The News-Star from Monroe, Louisiana • Page 16

4B SUNDAY. JULY a 2010 THE NEWS-STAR WWW.THENEWSSTAR.COM PERSPECTIVES StocWes furor over Furer won't die I Wilely Hilburn handle important and sensitive issues (including, perhaps, women's issues). That is, until Filter's transgressions became public. A puzzling set of actions on the part of Vitter has occurred since. First, Vitter fired Furer.

The firing itself is not puzzling, but the reason is. Furer was not fired for attempting to kill his girlfriend or running over a motorist with an SUV or possessing illegal drugs; but, rather, for failing to report the outstanding DDI Vitter's explanation implies that if Furer had taken care of his outstanding warrant, then all would be welL Second, Vitter indicated he was aware ofFurer's 2008 incident, but chose to keep him on staff This implies Vitter doesn't take violence against women seriously (disconcerting for a man with three daughters). Third Vitter attempted to iriinimize Filler's arrest by noting it was "only" a misdemeanor. If you feel the need to beat women or threaten to assault women, then you are a sick individual with a serious need for help. Misdemeanor or not, there should be no room in our society or workplace for condoning or tolerating such behavior.

Vitter made a mistake keeping Furer on staff I would have been comfortable with Vitter immediately holding a press conference and admitted to committing a serious error in judgment After all, you can't control what your employees do, and Vitter has experience in that category. Instead Vitter dodged reporters. Facing the press for the first time in weeks, Vitter categorically denied that Furer worked on women's issues in any way. No apology for keeping Furer on staff no pledge to be a better advocate for violence preventioa Making this denial hollow is the fact that numerous DC-based information services have published their congressional directories of staff assignments showing that Furer was in fact listed as Vitter's legislative assistant for women's issues. Beth Meeks, executive director of the Louisiana Coalition against Domestic Violence, and Sue Else, president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, issued statements indicating they were personally informed by Vitter's office that Furer was assigned to women's issues.

A contradiction is apparent I watched an MSNBC clip of Vitter again denying that Furer had been assigned to women's issues. When asked what issues Furer handled Vitter responded "he handled issues including abortion, including several other issues, but not women's affairs." So Furer handled abortion, but in Vitter's mind abortion falls outside "women's affairs." How is that possible? Are you paying attention Louisiana? Dr. Joshua Stockley is a professor of political science at ULM. Mrs. Van Thyn (62511), Angel of Auschwitz i cant let it go.

1 want to; I really da I have been blessed with 650 words worth of space to talk about the environmental catastrophe imposed upon Louisiana by British Petroleum, the economic catastrophe awaiting Louisiana because of Obama's oil drilling moratorium, the devastation facing higher education if the Harkin Amendment doesn't pass, the critically important task ahead for the ULM Presidential Search Committee, the laws recently passed by our state legislature undermining public education, or the deteriorating conditions at the Biedenharn Sports Complex in West Monroe. Not this week, maybe next week. Louisiana's junior senator continues to irk me. It has been several weeks now since it was reported that one of Vitter's senior aides, Brent Furer, had been arrested and pleaded guilty for attacking his girlfriend with a knife in 2008. In addition to the knife attack, he had an outstanding DUI charge if- It" in; By the minute, Obama's more incompetent WP mm 2.

tit 1 1 Workers unload contaminated oil boom from an oyster boat for disposal at Marina in Lafitte on Saturday. Thousands of workers are involved cleaning up oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Red tape slows recovery Joshua Stockley On the Left in East Baton Rouge Parish and previously documented brushes with the law for alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and road rage. As punishment for his domestic violence incident, Furer had his pay suspended for five days. Every year, L200 women are murdered by an intimate partner; 233,000 women are raped or sexually assaulted; and 4.8 million women are physically assaulted Violence against women is serious and more than a sufficient reason to fire someone.

Somehow Vitter seemed completely comfortable with Furer keeping him on staff, giving him raises, and assigning him to the vegetation there, while the Coast Guard told us it didn't have skimmers small enough to clean it out At first the Coast Guard told us it was unsure of the idea, but we convinced the Guard to let us create a prototype so we could show them how well it works. The first vacuum barge was successful and then we fought to scale up those operations. Only about week later, the Coast Guard shut down all our vacuum barge operations from removing oil off of our coast because they said the barges had not been properly inspected for life jackets and fire extinguishers. No kidding. A day later, the Coast Guard came back and said that it decided the barges didn't need to be inspected after alL In what has now become a pattern, the US.

Corps of Engineers and US. Fish and Wildlife shut down our dredging operations on the northern Chandeleurs Islands recently where we already had created 4,000 feet of land to protect our interior wetlands from oil impact, and indeed it has already worked to stop oiL A US. Department of Interior official said they were worried that our dredging operations would hurt a bird habitat nearby. The only problem with that is we were dredging in a permitted area in open water, and there isn't a place for a bird to land for a mile. Most recently, the Corps of Engineers just denied a rock permit for Grand Isle to help protect the passes from oil entering Bara-taria Bay.

Apparently some bureaucrats in Washington DC think temporary rocks In the water pose more of a threat than oil in the water. What's more frustrating is that this denial came nearly a month after we joined with the mayor and local officials to talk to the president about this permit and after weeks of negotiating with the Corps on what conditions in the plan would be acceptable. Too often in this disaster we have spent precious time battling red tape, bureaucracy and just a plain It was 1976, the bicentennial year. I was waiting for a flight that would take me from Shreveport to Washington for interviews as a member of The (Shreveport) Times editorial page with the state's political delegatioa Killing time before the flight, I was reading a biography of Martin Bormann, Hitler's evil secretary, when I felt eyes drilling into the back of my head. I turned around to face a woman who identified herself as Rose Van Thyn of Shreveport, "an activist Holocaust survivor." Mrs.

Van Thyn, hands on hips, eyes burning, wanted to know why I was reading a book with a Nazi Swastika on the cover, about a man (Bormann) Van Thyn said "was almost as wicked" as Adolf Hitler. Taken aback, I hastily explained myself to the ruffled Van Thyn. The Bormann book, I told her, was part of my research for a course I was preparing to teach at Louisiana Tech on, of all coincidences, the Holocaust. I got the idea for a Holocaust unit when, as I told Van Thyn, none of the 24 Tech journalism majors I was teaching in a course on editorial writing had heard of the 20th century's worst genocide. Nobody in the class, in fact, had heard of Auschwitz, (where Mrs.

Van Thyn was interned), Bergen-Belsen, Triblinka or any other Nazi death camp. So I was improvising a unit on the Holocaust to correct this oversight, as I explained to Van Thyn. Mollified, Van Thyn explained to me that she had lost virtually her entire family in the death camps, including her first husband. She showed me her Auschwitz tattoo, 62511, and photos of the camp. I felt like I had been put through an emotional wringer.

As it turned out, I had already read about Van Thyn's experiences and she had read some of my work in The Times. "I'm going to tell my story to the world," she told me as we separated, friends, at the airport. Mrs. Van Thyn died last week at 88, by which time, since we met at the airport, she had indeed told the world, in the person of thousands of Shreveport schoolchildren, among many others, about the horrors of the Holocaust Almost to the end, the angel of Auschwitz, Van Thyn, was telling the world about the 6 million Jews murdered in World War II, as only she could tell it. Only last May, Van Thyn received the Shreveport Bar Association's Liberty Bell award given to a person for outstanding community service.

She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Centenary College. We needed Van Thyn to keep us from forgetting about the Holocaust, or from thinking it was vastly exaggerated or never even happened John C. Zimmerman, author of "Holocaust Denial," wrote that "a lot of people are now ignorant of (Holocaust) history." In fact, in northern Louisiana, neo-Nazis, using Hitler-worshipping websites, regularly deny the Holocaust and distribute literature praising National Socialism. I have seen and read these twisted lies in Lincoln Parish. The courageous Van Thyn, who was born in I Iolland and emigrated to Shreveport in 1956, called such deniers to strict account for more than 25 years, using the truth as her terrible swift sword.

With the ranks of Holocaust survivors inexorably thinning, we cannot replace Van Thyn; we can only pray her truth-telling legacy will endure. Wiley Hilburn Jr. Is professor emeritus and the former chair of the ournallsm department at Louisiana Tech University. Write to him at the Louisiana Tech Department of Journalism, P.O. Box 10258, Ruston, LA, 71272, or e-mall him at strlngeneHatech s.

J. AP lack of common sense from the federal government and BP. In Louisiana, we learned from hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Dee that disasters demand outside-the-box thinking and quick actioa We also learned not to wait on the federal government and to take matters into our own hands when it comes to protecting our people and our land We are in a war, and we need the federal government to lead, follow or get out of the way. As of we need more skimmers to remove oil from the water, more boom to protect our shores, and improved surveillance of oil so it can be removed from the water before it destroys more of our interior wetlands. Most importantly, we need the federal government to pay attention to strategies for combating this spill from those of us on the frontlines, and to take action on them with the urgency this fight demands.

If the federal government agrees this is a war, we need to see that they are in it to win it Our prayers continue to be with those on the coast and every Louisianian who is impacted by this spill I am constantly amazed by the perseverance of our people in responding to this disaster. They are on the front lines every day turning fishing boats into defense ships, dragging boom to stop oil and always coming up with more ideas to protect our land and waters. It is the same spirit of perseverance that strengthened us through Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike; and this same perseverance leaves no doubt in my mind that we will win this war against the oil spill and come back better than ever before. To the people of coastal Louisiana, we will stand with you and work alongside you until every drop of oil is off of our coast and out of our waters and all of our fisheries and our industries are 100 percent restored Bobby Jindal Is governor of So after countless speeches telling us how he won't rest until the Gulf Oil leak is stopped President Obama this week responded again with incredible leadership by, wait for it wait for it sending Michelle Obama to the gulf regjoa And just where is the president? Hitting the campaign trail in Missouri and Nevada because the Republican candidates for the Senate in those states are leading in the polls. Thousands of people are out of work, and more are losing their livelihoods on a daily basis because of the ongoing oil spill and we have a president more concerned about the off-year Senate races.

And just what in the world is Michelle Obama going to do? As a Louisiana resident I find this tactic laughable and downright insulting. Who in the White House thought to his or herself and said yu know what this situation needs? Michelle Obama." Don't get me wrong, every situation can be enhanced with more cowbell, but the first lady? Of course while on the campaign trail, The One couldn't stop himself from continuing to blame Republicans. You know, because they've been in charge since the 2008 electioa Oh wait they haven't I keep forgetting that the Senate has a 58-40 Democrat majority (with two independents) and the House has a 256-178 Democrat majority (with one vacancy). President Obama said that the recession was the result of a "decade of irresponsibility" by Republicans. Hmmm, correct me if I'm wrong, dear readers, but didn't the Democrats also take control of the Senate and House in 2006? So how is it solely the Republicans' fault again Mr.

President? I'm not saying Bush didn't contribute, but for the love of Gaia, you've been at the wheel for the last two years albeit asleep. NASA PRIORITIES Speaking of more presidential fiascos, redundant words I know, did you hear about the latest flap with NASA? Maybe you didn't because the mainstream media has devoted exactly zero stories to this, but the director of our space program Charles Bolden recently said that the agency's third priority, "and perhaps its most important," wait, if it's the most important priority, shouldn't it be first? is to improve relationships with Muslim countries. This is what the director is saying the president told him his mission is. This agency was created to get us to the mcxm in fad, Kevin A. Unter On the Right President Obama cited our ability to actually accomplish that in his Oval Office speech about how we were going to stop the oil leak only now the agency no longer has as its mission to go into space but we're going to use that "non-space" expertise now to stop the leak? I have to stop I'm making myself dizzy.

ARIZONA LAWSUIT And now the federal government unfortunately led by President Obama, is suing Arizona over its immigration law. How many millions of dollars will be wasted by the federal government on this? We already know Obama isn't doing his job enforcing the law. Apparently he needs official confirmation from a federal judge that he's incompetent You'd think a professor of constitutional law would understand the law. Speaking of not enforcing the law, did you read or hear about the US. Justice Department dropping the prosecution of the Black Panthers for voter mtimidation despite all of the visual evidence that they were preventing white people from voting? Did you also read or hear about the whistleblowcr attorney who quit the Justice Department because he was told that the Justice Department will not prosecute black people for civil rights violations? No? It's not like it is major news or anything, you know, the agency of the federal government charged with enforcing the law refusing to enforce the law against a specific group of people why that's almost discriminatory! The US.

Commission on Civil Rights is a year into its investigation but apparently the mainstream media cannot find any time to devote any stories to this. DO THE MATH Add these all up and you get a president who grows stunningly more incompetent by the day, an administration that insists on taking America down the wrong road and an electorate that grows increasingly angry at the government's misplaced priorities. Kevin A. Unter, assistant professor of political science, Is head of the department of Gerontology, Sociology and Political Science at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Contact him at untendiulm.edu.

By Bobby Jindal Special to The News-Star For 80-plus days now, oil from the British Petroleum oil spill has struck our shores. It is killing our marshes, injuring hundreds of birds, and destroying our world-renowned fishing habitats and oyster beds. Worse, thousands of our people are struggling to provide for their families and are worried if they will ever be able to return to the careers they love and for many, the only career they have ever known. There is no doubt to anyone on the ground here that we are fundamentally in a war against this oil spill It is invading our land, hurting our people, crippling our economy and threatening our state's future. Just like we would fight any war, we have worked with our leaders on the ground to stay on offense.

We are deploying every resource and strategy we have against this oil often in the absence of any other plan from BP or federal officials. In the first weeks of the spill, for example, we were promised a detailed boom plan from BP and the Coast Guard. When that detailed plan never came, we developed our own coastal protection plans including resources to respond to a worst-case scenario spill; first, second, and third lines of defense, plans to train workers and even suggested training locations. When boom did begin to arrive, it was too little and too late in many areas, so we proposed a 24-scgmcnt sand bcrm plan to protect our shoreline by using the natural framework of our barrier islands to help block and trap oil for collection before it gets Into our marshes. Even after we demonstrated the effectiveness of sand berms, it took us weeks to convince the Coast Guard to approve even six segments from this plan, and then longer for us to force BP to fund the work.

Wc then created a "vacuum barge" system because we were tired of seeing oil sit In our marshes, killing.