Opinion: In today’s pages: Confessions of a poll worker
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Comedian Tina Dupuy modestly proposes that politicians go without health coverage so they know what it’s like, and Bard College professor Ian Buruma argues that Dutch right-wingers’ anti-Islam rhetoric is really misdirected anti-elite rhetoric. Writer Ellen Slezak chronicles her foray into civic duty:
I have been trained for 90 minutes. I know the names of the four jobs at the polling place: roster clerk, street index clerk, demo clerk and ballot box clerk. The following rules have been impressed on me, repeatedly: One voter, one signature. Don’t ever lock the polling place doors. Insert all nine header cards into the InkaVote Plus machine before the polls open. A provisional voter does not sign the roster. VBM means voted by mail. VAP means voted at polls. I can do this. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
The editorial board pats California on the back for cashing in on its early-primary gamble, and does a double-take on a Senate bill authorizing foreign surveillance. The board also mourns for the murdered Kenyan Melitus Mugabe Were, who could have helped pull his country out of its violent downward spiral:
One of the tragedies of a deeply divided society like Kenya’s is that when the shooting starts, the peacemakers and moderates are often the first to fall.... In Kenya’s immature democracy, the demagogues are in charge; someday they’ll give way to people more like Were. If any survive.
In response to a Jan. 29 Op-Ed, some readers defend UTLA President A.J. Duffy, while others denounce him. Scott Mandel says:
The majority of us -- as this month’s United Teachers Los Angeles election should reveal -- are satisfied with current union leadership. If it were not for UTLA President A.J. Duffy and his officers, we would not have received our 8.5% raise (versus the 2% of the previous administration).
Edgar Angulo and John Leonard, however, disagree. A disappoined Angulo writes:
He promised inclusiveness in the union, diversity in the union leadership and a union in which younger teachers were welcome. Instead, we have a union in which anyone who doesn’t support the leadership is considered an enemy.