Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 110, No. 193, Ed. 1 Tuesday, February 11, 2014 Page: 4 of 14
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4A
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
OPINION
Denton Record-Chronicle
Denton Record-Chronicle
Published by Denton Publishing Co.,
a subsidiary of A.H. Belo Corporation
Founded from weekly newspapers,
the Denton Chronicle, established in 1882,
and the Denton Record, established in 1897.
Published daily as the Denton
Record-Chronicle since Aug. 3,1903.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Bill Patterson
Publisher and CEO
Dawn Cobb
Managing Editor
Dianna Hunt
City Editor
Les Cockrell
Region Editor
Mark Finley
News Editor
PAST PUBLISHERS
William C. “Will” Edwards
1903-1927
Robert J. “Bob” Edwards
1927-1945
Riley Cross
1945-1970
Vivian Cross
1970-1986
Fred Patterson
1986-1999
Editorials published in the Denton Record-Chronicle
are determined by the editorial board.
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Editorial
Consider filing
for local office
jb s candidate filings for city and school district posts
continue to trickle in, we are left wondering if the
^^mtime will come when no one wants to seek elected
positions at the local level.
What will happen then? How will our cities and school
districts operate effectively? If no one is interested in
seeking council and trustee positions, who will make the
decisions necessary to keep local government entities up
and running?
Granted, these jobs require a huge commitment on the
part of those who run — the investment in time alone is
great and the few hours spent at regular meetings is only
the beginning. Successful candidates will find themselves
spending a lot of time doing “homework” to prepare for
meetings and stay current on issues, and the jobs typically
require public appearances and other commitments.
An effective council person or school board member
may find that the position approaches the level of a full-
time job in terms of time required — without the finan-
cial compensation.
We can understand how tough it is to decide to run for
office, knowing full well that if you’re successful the job
will take huge chunks of time away from your family and
career.
There is also a significant financial investment re-
quired. Getting elected can be expensive in terms of cam-
paign costs alone, and there are plenty of other expenses
that must be considered.
Luckily, there are still individuals who are willing to
seek office, and we appreciate their commitment. But the
supply of candidates seems to be dwindling, and we be-
lieve that cities and school districts must do something to
counteract the apathy.
We need to encourage as many people as we can to file
for open positions on city councils and school boards.
When you get right down to it, few jobs are more impor-
tant.
Elected officials in even the smallest cities and school
districts make decisions regarding expenditures of mil-
lions of dollars, and they decide issues that can affect not
only the immediate quality of life but also the futures of
our children and grandchildren.
Some cities, school districts and chambers of com-
merce have programs in place to encourage citizen partic-
ipation and provide training in various aspects of local
government, and those are a great start, but we believe
that more must be done.
If we don’t act now to encourage people to get involved
in their communities and offer additional avenues to
experience that can help prepare candidates to run for
office, then we may eventually see elections where no one
files.
We’ve heard people say that serving on council or
school board is a thankless job, but we don’t believe
they’re right.
In our view, community service is always a worthwhile
investment — the benefits far outweigh the costs.
Why not give it a try? You’ve still got plenty of time to
file for city and school posts — the deadline is Feb. 28.
This day in history: February 11
Today is Tuesday, Feb. II,
the 42nd day of 2014. There
are 323 days left in the year.
On Feb. 11,1812, Massachu-
setts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed
a redistricting law favoring his
Democratic-Republican Party
— giving rise to the term “gerry-
mandering.”
In 1858, a French girl, Ber-
nadette Soubirous, reported the
first of 18 visions of a lady
dressed in white in a grotto near
Lourdes. (The Catholic Church
later accepted that the visions
were of the Virgin Mary.)
In 1862, the Civil War Battle
of Fort Donelson began in Ten-
nessee. (Union forces led by
Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant cap-
tured the fort five days later.)
In 1929, the Lateran Treaty
was signed, with Italy recogniz-
ing the independence and sover-
eignty of Vatican City.
In 1937, a six-week-old sit-
down strike against General
Motors ended, with the compa-
ny agreeing to recognize the
United Automobile Workers
Union.
In 1945, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill and
Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed
the Yalta Agreement during
World War II.
In 1963, American author
and poet Sylvia Plath was found
dead in her London flat, a sui-
cide; she was 30.
In 1964, The Beatles per-
formed their first American con-
cert at the Washington Colise-
um in Washington, D.C.
— The Associated Press
JV / FIPVP REWt> THH OVER AT
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THEY’RE HWIN& TO mt
Ejt\y the 'S’Tvff
Killing off
" immigration
reform bad
for the GOP
Gender pay equity
still a problem in U.S.
Mary
Sanchez
verybody knows that women com-
monly get paid less than their male
counterparts to do the same work. But
does that hold true for highly educated
women in the upper reaches of corporate
management, including Mary Barra, whom
Fortune Magazine
ranked No. 1 in a list of
the world’s most pow-
erful women in busi-
ness?
Barra, the new
CEO of General Mo-
tors, is the first woman
to head a major auto-
maker. She was seated
near Michelle Obama
at the State of the _
Union address as the
president lauded her as an example of
American drive and success.
Yet Fox Business reported, somewhat
disingenuously, that her compensation
package lags that of her male predecessor —
a man who had zero experience in leading an
automotive giantlike GM — by some 52 per-
cent. Dan Akerson, who led GM after the
company’s taxpayer bailout, earned $ 9.1 mil-
lion, including a $1.7 million base, plus $7.3
million in stock. Barra earns abase salary of
$1.6 million but a total of $4.4 million with
other benefits.
What’s missing from Fox’s appraisal of
Barra’s compensation is stock options. Come
June, when shareholders meet, Barra’s long-
term incentive compensation package will
be announced, likely raising her salary sub-
stantially. A good bet is that it will exceed
Akerson’s 2013 package.
Most women don’t have their salaries
open to public scrutiny via SEC filings. They
don’t have pundits assessing where they
stand compared to similarly skilled male
employees.
What they do face, to varying degrees, is
the point the president emphasized in his
State of the Union address: “Today, women
make up about half our workforce, but they
still make 77 cents for every dollar a man
earns.”
The president’s statement set off the usu-
al quibbles about that statistic. The number
changes depending on many factors, such as
whether or not part-time work is factored in,
or hourly vs. weekly earnings, race, educa-
tion attainment and choice of profession. A
study of 2012 data by Pew Research Center
accounted for some of those factors and
found women earn 84 cents for every $1
earned by men.
Within Barra’s lifetime (she’s 52), the em-
ployment landscape for women has changed
considerably. The last half-century is the fo-
cus of a new study by the Council on Con-
temporary Families, which notes the 50th
anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, which also outlawed discrimi-
nation by gender.
In 1963, full-time working women
earned 59 cents for every dollar men earned.
That’s risen by 30 percent since that time, if
one accepts the 77 cent mark, Max Coleman
of Oberlin College points out in Civil Rights
for Women: 1964-2014.
Younger female workers, aged 25 to 34,
show special promise for the future as their
hourly earnings are now 93 percent of men’s,
the study found. But it also pointed out what
many people realize: that pay inequities in-
crease when women have children.
That’s were the work must begin in ear-
nest, because company policies, prevailing
attitudes about maternity and paternity
leave, and the availability of child care are
factors that strongly influence the decisions
families make about work.
It’s difficult and very costly to leave the
workforce to have children and then to re-
turn even a few years later. The blame for
this tends to land back on women, for choos-
ing to cut work hours in the first place, or for
not negotiating better when re-entering the
workforce after their children begin school.
There is some validity to the argument
that women fall short of men in negotiating
raises and promotions for themselves, but
the point requires context.
As Sheryl Sandberg pointed out in her
book Lean In, people expect men to negoti-
ate on their own behalf, but the same behav-
ior by a woman will often backfire. A woman
can be labeled too self-serving and be penal-
ized in future advancement.
MARY SANCHEZ writes for The Kan-
sas City Star. Her column is distributed by
Tribune Content Agency.
Letters to the editor
ELECTION LETTERS
The Denton Record-Chronicle wel-
comes letters to the editor pertaining to the
March 4 primary elections. Letters must fol-
low all regular submission rules. Election
letters must be received in this office by 5
p.m. Feb. 20; none will be published after
Feb. 27.
Libertarian idealism
It was sad to read [“Cruz fires up crowd,”
DRC, Feb. 2] that Texas Republicans con-
tinue to resist moving into the 21st century
by cheering on Ted Cruz, a representative of
19th century thinking.
Cruz appeals to a sentiment that espous-
es American entrepreneurship without real-
izing we have transitioned from an agrarian
society to a modem capitalist society that re-
quires workers and lots of them.
Yet, he supports a role for American
workers that expects them to grow the econ-
omy on wages that barely keep them out of
the poor house while still believing that Rea-
gan-style trickle-down economics will save
us all from an economy busted by greed
from fr ee-market zealots at the top of the in-
come pyramid.
The libertarian idealism that Cruz epito-
mizes is a farce.
Free markets are neither free nor uplift-
ing for society as a whole. This idealism re-
SUBMISSIONS
Letters for publication must include the writer’s
signature, address and telephone number.
Authorship must be verified before publication.
The Record-Chronicle reserves the right to edit
letters for length. Letters should be typed or
legibly handwritten and be 250 or fewer words.
We prefer e-mail submissions.
Send to: drc@dentonrc.com.
Otherwise, fax to 940-566-6888, or mail to:
Letters to the editor, P.0. Box 369, Denton, TX
76202
lies on men and women of high integrity to
keep the markets in check and not focus
solely on enriching just themselves. Some-
thing that is sorely missing.
To work properly, it requires actions that
bring society as a whole along with it and
this will entail jobs that pay a decent wage
and regulations to keep the exploitative self-
interests of some at bay.
Government isn’t the problem. It’s the
rigged elections through gerrymandering
and crony capitalism that disables a govern-
ment of, for and by the people, leaving most
of us to struggle at the bottom while the top 1
percent continue to see their incomes rap-
idly increase.
Larry Beck,
Denton
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about every day. We hope those ideas lead you to become involved in your community, both with
your commentary and your actions.
Linda
Chavez
ike Hamlet pacing the stage in angst-
ridden doubt, House Speaker John
Boehner recently delivered the mes-
sage that immigration reform is dead for
2014.
It’s not that he doesn’t realize the issue is
important.
It’s not that he doesn’t believe our current
immigration system is broken.
It’s just that he’d rather suffer the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune than take
arms to end the sea of
troubles brewing in the
GOP.
Boehner blames
President Obama for
his troubles. And he
has a point — up to a
point.
Republicans don’t
trust that the president
will actually enforce a
new law that includes _
stronger border securi-
ty-
Indeed, the president already has shown
that he’s quite happy to ignore pesky provi-
sions of laws with which he doesn’t agree —
think not only his manipulation of Obama-
care but also his decision to ignore federal
drug statutes on marijuana, to name only
two examples.
So why would Republicans believe the
president will enforce border security?
Never mind that this administration has
deported more illegal immigrants than any
administration in modern history: two mil-
lion people.
The AFL-CIO and other immigrant ad-
vocacy groups want the president to stop all
future deportations until a new law has been
passed.
Vice President Joe Biden has said the
president won’t accede to these demands,
but his word isn’t worth much in Republican
circles.
But the bigger problem for Boehner and
other Republicans who know that passing
immigration reform is the right thing to do
— for the country — is that they are afraid
anti-immigrant groups with deep pockets
will target them for defeat in their re-election
bids.
This is a tragedy for members of the Re-
publican Party.
It speaks of a profound lack of true lead-
ership — and the decision endangers conser-
vatism for future generations.
If the Republican Party becomes the par-
ty of nativists, it will die.
If the Republican Party defines itself pri-
marily by what it is against, it will lose His-
panics, but also young people, women, sub-
urbanites and members of the business com-
munity.
Some people argue that putting immigra-
tion reform on hold this year is the smart
thing to do because the debate would be-
come a distraction in an election that should
focus on the disastrous failure of Obama-
care.
But that is true only if the tiny — though
influential — group of anti-immigrant fanat-
ics decide to make it so.
Right now these groups and individuals
think they can blackmail the Republican
leadership.
‘You put immigration reform on the leg-
islative agenda this year, and we will pack
your town hall meetings, bombard your con-
gressional offices with phone calls and letters
and e-mails, and maybe even field primary
opponents against you,” they threaten.
But what if GOP leaders started speaking
with one voice and said, “No, we won’t be
blackmailed.”
Or course, it would take not only courage
but also facts to take on the yahoos.
They should start by acknowledging that
securing our border requires more than
fences, high-tech surveillance and deporta-
tions.
We could virtually end illegal immigra-
tion tomorrow if we adopted a guest worker
program that allowed people to come here
legally instead of sneaking across the border.
In 1953, more than a million Mexicans
crossed our border illegally.
That is equivalent to almost two million
in today’s numbers given the smaller U.S.
population at the time.
With the passage of the Bracero Program,
which permitted Mexicans to come as guest
workers, the number of illegal border cross-
ings dropped by more than 90 percent.
Republican leaders got it right recently
when they adopted their policy statement on
immigration reform.
“The goal of any temporary worker pro-
gram should be to address the economic
needs of the country and to strengthen our
national security by allowing for realistic, en-
forceable, usable, legal paths for entry into
the United States,” they said in the state-
ment.
Boehner needs to get back up on stage
and marshal his troops, not slink off in defeat
before he’s even tried.
LINDA CHAVEZ’S column is distrib-
uted by Creators Syndicate Inc.
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Cobb, Dawn. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 110, No. 193, Ed. 1 Tuesday, February 11, 2014, newspaper, February 11, 2014; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1107865/m1/4/: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .