Jan 22 2009
Susan Mannella
Leave it to Pennsylvania educators to find a solution to the high cost of a college degree that insults low- and middle-income families without attacking the problem at all.
The State Board of Education's Higher Education Council has proposed a new kind of higher education institution -- a no-frills campus with no sports teams, no extracurricular activities, no dorms and no fancy fitness centers.
Pennsylvania already has three levels of public higher education: the community college system, which offers certificate and associate degree programs often targeted to fill the needs of local employers, as well as a way to earn some credits toward a four-year degree at a lower price; the 14 state-owned universities that offer comprehensive four-year degree programs for $5,358 per year and that have been doing a pretty good job of keeping the lid on their rates; and the state-related system that includes Pitt and Penn State, where the philosophy seems to be "the sky's the limit."
Shouldn't an attempt to address escalating costs of higher education in Pennsylvania tackle that problem rather than dreaming up a cheap way to educate the poor kids?
You don't have to travel very far to see that other states charge less. Freshman tuition, room and board at Penn State's University Park campus is $19,479 for a state resident; West Virginia University charges a resident of that state $10,302; an Ohioan attending Ohio State University pays $16,752.
Jan 21 2009
Tom Waseleski
Barack Obama's inauguration is in the history books, and it's safe to say that the grand sweep of the historic occasion involved more people -- and more average Americans -- than any inauguration before it. That, more than anything, is what should be remembered about the arrival of this president.
About that speech. I think Obama had set us up for such high expectations that we were counting on two or three phrases that would be immediately rendered in granite. Instead, the consensus seemed to be good but not great, a double but not a home run. Nonetheless, Obama was clear and evocative about the departure he wants his administration to signify and the return to certain bedrock values (like responsibility) he wants to see.
In the end, for the president and the people, it's more important what we do than what we say.
Jan 19 2009
Tony Norman
I couldn't think of a better way to spend the Martin Luther King holiday than at the "Road to Freedom" photo exhibit at the S. Dillon Ripley Center, International Gallery. Well, I suppose I could have chipped in to paint a shelter for homeless teens like the President-elect did today, but in this weather, it's hard to be as noble as he is.
The exhibit I saw today is subtitled "Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968." It is poignant and exceptionally moving. It is a reminder that the path to Barack Obama's inauguration was anything but smooth --- or predictable. It is impossible not to be amazed by the 200 photographs taken during 12 of the most crucial years of the 20th century for human rights in America. The photos of the dogs tearing the clothes from men who weren't resisting, the firehoses aimed at children and adults, the burning of Freedom Rider buses, the incredible pride on the faces of the men and women who stared Jim Crow down by refusing to accept second class status another moment.
I suppose it was those faces captured in black and white photographs that moved me the most. Those who marched had no guarantee that their protests would result in anything but more pain and humiliation. They didn't have the luxury of hindsight like we do. They didn't know how the story would progress.
So, here we are, just a few hours before an African American is sworn into office as the 44th President of the United States. If someone had whispered in the ears of the men and women who fought for the right of black folks to vote that 40 years later, America would witness the swearing in of an African-American president, they would have blushed out of embarrassment. Who would have believed such a thing while Gov. Wallace was bellowing "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever"? Who would have believed it when millions had to march for the basic amenities that come with being a citizen of the United States? Who would have believed it the night shots rang out in Memphis and MLK lay dead on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel? Who would have believed it after the riots?
It requires too much audacity to dream like that. But without audacity and a belief that one doesn't have to be a slave to historical precedent, nothing worthwhile or truly amazing is possible. The faces on the wall of the Ripley Center made tomorrow's swearing in possible. Their tears and their pain watered the seeds of hope. Their audacity carried them all the way to Jan. 20, 2009.
Jan 18 2009
Tony Norman
It's cold here at the National Mall, but hearts are warm. Folks are streaming in by the tens of thousands to catch the opening ceremony which happens to be a rock concert featuring some of the biggest names in arena rock. It will start in less than an hour and will go until HBO pulls the plug. The port-a-john situation? Well, it's just disgusting. I'm not eating anything for the rest of the day, I swear by all that is holy. Still, they do feed us well here at the media tent across from the Lincoln Memorial (which will only aggravate the decision not to, um, never mind). The sound of helicopters overhead is almost deafening. Security is the word around here. Humvees, military blockades of public streets, bigger-than-average cops. Nothing is being left to chance. Still, nothing seems to have dimmed the enthusiasm of the people determined to be a part of history. I haven't seen any bad scenes, yet. I thought I would've seen some wild Garth Brooks fan getting tasered by now. Folks are in a better mood than they were the last time I was here for a big event. That was the Million Man March back in 1995 (I believe). Even the vendors are being cool by charging reasonable prices for their tacky t-shirts. I'm still looking for that legendary Barack Obama-Tupac Shakur shirt with the motto: "No Man Can Judge Me (Yes They Can)." I can't wait to wear that in the PG newsroom.
I mentioned the Million Man March earlier and it occurs to me that Barack Obama's swearing in as President of the United States is the unintended and undreamed of consequence of that event. The MMM was the antithesis of this mad week in D.C. in many ways. This inaugural celebration is deliriously multi-racial, multi-cultural and open to women unlike the MMM. There are old and young people here braving uncomfortable weather just to be in the vicinity of history. The sheer joy in the air is palpable.The MMM featured some good speakers and speeches, but all I can remember for sure is a truly crazy speech by that event's organizer Louis Farrakhan in which he talked about numerology and the mathematics of the Washington Monument. He blathered on like Vice President Joe Biden dictating his memoirs to a hapless intern on a long train ride from Wilmington, Delaware. This event will open with an inaugural prayer by the Rt. Reverend V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal bishop who has caused a split in the Episcopal Church simpy by being gay. I don't think he or anyone like him would have been welcome at the MMM. Still, Barack Obama was at the MMM that day, as well. He must have looked around at the crowds of black people looking for deeper meaning and purpose in life and thought to himself that the MMM was a good start, but it needed to get beyond narrow racial nationalism. Did he dream of this day even then? I doubt it. Who could dream of a day like this? I think Stevie Wonder, who is performing today was also at the MMM, but other than that, this is a whole different crew. This is a whole different vibe. This is an American celebration. This is a crowd that represents America in all of its incredible diversity and spirit. I felt good during most the of the Million Man March, but there was no escaping the mood of self-pity just beneath the surface of that event. I feel even better now, despite the nasty port-a-johns just a few feet outside our media tent. This is like a Georgetown version of Woodstock.
Well, I must venture out now and join my fellow Americans at the Lincoln Memorial and listen to some good music. I will probably freeze, but everything will be alright. Go Steelers! Go America!
Jan 16 2009
Barack Obama will inherit a Pandora's box of troubles on Tuesday, among them a global economic crisis and wars in Iraq, in Afghanistan and against terrorism. If he asked you for advice, what would be the first three things you'd suggest he do?
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Jan 14 2009
Tony Norman
Enough with the Abraham Lincoln fetish! Honestly, I love 'Honest Abe' as much as the next vaguely honest American, but the unrelenting branding of President-elect Barack Obama as Lincoln's spiritual shadow is verging on the ridiculous. I get "Team of Rivals." I get the stylistic similarities between two tall Illinois statesmen born in humble circumstances who became president during troubled times. I get the swearing in with his hand on the same bible Lincoln used. I get the co-opting of former enemies and making them friends. What I don't get is the enthusiasm with which Barack Obama unreservedly "bites" Abraham Lincoln's style in every area of life.
The New York Post published a clever headline on its front page today that called out Mr. Obama's doppleganger act for the shameless style theft that it is: "ABE-BAMA: Lincoln's favorite foods at O fest's blast from past." According to the sidebar to the main piece, Honest Abe kept his inaugural lunch simple with mock turtle soup, corned beef, cabbage and blackberry pie.
Obama is too upstate a guy to go with mock turtle soup, but the first course to be served at the Inaugural Luncheon is Seafood Stew, paired with Duckhorn Vineyards 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley. Lincoln, for the uninformed, was a seafood nut, though I'm positive the California wines represent a bit of improvisation on the President-elect's part. The second course is listed as "a brace of American birds (pheasant and duck), served with sour Cherry Chutney and Molasses Sweet Potatoes paired with Goldeneye 2005 Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley. (I'm sure our invitation is in the mail, right?). I can already smell the calories drifting up from the third course: Apple Cinnamon Sponge Cake with Sweet Cream Glace paired with Korbel Natural Special Inaugural Cuvee, California champagne. The meal will be served on replicas of the china Lincoln's inaugural meal was served on. A Thomas Hill painting borrowed from the New York Historical Society will hang behind the Obamas. "The View of the Yosemite Valley" depicts Lincoln signing the 1864 Yosemite Grant that established hundreds of thousands of picturesque acres as a public reserve.
Mr. Obama may also be letting his fascination with the antebellum era get the best of him. Mobile, Alabama is sending its Azalea Trail Maids to march in the Inauguration Day parade. These lovely lassies will march wearing full-hoop puffy costume dresses last seen on the set of "Gone with the Wind." It's probably going to be a cold day in D.C., but the vision of dozens of Scarlett O'Haras paying homage to the first African-American president should lighten everyone's mood. The Alabama NAACP is not amused, though. They want these ladies to stay home and to stop embarrassing their state with reminders of slavery's shameful class divisions.
On one level, I'm glad the President-elect feels such a kinship with our 16th president, but my own reading of history prevents me from wanting to see him act out too many parallels with his hero. Lincoln was one of our greatest presidents, but he presided over America during an awful time. His family nearly disintergrated. One of his children died and he watched his beloved wife Mary Todd Lincoln go mad from grief. The disintergration of the nation mirrored Lincoln's private pain in many ways. And we all know how the story ultimately ended. For a change of pace, perhaps Mr. Obama could emulate a less tragic American president. A little less irony on his part and a little more originality would put many of our superstitious fears to rest.
Jan 13 2009
Tony Norman
I get a lot of calls from readers who ask (with tongue firmly planted in cheek it sounds like) whether we in the so-called liberal media are going to be as critical of President Obama as we were of President Bush. To those of us who actually toil in this business, the answer couldn't be more obvious --- of course we'll be critical of Mr. Obama. Drama and contention are the mother's milk of journalism. I predict that we'll become critical of him whether he deserves it or not. I'll go so far as to predict that Barack Obama will have a short honeymoon with the national press. The sheer enormity of the responsibility that is about to fall on his 47 year old shoulders is beyond comprehension. His tendency to accommodate his enemies by throwing them a bone at the expense of his long time allies is already starting to tick me off. As a columnist, I can't wait to go after him about these and other things yet to be imagined. Having said this, I don't expect that President Barack Obama will be half the disaster that Bush/Cheney was. This does not mean he will be treated with kid gloves.
Implicit in the question is whether I will really lean on the first black man ever elected president of the United States with the relish I took a stick to the backside of the current president. A black columnist is always in a bind. No matter how idiosyncratic our opinions may be on a daily basis, we're assumed to be monolithic and tribal when it comes to racial loyalties. Of course this question is racist and dumb, but what are you going to do?
One gentleman just phoned to ask when I was going to criticize one of President Obama's decisions. I asked him which one he wanted me to criticize since he hasn't been sworn in yet as far as I know. He conceded the point, then warned he would be watching to see how long it would take me to smack the 44th president around. I told him that there was no point in me speculating about something that won't occur until next week. I wish I had one of those DeLoreans Michael J. Fox drove in "Back to the Future." I'd get in that sucker, drive to the future and bring back one of my columns for these skeptics. Hmmmm. Maybe I wouldn't come back. Maybe I'd stay there. Heck, if I owned a DeLorean, I could probably afford it.
Jan 13 2009
Tony Norman
People who know me know that I'm not a sentimental guy. I've never been particularly interested in inaugurations. I can't remember the last one I watched in real time. (I vaguely remember watching Jimmy Carter take the oath of office and being bored by it; what do you want? I was an apolitical teenager at the time).
Even today, the ritual pomp and circumstance that signals the change in presidential administrations usually gets a cursory glance from me. If I see the inauguration at all, it is usually as a highlight on the evening news. I'm content to know that the handoff of power has gone smoothly and that America has once again avoided the spectacle of tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Democracy is a rare and beautiful thing in this world. As much as our democratic institutions have been battered in the last eight years and our fears stoked by one of the most cyncical administrations in our nation's history, I always knew that its days were numbered. In a properly functioning democracy, the voters will always have an opportunity to redeem their mistakes. Even in an improperly functioning democracy like ours, this is usually the case. So, here we are, on the eve of what is arguably the most historic inauguration of our (at least my) lifetime. Barack Hussein Obama is about to be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.
This time, I'm more than "casually" interested in the inauguration. Even now, it still feels so unlikely to me. It still feels more like a rumor than a settled event. As recently as a year ago, I would have bet against such an event ever happening in my lifetime. I am gratified beyond words that I was wrong. I barely have words to describe my awe and wonder at what is about to transpire in America. I'll have to come up with something, though.
Beginning Saturday, I will be blogging and writing columns from Washington, D.C. I will be in the nation's capital to witness this event. Alas, I won't be attending any fancy parties. I will be rubbing shoulders with ordinary people who will be out of their minds with joy about Barack Obama's inauguration. That will be drama enough for this journalist. Continue to watch "A Fine Point" and "Early Returns" for my thoughts and impressions beginning Saturday. And feel free to jump in with your own impressions and reactions. I'd appreciate it.
Jan 09 2009
Tom Waseleski
I get a lot of mail. Much of it is junk. The other day an unusual package arrived. It was a big, padded envelope containing something heavy -- a book of some sort, it felt like, and it was the dimensions of a record album cover (for those of you who remember that) but thicker.
I opened it and, sure enough, there was a glossy, coffee-table-type book -- not from a publisher prospecting for a review -- but from the U.S. Energy Department. Hmm, that's a handsome and rich piece of communication (you should smell the full-color ink) from a federal government on track to being a trillion dollars in the red this year. It was not from a friend or a personal contact in the Energy Department, but was addressed to me as editorial page editor of the Post-Gazette. That much suggested that hundreds, maybe thousands, of these were shipped across the country to assorted media people.
The book, "A Decade of Discovery," is 150 pages long and purports to be an account of "a decade of quality research and innovation" performed by the agency's research facilities. I don't doubt that much, perhaps all, of that work is important and essential. What I question is whether the Energy Department, particularly as George W. Bush heads out the door, should have used the equivalent of a richly bound and illustrated college yearbook to get its message out.
Talk about government waste. It's not as if it -- or we -- have money to burn.
Jan 07 2009
Susan Mannella
Losing a job is bad enough. Now, because it is happening to so many Pennsylvanians, trying to apply for unemployment compensation benefits is become even more frustrating than usual.
Just ask Ron Daly, a McCandless steamfitter, who told reporter James O'Toole about his efforts to get through to the state Department of Labor & Industry hot line for claims repeatedly. In frustration, Mr. Daly went to the state office in Duquesne, but he was turned away and advised to sign up by phone or Internet.
The state has extended call-in service so they're now open from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sundays, but that's not enough to meet demand.
And it's only going to get worse. The latest large-scale job cut hit 13,500 employees of Alcoa, 13 percent of the aluminum maker's work force, and another 1,700 people who had been working for the company under contracts. A small-scale cutback that undoubtedly hit the affected individuals just as hard was the elimination of four jobs at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Oakland.
The state will have to increase the number of call takers and increase hours if the current system continues to prevent laid-off workers from accessing needed services. And state office workers should find a way to help individuals who can't navigate the phone or Internet system of applying and show up in their offices.
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