Editorials

11/20/2009

Editorial: Maxwell Mays: 1918-2009
Maxwell Mays, who died Monday at 91, was one of the most popular people in Rhode Island. But then, he was selling happiness.

Editorial: Juveniles and justices
Science has shown something that parents have long known — the juvenile brain is not fully formed. Teens engage in reckless and often abusive behavior without clearly understanding the consequences.

Editorial: Ports, planes and jobs
On Nov. 7, we ran a cartoon by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s David Horsey, expressing rather sour grapes about his town’s loss of Boeing airplane-assembly jobs to South Carolina. Boeing concluded that workers in North Charleston could do the job cheaper and better than those in Seattle. So it is investing $750 million in a facility there.

11/19/2009

Editorial: Clarify the burial law
We are saddened that someone such as Mark Goldberg, of Providence, would not be allowed to claim the body of his long-time domestic partner, Ronald Hanby, soon after the latter’s suicide. But the lack of clear state law on this matter resulted in Mr. Goldberg’s suffering a nightmarish delay of a month in getting his partner’s body after Mr. Hanby died because Mr. Goldberg was not recognized as having the rights of a family member. That is in spite of the fact that documents made it clear that Mr. Goldberg was the appropriate person to claim the body.

Editorial: Wrong-site surgery syndrome
The latest case of wrong-site surgery at Rhode Island Hospital demonstrates just how difficult it can be to eradicate such errors. In October, a surgeon performed procedures on two parts of a patient’s finger. Instead, the separate procedures had been designated for two different fingers.

Editorial: Murdoch vs. Google
Those who believe that Google has become a dangerous monopoly whose appropriation of other people’s intellectual property and personal information has become a scandal were heartened the other week by media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s tough remarks about what he calls a “kleptocratic” and “parasitical” company. (Perhaps wisely because of his own company’s flawed record in such things, he didn’t mention Google’s deals with dictatorial governments to filter out information that regimes might not like.)

11/18/2009

Editorial: Courting trouble in NYC
President Obama should revisit the decision of his attorney general, Eric Holder, to try the five top al-Qaida plotters of 9/11, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in a civilian court in the heart of New York City.

11/17/2009

Editorial: Talking trash in the city
We’re basically on the side of the city on this one. The rumpus in Providence over the city’s refusal to have residents’ trash picked up unless they have their recycling bins out at the same time shows eloquently that despite the use of media — electronic and paper — announcements from the mayor, and many other information efforts, many citizens remain under a carapace of ignorance about all civic matters.

Editorial: The real Roger Williams
Providence’s founder, Roger Williams, is the latest dead white male to come under a barrage. That’s not a bad thing. Scrutiny of the historic record helps citizens better understand what it cost to shape the American values that have given hope to people all over the world: personal liberty, respect for freedom of speech and conscience, democracy and the sanctity of each individual.

11/16/2009

Editorial: Special-interest legislation
Why on earth did Congress expand and extend the tax-credit for homebuyers? And why is President Obama signing this wasteful and economically useless piece of legislation? The $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers was scheduled to expire this month. It has just been extended to next spring (the closing must be done by June 30). Worse, a $6,500 credit has been added for those who already have homes. In other words, it’s a subsidy for trading up into a bigger manse.