Editorial voices from elsewhere
Editorial voices from newspapers around the country as compiled by the Associated Press:
Children today never seem far removed from computer screens or digital content. Out in public, on buses or trains, they watch programming or play video games on smartphones and hand-held consoles. This may hone certain technical skills, but does anybody believe that these activities are beneficial for youths’ attention spans or mental development?
Parents in holiday season 2014 – and perhaps beyond – would seem to think not. What’s hot this winter are “unplugged” toys, according to a New York Times article. Popular non-electronic items include arts and crafts, outdoor toys, kinetic sand (similar to Play-Doh), Legos, American Dolls and the 1990s throwback Puppy Surprise, a stuffed dog that births a litter of stuffed puppies.
What gives? Marketing executives believe parents are pushing back against screens. And who can blame them?
Although movies, TV shows and video games are high on universal appeal, they are low on the self-improvement factor. It strikes us as a good sign that adults are considering toys that will challenge children intellectually, and allow them to utilize creativity and imagination that might not be engaged by other gifts.
Finding a solution to algae pollution in Lake Erie and elsewhere is rather like the moon shot of water quality. It carries less glamour and drama than the decade-long Apollo program, perhaps, but it will require similar effort, ingenuity and patience. The good news is that agricultural interests, universities and conservation groups are working together to find solutions. The bad news is how much they have yet to learn about the problem.
One fact is undisputed: The root cause of Lake Erie’s algae problem is that too much phosphorus gets into the lake from sources upstream. Culprits include fertilizers and manure washed off of farm fields into feeder streams, as well as human waste from treatment plants.
A long-term solution to algae pollution requires just the right mix of legal mandates for obvious solutions, collaboration and research to solve trickier problems and voluntary action to show how they will work.
As of Jan. 1, 2012, an estimated 13.3 million lawful permanent residents lived in the United States, and 8.8 million of them were eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship but had not done so.
America obviously would benefit if more noncitizens living here – including, eventually, undocumented immigrants – took on the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship. But what if they don’t? Noncitizens are still members of their communities.
Many Americans consider it unthinkable that noncitizens – even lawful permanent residents – would be allowed to vote in elections. At present, it’s a crime, punishable by a year in prison, for a noncitizen to vote in a federal election. U.S. citizenship is also a near-universal requirement for voting in state and local elections.
But it wasn’t always thus. Far from considering voting “quintessentially” an attribute of citizenship, as many as 40 states and U.S. territories once allowed non-citizens to vote in state and sometimes in federal elections. Non-citizen white men in some places enjoyed the franchise even as it was denied to women and African Americans. Ron Hayduk, a political science professor at Queens College and advocate for non-citizen voting, has called it “as American as apple pie.”
Allowing noncitizens to vote was not motivated by 21st century notions of globalism or diversity. Rather, according to a study by Jamin B. Raskin, “the practice was seen as conducive to a desired immigration (and assimilation) of foreigners and consistent with basic principles of democratic government.”
More needs to be done to encourage people who have decided to live in this country to participate fully in its political life at every level of government.