Editorials
Life at Guantanamo
By showing the world that al-Qaida and Taliban detainees are being treated humanely, U.S. authorities can refute unfair allegations of torture.
Identity theft and public records
As it calls for closing millions of Florida government records from the public's view, a statewide grand jury investigating identity theft unwittingly makes the case for why such action is largely irrelevant. The grand jury, advised by statewide prosecutor Melanie Hines, recently indicted 33 people on 419 counts relating to identity fraud. And its investigation demonstrated that, in the lucrative world of high-tech thievery, public documents are among the least of our own concerns.
Judge Holloway's ethical mistake
It is unfortunate that Hillsborough Circuit Judge Cynthia A. Holloway failed to display during her disciplinary trial the character that makes her case different from the other recent scandals that have plagued the Hillsborough bench. The public should not lump her ethical mistakes with those of other Hillsborough judges who have been disciplined by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission in recent years. Holloway wasn't hitting on the staff, having a courthouse affair or wheeling and dealing in back-room politics; she let her emotions influence her conduct in a friend's child custody case.
Letters
USF should have better reasons for firing Al-Arian
It is with the most profound sense of sorrow and frustration that I oppose the University of South Florida's grounds for firing Sami Al-Arian. His "death to Israel" speeches are as vile as they come; nonetheless, they are words that are protected by the First Amendment and by universally recognized standards of academic freedom. Our Constitution does not protect just the words that the majority of the citizens can support, but it protects also the kind of words that most of us find contemptible and hateful.
Bill Maxwell
Disagreement is not equivalent to hatred
Newspaper columnists try hard to hold their tongues and give readers the last word. Sometimes, though -- when outright lies are told, when you are cast as something you are not -- silence is destructive.
