Commentaries
June 2003

Actual Highways
Commentator Roben Farzad observes that in five short years, the United States has managed to blow $2 trillion on telecom pipe dreams. We ripped apart whole streets to lay fiber optic cables that will likely never be used. Now, forget the information superhighway for a minute and ponder the actual highway you have to navigate every morning. Traffic is terrible -- the public transportation budget is underfunded and being cut even more. But why fret, now that you can roam your cell phone in Panama?

Mideast Peace Process
NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says developments in the Middle East peace process look promising.

Spam Chop Suey and the Genome
Commentator Marion Roach remarks that the recipes of her Midwestern ancestors seemed to use four basic ingredients for their recipes. And, hey, that sounds a little bit like the pattern of the human genome. It's her handy way of understanding genetics.

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle opens in theaters nationwide Friday. Commentator Erika Dalya loved the TV show when she was a kid, and the 70s Angels were her childhood role models. She was excited to see this movie, and not at all disappointed.

Diversity in Higher Education
Tuesday on All Things Considered, we heard a commentator argue that affirmative action to promote diversity is fine, but that the more important goal is to provide opportunities for disadvantaged students. On Wednesday's show, commentator Jim Sleeper offers another view on the relationship between diversity and affirmative action.

Thinking
Commentator Andrei Codrescu tells of a parable about a young boy who comes to associate "thinking" with "guilt." He follows this character throughout his life and into death.

O'Connor and Affirmative Action
NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that despite pressure from conservatives, Supreme Court swing vote Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been a force for balance on a deeply divided court.

NFL in Los Angeles
It appears the National Football League is more serious than ever about returning to Los Angeles. But commentator Bob Cook says that before making such a big commitment, the NFL needs to spend a little time researching the literary reputation of Los Angeles. He says that the NFL hasn't noticed that nearly every artistic work involving Los Angeles regards it as a city that, below its sunny skies and groovy movie stars, is a wasteland of shattered dreams. Cook writes a sports column for the online magazine Flak.

All Good
Commentator Heather King has been trying to sort whether it's true when people say "it's all good."

Diversity and Opportunity
Monday's Supreme Court ruling was based on the idea that colleges and universities can use affirmative action to promote diversity. But commentator Dan Olmos of Youth Radio says that affirmative action should have a more important goal than diversity: creating equal opportunity. He taught elementary school in Compton, Calif., where there were very few white students, and he came to feel that the minority students there didn't need diversity, they needed more opportunities.

Home Renovations
When psychiatrist and commentator Elisa Ely had her house renovated, she found the contractors treating her the way doctors treat their patients.

Iran and Iraq
NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says the Bush administration's Iran policy seems to be the opposite of its Iraq policy.

Deployed
Commentator Holly Rossi is the wife of an active-duty reservist who's been stationed in Kuwait. She reflects on her involuntary separation from her husband.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Milwaukee
Commentator Andrei Codrescu visits the headquarters of the Johnson Company in Racine, Wis., and learns about the work the architect Frank Lloyd Wright did for the firm. Wright, Codrescu says, got lost in his own visions. Example: a curved chair that is uncomfortable to sit in, but looks great. Wright kept his money in a solidly square brick building in downtown Milwaukee.

Private Benefits
Commentator Merrill Matthews describes Nevada's prescription drug coverage for seniors, which could be a model for Congress.

Pfc. Lynch
Commentator James Poniewozik says the TV news networks are all chasing Pfc. Jessica Lynch -- the soldier rescued from captivity in Iraq -- for an interview.

Intelligence on Iraq's Weapons
NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair must both defend against accusations that they exaggerated Iraq's weapons threat in the months leading up to the war. But Bush's constituency is more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Sets and Apartments
It's not lack of space or leaky plumbing that bugs NPR's Bob Mondello about his apartment. In fact, it's what Mondello didn't know about his home in Washington, D.C., that worries him. Mondello usually appears on All Things Considered to talk about movies. But he's also a theater critic, and during recent renovations of his apartment, he's discovered eye-opening similarities between stage sets and his home.

Of Pets and Men
Commentator Robin Chotzinoff has always had better luck with dogs than with men.

Popcorn at the Movies
Writer Mary Roach wonders why a bag of popcorn costs so much at the movies.

Crisis in Iran
NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that between nightly student protests and a budding nuclear program, Iran looks to be the source of the next Middle East crisis.

An Adjunct Professor's Life
Commentator Heather Dune Macadam is an adjunct professor, which means that she teaches part-time at three different institutions of higher learning but still has to get a summer job to make ends meet. She's just applied for a job at Home Depot. Macadam is the author of the novel The Weeping Buddha, published by Akashic Books.

Software
Late at night, commentator Paul Ford converses with his computer. It promises him power -- if only he will learn the latest version of Photoshop or all the keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Word. Then, he falls asleep and dreams in Photoshop, grabbing chunks of his environment and moving them around. He's not alone. Some of his friends have confessed they dream in PowerPoint, each slide fading into the next; others browse an imagined Web at night, their dream unfolding in links and pages.

Commentary: The Florida Guilt Machine
Commentator Andrei Codrescu visits his mother in Florida and finds that all the mothers there are at work on a huge "guilt machine." They tend to this every day -- and the guilt machine will power the state for centuries.

Commentary: Strategy
Back when commentator Jay Bryant was learning the politics trade out on the Illinois prairies, there was one small downstate county that was considered a statewide bellwether. Montgomery County had voted for the winning candidate for all statewide elected officials for 100 elections in a row. According to a joke popular in the 1970s, one eager Montgomery County resident decided to run for state auditor and spent all his time and money right there. He carried Montgomery, but was shocked to learn that he had received virtually no votes in the rest of the state and finished dead last. Bryant says that Florida Democrat Sen. Bob Graham is running on the Montgomery County strategy: the last presidential election was won -- or lost -- in Florida, and as a Floridian, he believes the state will vote for him. Jay Bryant writes theoptimate.com.

Commentary: Road Map Hopes
NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says Mideast violence in the week since the Aqaba peace summit has dimmed hopes for President Bush's road map for peace.

Putting Michael in Restraints
The story of an encounter with a young and very damaged patient. Commentator Elissa Ely, a psychiatrist, has to authorize putting him in restraints. It's a necessary task, but not a pleasant one.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's Memoir
Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoir, Living History, was released Monday. Publisher Simon & Schuster paid Senator Clinton $8 million and ordered a first printing of 1 million copies -- most of which were kept under very close watch until Monday. Commentator Jake Tapper took a look at the book.

Guide Dogs
Commentator Stephen Kuusisto recalls the day a man walked into his life to train him to use a guide dog for the blind. Kuusisto was sitting at home, depressed, blind, receiving a government check, with little hope for the future. But learning to work with a guide dog reminded Kuusisto that life could be fulfilling again.

Weapons of Mass Destruction
NPR's Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says the Bush administration's credibility could be damaged by insufficient evidence that Iraq's weapons program was truly a grave international threat.

Belmont Names
Commentator Marion Roach says the Belmont Stakes and the names of its contenders have made a permanent mark on her family. There's her sailboat, her dogs, and then there's her sister.

Tweens
The school year is winding down at The Young Women's Leadership School in New York. It's a public school for girls and commentator Emily Wylie has wanted to work there for years. She had been teaching high school students when she was offered a job at The Young Women's Leadership School working with eighth graders. She was leery at first. Tweens are the new teens, she heard, more mature than young girls used to be. But after a year working with eighth graders, Emily Wylie says that it seems to her that the crisis of prematurely jaded girls is out of proportion, even among her urban students.

City Lights Turns 50
City Lights, the West Coast bookstore of the Beat Generation and American alternative culture turns 50 on June 8. Commentator Andrei Codrescu offers a poem, paying homage to a San Francisco icon and to City Lights founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Dating Democrats
There are nine Democrats in the running for President. An embarrassment of riches, or a confusing muddle, perhaps. Commentator Aaron Freeman likes to think of it as an exciting proposition.

Italian Travel
Reluctant traveler Dick George finds warmth and hospitality among long lost relatives in Italy.

The End of the Arafat Era
NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says the post-Yasser Arafat era in the Middle East began this week with the meeting of Arab leaders -- not including Arafat -- in Sharm-el Sheikh.

Still Divided
NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that despite cooperation on issues such as terrorism, nuclear threats and trade, the United States and its newfound antagonists France, Germany, and Russia remain fundamentally divided.

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