Editorials
The grudging advocates
Some of the leaders of Florida's reorganized public education system seem hostile to the students and educators they should be representing.

Agribusiness over families
Congress is in the midst of writing a comprehensive farm bill that covers everything from hog farming to food stamps. When it comes to the demands of agribusiness and the needs of struggling families, guess which group has our lawmakers' ear.

Correction and clarification
An Aug. 15 column by Bill Maxwell incorrectly described a judge's order on custody of the 20-month-old child of Theresa Noelle Ponce of St. Petersburg and Gary Minda of Gulfport, Fla. and Brooklyn, N.Y. Rather than saying the court did not consider the fault or defects in the character of either party in making its decision, as the column reported, the order in fact stated, "The Court is of the opinion that it does not well serve the parties or the future best interests of [the child] to point out the faults or defects in character of either party. Accordingly, the Court will discuss in generalities the weighing of the factors considered." The order then described factors listed in the Florida Statutes which include faults and defects of the parties. The order did not permanently take the child away from the mother but ordered that the child's primary residence will be with the father, with monthly and other visitation with the mother to take place in Florida at the father's expense.

Letters
An opportunity for the highway patrol
Re: The lost patrol, Aug. 19.

Jon East
Teachers can expect few encouraging words
Schools across Florida have opened their doors again. Five-year-olds are peeled from their mothers' arms, invited to enter a world of cut and paste, story hours and ABCs. Seventeen-year-olds are loaded with books, senior privileges and college visits. In classrooms throughout the nation's fourth most populous state, the ritual return to school inspires a sense of opportunity and hope.

Bill Maxwell
Christian zealotry risks lives
Christianity, the major religion in the West, has no place in many other parts of the world. Jesus Christ is persona non grata in Afghanistan under the leadership of the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban regime. In fact, Christianity is verboten inside what may be the world's purest, most repressive Muslim nation.

Robyn E. Blumner
Father has rights to Baby Sam
Should kidnappers get to keep the child they've stolen if they do a better job raising him than his parents could have?

Martin Dyckman
Are punitive damages enough?
TALLAHASSEE -- Though Richard Boeken has brain cancer and just lost $2.9-billion (yes, that's a b, not an m), some people might say he's an undeservedly lucky man.