Opinion: In today’s pages: Bob Barker, Cold War alarmists, and charter school switches
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Lehigh University’s Rajan Menon tells everyone to calm down and remember it’s not another Cold War:
So it is a new Cold War after all, right? Wrong. Like the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta in the 5th century BC, the Cold War was an ideological contest between two superpowers with dramatically different blueprints for the world. That epic struggle is history. Today’s tiffs between Russia and the United States are minor by contrast. If both sides have the will and skill, they can set things right by taking some deep breaths and switching from rhetoric to diplomacy.
Esquire contributing editor Ken Kurson says he learned a lot about money from the Price is Right. Writer Vince Beiser argues for paroling elderly prisoners, and columnist Ronald Brownstein explains how G-8 countries might get Bush to work with them on global warming.
The editorial board thinks the FCC should lay off ‘fleeting expletives’, and that local governments should share some liability for damage to overdeveloped flood-prone areas. It also weighs in on the ongoing drama at Locke High School, which is trying to change into a Green Dot charter school.
Letter writers also weigh in on Locke. Culver City’s Chuck Wagner suggests that by letting public schools switch to charter, ‘we’re moving toward voucher-less school vouchers.’
The police discipline dust-up enters day three as lawyers Kelli L. Sager and Alison Berry Wilkinson discuss public access to police records.