the foot of Massachusetts, a bottle of beer. Empty."
May 30, 2004	Globalization creating a hard reality for American graduates "There's a disconnect between what we're promising our young people — go to college, land a good job — and what they see their parents facing — these professional jobs going overseas."
May 23, 2004	Will visa, tax woes in the Holy Land keep Christianity away? "Earlier this month, 50 American Christian church leaders wrote to President Bush asking him to intervene on their behalf with the Israeli government, admitting that relations 'may be the worst we've ever seen.'"
May 16, 2004	Rumsfeld blindsided? Well, yes, but ... "Where does a 600-pound gorilla sit? Wherever he wants. What does the secretary of defense know? Whatever he wants to know."
May 9, 2004	Shine law's light on shadowy contractors "The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported in March that Blackwater USA has hired 60 Chilean commandos who worked for former dictator Augusto Pinochet to provide oilfield security in Iraq. The Johannesburg Sunday Times reported that Gray Branfield, a security contractor killed in Iraq last month, was admittedly part of a 1981 death squad that gunned down the African National Congress' chief representative during the apartheid era. Nice guys."
May 2, 2004	Witnessing return of soldiers a nation's duty "In death as in life, our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have no secrets, no privacy. With flags waving, we Americans sent them to fight and we have a right - no, an obligation - to witness their return, shrouded with those same flags."
April 26, 2004	Iraq still stuck in the struggle for media freedom "Broadcast outlets - mostly under coalition control - downplay the insurgency and paint a rosy picture of the occupation, which they, of course, call the liberation. Iraqis with access to a satellite dish watch Al-Jazeera or the BBC."
April 17, 2004	Our people in the cross hairs of hate "What APA did find is that hate crimes are committed by people who have been given permission to hate. Society, either explicitly or implicitly, sanctions attacks on certain groups. Around the dinner table and the office coffeepot. From the pulpit. In the media."
April 10, 2004	Time to show U.S. difference between might and right "Last Tuesday was the 74th anniversary of the morning that Mohandas Gandhi hitched up his loincloth, leaned into the sea and scooped up a lump of salt."
April 3, 2004	Ustinov's humor lives on in S.A. story " 'I am astonished to find, " Ustinov said, "that the cradle of Texas independence still has so many babies in it.'"
March 27, 2004	Assassinate, kill, whatever: Expect more death "I read through all the Associated Press reports on the assassination of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin on Monday and none of them used the word assassinate. He was killed. He died. He was targeted. He was bombed. He was hit. But assassinated, no. I wonder why."
March 20, 2004	World nervously watches Gaza events "According to the United Nations, the Israeli government has destroyed more than 7,500 homes in Rafah to create a buffer zone with the Egyptian border and to build an iron wall, the prototype for the larger wall now being erected in the occupied West Bank."
March 13, 2004	Muslim groups flex political muscle "The Express-News missed a good story last week when it failed to cover presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich's speech to the new San Antonio chapter of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations."
March 6, 2004	Time to mobilize the sea of women "Last month, Gregory Mankiw, President Bush's chief economic adviser, said, 'Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade. More things are tradable than were tradable in the past and that's a good thing.' In other words, labor is just another commodity, like silicon chips and pork bellies. "
February 28, 2004	U.S. reluctance makes it difficult for court to fight evil "You would think the Bush administration would be doing the happy dance after hearing such evildoers are being brought to account. You would be wrong."
February 21, 2004	Feds fishing for names intimidating "But I've got a list, too. A list of 198 ways to protest this action. I'll be glad to share that list with the government. Just don't ask me to turn over a list of meeting attendees. I might just have to engage in a No. 129 — refusal of assistance to government agents."
February 14, 2004	Today, be extremist for all types of love "I imagine St. Valentine and Martin Luther King Jr. hanging out in heaven, leaning against the pearly gates, trading war stories — no, make that peace stories. The two martyrs had much in common. Like being thrown in jail for civil disobedience."
February 7, 2004	Activist slows down, but not much "Grace Paley should have been basking in the glowing reviews of her first book of short stories, "The Little Disturbances of Man." But can you believe it? Buses right through the park, where the children play! So Grace and her friends, all PTA moms, organized a protest and put an end to that bit of foolishness."
January 31, 2004	Most movies fail to capture Alamo "'Martyrs of the Alamo' was produced in 1915 by D.W. Griffith, who filmed the outrageously racist 'Birth of a Nation' that same year. The cause of the Texas revolution, according to Griffith, was the disrespect shown toward virginal blonde Anglo women by the leering Mexican soldiers quartered in San Antonio. The battle of the Alamo is depicted as a race riot. It's embarrassing to watch."
January 24, 2004	The airwaves are yours, so speak up "Truly local radio and television would do more than raise money for a few select charities and announce traffic jams. They would be speaking in our voice, nuestra voz. They would be telling our stories and singing our songs. We're getting served vanilla when what we want is dulce de leche."
January 17, 2004	King sounded call for civil rights — and for peace "The day after the march I had a couple of phone calls from people who felt the peace movement was trying to co-opt the march. One man told me, "Dr. King had nothing to do with peace. He was about civil rights, voting rights. You didn't belong there."
January 11, 2004	For now, Palestinians have sense of humor "Each morning the residents of Abu Dis knock over a few stone blocks to make a temporary path to their schools and businesses on the other side of the barrier. Step on a 10-gallon plastic bucket, hitch yourself up onto a rickety stone, jump across a 5-foot gap onto a teetering chunk of concrete, then another stone, sidestep the razor wire, finally an ankle-jarring drop onto a dirt path."
January 10, 2004	Unlikely pair push peaceful vision ""Most Israelis," he admitted, "sign on to this plan because they hate Palestinians and do not want them in the country."
January 3, 2004	Draft is a bad idea — but so is the unfair burden of war "A year ago, as it became clear that the Bush administration was headed for a war on Iraq, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., stumped for the reinstatement of conscription."
December 27, 2003	Walking the Mideast Peace Labyrinth "Today, people still walk labyrinths, seeking balance, healing, peace, inspiration and a deeper sense of the divine. Exactly why I am in Jerusalem! There are lessons to be learned from the labyrinth."
December 20, 2003	Collective punishment sends the wrong message "These tactics, known as collective punishment, are morally repugnant and illegal — in short, war crimes. We should be ashamed."
December 13, 2003	Senior solution isn't really necessary "On this everyone agrees: We want to make sure that senior citizens do not lose their homes because they are unable to pay rising property taxes."
December 6, 2003	Trash Patriot Act and Start Over "About fifty opponents of the Patriot Act attended the City Council meeting, presenting a four page resolution "affirming civil rights and liberties and declaring opposition to federal measures that infringe on civil liberties."
November 29, 2003	Banning leghold traps curbs cruelty "Yes, they call them ranches! Disabuse yourself of any romantic notions of longhorn mink at home on the range, herded by little minkboys tossing tiny lariats."
November 22, 2003	Humbly Remember the Hungry Among Us "The USDA estimates that a family can provide nutritious meals for a 10-year-old for as little as $3.78 a day, about the cost of a grande latte. There's a line at Starbucks and a kid on the East Side has a handful of Cheerios for dinner."
November 15, 2003	Iraq isn't America's private pork barrel "In building the so-called coalition of the willing, the Bush administration used the carrot-and-stick routine. You're either with us or against us. Poland, eager to tighten ties with the United States, chomped on the carrot. I don't fault them for expecting their cut of the kielbasa."
November 8, 2003	Honor veterans by ending the bloody cycle of war "Imagine that: Veterans Day started out as a peace holiday."
November 1, 2003	Settlements make fool of someone "Most Israelis and Palestinians share the same dream: that everyone will someday sit beneath his own vine and fig tree, living in peace and unafraid."
October 25, 2003	Rethink how busy you are — if you can find time "Friday was Take Back Your Time Day, a dismal reminder that we work too much. I would have given you the heads-up sooner, but I was busy."
October 18, 2003	Women of Afghanistan must not disappear again "One woman said, "During the Taliban era if a woman went to market and showed an inch of flesh she would have been flogged, now she's raped.""
October 11, 2003	Despite ruling, Redskin moniker out of bounds "The Washington Redskins could be a model of enlightened behavior. Instead, they cling to a hurtful past, signaling to schools and the children who attend them that cruel caricatures are acceptable."
October 3, 2003	Tulia illustrates the folly of Ashcroft "Ashcroft is sadly naïve. Following his logic, we don't need any civil liberties at all. If you're innocent, don't worry, be happy. He's wrong, wrong, wrong."
September 20, 2003	Attacking spam could be lucrative "First, we must protect children from pornographic spam. The technology exists, but uniform procedures and aggressive federal laws are needed to punish violators. Anyone who sends "raw b-e-a-s-t-i-a-l-i-t-y movie downloads" to a 10-year-old should be squashed like a bug."
September 20, 2003	Free trade pacts anything but free "The laws we citizens enact can be trampled by multinational corporations under the banner of trade agreements. Minimum wage. Occupational health and safety. Farm subsidies. Environmental protection. Child labor. Food inspections. It's all up for grabs."
September 13, 2003	Proposition 12 lets medical community off the hook "It's ironic that we are willing to trust juries with matters of life and death — they can impose the death penalty — but not with money. Tells you where our priorities are, doesn't it?"
September 6, 2003	In war and in death, Iraqis count "But we should count. Not the military dead as trophies, but the civilian dead as tragedies. Not to boast, but to mourn."
August 30, 2003	Smoking ban outcome doesn't help anyone "City Councilman Carroll Schubert was tickled pink with the outcome of the vote on San Antonio's new smoking ordinance. "Generally, when both ends of the spectrum are unhappy, that means it's a pretty good compromise," he said. Makes you wonder what he was smoking. Good compromises don't leave ashes of anger and disappointment. They respect everyone's needs."
August 23, 2003	Wars change, but spending doesn't "For the cost of one stealth bomber - $2.1 billion - we could pay the salary and benefits of 38,000 elementary school teachers. We can buy one hand grenade, or we can give a blanket to a refugee."
August 16, 2003	Electronic voting still needs a safety net "One highly-publicized electronic burp was in Comal County. In November, 2002, county judge Danny Scheel, state Senator Jeff Wentworth and state representative Carter Casteel - all Republicans - got exactly 18,181 votes each. A statistical freak or a bug in the system? No one knows. Hundreds of examples have been gathered all over the country."
August 9, 2003	All 'sinners' should have same rights "I have a better solution. Let's get government out of the marriage business all together. Opposition to gay marriage is, ultimately, rooted in religious beliefs, as President Bush let slip in his "sinners" remark. And religious beliefs have no business being codified as law."
August 2, 2003	E-waste will multiply unless lawmakers slow it down "Fifty to eighty percent of recycled computers, analysts estimate, end up in China, India or Pakistan. So-called recycled computers are sold for export and third world workers, many of them children, use their bare hands, hammers and open acid baths to recover precious metals."
July 31, 2003	Bringing Hope to freezing troops was a real challenge "In a burst of chutzpah I have never again attempted, I started telling everyone that I was Bob Hope in drag, if wearing army fatigues, combat boots and a blue air assault beret could be considered drag by any stretch of the imagination. I worked up a short comedy routine, just like Bob gleaning my material from the daily headlines and the pathetic condition of our frozen, bored troops."
July 26, 2003	Flock of 'Angelic Troublemakers' thins with duo's deaths "The late civil rights leader Bayard Rustin said, "We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers." With the deaths of Gary MacEoin, 94, on July 9 and Thaddeus "Spike" Zywicki, 91, on July 14, San Antonio's flock of troublemaking angels is sadly depleted."
July 19, 2003	Helping Liberia is a righteous missions for Americans "The closeness is woven into their flag: red and white stripes, a field of blue and, where we have fifty stars, they have but one. The last stanza of their anthem exclaims: The Lone Star forever, the Lone Star forever Oh, long may it flow over land and o'er sea Our Texan president should be singing that song. While we are tolerated in some places, despised in others, in Liberia the people would welcome us with jubilation."
July 12, 2003	For poor, hillbilly comedy is no joke "This is different from other reality shows. As inane and shallow as they may be, they play off of human foibles that we all can fall prey to: greed, ambition, lust, exhibitionism. It's quite another thing to make people the butt of our jokes because of their accents, their naiveté, their isolation. CBS should be ashamed."
July 5, 2003	Horror of the past fails to stop love "Efrain Rios Montt, a graduate of the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, came to power in a Regan-backed 1982 coup and ruled Guatemala for 17 months. It was his death squads that destroyed Dominga's family and village. Sidestepping a law that prohibits former dictators from ruling the country, he is trying to launch a presidential bid."
June 28, 2003	Burbank students learning more than the three R's "The last act of the Burbank Amnesty club was to write another letter, this time to their principal. They thanked him for disrupting their day of silence. Students who never would have rallied around their gay peers were so incensed at the administration's crackdown that they joined the cause, they wrote. What was expected to be a small action has received nationwide attention. They can't wait for the new school year to begin. They intend to change the world, one letter, one sticker, one student at a time."
June 21, 2003	Saving starfish is well worth the effort "On June 16, City Year learned that its federal grant for the coming year was rejected. Nationwide, only 53 of 466 grants were approved and AmeriCorps, City Year's parent organization, faces a drop from 67,000 positions in 2002 to perhaps as few as 13,000 in 2003. Funding was cut from $240 million to $175 million."
June 14, 2003	Names changed, but story remains "We have been struggling with the border for generations, but still people die. Since 1995, 2,500 have died. Last year, 350 died. Nineteen died in Victoria last month. We are a smart, compassionate and resourceful people. We must find a way to balance the longing of our southern neighbors for dignified work, the requirements of our industries for reliable labor and the need to maintain the integrity of our borders. And we must do it before more people die."
June 8, 2003	People's power turns the wheel "For most of the speakers, this was their first step onto the public stage. They spoke with confident passion about stretching pensions to keep lights turned on, of having to decide between buying their medications or paying the electric bill. But, they insisted, they don't want dirty power. Use that $750 million earmarked for the new coal plant to invest in renewable energy like wind and solar power. We shouldn't have to choose between affordable energy and clean energy, they said. This is the 21st Century. We can have both."
May 31, 2003	Nominee for Institute of peace has a history of hate "Pipe's Campus Watch has criticized university programs in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies for having too many Arab-Americans and Muslims on their faculties. Next thing you know they'll be having women teach women's studies and African-Americans teach African-American studies—where will it all end?"
May 25, 2003	Citizens' voices SLAPPed down "When it comes to speaking out about environmental issues, some developers, polluters and animal abusers would like it just fine if citizens were as hushed as the forest and quiet as mice. We saw it here two weeks ago when Mark Granados of Hill-Granados Retail Partners dumped a $24 million suit on Richard Alles and the Citizens' Tree Coalition. Granados said Alles defamed him in an e-mail claiming that the firm got a city waiver to bulldoze the trees at the site of the new Wal-Mart at Vance Jackson and IH-10."
May 17, 2003	Wall creating an unfair split "Maybe the Israelis need that wall to feel safe. Maybe not. But surely they could have bulldozed their own homes and fields instead of heaping yet more hardships and indignities on the struggling Palestinians. Good fences do not always make good neighbors."
May 11, 2003	Formula for success at the ballots: voters who want to vote "For the life of me I can't remember where we got the numbers to plug into the formula but I do know the result for the May 3rd City Council elections: 41,116 of 743,503 registered voters bothered to cast a ballot, a pathetic 5.53 percent."
May 3, 2003	Prayer, money and what America owes its veterans "This is the still-poisoned battlefield where our troops now live and work. They will be there, not for weeks or months, but possibly for years as we rebuild Iraq."
April 27, 2003	Great leader, wrong mission "In April, 1991 Jay Garner went to Iraq and I went with him. He wasn't Jay Garner then - he was Major General Garner. I was Major Ives. He commanded Joint Task Force Bravo in Zakho, Iraq. I was his media liaison."