Perspective: December 31, 2000
December 31, 2000
Robyn E. Blumner
Short-lived resolutions
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night . . . " will keep smokers from the entry of office buildings.
Letters
Let 2001 bring all-inclusive America
What must capture our attention as a people in the upcoming new year is to devise solutions that will dissolve the deep-seated divisiveness in our nation.
Editorials
Misplaced partisanship
Two months before what promises to be an unusually robust mayoral primary in St. Petersburg, a prominent black minister has labeled one candidate's plan to kick off his campaign with the help of Gov. Jeb Bush as "the kiss of death as far as the black community is concerned." But the Rev. Manuel Sykes, pastor of Bethel Community Baptist Church, should know better. To dismiss attorney and civic activist Rick Baker as hostile to the black community because he is politically close to a governor who overhauled affirmative action is to take a tortured leap in logic.
Let's see the report on Bonanno
Hillsborough Judge Robert Bonanno has stalled long enough. The public deserves an accounting of why he was caught after hours in the private chambers of a fellow judge who was out of town. A grand jury reportedly found Bonanno likely was snooping for documents and suggested he resign from the bench. The panel's report is an important document that should be a guiding force in restoring trust in the Hillsborough courts; it should be released immediately and in its entirety.
A muzzled watchdog
Neighbors of the Stauffer Chemical Superfund site are among those who should be troubled by the treatment of the EPA's outspoken investigator.
Books
World of dolphins and their marine friends
For ages, dolphins have fascinated humans.
Children's books
Once There Was a Hoodie, by Sam McBratney, illustrated by Paul Hess (Putnam, $15.99)
Watching a queen wring a neck
But first, the news:
A good Ripper reference
Is there a more striking example of the flukiness of criminal fame than Jack the Ripper? The official body count, by today's gore-glutted standards, was fairly pedestrian: Five alcoholic prostitutes slain in London's East End in the autumn of 1888. So how did his handiwork spawn a class of obsessives, no less rapt than Kennedy-assassination buffs, dedicated to combing the minutiae of the murders and publishing ever-wilder theories about them?
Another London monster
Long before Jack the Ripper terrorized the streets of London -- a century before, in fact -- a psychopath violently attacked more than 50 women during a two-year crime spree.
