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Recent Events Edward I. Koch
In Fond Memory of Abe Rosenthal My friend Abe Rosenthal, former executive editor of The New York Times, was buried last Sunday. I attended the service and was honored to serve with a dozen others as an honorary pallbearer. Bill Buckley was my aisle partner. Abe and I had a 30-year friendship. We enjoyed lunches, home visits, some dinners and occasional movies together. I also attended Abe's delayed bar mitzvah at age 70, held at the Central Synagogue. I had the benefit of his wisdom and wit. His wife, Shirley Lord, provided him with great care and comfort and remains a dear friend. Abe Rosenthal and Dan Wolf, founding editor of The Village Voice who died 10 years ago, were truth seekers cut from the same cloth. Today God has two of the world's great editors at His side. Fuel Alternatives Should Be a Priority In my commentary last week, I mentioned what the United States could and should do more to find alternatives to oil with our coal resources, which are greater than the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Lo and behold, The New York Times this Sunday reported: "In a series of tests - first on engines mounted on blocks and then with B-52's in flight - the Air Force will try to prove that the American military can fly its aircraft by blending traditional crude-oil-based jet fuel with a synthetic liquid made first from natural gas and, eventually, from coal, which is plentiful and cheaper."
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The Times also quoted John B. Holmes, Jr., president and chief executive officer of Syntroleum as saying, "If the military moves ahead with using the synthetic fuels, the Syntroleum technology could be used by factories elsewhere to produce the same 42 gallons of fuel from just $10 worth of coal. "The United States is essentially the Saudi Arabia of coal. It can be mined relatively inexpensively. We really believe that one of the things we can do to help our country's energy needs is to use the abundance of coal reserves." Wouldn't we be further ahead in this matter if we established a government program modeled after the Manhattan Project, the massive effort that built the atomic bomb? The sole objective of this new program would be to develop alternative fuels. This important job should not be left to the Pentagon, whose primary job is to protect us. The people at the Pentagon deserve our thanks, however, for having led the way in showing us what can be done.
McCain Will Speak
Three cheers for Bob Kerrey, President of the New School, for not submitting to the irrational demands of its radical-left students to rescind the invitation to Senator John McCain to speak at graduation exercises this week. McCain - one of the great military heroes of all times - was shot down over Vietnam and held as a prisoner of war in the so-called Hanoi Hilton for five-and-a-half years. Aside from the fact that he may be the Republican candidate for president, and will at the very least seek the nomination, McCain is recognized by the public and most of his opponents as one of our country's most impressive senators. According to a May 11 article in The Times, "after delivering a petition with nearly 1,000 signatures urging Mr. Kerrey to rescind Mr. McCain's invitation, about three dozen students and professors rallied outside a New School building at Fifth Avenue and 14th Street."
I hope demonstrations are also held by some of the students who believe McCain should be allowed to speak. Why is it that the radical left and right are always willing to demonstrate and march in support of their goals, while the common-sense majority is unwilling to take action? The Fight to Protect the Country Goes On The fight continues over the National Security Agency's interception of telephone calls without a court order where one party is in the United States and the other is outside the country. That battle will heat up in the Senate hearings on the nomination of General Michael V. Hayden as the new director of the CIA. Hayden was recently the director of the NSA. The purpose of these intercepts is to defend our country from terrorists. Since 9/11, no terrorist acts have been successfully perpetrated against the U.S. although according to the government, a number of attempts have been frustrated by U.S. agencies. In its editorials, The Times opposes the NSA's existing call interception program as an unwarranted intrusion into our lives and a violation of the law. According to a Rasmussen poll taken last December, 64 percent of Americans support the program, and so do I. We are at war with the Islamist fanatics who want to kill us. Since 9/11, the fanatics have blown up the railroads in Madrid killing 192 people and wounding 2,050, and the subways in London, killing 56 people and injuring about 700. The most effective way to prevent terrorism is to infiltrate the terrorist organizations or use technology to monitor their communications. It is common sense that during war, people should be prepared to give up some of their peace-time civil liberties to protect the security of our country. Of course there are limits on what government should and should not be permitted to do. In my opinion, we have not surpassed those limits. It is the job of civil liberty organizations to contest those limits - in court. It is the government's job to go to court if it seeks to extend those limits. Ultimately, we must never forget what Abraham Lincoln said about our Magna Carta: "The Constitution is not a suicide pact." Transparent School Reports It is a shock that, according to a May 10 Times editorial, "several studies have shown that on the whole, charter schools perform no better than other public schools ... Where charters have clearly failed, the states often lack the political will - or even a process - for closing them down." Let's not let that happen in New York. If every aspect of charter school where success and failure has not already been examined, those with the responsibility for monitoring should do so immediately. I have supported charter schools and vouchers for private and parochial schools, and the reported successes of the latter should be examined as well. If we are throwing money away or would be when we authorize charters and vouchers, let's stop doing that now. Let's have the facts. Edward I. Koch, author, lawyer and talk radio host, was a member of the U.S. Congress and, for 12 years, the 105th mayor of New York City.
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