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.
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This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.
Maybe it was the lovely summer evening, but the thousands who showed up Tuesday at Lakewood’s Harry Lang Stadium to talk heath care were in a surprisingly good mood.
Congressman Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, booked the stadium after the RSVP list for his town hall meeting outgrew two smaller venues.
Smith’s previous town hall meeting, in late July, drew 300 people, an impressive head count for its time. But town hall meetings have since hit the big time, with the national media attention and the get-out-the-protest campaigns to prove it.
These days, a Democrat who can’t draw a crowd big enough to cause the fire marshal consternation should be worried that voters don’t think he or she matters.
Smith can return to D.C. with head held high. On Tuesday night, 2,500 people came to quiz him, grandstand and otherwise make their support or opposition to health care legislation known.
The meeting could be described as raucous, but only by Northwest standards. Audience members cheered and jeered, but mostly at each other and mostly in equal opportunity fashion.
One man was heckled for saying he saw something on Fox News; a woman was derided for claiming that half of home foreclosures are due to medical bills. (On that last one, Smith joined the crowd in its disbelief.)
There were angry exchanges between members of the crowd and at least one scuffle involving a man with a sign depicting President Obama with a Hitler mustache, but the gathering was civilized compared to the spectacles at town halls in other parts of the country.
Smith deserves some of the credit. His unwavering commitment to town halls – despite this summer’s specter of large, angry crowds – deflected much of the indignation that has been directed at some of his colleagues. It’s hard to be too mad at a guy who comes to see you even when he knows he’s in for a bruising.
Smith also deftly managed the crowd, bowing to a shouted request to say the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the meeting but later chiding audience members for shouting down others.
For those who had never met him, Smith’s wry delivery and moderate leanings were no doubt disarming. The congressman knew what he was doing when he prolonged his opening speech to criticize end-of-life consultations as a way to get seniors to settle for less care.
What was on display Tuesday night was passion from both sides of the debate over universal health care. Access to medical treatment is vitally important – important enough to argue over, even vehemently. What better place to hash it out than among neighbors?
