Category: Fall 2002 Newswire
When the Tide is High
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2002–“I never really wanted to be Jacques Cousteau,” William Brennan confesses.
Appointed deputy assistant secretary for international affairs at the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) last spring, Brennan’s now working in an agency he says is, “by definition oceanic and atmospheric…. You can’t get more globally focused than that.”
Brennan, married to his hometown sweetheart, Heather, and the father of Will, Tyler and Hayley, has temporarily left his family and Topsham home to ride the tide that’s taken him into the Bush administration. Growing up in Castine with a father who worked at the Maine Maritime Academy, Brennan says that living always by the ocean helped prepare and inspire him to reach greater waters.
“I had spent time working in the Merchant Marine and some time working on commercial fishing vessels,” he says, “and that’s what helped generate my interest in the ocean and in marine resources, which is different than you know, wanting to be Jacques Cousteau.”
Gainfully employed now in the nation’s capital, Brennan is grateful “to be working with people of [NOAA’s] caliber and to be dealing with what are some capstone issues of our time.”
His initial challenge is to develop a coordinated and functional international affairs office, which means lots and lots of traveling. Trying to rise up on the learning curve of certain issues, Brennan is catching on quickly to everything but sleep. Often jet-lagged from the job, Brennan commutes home to see his family every two weeks if he’s lucky. Taking a look at his fall calendar, Brennan recalls how in 12 days he went from Washington to India, Spain and Ireland.
“It’s kind of neat in one respect, but it’s not like I’m going on sightseeing trips,” says the man who represents the United States at frequent international meetings on matters like the conservation of Atlantic tuna and climate change. “I’m not saying I don’t like it, it’s just the nature of it, so for any readers out there who say, ‘This is great, for at the government’s expense this guy gets to go hang out at resorts around the world,’ [it’s not really like that].”
Learning how to live on international time zones, deal with exit taxes and convert currencies are all new to Brennan, but because it’s all still new, he says he finds it fascinating and exciting. In addition, he says, the work is rewarding and he’s practicing the marine policy he’s always hoped to do.
“I’ve been involved with marine education over the years, and I know at the collegiate level, the kids’ interest in the marine world is formed by the images they grew up with, Jacques Cousteau, Flipper or whatever. I had more of a work orientation towards the ocean because of the commercial vessels, the commercial fishing industry and the Merchant Marine. I loved the working waterfront and the activity that’s associated with that-the human relation to the marine environment.”
Brennan’s gone full circle in his laps of employment and says he’s thrilled, “at this stage of my life and career, to have been offered this kind of opportunity to, in essence, come back to a place that I started working for in 1977 at the top of the organization.”
“I started out my career with the [National Marine] Fisheries Service (a branch of NOAA) and now I’m one of the top five people managing this agency, which has a $3.3 billion budget and tens of thousands of employees all around the world,” he says.
After graduating from the University of Maine with a degree in marine biology, he worked on Soviet ships for the Fisheries Service, at laboratories in Sandy Hook, N.J., and Woods Hole, Mass. While working as a scientist on the ships, which he called a “microcosm of society,” he realized that he was interested less in marine science and more in policy, leading him to the University of Rhode Island for a master’s degree in marine policy.
Hired to be the legislative assistant of then-1st District Rep. John McKernan, Brennan handled matters before the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee and eventually addressed other issues, including energy and judiciary, which ultimately made him McKernan’s senior legislative assistant.
“When [McKernan] was elected governor, he gave me the best recommendation that I ever could have received because he asked me to come back to Maine with him and be the commissioner of marine resources…which is basically like a mini-NOAA,” Brennan says.
After working with McKernan for 12 years throughout his terms in Washington and Maine, Brennan moved on to begin his own private marine policy and consulting practice in Portland. During that time he was appointed the Sawyer Professor of Ocean Studies at the Maine Maritime Academy, which gave him the opportunity to research and teach for the academy. He also went back to school to receive his doctorate from the College of Environmental Sciences at the University of Maine last May.
“When I left the commissioner’s job, I had realized that after eight years of managing marine resources in the state of Maine (and the New England area as well) that there were a number of issues that needed to be addressed…. There were gaps in my understanding on some of the issues that really drive fisheries management, the human element.”
Those gaps gave Brennan the momentum to pursue his doctoral degree. He spent the time studying and doing homework with his kids, then in middle and high school, and competing for grades.
“I’d like to think it was beneficial to them as well to realize that education is a long-term experience,” he says. “You shouldn’t look at education as something you finish when you get out of high school or even college. [It’s] something to do throughout your life.”
As he neared completion of his studies, people in the industry approached Brennan and asked him if he was interested in going to Washington and parlaying his background and experience at the state and regional levels into the national level.
“I wanted to get to a higher level. I wanted to look at the policy. I didn’t want to get mired in the trees of running the agency and not be able to look at the forest from a broad perspective,” he says.
When he decided to put his name forward for a high-level position with NOAA, Brennan began a networking campaign. McKernan, members of Congress, friends in Maine’s fishing and political establishments and family members–including his mother-in-law, who previously served as a Republican National Committeewoman–helped put Brennan’s name forward.
“There were people who had trust and faith and experience in me, and I guess they must have had enough respect for what I had done before that they saw it would be worth supporting me,” he says.
“Bill was a great fit from the first time we talked,” says McKernan. “Throughout my public career I needed someone who really understood Merchant Marine issues to be able to adequately represent Maine…he was committed to public policy and actually had experienced working in fisheries and boats.”
McKernan says Brennan’s new job is a “great progression” and that there’s no better way to govern international activities than by applying such real life experience. Brennan, he says, can offer NOAA both the academic approach and the real world approach to understanding and addressing international issues.
Instrumental to his career, Brennan says, have been both McKernan, for his confidence and guidance, and Heather Brennan, for her support and commitment to “manage a family separated like this.”
“It’s difficult to deal with on an emotional level as well as physically to not have him here, but it’s doable and we’re making it work,” Heather says. “He’s getting the support from us up here and support down there [from colleagues and other relatives].”
He also credits fishermen and fishermen’s wives in Maine for helping him gain the understanding of and perspective on what managing fisheries is really all about.
“You don’t manage fish,” he says. “You’re really managing human activity, and consequently you’re managing human behavior.”
Finally, his father, Bill, who “always figured hugely in his life,” had the water-associated career that gave Brennan the ingrained exposure to the ocean, which he says is responsible for taking him to a level where he thinks he can really make a difference.
“If you looked at my resume, it looks like I set out one day to become something, and nothing could be further from the truth,” he says. “It really was a matter of serendipity and happenstance with an ocean-related theme.”
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
Video Games: What Every Parent Should Know
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2002--Today is the biggest shopping day of the year, and between now and Christmas, thousands of parents will buy their children violent video games, unaware of a simple fact:
The U.S. military, history's most efficient killing force, uses commercial games like the enormously popular first-person shooter Doom to train soldiers to unhesitatingly pull the trigger in wartime. They call them "multipurpose arcade combat simulators."
But those games are used in conjunction with a whole range of training methods, including ones teaching restraint, so that fact alone doesn't link violent video games and violent behavior. Or does it? Many experts link violent video games with violent behavior, while others say there's no link at all. The evidence is inconclusive and open for interpretation.
So what's a parent to think?
Retired Col. David Grossman, formerly an Army Ranger and West Point psychology professor, says that violent video games, particularly arcade-style shooters with plastic guns, don't give children the desire to kill. But he says they give them the ability, just like military training, by imparting motor skills and conditioning to overcome natural inhibitions.
"Remember, these people are the professionals…and these games are good enough for them," Grossman said of the military. "Certainly, not every kid who plays violent video games will become a killer, but the risk is unacceptable."
His stance is mirrored by the American Medical Association and other public health groups but is questioned by many behavioral scientists and media critics. The common rebuttal, and one arrived at by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), is that yes, studies show that children who play violent video games exhibit more aggressive behavior. But those studies haven't established a cause-and-effect relationship. It could simply be that aggressive kids choose violent video games, or that any activity that stimulates children can make them more aggressive. There's also disagreement about whether laboratory aggression translates to real-world violence.
Video games are an $8 billion-a-year industry that is mostly self-regulated. In 1994 the industry established an independent agency to rate games for content, and even Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who holds an annual ceremony lambasting lowbrow forms of media, calls it the best rating system in the entertainment industry.
Not all video games are violent: 90 percent of games are rated acceptable for everyone.
But the ratings are advisory only and often moot in arcades, where most parents don't accompany their children.
Industry statistics show that 90 percent of households with children have video game systems. Children in those households play the games an average of 10 hours a week. This year, almost half of all parents expect to give a video game as a present.
THE PERFECT RATING
Joanna Dark strides through the laboratory halls and past the bodies of guards she's gunned down, her path illuminated by the flickering overhead lights, her echoing footsteps the only sound.
Dark, star character of the video game Perfect Dark, is controlled by a human player seeing through her eyes and down the barrel of her assault pistol. She can't find anyone left alive; she's killed even the harmless scientists. Blood from victims is splattered on the walls.
But she hasn't found the data chip she's looking for. It's very frustrating.
As she retraces her steps, Dark pauses over the crumpled body of one of the scientists, aims and blows an extra hole in his skull.
As blood pools around the scientist's head, a hail of unseen gunfire rips into Dark. The control pad convulses and a curtain of blood drops across the screen.
These scenes litter Perfect Dark, and Sonny, a 12-year-old in Eugene, Ore., said he and his friends used to play the game fairly often. Perfect Dark, one of the top-selling Nintendo games of 2000, and Half Life, a similar personal computer game from 1999, are rated M, meaning they may contain content unsuitable for children younger than 18.
Yet Sonny has downloaded Half Life variants online, and his friend traded with a schoolmate for Perfect Dark. He also could have purchased it in many stores around the country.
IT'S UP TO YOU …
Video game ratings are advisory only, meaning a store can sell any game to anyone, regardless of age or game content.
"We're giving guidelines for parents," said Doug Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Association, which represents the video game industry. "What we're saying is, 'This game may be unacceptable for children under 17.' "
Despite no proven cause-and-effect link between violent video games and violent behavior, the industry wanted "to give parents the tools to make their own decisions about what to buy their children," Lowenstein said.
In the early 1990s, the industry identified adults as a potentially lucrative market and began producing edgier games. But it wasn't always clear which games were designed for adults; in response to public pressure, the industry created the Entertainment Software Rating Board in 1994. The average age of video game players is now 28, according to industry statistics.
The board used movie ratings as a model, but parallels must be drawn carefully; video game content is not always analogous to movie content. A video game rating of M does not equal an NC-17 movie rating.
The video industry says it's spending more than $1 million annually on public service advertising. Towering images of Tiger Woods are currently appearing in movie theaters around the country, urging parents to check the ratings.
"We definitely have a responsibility to ensure parents know what they're buying," Lowenstein said. "But let's not forget that 82 percent of parents," according to the FTC, "are involved in the purchase or rental of games. So this notion that millions of 12-year-olds are out buying violent games without any supervision is just one of those great myths of game retailing."
Lowenstein continued: "There's nothing mysterious about picking up a game like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and seeing an M rating on the box and descriptions on the back," which include warnings for blood and gore, violence, strong language and strong sexual content. "Those make it awfully hard for a parent to look at a game later and say, 'I didn't realize.'"
Industry research concluded that randomly sampled parents find the rating system both adequate and user-friendly, but an American Academy of Pediatrics study found that 90 percent of parents don't check the ratings on video games their children wish to buy.
Virginia, Sonny's mother, is among that 90 percent of parents. She keeps a close eye on what games Sonny plays, but that it's tough sometimes, because he can play them at friends' houses or over the Internet when she's not around.
"I just don't see anything good coming from playing those violent games," she said.
TARGET MARKETING
In 1999, following the spree of school shootings around the country, the FTC found that the video game industry actively marketed violent games to children like Sonny.
In the following months, the industry created the Advertising Review Council, which works with the rating board and is empowered to penalize companies on behalf of the industry. It has decreed that video game companies should not advertise M-rated games in magazines where 45 percent or more readers are younger than 18, or on television shows where 35 percent are younger than 18.
Although violations aren't common, the council can levy penalties ranging from a simple fine to refusing to rate future games produced by the offending company, which would damage the company's reputation.
Still, the FTC and the video game industry don't always see eye to eye. The FTC makes it known occasionally that it would like to see advertising that children could potentially see cut back even further.
But "there is no [law] that establishes what percentage of readership will make a publication suitable to advertise in," Lowenstein said. "More than half of the readers of these magazines are adults, and they're seeing an advertisement for a product that is perfectly legal."
IN STORES NOW
Grossman says government should make the product illegal, at least for children. Like cigarettes, alcohol and pornography, he says violent video games are only acceptable for adults. He also argues that First Amendment rights didn't extend to items like "The Assassin's Handbook," and shouldn't apply to violent video games, either.
Lowenstein disputed this, saying: "If they start censoring video games, where will they stop?"
Many stores, like Circuit City, order their retailers not to sell video games to children younger than the age recommendation, and Lowenstein said the industry supports their efforts.
The FTC said stores frequently sell games to children who don't meet the age recommendation, but that industry efforts are resulting in less of these sales.
Connecticut Gov. John Rowland vetoed a bill in 2001 that would have prohibited arcades from letting children play shooter-style games, saying, "I believe that violence in our society is a real problem that deserves meaningful answers, not new feel-good laws that are impossible to enforce."
The American Medical Association (AMA) advocates increasing public debate about violent video games, but said censorship isn't the answer.
DEBATING THE EFFECTS
Virginia, Sonny's mother, had this to say about violent video games:
"When the boys play video games for a length of time that's overboard, they get kinda snappy and grumpy, and it just seems like it escalates to a lot of hitting and aggression.
"But," she continued, "I can't really prove if it's the games or just too much of the games."
That's the ongoing argument in a nutshell.
Here's a snapshot of opinions:
In 2000, the AMA and several other public health groups said violent media, including video games, can lead children to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, nightmares and fear of being harmed.
Dina Borzekowski, a Johns Hopkins University professor who studies the relationship between media, children and violence, said that even without a proven cause-effect relationship, the research correlating aggressive behavior and violent video games should give parents pause.
"Given that there is a proven association, why buy them?" she said.
But other experts disagree.
The high-profile Canadian psychologist Jonathan Freedman has been called "the anti-Grossman" because of his contention that violent video games do not cause violent behavior. But Freedman, who is highly respected in many circles, has also had his credibility questioned because the Motion Picture Association of America, an entertainment industry lobbyist group, funds him.
Experts outside industry payrolls also dispute Grossman's theories. Vaughn Rickert, president-elect of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, said people certainly can be conditioned to commit violent behavior, but also called Grossman's cause-effect thinking too simplistic and "speculation at best."
"It's too big a leap for me," Rickert said. "There are too many other variables involved."
Author Douglas Rushkoff, who has studied and written extensively on media's impact on society, also said a cause-and-effect assessment is too simplistic.
"Of course parents should be involved in their children's media choices - particularly children under the age of 13," Rushkoff said. "But…young people understand the difference between play and reality."
Several studies, including one by the U.S. surgeon general in 2001 and another by the Australian government in 1999, found that evidence linking violent video games and violent behavior is minimal at best.
Army spokesman Ryan Yantis also disputed Grossman's line of thinking, particularly the assertion that soldiers are conditioned to kill.
"Our simulators train our marksmen to become better marksmen," Yantis said. "That's it. A soldier may have to make the decision to use deadly force, but it's never an easy one to make."
American Medical Association spokesman Edward Hill has compared Freedman and like-minded academics to scientists paid by the tobacco industry to prove that cigarettes aren't harmful. Lowenstein counters that the AMA is "furthering an agenda of preconceived notions and appealing to ignorance and fear."
MYTHICAL QUALITIES
A theory known as catharsis and touted by the video game industry suggests that video games help people blow off steam and work out aggression.
Although Freedman has said his training as a psychologist leads him to believe that theory is probably not true, he also said it's just as likely that video games help people vent aggression as build it.
"My guess is that both sides are right," he told pop culture magazine The Adrenaline Vault: "that some individuals, under some circumstances, at a given moment in their lives, are on the verge of committing a violent act. And some of those people are pushed over the edge, perhaps, by violent television…and some of them are prevented from going over the edge, cathartically, by it."
But that theory was discredited long ago, and research actually suggests the opposite, that we learn behaviors by seeing them and practicing them, said Antonius Cillessen, a psychology professor at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. His opinion is shared by many mental health professionals.
The video game industry "is just wrong" about catharsis and "the science just doesn't support it," Cillessen said.
Statistics also debunk another myth: that society has become more violent as video games have become more popular. The murder rate in the United States has declined since the 1980s, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Justice Department statistics show that since 1994, the year video game sales boomed, the aggravated assault rate among 10-17-year-olds has slowly declined. So as video game popularity has increased, youth violence has actually decreased.
Some experts say the decline is proof that violent video games haven't increased violence. Others argue that societal efforts, such as education, prevention and increased incarceration, have simply offset the effects of violent media.
A COMPELLING ARGUMENT …
In late 1997, 14-year-old Michael Carneal, a freshman at Heath High School near West Paducah, Ky., son of a prominent attorney and allegedly an avid player of violent video games, left his family's large brick home and arrived at school as an early-morning prayer session was ending. He walked into the crowded foyer and fired eight shots from his .22 caliber Ruger semi-automatic pistol, killing three girls and wounding five other students.
His accuracy rate was a staggering 100 percent. Eight shots, eights hits. Five head shots. Three to the upper torso. He shot his girlfriend between the eyes.
In Oct. of 1998 Carneal pleaded guilty but mentally ill to three counts of murder and six lesser charges, and was given a life sentence, the maximum penalty.
Grossman, the former West Point psychology professor, cites this incident in support of his theories and points out two unusual things, in addition to Carneal's uncanny accuracy: First, while the normal tendency is to shoot a target until it drops, Carneal calmly shot each victim only once, according to eyewitness accounts, a practice mirroring video game tactics, where hordes of enemies require just one shot to kill. Second, Carneal's shots were either to the head or torso, areas that many shooter games award bonus points for hitting.
Grossman also provides the following FBI data: Untrained shooters have an accuracy rate of about 7 percent at a distance of 21 feet in real-life situations; trained law enforcement officers have an accuracy rate of about 20 percent under those circumstances.
"I trained the Texas Rangers, the California Highway Patrol and a battalion of Army Green Berets," said Grossman, who hails from Jonesboro, Ark., site of a 1998 middle school massacre in which four girls and a teacher were shot to death and 10 others were wounded. "When I told them of Carneal's accuracy, they were stunned. Nowhere in the annals of military or law enforcement history can I find an equivalent 'achievement.' "
Carneal had learned to shoot a rifle at 4-H camps, but apparently his only experience with handguns like the Ruger, which he stole from a neighbor, was at a practice session a few days beforehand targeting a rubber ball.
School shootings, like ones perpetrated by Carneal or Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris in Littleton, Colo., in 1999, are complicated, and even the world's foremost authorities are engaged in a fierce debate about the causes and solutions. Was it violent media? Was it social estrangement? Bad parenting? How are they linked?
Grossman's point: Video games didn't make Carneal want to kill. But they gave him the skill with the lightweight, low-recoil Ruger .22, which Grossman called "the perfect weapon to transfer skills learned in arcade shooters."
BUT …
Carneal, who is now 19, recently told the Louisville Courier-Journal that all sorts of things affected him, including bullying and perceived parental neglect. But he said violent media wasn't one of them.
"People want one simple answer - I can't give it," he said.
And courts recently dismissed a $33 million lawsuit the families of the slain girls brought against two Internet pornography sites, three violent video game-producing companies, including the maker of Doom, and New Line Cinema, which produced the 1995 film "Basketball Diaries," in which a character dreams of gunning down his high school teacher and several classmates. The courts concluding that the companies couldn't have known that somebody would commit such a crime after viewing their products.
SO…
What is a parent to think?
The few unanimous conclusions: Know the rating system used for computer games and know what your children are playing and watching.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board maintains a web site, www.esrb.org, which explains the rating system and has a searchable database. The board also maintains a hotline: 1-800-771-3772.
Beyond knowing the rating system, opinions diverge.
Virginia, for her part, is trying to keep violent games away from her boys, at least until they're older.
For now, it's up to parents to decide whom and what to believe. But no matter the final decision, know the ratings.
Otherwise it's a shot in the Dark.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
N.H. Not Making the Grade on Drunk Driving, Report says
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2002--New Hampshire continues to fall short on making the grade when it comes to drunk driving, and underage drinking may be significantly contributing to the problem, according to "Rating the States," a report released Thursday by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
Of the 142-traffic crash deaths in New Hampshire last year 70 were alcohol-related, and 28.7 percent of under-age drivers involved in fatal crashes in the state from 1999-2001 were alcohol-positive, the report said. Nationally under-age drivers represented 24.1 percent of alcohol-positive traffic deaths in 1999-2001.
"Drunk driving continues to be the most frequently committed violent crime," Wendy J. Hamilton, MADD national president, said at a press conference Thursday. "Alcohol is still the number one youth drug problem. We are losing ground in the war on drunk driving and under-age drinking."
Additionally, although it is illegal for vendors to sell alcohol to minors in New Hampshire, the state is one of only five states where it is not illegal for youths to purchase alcohol.
"We need to go after both," said Jim Fell, a Northeast spokesman for MADD and a member of the group's national board. "You have to go after the youth to make sure they don't attempt to purchase, and you also need to go after the retailers to make sure they don't sell."
In the report, New Hampshire, along with seven other states, received a grade of C-. The national grade was C, and only eight states received a grade of D+ or lower. New Hampshire also received a C- on the last "Rating the States" report, released in 2000.
While New Hampshire received grades of C- or above on six of MADD's eight categories, it received an F in both the fatality trends and under-age drinking and driving categories because of the number of under-age alcohol-related traffic deaths as well as a 24.8 percent increase in alcohol-positive fatal crashes in 1999-2001 over the previous three-year period.
The report graded states on criteria ranging from a review of alcohol-related fatality trends to political leadership gave each a numerical grade and then averaged them to determine an overall letter grade.
Data for the report were gathered from federal sources, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and from a questionnaire completed by each state's MADD office, each governor's highway safety representative and other agencies, Fell said.
In addition, New Hampshire is the only state that does not have a seatbelt use law for people 18 and older. Fell said there 18 states have primary enforcement of a seatbelt law, meaning a person can be pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt. New Hampshire is the only state that doesn't use secondary enforcement, meaning that if a car is stopped for another infraction, its occupants can also be cited for not wearing seatbelts.
"New Hampshire is the only state that doesn't have a law that says you're supposed to wear your seatbelt," Fell said. "Every other state has such a law. That's why we say that New Hampshire needs to pass a seatbelt law."
A primary enforcement seat belt law, Fell said, would increase seatbelt use by 12 to 15 percent. While 70 percent of the nation's front-seat passengers currently use seat belts, Fell added, this could be boosted to 85 percent with primary enforcement.
"If you do that, that's your best protection against drunk drivers, obviously," Fell said. "Innocent people will be saved but, also, as you get up to that 85 percent you're hitting high-risk drivers, drinking drivers, people who don't really care about safety, and they're beginning to buckle up, so you're actually saving their lives too."
Peter Thomson, coordinator for the New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency, disputed the NHTSA numbers released in the MADD report and said his office showed only 46 alcohol-related traffic deaths for the year 2001. Thomson added that traffic fatalities are tested at a 0.04 level, the same level that the federal government uses to test truck drivers, to determine if they are alcohol-related.
Fell said the NHTSA numbers are based on testing blood alcohol levels at 0.01. He said that the 0.01 level is "not a fair way" to test if someone is drunk, but that the test works to determine if a crash is alcohol-related.
He added that New Hampshire tests 83 percent of fatally injured people for their blood alcohol levels, while the NHTSA uses an estimation to determine how many of the other 17 percent of drivers were part of an alcohol-related crash, also accounting for the difference in statistics.
Fell said that the next step following the release of the report is to work on issues at the state and local levels.
"The national level is fine and well; we need the leadership there," Fell said. "But really drunk driving is really won at the local and community level, and we're hoping our MADD chapter in New Hampshire will take the ball now and carry it to the governor and the legislature and try to get these things fixed."
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
Mr. Smith Comes Home, For Now
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2002--His inspiration was Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." For Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.), playing the part of an idealistic, patriotic man who goes to Washington as a politician was his dream.
"I was Jimmy Stewart," Smith says. "I was the guy who came to Washington to help people who couldn't help themselves."
Reflecting on his career in a telephone interview Thursday, Smith seems to believe that he has lived up to most of his dream when he talks about what he accomplished during his 18 years in Congress. Smith highlights his initiatives for missile defense, his work for the recovery of the remains of prisoners of war in North Korea and his defense of those whom he describes as not being able to defend themselves, including animals and unborn children.
"I was fighting for the unborn child, even though it was not the politically correct thing to do," Smith says. "I did it because I thought it was right."
Smith emphasizes that it was always important to him to do what was right, even if it was not popular, and that if he saw a wrong, he tried to make it right.
He says, however, that he is proudest of the fact that his family has stayed "intact" throughout his political career and that "his kids turned out well and still love us "It's been a long career, and I've tried to keep things in perspective," Smith says.
Smith began his political career in 1984 when he was elected to the House. Before his election, he served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, taught high school history and government and ran Yankee Pedlar Real Estate in Wolfeboro. After three terms in the House, he was elected to the Senate in 1990.
Leaving the Senate floor for the last time on Wednesday, Smith says, was "probably the most difficult day of my political life."
"Losing [the primary against Sen.-elect John Sununu] was difficult, but this was right up there," he says. He adds that the most emotional part of his departure has been the dozens of people, including Capitol Police, Capitol elevator operators and Senate chamber pages who have approached him for autographs and comments, or shared their thanks for his service.
Smith also looks back on some of the people who have influenced him during his career or whom he has looked at as mentors. He names retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) as the "finest, most decent man I've ever known in politics" and says that he loved Helms not only for his politics but also for the kind of man he is. In addition to Helms, Smith says he was privileged to work with several political icons, including Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.).
Smith adds that he appreciates the way he has been able to work with many of his colleagues and how he has "been able to get things done and reach across the aisle and work with people in both parties."
He emphasizes that he plans to continue fighting after he leaves the Senate for anyone who needs help. Although he says he doesn't know what the future holds, he adds that he would contemplate a position within the Bush administration, including in the new Department of Homeland Security.
"If the president of the United States or his representatives made it clear they want me to serve, I would consider it," Smith says. "Everything's in play, and everything's still up in the air."
He adds that whether he is in Washington or home in New Hampshire, where he will keep his house, there are "all kinds of ways to express yourself about policy outside of being in politics," including through newspaper columns or talk shows.
"I'm certainly not going to be silent about what I think," Smith says. "There have been other congressmen and senators who have left office and spoken out…. I'm not going to be a shadow puppet because I know how tough this job is."
Smith says he sees many challenges, including homeland security and a potential war with Iraq facing both the New Hampshire delegation and Congress as a whole in the months ahead.
"They have a huge amount of material on their plates," Smith says. "America right now is under threat as it never has been before. It's worse than the Cold War, in my view."
He says he will "miss being a player and making things happen" in Washington, but that one thing he will not miss is the reporters and living a "fishbowl existence" where everything he does is noticed and receives comment.
"It's very hard to maintain a personal life," Smith says. "If you miss a vote and you're criticized for it, it's hard because maybe you had a doctor's appointment or your wife was sick, and you don't want to talk about it."
Despite his clear disappointment over not retaining his Senate seat, Smith still seems excited and ready for the two-week vacation he has planned with Mary Jo, his wife of more than 35 years. He says there won't be any exotic locations included during their vacation, possibly just a relaxing trip to Florida.
Smith, who as the senior senator from New Hampshire has sat at Daniel Webster's famed Senate desk since 1993, compares himself to Webster and says, "We're just a blip on the screen of eternity." Yet, he's quick to add "never say never" about running again, and that it has been "my life for 18 years serving the people of New Hampshire."
Smith says he hopes he can continue to do exactly what he has done most of his political career.
"Some nights I put my head down to sleep and ask myself, 'Did I do anything to make the world a little better,''" Smith says. "If you can say yes, then you're doing okay."
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
Mike Michaud Settles Into His New Digs
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2002--Democratic Rep.-elect Michael Michaud eagerly steps up and chooses lucky number 39 out of 53 in Thursday morning's housing lottery, an event organized to determine the order in which new congressional members select their offices for the 108th Congress. Michaud and his chief -of staff, Peter Chandler, then spend the morning checking out what's available, and deciding--down to the wall coloring and floor carpeting--what would best suit the congressman-elect's new digs.
"Settling in is overwhelming because they throw so much at you," confesses Michaud, who looked at more than a dozen offices before committing to his new address: 437 Cannon House Office Building. While touring the building, Michaud cheerfully introduces himself to the current occupants and asks questions about the office space. Most important to him is not the view or the shininess of the furniture but how few minutes it would take him to get to the floor for votes.
It's been a week since Mr. Michaud went to Washington and he's definitely had his hands full with decisions and to-do lists. In addition to the pile of books and papers handed to the freshmen at their many orientation meetings and receptions, each new member was issued a new cell phone, laptop and BlackBerry organizer for emailing-technologies he's still figuring out and learning to love.
Michaud demonstrates how the BlackBerry displays his schedule and explains that the programmer was intended to smooth over communications during emergencies like Sept. 11, 2001, when many cell phone lines were down. The organizer can vibrate, send and receive messages without any interference, unlike cell phones (which often don't work in the Capitol), and the congressman-elect says he's "getting used to it all."
The congressman-elect and Chandler have been living in the Hyatt hotel on Capitol Hill while working out of a temporary cubicle in the Rayburn House Office Building. He's planning on renting right on Capitol Hill to beat the traffic, but prices, he says, "are a lot more than what I'm used to in Maine."
Meanwhile, while searching for his other home away from home in the Cannon building, Michaud jokingly says to Chandler that the storage cage across the hall could be the chief of staff's office. The two chuckle like two college freshmen picking out their dorm room and then get back to business, examining their list of real estate.
While he won't have departing Rep. John Baldacci's old office as desired, Michaud is still hoping to have some members from Baldacci's staff join him by January 7 when the new members are sworn in and Congress convenes. Baldacci, a Democrat, won his gubernatorial bid Nov. 5.
"There's so much to do with the 2nd District to get Maine moving forward," says Michaud, who adds that he won't have to miss the Pine Tree State because he'll be making many visits home. "I want to go back and focus on the district and talk to people about issues."
Michaud admits he never dreamed of being in politics, but river pollution and local issues pushed him into legislative positions for the past 22 years. Instead of complaining he wanted to make a difference. Now he says, "we can only do so much on a state level but the federal policies and federal government have a huge impact on the state of Maine."
Now working under the roof where federal policies are made, Michaud isn't too concerned whether he chooses slate blue walls or navy drapes; he says he's just very excited about being in Congress, even if it's in the minority.
"I would have loved to have been in the majority but that's not the case," says Michaud in regard to the Republican sweep. "But one thing about Maine's congressional delegation is that it's small and we'll work [together] closely."
Offering his optimistic smile, Michaud adds, "You just have to work with whatever hand you're dealt."
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
Post Security Bill Affects Coast Guard
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2002--The Coast Guard's responsibilities will be transformed under the Maritime Transportation Antiterrorism Act of 2002, which aims to increase port security duties of Coast Guard units across the country.
Coast Guard units in Massachusetts do not yet know how their responsibilities will change. "It's going to be a while before we know the civic implications," said Andrew Shinn, public affairs specialist for the First Coast Guard District in Boston.
The legislation, approved last week, integrates federal, state, local and private law enforcement agencies to oversee security at U.S. seaports. The Coast Guard will be responsible for coordinating the national security efforts of these agencies and developing plans to ensure the maximum level of transportation safety at the nation's 361 ports.
The landmark law also authorizes $5.9 billion for Coast Guard operations in the current fiscal year and increases the number of active-duty Coast Guard personnel to 45,500, up from about 35,500.
The bill had been stuck in a House-Senate conference committee since June over a debate on how to finance the bill. It finally passed without any funding source, and it will be up to President Bush to submit a detailed funding proposal to Congress within six months after signing the bill.
Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem) supports the new law's intent but says the Coast Guard will have trouble performing its new security responsibilities until the authorized funds are provided.
"The Coast Guard has lots of other functions [like enforcing boat safety and fishing regulations], and we need to know they are going to have the funding and the people capacity in order to expand on the other requirements that have been put on them," Tierney said.
Tierney criticized the Bush administration's push to pass homeland security measures without any proposals for paying for them.
"They passed a homeland security bill, but they don't put any money in it," Tierney said. "I think the act itself certainly gives some opportunities, but most of the opportunities come with a price tag."
Passage of the bill preceded this week's approval of legislation to create a new Department of Homeland Security, which would move 170,000 employees from 22 existing government agencies-including the Coast Guard-into a single department dedicated to domestic security. It will be the largest governmental reorganization since 1947.
Coast Guard policy does not allow spokespersons to comment specifically on security efforts or pending federal legislation, but local Coast Guard officials said that the promise of more money and personnel would improve their security efforts.
"We look forward to going more to homeland security," Gloucester Coast Guard spokesman Brian Henry said. "Everything revolves around money, and hopefully that will increase our budget and provide a better service to the community."
In a report the General Accounting Office submitted to Congress at the beginning of this month, officials from the First Coast Guard District reported that increased hours their personnel spent on security operations from Sept. 11, 2001, to Sept. 30, 2002, created $400,000 in unforeseen maintenance expenditures.
Dave Cornell, a spokesperson for the Newburyport Coast Guard unit, would not comment on how the legislation would affect his staff of 24. Cornell said all questions had to be directed to the public affairs office of the First Coast Guard District.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, all First District units have become "multi-mission capable"-able to conduct a wider variety of operations--in order to conduct homeland security operations, and the new law is designed to further improve the Coast Guard's ability to protect Massachusetts's ports.
The legislation also includes the Port Threat and Security Act, co-sponsored by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). It requires the Coast Guard to report annually to Congress on foreign vessels that pose a risk to U.S. ports and establishes a sea marshal program that allows armed personnel to board ships entering U.S. ports in order to deter hijackings and other terrorist threats.
Kerry, as chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee's Oceans, Fisheries, and Atmosphere Subcommittee, helped oversee hearings on the Coast Guard's role in improving maritime security after the attacks of Sept. 11.
Speaking on the Senate floor last week, Kerry said that he recognized the unique homeland defense responsibilities of the Coast Guard and that the additional funds and resources the new law authorizes were long overdue.
"It is vitally important that we adequately fund and staff all of the missions of the Coast Guard," Kerry said. "This legislation, while not as generous as many of us would like, is a step in the right direction."
The bill also authorizes $725 million in this fiscal year for acquisition, construction, and improvement of equipment and facilities. Most of the money will be used to modernize the Coast Guard's Deepwater program, which focuses on improving command and control capabilities in deep-water environments.
It also requires the Coast Guard to work with the Department of Transportation and the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) to perform maritime security measures like conducting background checks of port employees and issuing transportation security identification cards
"Passage of this legislation is a major step in establishing a framework for ports and others in the maritime industry…to protect America's homeland," AAPA president Kurt Nagle said in a Nov. 15 statement. "AAPA looks forward to working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard as it takes on the responsibility for implementing much of the act."
Published in The Newburyport Daily News, in Massachusetts.
Preserving a National Treasure in the Nation’s Capital
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2002--The Star-Spangled Banner, one of the country's most fragile treasures, once waved in the sky while weathering a storm of bullets and bombs during the War of 1812. The morning after, a Washington lawyer named Francis Scott Key saw the flag still flying high and mighty over Baltimore's Fort McHenry, and it inspired him to pen the words to the future national anthem.
"[The flag] is the meaning of America," said Marilyn Zoidis, 52, a curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Today, the Star-Spangled Banner is undergoing a continuous preservation process in a state-of-the-art laboratory at the museum. The flag is being preserved rather than reconstructed because the tatters, stains, and inscriptions are part of its history, according to Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss, chief conservator of the project. The three-year, $18-million project is one of the largest preservation efforts the Smithsonian has undertaken.
"Flags are historic artifacts rather than 'fine art' so those subtle changes writ on their surfaces by the people who cared about it throughout time are important," Thomassen-Krauss said. "Seeing very significant but fragile artifacts preserved is a reminder how easy it would be to lose our history if we stop trying to preserve it."
The wool-and-cotton flag weighs about 50 pounds and measures approximately 30 by 34 feet. It originally had 15 stars and stripes, as mandated by Congress in 1794. However, one of the stars is missing from the flag today, as are nearly eight feet of its length.
"The practice at the time was to remove the good sections from the fly end (the end farthest from the flagpole) and piece them into damaged areas," Thomassen-Krauss said.
She also noted that pieces are missing because of "souveniring." Various owners of the flag cut off pieces as souvenirs for party guests and family members and survivors of the battle at Fort McHenry.
"We haven't been able to determine how much of the fly end was lost through use, so it is difficult to know how much was souvenired from the flag," Thomassen-Krauss said.
The flag is housed in a climate-controlled environment, ranging in temperature from 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, with special lighting to prevent further damage to a flag that has seen the best and worst of days. It is rolled out on a mobile platform, and conservationist team members work on their stomachs from a scaffolding several inches above the flag.
The flag is extremely fragile and no stitch is left unexamined. The team has removed 1.7 million stitches from linen backing sewn onto the flag from a previous preservation effort by flag restorer Amelia Fowler in 1914.
"[The project] is an ongoing process, with new information revealed at every stage," Thomassen-Krauss said.
Eben Appleton, who had inherited the Star-Spangled Banner from his mother, selected the Smithsonian as the flag's permanent home in 1912. Appleton was a descendant of Lt. Col. George Armistead, the commander at Fort McHenry, who had commissioned Mary Pickersgill and her young daughter to make the flag. It is said that Appleton not only wanted the flag to remain in a safe, protected environment, but also wanted to allow visitors from around the country to enjoy a nation's treasure.
The flag is one of the most popular stops in the museum, attracting youngsters and adults. For many, the September 11 attacks reminded them of the cultural and symbolic importance of the Stars and Stripes.
"[The flag] is worth preserving," Mitch Williams, a museum visitor, said. "It reminds you, 'Is your freedom worth fighting for?'"
A school group peered into the laboratory through the floor-to-ceiling glass window, admiring the size and fragility of the famous flag.
"Anything is worthwhile when it comes to educating our kids," Ira Green, a museum security officer, said. "And if I can learn at 41 years old, anyone can learn."
Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.
Michaud Finds New Home, New Role in D.C.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2002--It was lucky number 39 for Democratic Rep.-elect Michael H. Michaud as he joined other House freshmen for the office lottery drawing Thursday morning. Armed with floor plans and a long list of soon-to-be vacated offices, Michaud combed through the Cannon House Office Building for the perfect office with his chief of staff, Peter Chandler.
"Peter, this would be a nice chief of staff's office!" Michaud joked as he and Chandler peeked into a storage cage room across from one of the potential office spaces.
"Do you think my cell phone won't work in there? Because if it doesn't, I'll go sit in there," Chandler deadpanned.
Michaud ended up with Room 437 in the Cannon Building.
Michaud was immersed into his second week of freshman orientation at the Capitol, and there was much to be done, especially when it came to technology. Every member has at least one cell phone and a hand-held gadget called a BlackBerry. Michaud, who had never used a BlackBerry before, described it as an "e-mail type system that vibrates" as he punched various keys.
"They throw so much at you the first week with meetings and dinners with party leaders," Michaud said. "It's overwhelming."
Michaud, who is single and has no children, is still searching for a place to live that is a close walk to work on Capitol Hill, but he said that rent is "a lot more than what I am used to in Maine."
Despite the heavy reading material, meetings and long days, he remains bright-eyed and energized, like a college freshman settling into a new life, an exciting home-away-from-home.
Michaud does his best to absorb all that is around him. He introduces himself with a "How'ya doin'? I'm Mike Michaud from Maine" and offers a firm handshake and smile to almost everyone he encounters, even if only for a brief introduction.
Michaud, 46, will start his term in the 108th Congress on Jan. 7, but he is no stranger to the art of lawmaking. He spent 22 years as a state lawmaker, and he also has served as Senate president pro tem.
"There is a lot to do to get Maine moving forward," Michaud said.
Politics was not always on Michaud's career radar. After graduating from Schenck High School in 1973, he recalled with a smile, "If you asked me if I would have a career in politics, I'd say, 'You're crazy!' " But he decided to run for state legislature in 1980 because of a pollution problem in the Penobscot River, and he never looked back.
Michaud is a wealth of information when it comes to Maine's issues. He carefully explains topics ranging from health care and education to the job market and the struggling economy.
He hopes to become a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, like his Democratic predecessor, Gov.-elect John E. Baldacci. Regardless of committee assignments, Michaud said, "no matter where I am placed, there is so much to do for the 2nd District."
Michaud is particularly concerned with fair-trade issues, especially with the closing of the C.F. Hathaway Co. shirt factory earlier this fall.
"Maine has finite resources, and there's only so much we can do on a state level," Michaud said. "Over 22, 357 manufacturing jobs have been lost, and part of that has to do with federal trade policies."
Michaud has a difficult road ahead of him with Republicans controlling both the House and the Senate, but he remains enthusiastic.
"I would have loved to have been in the majority in the House," he said. "But in the 22 years I was in the state legislature, I was in the minority twice, and that didn't stop me from getting things done."
In the meantime, Michaud will focus on settling into his new digs in the Capitol. But Maine is never far from his mind.
"I'll be trekking back quite often," he smiled. "I'll be hoppin' on a plane and getting home."
Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.
Maine State Society: Hidden Gem of D.C.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2002--A 48-foot Blue Bird tracker-trailer will pull in to Arlington National Cemetery on this Wednesday, loaded with nearly 4,000 balsam fir wreaths donated to the Maine State Society.
Veterans, friends and family will gather together with the society for the tenth year to place wreaths donated by Worcester Wreaths in Herrington at the gravesites throughout the cemetery to remember those who have served the country in different ways.
"I like the fact that we place the wreaths in an area that not a lot of people often visit," said Joan Dollarhite, president of the Maine State Society. "It's one if my favorite activities."
This year wreaths will be placed on the gravesites of sailors, marines and the officers of the USS Maine; the Pentagon victims; Admiral Perry, discoverer of the North Pole; Evander E. Andrews of Solon, the first serviceman to die in Operation Enduring Freedom's strike against terrorism; and the late Maine Senator Edmund S. Muskie, according to Barbara Owens, spokeswoman for Arlington National Cemetery.
Merrill Worcester, owner of Worcester Wreaths, began the event in 1993 after realizing he had an overstock of wreaths.
"I had all these wreaths that I wasn't going to sell and I'm pretty successful in the wreath business," Worcester said. "I started thinking about Arlington. This may sound trite, but we owe those people an awful lot."
Worcester first visited the cemetery when he was 12, after winning a subscription contest when he worked as a paperboy for the Bangor Daily News.
U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe's office arranged the event with the cemetery, after Worcester pitched the idea. He was then put in contact with the Maine State Society, which rounded up the volunteers.
While the event started that year with only 25 volunteers on a cold, snow filled day, it has grown drastically, with approximately 83 to 85 people placing wreaths in 2001, according to past president of MSS, Lou Pearson.
The only question was how to get so many wreaths down to Arlington.
Worcester placed a call to his old friend James Prout, owner of the Blue Bird Ranch Inc. trucking company, and asked for help delivering the wreaths. Prout offered one of his trucks to transport the wreaths. For the past ten years, the company has continued to donate a truck, driver and transportation costs to the event-a price tag which adds up to about $2,000, according to Blue Bird Ranch Inc.
Most of the time, one can find staffers from the offices of the Maine delegates placing wreaths next to members of MSS. Some times one can even find members of local VFW units helping out.
"You'd be surprised how everyone has a connection to Maine," Dollarhite said. MSS has 1,100 members in 26 states and five foreign countries.
The Superintendent of the cemetery selects a different section very year, so "all graves will have been decorated at one point or another, which assures that everyone is paid tribute to," Pearson said.
While most visits to Arlington are either for visiting loved ones or exploring the cemetery as a tourist, this event is "one of a kind," according to Owens.
Heads of state, diplomats, veteran's groups and school children usually take part in other wreath layings around the cemetery.
Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.
N.H. Delegation Relieved to be Done with Homeland Security
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2002--After five months of debate on a bill to create a cabinet-level department of homeland security, members of the New Hampshire delegation said Tuesday they will be glad to have the issue behind them.
The Senate was expected to approve the House version of the bill late Tuesday or on Wednesday, after a Democratic amendment to remove seven provisions they charged favored special interests failed Tuesday afternoon by a mostly party-line vote of 52-47.
"I think this is a strong piece of legislation and an important piece of legislation . . .to deal with the national security threat of global terrorism," said Sen.-elect John Sununu, who voted for the House version last week.
"Times have changed dramatically," Sununu added, "and we need to restructure government to plan for and respond to terrorist threats."
Rep. Charlie Bass, who also voted last week for the bill, weighed in with his support. "A single Department of Homeland Security will help reduce duplication, end confusion about responsibilities and provide focus, direction and flexibility to help protect Americans," he said in a statement.
Sens. Judd Gregg and Bob Smith also praised the bill's passage, with each of them touting an amendment he introduced that will be included in the final bill.
Gregg successfully had the Office of Domestic Preparedness, which gives grants for counter-terrorist training and equipment to state and local jurisdictions, moved from the Justice Department to the new department.
The move "ensures that our first responders - the men and women who put their lives on the line every day in their hometowns and across the state - receive the attention and assistance they need to carry out their duties," Gregg said in a written statement.
Smith's amendment will allow pilots to carry guns on their flights in an effort to protect themselves in an event of an attempted plane hijacking.
"He is very pleased that all his hard work in the last year for arming pilots is going to pass," said Erin Witcher, Smith's spokeswoman.
Neither Smith's nor Gregg's office would comment on the Democrats' opposition to the provisions that were added in the eleventh hour in the House.
Some of the more contentious provisions included liability protections for makers of airport screening equipment and the overturning of a ban that prevents companies that set up offshore tax havens from obtaining government contracts through the new department.
Sununu, however, said the additions should not stop the passage of the final bill. "I'm sure that there are people who want to make political hay. . . . I think that this bill is more important than any one provision."
Sally Tibbets, Bass's spokeswoman, while saying that she had not talked to the congressman specifically about the added provisions, said that "certainly you never get everything you want. Compromise is part of the legislative process, and the Republican House put forth the best bill they could."
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
