Forgiveness
Dear Forgivers:
At the Washington Post forum on “the state of DC leadership”
that Dorothy wrote about in themail on September 30, Chamber of Commerce
President Barbara Lang said one thing that has stuck with me since then.
The problem with our political system, she said, was that “we are too
forgiving a people,” and we don’t hold politicians accountable when they
screw up or when they are corrupt. We don’t make them pay a suitable
price, or even resign from politics. Instead, we hold rallies for them,
churches hold services to honor them, and their constituents organize to
support them.
The court system is just as forgiving. Election fraud is never
prosecuted. Politicians who are caught in even the most serious cases
get light sentences. Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr., who stole hundreds
of thousands of dollars of government funds from youth programs, got a
shorter sentence than most robbers who stick up a corner grocery store.
On Tuesday, Council Chair Kwame Brown had a court hearing because he had
failed to report to pretrial services three separate times prior to
being sentenced. Brown was being required just to make a weekly
telephone call. That was too burdensome for him. In response, the judge
gave him a stiff talking to, required him to report to pretrial services
once a week in person in the future, and told him that the next time he
slipped there would be consequences. Today, Howard Brooks, who was the
bag man who provided payoffs to Sulaimon Brown to benefit the Vincent
Gray mayoral campaign, was sentenced to two years probation.
Brown and Brooks are supposedly cooperating with the FBI and
prosecutors to expose other crimes and to build cases against others.
That’s what we’re told justifies the leniency they have been given.
We’ll see if the results live up to the buildup, or if we’ll have to
extend forgiveness to the officials who have promised us they will clean
up our corrupt system.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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On Wednesday, October 17, the council’s Government Operations
Committee will hold an important hearing on how the legislation the
council adopted last year to reform ethics in the District government is
being implemented. The hearing will focus on the implementation of Act
19-318, the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability Establishment
and Comprehensive Ethics Reform Amendment Act. The legislation was
drafted by then council Chairmen Kwame Brown and Muriel Bowser, chair of
the council’s Government Operations Committee. When it was adopted in
December, the Washington Post referred to the legislation as “the
most comprehensive overhaul of city ethics law in a generation,” while
most DC residents viewed the bill as an ineffective, face-saving,
knee-jerk reaction by the District’s elected leaders.
Tuesday’s hearing will focus largely on the new Board of Ethics and
Government Accountability (BEGA), which was supposed to be up and
operational by October 1. However, to date the BEGA appears to have only
one staff member (the director), no working telephone, and an office at
One Judiciary Square that is a well-kept secret. Most troublesome is the
fact that the emergency and proposed regulations for the Board, which
were published in the September 28 edition of the DC Register, were so
full of drafting errors that they are now comprehensible. Entire
sections of the regulations appear to be missing. A corrected copy of
the regulations was not included in the October 5 edition of the DC
Register; however, the deadline for public comments on the proposed
regulations is October 27.
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DC or Area Driving School
Joan Eisenstodt,
jeisen@aol.com
A friend, also a non-driver, wants to learn again how to drive. She
did drive, but it’s been years, and she needs to start again. Any
recommendations for excellent driving schools for adults in the area? We
checked Angie’s List and got some info; a firsthand recommendation would
be even better. And if there are any you’d stay away from, those would
also be appreciated.
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Does Photo Traffic Enforcement Save Lives?
Jack McKay,
jack.mckay@verizon.net
As I noted in the September 17 issue of themail, the Metropolitan
Police point out that “whereas nationally the fatality per 100K
population rate has decreased from 2001 to 2011 by 28 percent, DC’s rate
has decreased by 69 percent,” and imply that their speed and red-light
cameras are the reason for the difference. “Photo Enforcement Saves
Lives,” the MPD proclaims.
But there are problems with that logic, beginning with comparing the
District, totally urbanized, to the nation as a whole. The theory seems
to be that speed and red-light cameras have caused DC drivers to drive
more carefully, and slower, hence the traffic fatality rate has dropped.
If that is so, then we should see fewer pedestrian deaths, and fewer
collisions. But we don’t. I note that, during this same time period,
pedestrian deaths have hardly changed, hovering around ten per year
(with a minimum of seven in 2002). Traffic collisions are down only
slightly, by far less than the 69 percent fatality decrease.
It’s evident that the reduction in fatalities is entirely in the
occupants of automobiles. That’s consistent with the conclusion that the
decrease in traffic fatalities is due to safer cars, providing better
protection to passengers than in the past. As older cars are retired and
replaced by new cars, with air bags and the like, the traffic fatality
count drops, even if DC driving habits don’t change. The fatality
decrease is greater in the District than nationwide because these
passenger-protection devices are more effective at the modest speeds of
the city than at the higher speeds of suburban and rural highways. This
analysis is illustrated in some detail here:
http://dcjack.org/photo%20enforcement.html
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Vassar FilmFest at the Letelier Theater,
October 20
Ann Loikow,
aloikow@verizon.net
The Vassar Club of Washington, DC, will hold its eighth annual Vassar
FilmFest from 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 20, at the
Letelier Theater, 3251 Prospect Street, NW. The FilmFest replaced the
Vassar Book Sale as the Club’s primary scholarship fundraiser and
features shorts, documentaries, and full length films by Vassar
students, professors, and alumnae/i. It has become a a very special
event at which the audience gets to see new films and hear the
filmmakers discuss their work, while the filmmakers have get a chance to
meet and network with each other.
We are very pleased that Jeffrey Herrmann, class of 1992, and
Managing Director of DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, will moderate
our discussions with the filmmakers. In addition, Damon Ross, Class of
1994 and Vice President of Dreamworks Animation, and Noah Baumbach,
class of 1991, will present Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, as part
of our morning family program. Just in time for the playoffs, we will
show the New York Times Critics’ Pick, Ballplayer: Pelotero, a
hard-hitting documentary that examines the Major Leagues’ recruitment of
baseball players in the Dominican Republic, by Director Isaac Solotaroff,
class of 1993. Besides a number of shorts, other films include The
Atomic States of America, narrated by Alec Baldwin and based on Kelly
McMasters’ (class of 1998) memoir about growing up in Shirley, Long
Island, home to a nuclear reactor, and The Pier by Jim Stark (class of
1971), a beautiful and contemplative film, set in a village in West
Cork, Ireland, about the efforts of an estranged father to get his son
to come back from America. A complete schedule and ticket information
can be found at
http://www.vassarclubdc.org.
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Empower DC Call to Action on School Closings
Daniel del Pielago,
daniel@empowerdc.org
As Mayor Gray and Chancellor Henderson prepare to close more schools,
we must push back against their narrative that school closures will
improve our Public School system. In an effort to push back against this
narrative we will be having a day of outreach to post up signs we have
developed that inform DC residents about the negative impact of school
closings and that ask them to take action against these threats. And
that’s where you come in; we need volunteers to help out in these
efforts.
Here are the details: Saturday, October 20, 1:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m., at
the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station (Orange Line). We also need a few
drivers to help shuttle folks around so we can cover a good amount of
ground. If you are able to drive please let me know. If you are able to
help out, please contact me (Daniel) at 234-9119 x104, or simply reply
to this E-mail.
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