'The fight on Main Street'

It's hardly surprising that we've seen no updates from Raed in Baghdad since the "shock and awe" campaign began yesterday. Still, I keep checking, hoping for word that he and his family are still OK.

My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Buckner, must have been particularly interested in journalism. At least one of her students went into that line of work, and so did her daughter. Jennie Buckner is now not only executive editor of the Charlotte Observer, but a leader in the civic journalism movement and one of the most respected executives in the field. We're about the same age, but I didn't meet Jennie until about 20 years ago, when she was assistant managing editor for features at the San Jose Mercury-News and I was interviewing for a job there. She didn't hire me — and I thank her for that now — but we had a very nice talk — I thank her for that, too — two people who grew up in the same small but extraordinary town, both professional interviewers and chronic if not compulsive question-askers. I was reminded of that conversation with Jennie when the B-52s began dropping their gee-whiz-guided loads over Baghdad yesterday and all the world's attention was drawn to that lethal fireworks display.

"What about television?" I asked Jennie that day. CNN was just a pup then, and people were still in the habit of looking to newspapers for their news. Did she see that as a threat?

"It's the fight on Main Street," she said, and I apologize for the direct quotes here, as I took no notes and have no recording of that conversation, except for the intense imprint it made in my brain. "Imagine a town with no newspapers, no TV, no news or entertainment media at all," she said. "Now imagine that a fight breaks out one night on that town's Main street. That's what gets everybody's attention; that's what they're all talking about. For us, television isn't a competitor. It's the fight on Main Street."

In a more complex world, of course, the fight on Main Street is only one of many news stories to watch. But when most of most news organizations' resources are deployed along with the troops in war, some of those other stories get overlooked.

One of those was the death of Lenore Gould Breslauer, peace activist during the Vietnam War and one of the founders of the activist group Another Mother for Peace, best known for its logo and slogan, "War is not healthy for children and other living things". Her daughter, Nancy Chuda, and her son, Jon Gould, also dedicated their lives to peace and social causes.

Another underplayed news item was the passage of the Bush budget, including tax cut but with no mention of any spending for the war now under way, by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Meanwhile, in the other side of our nation's bicameral legislature, our Senator and neighbor Jon Corzine, who as you may have heard had quite a bit of experience, and success, in the world of finance before he decided to try his hand at government work, was absolutely appalled by the budget. "This is not speculation," Corzine said in a TV interview. "We know we have this expense, but there's no provision for it in the budget. That kind of accounting makes even Enron look responsible." As you may have heard if you've watched any Ari Fleisher briefing in the past few months, we'll find out how much the war will cost only in "supplementals," requests tacked onto the budget after the fact. In these briefings, the White House press corps plays the part of the Greek chorus, asking "How much is this going to cost?" "When are you going to tell us?" "Don't you think the American people have a right to know now?" "You've got to have some estimates somewhere. Somebody has to have done the math on this. So why not share it with us?" and a cacaphony of related questions, while Fleisher says something like this: "the administration would send up a supplemental appropriation bill to the Congress. And so Congress will then have at its disposal all the relevant facts and figures to make the determinations for their budget issues;" or "War cost -- in terms of the supplemental, the President has said that after hostilities begin, a supplemental will be sent to the Hill. That remains operative." Corzine led the successful 52-47 Democratic charge to trim the Republican tax cut to put $100 billion in reserve for war costs, i.e., support our troops. 

That was just an amendment; the Senate has yet to pass the budget. Republicans are hoping to get the full tax cut restored, with no reserve for war costs, when the House/Senate conference committee works to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget later this month.

In other news, as our favorite clothing store, Eddie Bauer, goes bankrupt, and more and more companies, especially airlines, are facing the same fate, the House has passed an anti-bankruptcy bill that gives big business everything it asked for, and if passed by the Senate, would make it even closer to impossible for people who've lost jobs to get health insurance, or for parents who are owed back child support to get anything from their delinquent ex-spouses.

And in case anyone was wondering just how ignorant, childish, and cruel some people can be, consider the poor Lebanese immigrant in Fresno, California, who chose the name "French Cleaners" for his business on a whim, using the Eiffel Tower as its logo. All three branches of French cleaners were vandalized in what police are calling a hate crime, with a fire causing more than $500,000 in damage, obscenities scrawled on the wall and bullet holes in the windows.

This just in from The New York Times: 28 baby girls, all under 3 months old, were discovered in suitcases on a bus in southern China, "apparently being smuggled for sale." One has already died.

We now return you to the fight on Main Street, already in progress.