This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/tntopinion.
- All
- Editorial cartoons (285)
- Editorial outtakes (325)
- Election (121)
- How we work (191)
- Taking notice (1871)
- What's coming (989)
- Who's visiting (124)
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| << < | > >> | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | |||||
- August 2009 (86)
- July 2009 (91)
- June 2009 (94)
- May 2009 (80)
- April 2009 (91)
- March 2009 (99)
- February 2009 (90)
- January 2009 (125)
- December 2008 (111)
- November 2008 (89)
- October 2008 (111)
- September 2008 (87)
- More...
XML Feeds- preserve
- artman77
- Guest Users: 327
Pat makes good arguments for why Tacoma should ban smoking in public parks. I just don't find them convincing.
As the mother of a 2-year-old, I spend plenty of time in Tacoma parks. I don't challenge parks officials' assertion that discarded cigarette butts are a problem, but what mostly catches my eye is the bigger stuff – the bottles, cans, hamburger wrappers, empty bread bags at the duck pond, used condoms in the woods, discarded diapers at the sprayground.
But this isn't really about litter. It's about sending a message. Metro Parks' top 10 reasons to pass a smoke ban mention litter but primarily focus on the public health costs of smoking, what we say to kids when we allow people to light up in parks, and the tired justification that other cities are doing it and so should we.
Smoking is legal. I know the toll on a smoker's health and the public health care system is atrocious. If we as a country want to have a conversation about outlawing tobacco use altogether, I'm there.
But incrementally legislating smokers into a corner, quite literally, is not the honest or fair way to go about it. The park users who would be disproportionately affected by a smoking ban are the homeless for whom public sidewalks would be their last smoking refuge (provided they position themselves at least 25 feet from any building entrance to also avoid violating the state's indoor smoking ban).
I have yet to see the study that proves that secondhand smoke in the wide open is a threat to me or my kid, but if the city's biggest concern is protecting children from toxins and bad role models, then how about adopting Portland's approach? It's banned smoking in two compact urban plazas downtown, but in regular parks, smoking's allowed everywhere except within 25 feet of a play area. That's no sweeping anti-smoking statement, but it is a practical compromise.
Smokers absolutely can be annoying. So is the spoiled brat who shoves other kids off the slide, the dog owner who thinks everyone wants to meet their precious pooch and the sprawling family that locks down every picnic table in sight. Putting up with people is the cost of sharing a public space.
