Hits & Misses
MISS: The members of the Donegal Freedom Group – residents of Donegal Township who didn’t want the local government telling them what they could and couldn’t do with their property – have finally gotten their wish. The Donegal board of supervisors, which now has a clear majority of Freedom Group members or supporters, voted earlier this month to kill the zoning law approved by the previous board. The issue here was very simple. The previous board felt that the township needed zoning to control development, especially with the growth of the Marcellus Shale industry, a position with which we strongly agreed. But the Freedom Group wants, in a word, the freedom to do whatever they please with their land. In the end, the Freedom Group got its wish. But as the old saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for.”
Hit: It’s long overdue, but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a legislative committee that oversees the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, the organization that runs high school sports in the commonwealth, will hold a hearing on the idea of public and private schools (including Catholic and charter schools) having separate championship tournaments. Separating the two types of schools for this purpose makes sense, because they are not operating on a level playing field. Public schools have boundaries from within which they can accept students, and athletes. The private, Catholic and charter schools have no such restrictions and can “recruit” players from pretty much wherever they want. We hope the Legislature will fix this inequity.
HIT: It’s been more than a quarter-century since George H.W. Bush was a resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., but that didn’t stop him from making history this week – he became the first former president to reach the age of 94. He beat out Ronald Reagan, who lived for 93 years and four months, and Gerald Ford, who lived to 93 years and five months. If he lives until October – and there’s no indication that he won’t – Jimmy Carter will also turn 94, and join Bush in this exclusive club. Although he didn’t win a second term, Bush’s presidency looks better with the passage of time, and history will likely view him kindly for his handling of the end of the Cold War and the war with Iraq in 1991 that evicted Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait. We wish Bush the best.
MISS: The Pennsylvania Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would establish a citizens’ commission to draw political maps rather than having lawmakers carry out that chore. That’s something that seems eminently sensible to many people. But Senate Republicans attached a “poison pill” amendment to the legislation that would have appellate judges elected by district. This is a painfully obvious attempt to dilute the impact of voters in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia regions – where, it should be noted, at least half of the commonwealth’s 12 million residents live – and hand more power to the state’s rural regions. The measure still has to pass the state House of Representatives, and be approved by both houses again next year before it appears before voters. In its current form, though, it would replace one form of gerrymandering with another.