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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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In Our View: Free Speech

Everybody gets a say in the firestorm over the speaker at the prayer breakfast

The Columbian
Published:

Cheers: The winner, in the end, appears to be free speech. When organizers tapped Retired Army Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin to be the keynote speaker at the 2014 Clark County Mayors and Civic Leaders Prayer Breakfast, they likely didn’t expect the firestorm that would ensue. Boykin, it turns out, has a history of making controversial — and, frankly, often offensive — remarks about Islam.

Once this came to light, much public debate followed. In the end, Boykin delivered his speech; those who wanted to hear it attended the breakfast; critics expressed why they found his previous remarks offensive and declined to attend; and protestors showed up outside the Hilton Vancouver Washington to voice their opinions. The marketplace of ideas is richer in the wake of the discussion.

Jeers: Vancouver Public Schools officials apparently need a refresher on the “open” part of open-meeting laws. The school board held a hastily called special meeting Monday morning to discuss communications. The problem: Notice of the meeting was sent out by e-mail at 8:36 a.m. on a Sunday, when the public and the media likely are not thinking about school board meetings. The other problem: It was held at the home of a board member, rather than a typical public-meeting location such as the district office or a district school.

The meeting might or might not have been of vital public importance. Technically, if a member of the public had seen the notice and showed up at the board member’s house, they would be allowed to observe the meeting. But while apparently following the letter of open-meeting laws, the subterfuge demonstrated by the school board clearly did not adhere to the spirit of those laws.

Cheers: As a recent story by Columbian reporter Susan Parrish reminds us, a revolution in education has arrived. School districts throughout Clark County are expanding the use of iPads and other tablet devices to enhance student learning. In the Vancouver and Evergreen districts, that includes plans to place a device in the hands of all 49,000 students.

For many of us dinosaur types, the introduction of Apple’s iPad several years ago seemed full of folly. Who would want what is basically a computer without computing ability? But the benefits of tablets have become clear, and schools are using them to alter education — in part by providing Internet access at students’ fingertips. There also is a weighty side benefit: Textbooks can be loaded onto the devices, literally lightening the load for backpack-toting students.

Jeers: The U.S. Energy Department’s lack of attention to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has reached a new low point. The federal Environmental Protection Agency now is fining the Energy Department up to $10,000 each week for failing to remove radioactive sludge away from the Columbia River at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site.

For decades, the Energy Department has largely ignored its duty and has ignored court orders regarding the Hanford cleanup. The inaction and the missed deadlines have been inexcusable, and the fact that the department is being fined by another federal department simply drives home that point.

Cheers: Clark College has received approval to begin offering its first bachelor’s degree, a fact that speaks highly of the school’s rigorous dental hygiene program. There always is a concern, of course, that calling something a “bachelor’s degree” will water down the meaning of the phrase. But students in Clark’s Applied Science in Dental Hygiene program already have been spending four years in the program, and this new recognition of their expertise will expand their employment opportunities.

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