Editorial voices from across the country
Editorial voices from newspapers across the United States:
The Burlington (Vt.)
Free Press
The Vermont Supreme Court made the right call by making clear that the government cannot escape public scrutiny by hiding behind private email accounts.
The state’s highest court ruled on Oct. 20 that public records stored on government employees private email accounts are subject to Vermont’s public records law.
The decision settles an issue about the reach of the public records law that has dragged on too long. The court came down on the side of government transparency and accountability.
The underlying message is that those who work for the state must stop using private email for official government business.
The state Supreme Court merely confirms what should be apparent to any reasonable Vermonter, save those select few in government who never seem to grasp the basic principle of open government.
The ruling makes clear that where information is kept does nothing to alter its status as a public record.
The Concord (N.H.) Monitor
Many parents of school-age children probably felt a chill when they read this headline in the Atlantic last month: “Have smartphones destroyed a generation?”
It is a question that Jean M. Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of the Atlantic article, explores deeply in her new book, “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy – and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood.” The term iGen, coined by Twenge, refers to post-Millennials born between 1995 and 2012.
Much of Twenge’s research jibes with what many parents can see with their own eyes. Today’s teens are dating and drinking less. They are waiting longer to get their driver’s license and are less likely to be sexually active. They are also working less, even though there are plenty of jobs for teen workers. All of this makes kids physically safer than ever within their greatly extended childhoods.
But the way iGen spends its time has Twenge, the mother of three young daughters, concerned about their mental health – now and in the future.
She has found a link between the amount of time kids spend staring at screens – whether phone, tablet or laptop – and an increased risk of depression and suicide. The role social media plays in their distress is significant.
he cultural and technological gap between iGen parents, most of whom came of age as members of Generation X, and their children is significant, as generation gaps tend to be. Gen-Xers have no idea what it’s like to be a teenager in a world where smartphones are ubiquitous, where adolescence is inextricably bound to social media, and that presents a parenting challenge.
But the best approach seems simple enough: Restrict the amount of time kids spend staring at screens. Make them go outside, read a book or play something – anything – that doesn’t require Wi-Fi or a data plan.
The Savannah (Ga.) Morning News
Nearly everyone has seen abandoned shopping carts junking up neighborhoods around Savannah. They are four-wheeled eyesores that suggest neglect and promote blight and decay.
Some merchants do a good job of patrolling neighborhoods around their stores and picking up stray carts that are left on sidewalks, curbsides or in ditches. Others don’t. Actually merchants could solve this problem tomorrow. They could adopt the token-return strategy that requires consumers to deposit a quarter to get a cart and then returns the quarter when the cart is brought back to where it belongs. That’s what the Aldi grocery store chain does, with much success.
While abandoned grocery carts pale in comparison to the problem of violent crime, it is a quality-of-life issue that can contribute to neighborhood decline. But solving it could contribute to more important improvements, including reduction of blight, civic beautification and a healthy rebirth of neighborhood pride.