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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > January > 07
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Dayton deserves a shuttle
Of course, the Air Force museum should have one of the three shuttles that NASA is going to retire in 2010, says Dayton native son Tom Crouch.
After his National Air and Space Museum, the Air Force museum is in the best position to claim one of the three, Crouch said Jan. 7. The Wright brothers biographer is the senior curator of the Division of Aeronautics at the Smithsonian’s air and space museum.
Crouch pointed to the Air Force museum’s size and draw, which are among the points we make in an editorial published Jan. 11. He also said the museum has a “demonstrated ability to raise money and come up with new space.”
“Community support will be really important,” he said.
Will the selection process be political?
“Are you kidding?” Crouch laughed. “This is all about politics. NASA’s chief concern is doing this in a way that makes sense and is fair, while staying away from the nearest pot of boiling water.”
With a new administration coming in to office, and the space program’s priorities up for debate in Congress, Crouch said this is a “really touchy time.”
“First and foremost, NASA will want to stay out of trouble.”
Crouch was particularly complimentary of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force restoration staff, saying they’re known for getting it (exhibits) on the floor in a great way.”
Crouch noted that NASA will be cognizant of its partnership with the Air Force, saying the shuttle “looks the way it looks because of Air Force involvement.”
Crouch cautioned that NASA does have “some dogs in this fight.” “I’m sure there are NASA folks in Huntsville, and NASA folks in Houston, and NASA folks at the Cape” who would love to have a shuttle at their museums.
Dayton, he said, needs to “marshal all the forces and go after it.”
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: Local History, Wright Patterson Air Force Base
Editorial: Killers underestimated the power of individuals
Why work for social change? Can one person really make a difference?
That was the question a highschool student posed to a panel at Chaminade-Julienne High School in March 2006.
Actor and activist Martin Sheen and Sister Rebeca Spires, a Notre Dame de Namur nun, were reassuring.
“This is really the fundamental question for all of us,” Mr. Sheen said. “How do you make a difference, and what difference does it make? This has to be highly personal. The only thing you can change is you.”
On that day, Mr. Sheen had come back to his hometown and alma mater to unveil a painting he commissioned of fellow Daytonian Sister Dorothy Stang, who was murdered in 2005 for her effort to protect the Amazon rainforest and help poor Brazilians farmers.
What has happened since is inspiring and helps answer the young student’s question about the value of individuals.
Since Sister Dorothy’s death, her brother David Stang has been a driving force for justice in her case. He was there in 2007, when the two men accused of pulling the trigger in her murder were convicted and sent to prison. But the bigger challenge was to bring to justice the wealthy landowner who prosecutors say ordered the killing.
Sister Dorothy’s murder could easily have sent the wrong message to the people of the remote region where she had spent her life. Having avoided criminal charges, the rancher suspect, in recent months, had begun to press a claim to land that Sister Dorothy had helped persuade the government to set aside for poor farmers. Brazilians are all too familiar with the story of the wealthy having their way and getting away with murder in the process.
But Mr. Stang’s activism caught the eye of Daniel Junge, a documentary filmmaker, who accompanied him to Brazil for the trial of the triggermen. The resulting Oscar-contending film, “They Killed Sister Dorothy,” provided new evidence that shattered the alibi of the rancher, Regivaldo Pereira Galvao, who is now finally facing charges. Mr. Sheen, who has stayed involved, serves as the narrator for the film.
The case, with all its twists and turns, is not yet over. But Mr. Galvao’s arrest is a big step in the right direction. And it might not have come but for the individual efforts of Mr. Stang, Mr. Junge and Mr. Sheen.
If, in the end, a wealthy Brazilian is brought to justice, poor farmers earn a chance to make a stable living and a small slice of the rain forest is preserved, it will be a lesson that change can come even to places where corruption is thought to be intractable.
And it will be the cumulative efforts of individuals — a nun, a brother, a filmmaker, an actor — that made a difference and set an example for others.
Perhaps that’s why Sister Rebeca, who worked alongside Sister Dorothy in Brazil, left C-J hopeful almost three years ago after an hour of earnest student questions about the struggle for social justice in the world.
“I want to thank you today,” she told the young people. “I am inspired by you. I am happy you exist. And we are really counting on you to carry on.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Dayton Peace Accords and Other Peace Initiatives, Editorials, Religion and Faith, Scott Elliott
An Ohioan finally makes Obama’s team!
OK, so it’s not a cabinet-level job, but right after a the DDN raised alarms about the total lack of Ohioans among those named to key positions in the Obama administration, finally someone living in the Buckeye State was announced.
It’s Pete Souza, who was plucked from the faculty of Ohio University to be the official White House photographer.
OK, so Souza, a Massachusetts native, is fairly new at Ohio U., having gotten to know Obama while photographing him through the years when he was working as a photographer at the Chicago Tribune. But we’ll take what we can get!
This is a nice nod to the quality of Ohio’s best journalism school at OU, although Obama’s gain is the university’s loss. Souza also gets to hire a staff of photographers, so I imagine his colleagues and students in the photography department are being REALLY nice to him right now.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: National Politics
