Editorial voices from elsewhere
Editorial voices from newspapers around the United States as compiled by the Associated Press:
You’re sitting down at dinner very excited about a meal you or your spouse prepared, and as you begin to eat, the phone rings. You rise to answer it, and guess who is on the other line? A telemarketer.
It is a common occurrence across this country that many Americans abhor. The majority of these calls are not only annoying, they are intrusive. That is why more must be done to strengthen the Telemarketer Sales Rule.
A letter signed by 38 attorneys general was sent last week to the Federal Trade Commission urging tougher standards against telemarketing.
The rule, set forth in 1995 and amended three times, established the national Do Not Call Registry, restricting the hours during which telemarketers can make calls and requiring them to get a customer’s consent to be charged for a service. The attorneys general are asking the FTC to prohibit telemarketers from using pre-acquired account information, in which a consumer’s credit card information has been passed to a third party and could be used to place a charge against a consumer’s account without his knowledge.
Top law enforcement officials are backing the letter. Rightfully so. Some of these calls border on criminal acts.
For all of the consciousness-raising efforts on rape prevention, are we making actual progress?
There’s reason for doubt, judging by recent headlines. On campus, in Hollywood and in the military, attitudes seem conflicted, calloused and confused – mirroring society itself.
In the media last month, writers did mea culpas for failing to investigate Bill Cosby over accusations, swept under the rug during decades of stardom, that he sexually abused more than a dozen women. He has at times strongly denied the reports or refused to comment. As one of the alleged victims asked, why did the world believe a celebrity instead of her?
Throughout our culture, accusations of sex abuse can be tough to confront, define and prove. The subject covers a spectrum that can range from violent rape to behavior aggravated by drugs or alcohol and lacking clear signs of consent. These shades and differences are key reasons why a national dialogue on the issue can be so thorny.
We can’t turn a blind eye to the problem. Unless we do a better job cultivating a culture of respect, the headlines we’ve seen in recent weeks will continue to be all too common.
The president said this about immigration: “We are creating a whole society of really honorable, decent, family loving people who are in violation of the law.” But it wasn’t President Barack Obama.
It was future President George H.W. Bush speaking in a debate before the 1980 Texas presidential primary. He said people who have come here to work shouldn’t be treated like criminals. His opponent, future President Ronald Reagan, jumped in, not to slam Bush for being soft on immigration, but to agree with him.
Thirty-four years later, the voices of those now-former presidents seem strangely out of step with all the nearly hysterical rhetoric being thrown around the subject of immigration. President Obama said words very similar to those spoken by Reagan and Bush, and took actions consistent with some they took during their presidencies, when he announced that the executive branch would temporarily defer deportation for certain groups of undocumented immigrants.
In response, Republicans in Congress are talking about shutting down the government or impeaching the president. No one benefits from this political polarization about an issue that should be a matter of consensus. People want to come to America for a better life; there is work for them to do here that makes our economy more productive. These are things to celebrate.