Editorials from around New England

Excerpts of recent editorials of statewide and national interest from New England newspapers:

The Day (Conn.), Sept. 18, 2016

The phrase heroin epidemic is now all too familiar. So too are the feelings associated with the news of yet another tragic overdose death. The frequency of local arrests for possession or sale of the lethal substance no longer surprise or shock. We understand the drug has a foothold in even the most bucolic of our communities.

But we are hardly alone.

The state and nation are grappling with the realities of this scourge and struggling to formulate appropriate solutions. Focusing efforts on law enforcement or treatment alone misses the vital need to also boost the effectiveness of the Federal Drug Administration to regulate and hold the drug industry responsible for its products and the way they are marketed.

There is incontrovertible evidence the pharmaceutical industry’s marketing of prescription opioid painkillers and the FDA’s failure to quickly step in and end inappropriate marketing practices are root causes of the current heroin and opioid addiction crisis killing Americans in alarming numbers. Connecticut can be proud that Sen. Richard Blumenthal, when he was the state’s attorney general and well before heroin and other opioid-related deaths surged, was among those who led a fight against Stamford-based Purdue Pharma’s marketing of the opioid painkiller OxyContin.

On behalf of Connecticut in 2001, he sued Purdue, contending the drug maker was marketing OxyContin for off-label uses, an illegal practice. The lawsuit argued Purdue advocated that physicians counsel patients to use OxyContin in ways not approved by the FDA, such as taking the drug every eight hours instead of the approved 12-hour intervals. Purdue in 2007 settled the case, paying Connecticut and 26 other states $19.5 million and agreeing to change its marketing. Connecticut received more than $700,000 in the settlement and used $100,000 of that amount to establish a state prescription drug-monitoring program.

Blumenthal’s subsequent 2008 lawsuit seeking to force the FDA to issue stronger warnings about OxyContin, unfortunately was unsuccessful.

It took several more years, an increasing body count of overdose deaths and conclusive statistical evidence of the connection between the boom in the number of opioid painkiller prescriptions and surging heroin use, for many in Washington to act. Finally, some serious discussion forced accountability for both the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA. In February 2016, the FDA called for a sweeping review of its opioid policies and in March released an action plan “to take concrete steps toward reducing the impact of opioid abuse on American families and communities.”

Sen. Chris Murphy was quoted in an interview with the Morning Consult in March as saying, “We’ve clearly reached a tipping point on heroin and heroin overdoses that commands us to treat this issue with more seriousness. So it’s not like this issue hasn’t been around for a long time, but there clearly is a ferocity to the epidemic now.”

While the recent FDA action demonstrates steps in the right direction, it’s distressing the problem of heroin and opioid addiction needed to reach a level of ferocity before getting Washington’s attention. The crisis requires more effective solutions and a multi-pronged attack from drug-makers and regulatory agencies, along with physicians, law enforcement officials and treatment facilities. And as federal officials and elected representatives grapple with dealing with what is, they have a responsibility to be proactive about considering how to control what is sure to be.

Researchers are constantly developing new drugs, offering doctors more tools to control pain and cure disease. But the addicted and those who prey on them will also develop new ways to abuse these drugs. Pharmaceutical marketing, and the FDA’s control of it, must be cognizant of mitigating this potential for abuse, rather than feeding it.

Now is the time for Washington officials to develop more effective monitoring systems and regulatory processes to protect consumers. Those controls must look to preventing future crises as much as solving the current one.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2ddGHTD

The Portland Press Herald (Maine), Sept. 21, 2016

When the phrase “doesn’t play well with others” shows up on a T-shirt or a bumper sticker, it’s meant to be funny. But when preschool children are described that way, it’s a serious situation: These children can end up being kicked out of preschool and child care programs, losing out on services with proven links to later academic achievement.

The need for early intervention is made abundantly clear by the results of a survey from the Maine Children’s Growth Council, commissioned by the Legislature and conducted earlier this year.

So-called “challenging behaviors” - including hitting, pushing and biting - are ubiquitous in Maine child care centers and preschools, occurring in 92 percent of prekindergarten classrooms, according to the study. What’s more, over 10 percent of Maine’s preschool teachers and care providers have expelled children as young as 3 for challenging behavior.

There are generally few good options for preschoolers who’ve been expelled, researchers found. Either their parents can’t find another provider, or the children wind up in settings that aren’t regulated by the state.

So children with a history of problem behavior - many of whom come from families dealing with issues like substance abuse, domestic violence and homelessness - miss out on the support that a well-run program can provide.

And kindergartners who lag their peers in social skills like listening and sharing are more likely to drop out of school, get in trouble with the law and struggle to find work as young adults, according to a research team from Penn State and Duke universities.

Is there a way to stop this negative cycle before it starts? Connecticut has been pioneering a program that has shown signs of success. State-funded mental health consultants are sent to any child care program or preschool that requests them. There, providers are trained in techniques to help calm a classroom and coached in connecting with parents to address the source of the challenging behavior.

Such innovative interventions have drawn the interest of state Sen. Cathy Breen, D-Falmouth, who requested the Maine study; she’s working on a policy to combat expulsions and hopes to have the proposal ready by the next legislative session.

Meanwhile, the study results should be a lesson for us all: Providing more support for Maine providers, teachers and families is essential to getting our youngest learners the help they need before they fall behind and stay there.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2d8EMif

Cape Cod Times (Mass.), Sept. 17, 2016

Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., must have known it was treading into dangerous waters when it announced an investigation of its past connection to slavery. The school already understood that the Jesuits, who originally owned the school, had at one point sold off fellow human beings to help pay off school debt, paving the way for the institution to take its place as one of the most respected colleges in the country. But knowing something and dealing with it are two decidedly different things.

The school itself is steeped in history. At 227 years old, it is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in the country. For decades, it has been considered one of the premier schools for students seeking entrance into foreign service and other government-related jobs. But its early history also included a well-documented connection to the slave trade. In the 1830s, the Jesuits owned and operated plantations in Maryland, specifically to help underwrite school-related costs. Those plantations relied on slaves, many of whom had been donated by supporters of the Jesuits. But in 1838, with the school facing enormous debts, the Jesuits opted to sell their slaves - a total of 272 men, women and children - to help pay down the money the school owed.

Last August, a group of Georgetown alumni, professors, and students joined with a team of genealogists as part of an effort to trace what happened to those individuals and to track down any of the group’s descendants, which may number in the thousands.

Late last month, the school announced a multifaceted approach to help it atone for its past. First, two school buildings named after the two Jesuits who were directly responsible for the sale will be renamed. The school will also offer any descendants of the university’s slaves preferential treatment in its admissions process, giving them the same opportunity as the descendants of alumni. The leadership of the school will also formally apologize during a Mass of Reconciliation and will create a memorial for those who were sold.

Georgetown is hardly alone when it comes to academia’s connection to slavery. Numerous universities, including Harvard, Brown and Columbia, have acknowledged their own checkered past in different ways. Historians note, however, that Georgetown’s situation is unique in several ways, as it did not merely have leaders who owned slaves, or benefited from the labor of slaves, but that the institution itself actually owned and eventually sold nearly 300 human beings on behalf of the school.

The school’s response will likely find critics on both ends of the political spectrum. There will be those who say that the current school leaders have no culpability and that the school owes no apology or reparations for actions that occurred more than 180 years ago. These people may even argue that the school has created a dangerous precedent, and that future qualified students seeking admission will be denied entrance because of the school’s desire to placate a small number of vocal critics.

Others will see the school’s efforts as a classic case of too little too late; that the school should offer more profound and meaningful concessions if it truly wants to seek forgiveness for its past. In fact, a group of descendants recently called on the school and the Jesuit order that runs the school to create a $1 billion fund that would include contributions from other schools that benefited from slavery, although it was not immediately clear what purpose the fund would serve.

Although the debate is obviously far from over, Georgetown should be lauded for acknowledging its past and working to come to terms with it in a very public way. School officials have indicated that they do not consider the issue resolved, and that they are open to more dialogue. That’s an important step in a discussion that has been hundreds of years in the making.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2cL9b2t

Concord Monitor (N.H.), Sept. 22, 2016

In A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, John Adams wrote: “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right … and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers.”

Adams didn’t use the modern buzzword, but he was talking about transparency. In a society that values liberty, of course people should be informed of decisions made on their behalf, but they also have a right - and a divine right at that - to know about the moral qualities and behavior of their leaders.

The dissertation was written in 1765, a time of acute focus on the mechanisms of tyranny. Two-and-a-half centuries later, awareness of tyranny in all its forms - an awareness that is liberty’s first line of defense - has given way to acceptance. The modern political leader’s success, regardless of party affiliation, is determined not by the rejection of secrecy and obfuscation but the full embrace of it.

There is much that Hillary Clinton should be telling voters and isn’t. The same goes for Donald Trump. And they are certainly not alone. President Obama promised that his administration would be “committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government.” But here is Margaret Sullivan, writing in the Washington Post, on that “unprecedented openness”: “(The Obama administration) has set new records for stonewalling or rejecting Freedom of Information requests.” A PolitiFact tally has Obama breaking at least a dozen specific promises related to transparency. And back in 2012, the Atlantic reported that the Obama administration “has charged more would-be whistleblowers with violating state secrecy laws than all previous administrations combined.”

The problem may be more visible at the top, where partisan fights over Trump’s tax returns and Clinton’s health records are spectator sports, but it is just as prevalent in state and local governments. Ask a governor’s office, city council or select board for information you are entitled to as a citizen, and all they have to do is say no. Then what? If you don’t have the money for a lawyer, then nothing. You’re out of luck. If you can afford a lawyer, you will soon find out that they can afford one, too, or as many as they need, all paid for by taxpayers just like you. The deck is stacked against anybody who believes, as Adams believed, that the right to know is an “indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible” right.

As journalists are stonewalled or spoon-fed tidbits, hackers and whistleblowers grow in numbers and importance. Elected leaders and the voters who fail to hold them accountable created the conditions that have led to the actions of Daniel Ellsberg, Mark Felt, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Anonymous, WikiLeaks and all the others who risk imprisonment to tear away curtains and veils.

History will sort out which among them are heroes and which are villains, but it’s wrong to dismiss them all as criminals or unpatriotic troublemakers.

On that, we leave the final word to 30-year-old John Adams: “These are not the vapors of a melancholy mind, nor the effusions of envy, disappointed ambition, nor of a spirit of opposition to government, but the emanations of a heart that burns for its country’s welfare.”

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2cZobLH

The Providence Journal (R.I.), Sept. 23, 2016

Do you feel richer? The latest income and poverty report from the U.S. Census Bureau brought some unexpected good economic news, and not just to the wealthiest 1 percent.

For the first time since 2007, according to the government agency, the U.S. median household income rose - and significantly, by 5.2 percent. That means the American household at the median - with half of the households wealthier and half poorer - brought in $56,516 last year, up from $53,718 in 2014. The number of Americans living in poverty declined by 3.5 million, to 43.1 million.

As Paul Harrington, director of the Center for Labor Markets and Policy at Drexel University, noted in the Journal’s coverage of the Census Bureau report, “this is a big bump and it kind of came out of nowhere.”

But of course, this rising tide did not lift all boats at the same rate.

Rural areas didn’t improve as much as urban ones. The South did not fare as well as the Northeast and West. Black households did not do as well as white households.

And Rhode Island’s median income still lags far behind the medians in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

Nevertheless Rhode Island incomes jumped 5.6 percent last year. The state’s manufacturing sector, though much smaller than it once was, is relatively healthy and employment has improved. Clearly, Rhode Island must continue to build on its strengths in higher education and health.

All in all, the Census Bureau report gives credence to the view that America’s economic picture is brightening, though many are clearly not sharing in the good times, with a changing economy squeezing workers out of the picture, particularly those with specialized skills. We must continue to help workers train for a world where skills, innovation and education will drive financial success. The increased use of robots equipped with artificial intelligence to do menial tasks suggests a very different world will be emerging in the decades ahead.

The 2015 numbers may or may not prove to be merely a blip in a long downward trend. And the number of American households living in poverty - 43.1 million - means the turnaround hasn’t reached everyone. The middle class is still lagging where it was 15 years ago. The highest income growth was in the lowest fifth of workers, which may indicate the effect of government artificially raising income through minimum wage mandates.

These findings help to inform the people who truly run the economy’s machinery: the policy makers at the Fed, the lenders weighing credit applications, the executives considering capital projects and the managers who set hiring goals.

For them, the report should boost confidence. Perhaps it will inspire them to embark on new projects, hire more people and grant more raises. We certainly would welcome such choices, especially in Rhode Island, where we have some catching up to do.

At any rate, it’s better to feel the wind at your back, rather than in your face. Here’s to continuing fair skies and steady hands on the tiller.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2dhQvs3

Rutland Herald (Vt.), Sept. 23, 2016

The comments of a Trump campaign official in Ohio shed light on the vast gulf in understanding that exists in our country about race.

Kathy Miller was coordinator of the Trump campaign in Mahoning County, Ohio, when she gave an interview during which she said, “I don’t think there was any racism until Obama got elected.”

She said that black people are responsible for their own problems. “If you’re black and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years, it’s your own fault. You’ve had every opportunity. It was given to you. You’ve had the same schools everybody else went to. You had benefits to go to college that white kids didn’t have. You had all the advantages and didn’t take advantage. It’s not our fault, certainly.”

She said there was no racism in the 1960s. Rather, Obama has “perpetuated” a philosophy of “shooting up neighborhoods and not being responsible citizens.”

These comments were too much even for the Trump campaign, and Miller has lost her position in Mahoning County. Meanwhile, it’s easy to be appalled by what she said and to express shock at the blinders with which she views the nation’s history. It might be more useful to consider her words as a representative expression of a widely shared view and to ask where these ideas might have come from.

First, consider the flawed factual basis for what she said - that there was no racism in the 1960s or before Obama. She must have forgotten about the bombings of churches and homes and businesses throughout the South during the 1960s, the murders carried out with impunity, the arrests, the beatings, the assassinations, all in the name of segregation. She must have forgotten about segregation. She must have forgotten about the long history of Jim Crow when black people could be arrested on no charges and essentially sold, or rented out, into quasi-slavery. She must have forgotten the lynchings and the pervasive fear they inspired.

She must have forgotten about the redlining of housing in the North by real estate businesses like that of Donald Trump and his father, which consigned African-Americans to neighborhoods with schools and employment in decline. She must have forgotten about the decimation of education in the cities of the North, which robbed black kids of the schooling they needed to go to college.

To overlook these obvious racist abuses requires a particular mindset. It is an attitude of white insecurity that goes all the way back to slavery. White people lived in fear of black slaves because, even if they found ways to justify slavery to themselves, they knew deep down they were committing a crime against other human beings, who had every reason to rise up in rebellion. After emancipation, white people, who had suffered impoverishment and defeat, were afraid freed slaves would seize unfair advantage, economically and politically. Jim Crow was about imposing a system of apartheid so that white people did not lose their advantages.

This was the racism that existed before Obama.

Fear that black people might gain an advantage has underlain resistance to all efforts at helping them gain the ordinary benefits that come from participation in the society and economy. Thus, welfare, affirmative action and fair housing may be seen by whites as an effort, not to rectify past injustices and provide a hand up, but to give black people special treatment and an unfair advantage.

The anger arising from the shooting of black people, in Charlotte and Tulsa most recently, is not the creation of Obama. That anger has been there for generations, usually tempered by the wise heads of the black community, the church and civil rights leaders who know that the ways of violence are not productive.

Leaders like Martin Luther King understood that it was necessary for white people to put themselves in the shoes of black people to understand the enduring legacy of racism. It is also necessary for us all to put ourselves in the shoes of people like Kathy Miller, to understand the legacy of ignorance and fear that has shaped her views. Opening the eyes of America to the nation’s history and to the reality of the world around us is part of the way forward.

Online:

https://bit.ly/2difGPm