Favorite Op-Ed newspaper columns by Terry Bailey
© 1998 - 2005 Terry Bailey all rights reserved
'Excellent Results', Perhaps, But at What Price Success?
by Terry Bailey
published in Glendale News Press
January 3, 2004
For the better part of my Thanksgiving holiday, I reflected on the Glendale City Council's decision to extend the application deadline for the Commission on the Status of Women. Most particularly, I considered the schoolteacher who withdrew her application because she felt the council had played unfairly by snubbing the large pool of 17 women who submitted their applications on time.
Smart Growth Public Forum for Glendale and Burbank
by Terry Bailey
published in Glendale News Press
October 23, 2004
Q: Why are there no trees in all these new housing developments that we see popping up around our towns?
A: Because building codes require enough parking for all the tenants, and builders are digging below the new buildings for subterranean parking; subterranean parking makes the existence of trees impossible because there is no place for their roots.
Q: Why is it important to save trees?
A: Because we people breathe the oxygen that trees create – no trees, no oxygen. Famed architectural philosopher, Richard Neutra, also believed that humans have the need for life among trees encoded in their DNA! Neutra said, “Our environment is the connection, Yet we have badly neglected it.
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Supermarket Strike
by Terry Bailey
published in Glendale News Press and Burbank Leader
March 1, 2004
Ten years ago one of the largest law firms in the United States hired me , “to think for them.” After a few years, I decided that what they were paying me to think about (corporate litigation) was not really what I wanted to use my brain to ponder. No disrespect to the important work many of the attorneys for this firm are doing, but for the time being anyway, I preferred to use my brain cells to ponder issues of personal interest - like art, democracy, technology, and human and civil rights.
Over the last months, I have been thinking a great deal about the grocery strike in Southern California. The strike has been settled in what, to my mind, is a totally illogical manner. Considering the social implications and ramifications, I must share some of my thoughts about it with my neighbors here in Glendale and Burbank.
Our Local Libraries
published in Glendale News Press and Burbank Leader
July 16, 2003
"This is so pathetic!" I heard myself exclaiming to the librarian, the dark haired student attempting to assist me, and to all the library patrons within earshot. No one contradicted me. For a hot minute I thought I had stepped onto the film set of some public service announcement about the desperate plight of our public libraries.
Let me back up and tell you what had just transpired . . . .
Is Campaign Finance Reform Possible?
• public financing of campaigns increasingly seems like the only long-term solution
by Terry Bailey
published in Glendale News Press and the Burbank Leader
October 9-10, 1999
Few would argue that our campaign finacing system neds some tweaking - if not a complete
overhaul . . . .
Why Macs are Superior to PCs
by Terry Bailey
published in Glendale News Press
July 4, 2001
This week I want to talk about our Glendale schools and Macintosh computers. I was shocked to read on the front page of the Glendale News Press that Glendale Unified is considering a switch from the Apple Macintosh (Mac) computers in our schools to IBM, PC-compatibles.
And Board of Education President Chuch Sambar's explanation that this technology decision was promted by a"cadre of technology specialists" did nothing to assuage my concerns. . . .
Technology Committee Taking a Long View
by Terry Bailey
published in the Glendale News-Press, November 21, 2001
Legislators and the public are demanding that our American schools immediately come into the 21st century of technology. School administrators and educators, for whom terms like RAM, CD-ROM and hard drive might just as well be Greek, are overwhelmed . . . .
Million Mom March Emphasizes Gun Safety
by Terry Bailey
Published in theBurbank Leader, Wednesday May 10, 2000
and in Glendale News Press, May 13, 2000
A Million Mom March organizer was shocked when a local city hesitated to endorse the upcoming Mother's Day event protesting gun violence.
"Why, this is as simple an issue as Mom and Apple Pie," she exclaimed to me. "Why would anyone not support us?"
Often it seems that what appears simple and glaringly obvious to one person is no such thing to another. One of our greatest challenges as citizens, educators, legislators and activists is to walk in the moccasins of those who do not agree with us - even on issues we feel are simple and obvious.
Punishment or Prevention?
• With Proposition 21, this is our choice on juvenile reform
by Terry Bailey
published in Glendale News-Press and the Burbank Leader
January 13, 2000
We have a choice to make as a society: build more schools for our kids or more prisons
for them?
Should we continue to spend our tax dollars on educational improvements and violence prevention programs, or shift our social policy and tax dollars to prosecuting and incarcerating more children who commit crimes? . . .
Schiff Must Not Let Initiative Process Die From Abuse
• Bills to reform disclosure of who is backing what measures are urgently needed
by Terry Bailey
published in Glendale News Press and Burbank Leader, December 28, 1998
Last year State Sen. Schiff authored modest legislation that would have given California a much needed start on the road to reform.
SB1979 required ballot petition signature gatherer's to disclose whether they are paid "bounty hunters" or volunteers.
SB1979 also required petitions to plainly state the top financial backers of a proposed inititiave.
Schiff’s Initiative Reform Plan Must Go Further
• Two bills are a good start, but need teeth. Voters must rally to support our state senator
by Terry Bailey
published in Glendale News Press and Burbank Leader, April 20, 1999
It is no secret the voters of Glendale and the entire state are disgusted with increasingly expensive, insulting and misleading ballot initiative campaigns and the flood of 30–second TV ads that tell us nothing about the real issues.
Three months ago, in a News Press column, I called on our state Sen. Adam Schiff to author initiative campaign reform legislation.I also called on voters in Glendale, Pasadena and Burbank to contact Sen.Schiff to voice support for initiative reform. The response to that column was tremendous.
The democratic process works
•Citizen lobbyists speed approval of Sen. Schiff's initiative reform bills
by Terry Bailey
published in Glendale News Press, Burbank Leader and Fotthill Leader May 15-16, 1999
Before giving in to our cynicism about the fate of democracy in California, or to our feelings of powerlessness against big corporate money and special interests that for decades have subverted our democratic government, allow me to share a real world ray of hope.
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