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Behind the opinions

A users guide to the commentary pages of The Dallas Morning News

Editorial
Page

ditorials represent the institutional opinion of the newspaper. That opinion is shaped by
the editorial board on behalf of the
newspapers owners. The editorial
board is advisory to Vice President
and Editorial Page Editor Keven Ann
Willey, who is advisory to the newspapers editor and publisher. The editorial board has developed this statement of philosophy to guide its thinking:
As the soul of the newspaper and the
conscience of the community, the editorial
pages provoke, inspire and challenge readers.
We believe in a progressive conservatism that
advocates civil rights, fiscal responsibility,
environmental stewardship, effective local
governments, public accountability and an
internationalist foreign policy.

How editorial opinions are developed: Editorial board members offer

topic ideas during regular staff meetings. The topic, message and tone of
the proposed editorial are often hotly
debated. The editor listens carefully
to the debate, selects a course of action and asks for a volunteer writer.
Often the editorial writer whose arguments have carried the day volunteers. Editorials are unsigned because
they represent the institutions view,
rather than the view of the individual
writer.
The best editorials are memorable.
They are persuasive, compelling, relevant to readers, passionate, constructive, timely and provocative. They are
well-researched and smartly written.
They are, by definition, opinionated.
Sometimes, the most powerful editorial is a photo with a single sentence. Other times, its a 1,000-word
treatise. The power is in the topic selection, the logic employed and the
rhythm of the writing. In shaping the
content of daily and weekly commentary pages, the editors keep the departments five aspirations top of
mind: Provide strong community
leadership, provide a forum for informed debate, get new voices/viewpoints on the pages, actively engage
readers and increase readership of
these pages and the newspaper as a
whole.

The Dallas Morning News

Established October 1, 1885

James M. Moroney III

Publisher and Chief Executive Officer

Publishers
George Bannerman Dealey 1885-1940

Mike Wilson
Editor

E.M. (Ted) Dealey 1940-1960

MASTHEAD

Joe M. Dealey 1960-1980

This tells you the John A. Rector Jr. 1985-1986

papers top news Burl Osborne 1986-2001
executives and past
Saturday,
publishers.

CARTOON

Robyn Tomlin
Managing Editor

James M. Moroney Jr. 1980-1985

We subscribe
to cartoonists
nationwide and
cull through
drawings daily
to pick the best.

Keven Ann Willey

Vice President, Editorial Page Editor

November 21, 2015

EDITORIALS

Never, Ever Quit

John Branch/Branchtoon.com

Rangers Banister gets team to personify slogan

ts OK to admit it now, now that we know

how the first chapter in the Jeff Banister
story turns out.
Never, ever quit sounds like something you
might hang on the wall of a high school football
teams locker room, not exactly a rallying cry for
millionaire professional athletes.
Yes, Banister beat cancer growing up. Yes, he
told his dad hed rather die than lose his leg
and baseball. Yes, he made it through 10 days of
paralysis after a collision at home plate.
Yes, he fought his way to a single at-bat in the
major leagues.
But Never, ever quit?
Actually, yes.
Before the games even started, Banister lost
EDITORIALS
his best pitcher to a season-ending injury, then
his next-best for five months, also to injury. His
Here we first team in his first big-league managing job
8-16, worst in the American League.
offer the started
After the crash and burn of 2014 and the end
newspapers
of the Ron Washington era, interest in the local
baseball franchise ebbed.
institutional
What those bandwagon fans missed was a
opinion. slow, patient awakening. Two steps forward,
one back, and the Rangers were long-shot contenders. Then, they won 41of their last 63 regular-season games to leap past the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels to win the AL
West.
That meant a 21-game turnaround from
2014, when they won all of 67 games. More important, it meant Banisters team passed on repeated chances to just play out the string and
cash their paychecks and instead fought

The Associated Press

The Rangers Jeff Banister is the fifth rookie

manager to be named American League
Manager of the Year.

their way to a title.

Banister was quick to characterize his AL
Manager of the Year award as an achievement
for the entire organization, and hes right to a
degree. Hes the fifth rookie manager to win the
award and first Ranger since Buck Showalter in
2004.
I think we took all the clichs off the T-shirts
and brought them to life, Banister said. There
were plenty of times where it would have been
easy to jump off the message and change course.
But when everybody outside of the clubhouse
didnt believe, those guys did. We had the same
message over and over. And we were relentless
with that.
Which makes Never, ever quit, in retrospect, exactly right.

Hits and Misses

Kershaw, baseball give back with West Dallas academy

HITS

Much is expected of Los Angeles Dodgers star left-hander

Clayton Kershaw, the highestpaid pitcher in baseball history. Much is given back, as well. Kershaws foundation has teamed with Major League Baseball, its Players Association and the Mercy
Street community center to unveil plans for an
Urban Youth Academy in West Dallas. This is
the sixth such academy in the nation, designed
to help develop the game in underserved areas.
As important, it also will provide educational
programs, tutoring, college prep classes and openings to internships. Kershaw, who grew up in
Highland Park, has devoted much personal time to Mercy Street. We wanted to give kids a
chance, which is all Kershaws Challenge is about, he said. Its not just sports. Its an opportuniAND
MISSES
ty for
these kids to have coaches telling them theyre worth it, that they can make a difference.

This quick, witty

Cowan left lasting legacy on students and at UD
Saturday staple
We all can recall that one teacher who made the most profound impact on us. We remember those
offers a venue
lessonsfor
decades after weve left school. For many in North Texas, Louise Cowan was that teacher.
Cowan, the former University of Dallas English professor who co-founded the Dallas Institute for
commentary-inHumanities and Culture, died Monday of natural causes. She was 98 and had stayed devoted to
short on a education
varietyfor nearly 70 years. The Fort Worth native led a literary forum that attracted students
such as former Dallas Mayor Annette Strauss and philanthropist Margaret McDermott, and her
of developments.
achievements included the Charles Frankel Prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Hers was a passionate life of service well-lived.

Trust but verify

It took Dallas Area Rapid Transit awhile, but the agency is toughening its vetting of contractors.
The change comes after The Dallas Morning News reported that the agency paid millions to a
company, URS Corp., that didnt disclose information about serious pending litigation from other
projects across the country, including a deadly bridge collapse in Minnesota. DART officials now
promise to ask more specific and probing questions of potential contractors about previous work
and legal issues.

Defeating fear with compassion

While many politicians around the world, including our own Gov. Greg Abbott, want to bar Syrian
refugees in order to prevent terrorists from sneaking in, a sympathetic voice of reason comes from
a most unlikely source: Despite a wave of deadly attacks in Paris last week, French President Francois Hollande is vowing not to back away from plans to take in 30,000 refugees in the next two
years. The people of Syria and Iraq have fled because they are martyred by the same people who
attack us today, he reminded the world this week, as he also vowed rigorous screening and other
steps to keep France safe. Safety is paramount, but fear must not quash the compassionate spirit of
liberty.

A bad omen for Dallas County health

Nearly half of Dallas County children in grades three through eight are overweight or obese, according to findings released Tuesday by Childrens Health.
That 49 percent is an alarming statistic on its own, made even more disheartening by the fact that it grew 10 percent in one year. And its downright staggering
when you consider the national average is only 31 percent. (Only 31 percent?) Its a bad omen for
the countys future health, too: The health habits and eating decisions kids are learning today will
be hard to kick later in life.

KEVEN ANN WILLEY

LETTERS
Not found in teachings
Re: Massacre in Paris Wave of gun
and bomb attacks kills over 140 at concert,
stadium, restaurants, Saturday news story
The deadly attacks in Paris have killed
more than 100 people a terrible atrocity
for which ISIS has taken responsibility.
These perpetrators acting in the name of Islam are not deserving of being called human beings they are monsters.
If prophet Muhammad were alive today,
he would be appalled at the way ISIS and
other militant groups are slaughtering innocent lives in the name of Islam. In his
farewell pilgrimage address, he said, Even
as this month, land and day of Pilgrimage
are holy, so has God made the blood, property and honor of every human being sacred.
I reiterate that he emphasized every human being, not just Muslims. If ISIS calls
themselves Muslims, then how come they
are so foreign to this very basic teaching of
Islam, which is to show compassion and
love to humanity? Clearly they are not following any religion and in the process have
painted a very dissolute picture of Islam
only to gain personal motives.
We need to stay united in denouncing
acts of terror by ISIS and continue to perceive this evil as our mutual rival. God willing, we get to witness its downfall very
soon.
Nadia Ahmad, Round Rock

Missed opportunity
Re: France bombs Syrian city ISIS
targets destroyed in wake of carnage in
French capital, Monday news story.
As a former U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter
pilot and combat veteran of the 1991 Gulf
War, I am deeply troubled by the news that
French fighters bombed ISIS targets in Syria, including an ISIS command post, jihadi
recruitment center, weapons and ammunition depot, and a terrorist training camp.
According to President Barack Obama,
U.S. fighters have been flying ground attack
sorties against ISIS targets for months. If
so, why havent these specific targets already been taken out? Is this part of Obamas strategy of containment? If the presidents goal is the destruction of ISIS, waiting for other nations to do the job after
theyve been attacked is not an effective battle plan and shows a genuine lack of leadership.
Keith Rosenkranz, Grapevine

Dont overthink a meal

Re: Woman watched the males eat, by
Adele Ford, Tuesday Letters.
Why were you saddened and outraged
at the older male and two young sons who
ordered Subway food, while his wife only
watched?
Did you interact with these people? How
do you know this was his wife? How do you
know these were his sons? Maybe the woman wasnt hungry. Maybe she just doesnt
eat restaurant food. Im surprised you
didnt offer to buy her something to eat.
How do you know this was a cultural
happening? How is this any of your business?
Your entire letter is based on assumptions. Maybe you should just eat at home if
this turns your stomach sour.
Jack Vestal, Dallas

Citizenship games
For years weve read Mark Davis column imply how Barack Obama may not be
eligible to be president of the United States
because (1) he might have been born outside the United States, or (2) because one of
his parents was not a U.S. citizen. Mark Davis also wrote about how he supports the
proposed laws requiring, as he put it in his
column in 2011, evidence of natural-born

citizenship as a condition for appearance

on the ballot.
So now we have Ted Cruz born in a foreign country and Marco Rubio, whose parents were not U.S. citizens when he was
born both accusations leveled at Obama. So Im wondering: did I miss the rejection of Cruz and Rubio as candidates or
does the right wing change their convictions if their favorite candidate cant meet
their citizenship requirements?

Political cartoons
on the Editorial
page are generally
consistent with
the newspapers
views on issues.
Cartoons on the
op-ed page
reflect a variety
of perspectives.

Mark Bauer, Colleyville

@easyaim1

Cruzs posturing
In the past couple GOP debates, all the
candidates seem to be desperately fumbling over one another as to who can look
more like an outsider. But two candidates
in particular who usually stand out as the
obvious alternatives, Ted Cruz and Donald
Trump, have remained unusually cordial
toward each other despite all the mud
flinging.
In July it was reported that Cruz met
Trump in private at the Trump Tower.
When asked, Trump played stupid as to
why they were meeting. Now Trump is doing everything he can to topple the other
front-runner in the race, and in the process making himself look like a total fool in
my opinion.
Meanwhile, Cruz has made the statement that Trumps voters will eventually
turn to him. Convenient that Cruz has remained out of the spotlight, and under the
radar of the media.

LETTERS

Want to get something

off your chest? Letters
Dan Michaels, Dallas
are your chance, impeded only by our 200Thankslimit
for trusting
women
word
and our
editing for clarity, style and
Re: Texas Undue Burden Good to
The
News
receives
about 450 each
accuracy.
know justices will rule on abortion
law,
Tuesday
Editorials.
week;
about 10 percent will see print in our
Thank you for acknowledging that Texas representative
women should be trustedsampling.
to make their

own reproductive choices. Under the guise

of There
making abortion
for women, of
Texas
is nosafer
shortage
online forums where
is making it less safe by forcing the closure
canand
anonymously
of people
health centers
suggesting that name-call, make up
women go to other states with fewer refacts and throw bombs. But in our published
strictions. These laws are clearly not about
theletters
safety of women
buteditor,
about controlling
to the
people sign their names
them.
and
behind
Rightspublicly
should not stand
be determined
by their opinions. That
ZIP
code. Thank
you stand
for your wise
makes
them
outand
among the chatter.
brave editorial.

Contributors
areBarnes,
right
to feel honored to see
Debbie
Dallas
@_debbiebarnes
their submissions
chosen from a crowded
field
and their
arguments presented in Texas
Uptown
isnt anti-bar
liveliest
for informed
debate.
Re: Uptownforum
proposal resisted
Many

want to be sure effort to calm nightlife

doesnt
too far,
cramp areasletters
style, Sat-that make a point with
Wegolove
focused
urday Metro story.
humor,
irony
or
precision.
I am pushing back against some of the It surprises some
reported
and observed
feedback.
people
to learn
that(Not
wetheplace a priority on
reporting, but the comments themselves.)
Most
of
the
opposition
seemed
to
come our editorial posiletters that disagree with
from businesses, not residents, though one
tions.
(For
tips,
see
dallasnews.com/letters.)
bar owner spoke up in support. One resident commented that no one supports
theTo
proposal.
is not true
and prewriteThat
a letter
to the
editor, use our online
sumptuous to speak for everyone.
It offers a
form
at dallasnews.com/sendletters.
In addition,
(1) The online comment
that
bars were
herefor
first:readers
No one is asking
quick
way
to send and for us to
to eliminate bars just to eliminate excesconsider
letters.
Or
send us a video letter:
sive
noise (loud outdoor
TVs and
bands)
and public drunkenness. City Council
Just shoot something on your phone, upload
member Philip Kingston commented that
currently
there are three bad
actors.
(2) A
it to YouTube,
and
send
it to dallasnews.com/
proposal to barricade McKinney at late
send-video-letter.
weekend
hours, comparing it to Bourbon
St. in New Orleans: There are parallel
streets
Bourbon
in the way
Quarter.
Thetoonly
other
toThere
send a letter to the
are no parallel traffic-ways to handle traffic
editor
is
via
the
U.S.
Postal
off McKinney. (3) Other suggested
solu- Service: Letters
tions:
I interpreted
the alternatives
From
Readers,
TDMN,were
P.O. Box 655237, Dallas,
meant as a temporary solution while waitingTexas
for the wheels
to grind
on atrust
permanent
75265.
But
us, the online form is
one.

quicker
and it doesnt charge anything for
Dolores Rogers, Dallas/Uptown
confirmation or a return receipt!

LETTERS & VIEWPOINTS POLICY

We value reader submissions. We receive far more than we can print and
publish a representative sample. Letters should not exceed 200 words.
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MAIL
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Vice president and editorial page editor, 57

Deputy editorial page editor, 38

NICOLE STOCKDALE

BONNIE BISHOP
Assistant to the editorial board, 56

At The Dallas Morning News since late 2002, Keven developed her
interest in politics early. When her family lived in Washington, D.C.,
her mother used to take Keven as a baby in her bassinet to the U.S.
Senate gallery to watch the likes of Everett Dirksen and Estes
Kefauver debate the issues of the day. Three decades later, Keven
was a political columnist for The Arizona Republic in a state that for
most of the 80s and 90s was best known for impeaching, indicting or otherwise
politically impaling its governors. Editorial pages under her direction won the 2010
Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing and were finalists for the same prize three other
times since 2001. Keven studied briefly in Europe and Mexico before graduating
magna cum laude from Northern Arizona University and starting (but never finishing) a masters program in Spanish literature. She is a member of the Pulitzer Prize
board, enjoys hiking and biking, and lives with her chef husband in downtown Dallas.

As deputy editorial page editor, Nicole is the Editorial

Department's operational chief, managing most of the
editorial writers and running the day-to-day production.
She is also in charge of the departments digital strategy.
She joined the editorial board in 2006 after seven years as
a copy editor at The Dallas Morning News and The Wichita
Eagle. Nicole was born in Nebraska but did most of her
growing up in Kansas. She graduated cum laude from Wichita State University, with a degree in communication and political science. These days,
she calls Far North Dallas home, where she lives with her sportswriter husband, Corbett Smith. They love taking long camping trips at national parks
but spend most of their waking hours chasing around their three spirited
young children and forgetting to watch movies theyve Netflixed.

Bonnie handles the

administrative duties for the Editorial
department and
assists on special
projects. She celebrates almost 30 years of working at
The Dallas Morning News.

Email: kwilley@dallasnews.com

Twitter: @KA_Willey

Email: nstockdale@dallasnews.com

Twitter: @nstockdale

For queries about these

pages, contact the Editorial
Department
Main number 214-977-8205
Email editorialboard@dallasnews.com

Online
Social media

Opinion Blog

On Twitter, you can follow members

of the editorial board and get updates on our latest opinion pieces by
following @DMNOpinion. On Facebook, you can share your views on
the latest headlines by liking the
official Dallas Morning News Facebook page: facebook.com/
dallasmorningnews. And on YouTube, you can find our viditorials and
other video commentary:
youtube.com/dallasnews.

Editorial board members

get warmed up by airing
their theories, arguments
and peeves on the Opinion
Blog. They often butt
heads on subjects that
later end up as published
editorials. You can watch
the debate unfold and join
the conversation at
dallasnews.com/
opinionblog.

DOM DiFURIO
Digital intern, 22
Dom DiFurio contributes to the blog and
the Editorial Departments social media
accounts. He is passionately interested in
the way technology intersects with culture,
as well as how it impacts human interaction and lifestyle. He
enjoys photography and videography, and outside of work he
likes to try his hand at cooking up new recipes. Hes a graduate
of Arizona State Universitys Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where he learned that you
should never tweet.
Email: ddifurio@dallasnews.com

A12 01-04-2016 Set: 16:38:44

Sent by: cci News

Twitter: @DomDiFurio

BLACK
YELLOW
MAGENTA
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The Dallas Morning News

dallasnews.com

Monday, January 4, 2016

Editorial board and staff

MIKE DRAGO
Assistant editorial page editor, 49
Mike oversees content selection and editing of the daily Viewpoints page and the Sunday Points section. He rejoined
the newspaper in 2014 after working two years as vice president for content at Idea Grove. Before that, he was a
career-long newshound. He worked for nine years at The Associated Press before moving to The Dallas Morning News
in 1999. He spent the next 13 years working as education editor, criminal justice editor, state editor, city editor and
assistant managing editor. Mike was born in Detroit but considers himself a naturalized Texan. He is a graduate of
Grapevine High School and the University of North Texas, with a bachelors in journalism. When hes not on the job,
Mike stays busy with his family: his wife, Amy, two teenage daughters and a 6-year-old son who loves Star Wars and soccer.
Email: mdrago@dallasnews.com

Viewpoints
The Viewpoints page, published
Monday-Saturday, appears opposite
the Editorial Page. In shorthand, its
the op-ed page. We review 100-200
manuscripts daily from which we
select the three or four best. What
qualifies as best? Sprightly written,
fresh arguments with strong points
of view on timely topics. And we
place a premium on local subjects.
We carefully keep track of the
ideological bent of the columnists
we publish to ensure that we run a
balance of opinion. Viewpoints and
Points have published about 1,300
columns this year, with the total
liberal voices and total conservative
voices separated by about 1 percentage point. In addition, we make sure
controversial topics whether its
local fracking or national health
care get columns from both sides.
The Viewpoints page includes:
Syndicated and other national
columnists: These columnists, who
write regularly, boast an expertise
and reader following that give them
exposure in multiple newspapers.
We have access to more than 30 of
these writers. Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks and Kathleen
Parker are three of our conservative
voices. Ruth Marcus, Leonard Pitts
and Esther Cepeda are among the
liberal columnists.
Local columnists: Several local
writers work has earned them a
recurring spot on Viewpoints, including Mark Davis, Heather Wilhelm and Ralph Strangis. Most of
our local columns are by one-time
contributors with expertise on a
timely topic. Viewpoints also features Voices volunteer columnists
from North Texas. (See dallasnews
.com/voices for more information.)
To submit a column: Columns
should be no more than 650 words.
Submit to viewpoints@
dallasnews.com.

Points
Points is the Sunday commentary section of The Dallas Morning
News. Its the place to find sharply
written, in-depth analysis of current events and trends, as well as
eclectic and unconventional takes
on issues from the world of politics, ethics and morality, pop culture, foreign affairs, technology,
the arts and, most of all, dispatches
from the front lines of the culture
war. Points aims to be a fun, stylish
read for intellectually engaged
people.
The Points section includes:
Essays and columns: Who
writes for Points? No weekly lineup is the same. You might find a
nationally syndicated columnist, a
Dallas Morning News writer and
other thought-provoking experts
from our backyard or across the
globe. Some will debate from the
right, some from the left, but most
come from a place that defies such
rigid categorization. The common
thread that ties them all together is
a counterintuitive approach that
lives up to Points Think Sharp
motto.
Special Points features: Each
week, the section cover includes
Talking Points, a round-up of notable quotes from the weeks news,
from the piquant to the poignant.
Youll also find our weekly Q&A,
Point Person, in which members of
the editorial board interview a
provocative newsmaker or an
insightful expert, with a focus on
ideas that enlighten and challenge.
Editorials and cartoons: On
2P, youll find our Sunday Editorial
Page, and on 3P, we treat readers
to an expanded selection of letters
to the editor and additional cartoons.
To submit a column: Most columns run at 750 words. Submit to
points@dallasnews.com.

13A

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The Dallas Morning News

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VIEWPOINTS

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Coming Sunday: A writer asks, why is it so easy

to joke about wanting to murder your child and
so hard to talk about worrying you might actually
die of love? In the next Points section.

Texan of the Year: One reader nominated all Texas law enforcement officers: Texas and its counties and cities would
degenerate into total chaos without them. Hear, hear. Submit
your nomination at dallasnews.com/texanoftheyear.

dallasnews.com/opinionblog

How the GOP lost its way

Cruz and Co.
destroyers, not
builders, says

her husband wasnt as lucky

Politics is the process of making

decisions amid diverse opinions. It
involves conversation, calm deliberation, self-discipline, and the capacity to listen to other points of view
and balance valid but competing
ideas and interests.
But this new Republican faction
regards the messy business of politics as soiled and impure. Compromise is corruption. Inconvenient
facts are ignored. Countrymen with
different views are regarded as
aliens. Political identity became a
sort of ethnic identity, and any compromise was regarded as a blood
betrayal. A weird contradictory
mentality replaced traditional conservatism. Republican radicals have
contempt for politics, but they still
believe that transformational political change can rescue the nation.
Republicans developed a contempt
for Washington and government,
but they elected leaders who made
the most lavish promises imaginable. Government would be reduced
by a quarter! Shutdowns would
happen! The nation would be saved
by transformational change! As
Steven Bilakovics writes in his book

Democracy Without Politics, even

as we expect ever less of democracy
we apparently expect ever more
from democracy.
This anti-political political ethos
produced elected leaders of jawdropping incompetence. Running a
government is a craft, like carpentry.
But the new Republican officials did
not believe in government and so did
not respect its traditions, its disciplines and its craftsmanship. They
do not accept the hierarchical structures of authority inherent in political activity.
In his masterwork, Politics as a
Vocation, Max Weber argues that the
pre-eminent qualities for a politician
are passion, a feeling of responsibility and a sense of proportion. A politician needs warm passion to impel
action but a cool sense of responsibility and proportion to make careful
decisions in a complex landscape.
If a politician lacks the quality of
detachment the ability to let the
difficult facts of reality work their
way into the mind then, Weber
argues, the politician ends up striving for the boastful but entirely
empty gesture. His work leads

nowhere and is senseless.

Welcome to Ted Cruz, Donald
Trump and the Freedom Caucus.
Really, have we ever seen bumbling on this scale, people at once so
cynical and so naive, so willfully
ignorant in using levers of power to
produce some tangible if incremental good? These insurgents cant
even acknowledge democracys
legitimacy if you cant persuade a
majority of your colleagues, maybe
you should accept their position. You
might be wrong!
People who dont accept democracy will be bad at conversation.
They wont respect tradition, institutions or precedent. These figures are masters at destruction but
incompetent at construction.
These insurgents are incompetent at governing and unwilling to be
governed. But they are not a spontaneous growth. It took a thousand
small betrayals of conservatism to
get to the dysfunction we see all
around.
Reach David Brooks
through nytimes.com.

Hardy makes me ashamed to claim the Cowboys

I believe in second chances
if someone has remorse,
says Autumn Miles

s a resident of Dallas and a

survivor of domestic violence,
I have a little bit of shame in
claiming the Dallas Cowboys right
now.
Last Sunday marked the end of
Greg Hardys four-week suspension
from the National Football League.
Clearly, Hardys sentence should
have remained at the original 10
weeks, because he seems to show no
signs of remorse or change of heart.
It is a fact that football is important to Americans, and being from
Dallas, I understand winning is
important to Cowboys fans. Greg
Hardy is a great athlete, and with
recent weeks being what they were
on the field, the Cowboys need his
athleticism. But when we place
points on the scoreboard over womens emotional and physical wellbeing, we have a significant problem.

A breast
cancer
testimony
Harriet P. Gross survived;

David Brooks

he House Republican caucus

is close to ungovernable these
days. How did this situation
come about?
This was not just the work of the
Freedom Caucus or Ted Cruz or one
months activity. The Republican
Partys capacity for effective selfgovernance degraded slowly, over
the course of a long chain of rhetorical excesses, mental corruptions and
philosophical betrayals. Basically,
the party abandoned traditional
conservatism for right-wing radicalism. Republicans came to see themselves as insurgents and revolutionaries, and every revolution tends
toward anarchy and ends up devouring its own.
By traditional definitions, conservatism stands for intellectual humility, a belief in steady, incremental
change, a preference for reform
rather than revolution, a respect for
hierarchy, precedence, balance and
order, and a tone of voice that is
prudent, measured and responsible.
Conservatives of this disposition can
be dull, but they know how to nurture and run institutions. They also
see the nation as one organic whole.
Citizens may fall into different classes and political factions, but they
are still joined by chains of affection
that command ultimate loyalty and
love.
All of this has been overturned in
dangerous parts of the Republican
Party. Over the past 30 years, or at
least since Rush Limbaugh came on
the scene, the Republican rhetorical
tone has grown ever more bombastic, hyperbolic and imbalanced.
Public figures are prisoners of their
own prose styles, and Republicans
from Newt Gingrich through Ben
Carson have become addicted to a
crisis mentality. Civilization was
always on the brink of collapse.
Every setback, like the passage of
Obamacare, became the ruination of
the republic. Comparisons to Nazi
Germany became a staple.
This produced a radical mind-set.
Conservatives started talking about
the Reagan revolution, the Gingrich revolution. Among people too
ill-educated to understand the different spheres, political practitioners
adopted the mental habits of the
entrepreneur. Everything had to be
transformational and disruptive.
Hierarchy and authority were equated with injustice. Self-expression
became more valued than self-restraint and coalition-building. A
contempt for politics infested the
Republican mind.

21A

Initially, I was mad when the

Cowboys brought Hardy on. Then I
took a step back; I believe in second
chances when individuals show
remorse for their
actions. It was my
hope to hear from
Hardy that he was
sorry, to hear him
speak out against
the objectification of
women and the
GREG
violence against
HARDY
them, and to take
the time away from
the game to evaluate how he could
use his platform to be an example for
others.
Well, last week when I checked
Twitter, Greg Hardy was trending,
and it wasnt for any of the above
reasons. When asked about the
upcoming game against the New
England Patriots, Hardy creepily
said he was hoping that Tom Brady
would bring his wife, Gisele, the
Brazilian fashion model.
These tweets show no sign of
remorse. They show no sign of a

change of heart, and they show no

sign of respect for Tom and Giseles
union. It is a shame that Hardy could
not follow the example of Ray Rice,
who has shown remorse for his similar actions. Rice is now something of
a spokesman against domestic violence and, to the best of our knowledge, seems to be repairing his marriage.
This one instance is only a symptom of the actual problem present
within our society. I heard several
people say some version of, I dont
care what he does off the field, as long
as his act is together on the field.
That attitude is what I find most
disturbing.
We have a culture of silence in this
country regarding domestic violence. Individuals dont want to
discuss it, and we definitely dont
want to talk about it when it is not
convenient. But the reality is, it is
never convenient, and it is never easy.
Our sons look up to these players as
role models. It might seem extreme,
but the objectification of women
begins somewhere. Shouldn't we be

considering character as well as

ability, considering our young people
are watching and learning the lifestyles of these players?
If I let my son watch the game
with his dad on Sunday, as he so
regularly does, what is the message
we send? Put points on the board and
you can live the way you want. Treat
women however you want, and even
get cheered along the way.
I certainly dont want my son to
grow up to be like Greg Hardy. When
you settle in to watch the Cowboys
next game, consider what his example is teaching the next generation about character and respect for
women.
Autumn Miles of Dallas
is author of Appointed:
Your Future Starts
Now and the founder
of The Blush Network, a
conference ministry dedicated to
spiritually challenging the way young
women think. Reach her through
www.AutumnMiles.com.

ts October again, so once again

Im standing on the sidelines,
viewing the breast cancer hoopla
with amazement.
As a 31-year survivor, I remember
the time when our disease wasnt
celebrated with so much attention;
back in 1984, quiet fear still ruled the
day. The first Komen Race for the
Cure had been run here in Dallas
just the year before, and only 800
people took part. Now, there are
hundreds of races worldwide, with
hundreds and thousands of participants.
I started taking part in the local
race in its second year. I still go, but I
dont run. I dont even walk anymore. Now I sit quietly in the survivors tent with a lot of elders like me
who are living out that once-impossible dream of long-term breast
cancer survival. We still have our big
moment when we lead the parade
to the podium at races end, but
otherwise were largely forgotten.
When I reported my first diagnosis (sadly, I had a second in 1997) to
my daughter, then 24 years old, she
responded with the practicality of
one who worked in a hospital and
had already seen much: Mom,
please tell me this is not hereditary.
In my case, genetic testing says it
seems not. Just plain bad luck for
me.
But it was genetics, not bad luck,
for my late husband, one of the rare
men with breast cancer. They form
only 1 percent of all the diagnoses,
and since there is (as yet) no routine
screening for males, their symptoms
are most often ignored well past the
diseases early stages. We had good
times between his 2008 discovery
and 2014 death, but we accepted
from the start that metastasis would
eventually cause the latter. Its
strange, Fred would say, knowing
with reasonable certainty that unless
you step off a curb and get run down
by a bus, you can be sure in advance
of what will eventually kill you. And
he was right.
The substantive pink inserts in a
recent Sundays Dallas Morning
News cheered me with their reporting, especially the emerging willingness of men to speak out and warn
others that, yes, breast cancer can
happen to you, too.
For quite a long time, a very large,
healthy-looking man could be seen
glad-handing it at the Dallas Komen
race site; actually, he couldnt be
missed, because he wore a custommade pink suit! But he hasnt been
among us in the past few years. Why
am I not surprised?
Well, Ive packaged up those two
pink inserts and mailed them for my
daughter now 55 and, so far,
breast cancer-free to share with
her hospital colleagues. And Saturday, Ill once again get up early, put
on a pink cap and head to the survivors tent at this years Dallas Komen
Race for the Cure. I hope to pass on
hope to some young women that
there can be a good, long life ahead
for them.
I was one of the lucky ones who
found that out before the hoopla that
still amazes me. In my era, we quietly
considered ourselves lucky just to be
alive after diagnosis and treatment.
But nagging reality tells me, because I know breast cancer from the
inside, that Im only enjoying a very
long remission. This disease has a
nasty habit of returning to knock
down survivors who were happily
standing, even for long periods of
time. I went through that knockdown 13 years after my first bout and
had to pull myself up again.
So if I happen someday to step off
a curb and get run down by a bus,
only then will people be able to read
in my obituary that I was truly cured.
Harriet P. Gross is a
Dallas freelance writer.
Reach her at harriet
gross@sbcglobal.net.

LEONA ALLEN
Editorial writer, 51
Leona Allen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has spent 30 years as a reporter, editor
and newsroom manager. Shes reported on
subjects that include education, criminal justice, local government and state government. She started at The Dallas Morning
News in 1994. Before becoming an editorial writer, she served as
statehouse bureau chief, suburban editor, general assignments
editor, night city editor, deputy metro editor, assistant managing
editor and deputy managing editor in her career. While at the
Akron Beacon Journal, she was part of the reporting team that
won the 1994 Pulitzer for public service journalism for its yearlong examination of race relations in Akron. The Dallas native is a
graduate of North Texas State University (now the University of
North Texas). She lives in Garland.
Email: ldallen@dallasnews.com

Twitter: @ldallen

SHARON GRIGSBY

Editorial writer and project editor, 59

Sharon leads our Bridging Dallas North-South
Gap project, begun in 2007 to advocate for the
southern half of the city. Her Dallas roots run back
to 1980, when she joined the DMN newsroom after stints in New
York and Detroit. Shes a Baylor grad, where she drove the administration crazy with her student newspaper commentary. After several decades as a DMN editor in departments including metro, politics
and features, Sharons excited to be writing again, especially
looking for ways to make Dallas a smarter city. When shes not at
work, Sharons likely running at White Rock Lake, antiquing for her
old East Dallas home or patiently (not so much) trying to kick into a
yoga handstand.
Email: sgrigsby@dallasnews.com

Twitter: @SharonFGrigsby

MIKE HASHIMOTO
Editorial writer, 57

Everything and nothing about Mikes first two

decades at The News prepared him for life on the
opinion pages. In 20 years with SportsDay and
on the city desk and long before that, he had grown used to being a
lonely right-wing nut with staunch Democratic parents and
sisters and a typical college experience at University of Texas at
Arlington so the editorial board occasionally offers him a little
company. Today, he writes editorials, offers personal thoughts at
our Opinion Blog and writes the occasional op-ed. A graduate of
Dallas Kimball High, he and his lovely wife, Metro columnist and
editorial writer Jacquielynn Floyd, live in Flower Mound surrounded by spoiled cats.
Email: mhashimoto@dallasnews.com

Twitter: @MikeHashimoto

MICHAEL LINDENBERGER
Editorial writer, 44
Michael Lindenberger is a native Kentuckian
and has been burdened all his life with a corresponding interest in bourbon, politics, history,
horse racing, and serial commas. He started his career as editor of a
Tennessee weekly in 1993 and later as managing editor of a small
daily in Indiana, and has been working his way down the ladder ever
since. He first came to The News in 2000, working most recently as
Washington correspondent for business. He earned his law degree
from the University of Louisville in 2006, and has frequently contributed to Time magazine as a legal affairs writer. He was a Knight
Journalism Fellow at Stanford in 2012-13. This is his first month on
the editorial board.
Email: mlindenberger@dallasnews.com

Twitter: @Lindenberger

JIM MITCHELL

Editorial writer, 61

Points
The Dallas Morning News

Section P

THINK SHARP

Monkey politics
Susan Perry: Imagine a society that chooses leaders
based on past behavior instead of promises in glitzy
TV ads, she says. 6P

Sunday, September 13, 2015

TALKING POINTS
Sept. 11 is not consigned to history like
Pearl Harbor. This war is still going on.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani,
on the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist
attacks (Fox5NY, Friday)
God willing,
there will be no
such thing as a
Zionist regime
in 25 years.
Irans supreme
leader, the
Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei,
predicting the
elimination of
Israel (Bloomberg, Friday)

JACQUIELYNN FLOYD

Metro columnist and editorial writer, 57

Accepting migrants escaping to save

their lives is our duty. Polish Prime
Minister Ewa Kopacz (The Washington
Post, Thursday)
Ikea cant keep up with the demand.
Christoph Hillenbrand, senior official of
Germanys Upper Bavaria district, on
difficulty in supplying bunk beds for all
the refugees (The Daily Mail, Thursday)

Down with salad

Let us understand theres

more to salad than iceberg,
and end fearmongering,
says Ali Slagle

s the world population grows,

we have a pressing need to eat
better and farm better, and
those of us trying to figure out how to
do those things have pointed at lots of
different foods as problematic. Almonds, for their water use. Corn, for
the monoculture. Beef, for its greenhouse gases. In each of those cases,
theres some truth in the finger-pointing, but none of them is a clear-cut
villain.
Theres one food, though, that has
almost nothing going for it. It occupies
precious crop acreage, requires fossil
fuels to be shipped, refrigerated,
around the world, and adds nothing
but crunch to the plate.
Its salad, and here are three main
reasons we need to rethink it.
Salad vegetables are pitifully low in nutrition. The biggest thing wrong with salads is
lettuce, and the biggest thing wrong with
lettuce is that its a leafy-green waste of resources.
In July, when I wrote a piece defending
corn on the calories-per-acre metric, a number of people wrote to tell me I was ignoring
nutrition. Which I was. Not because nutrition
isnt important, but because we get all the
nutrition we need in a fraction of our recommended daily calories, and filling in the rest of
the days food is a job for crops like corn. But if
you think nutrition is the most important
metric, dont direct your ire at corn. Turn
instead to lettuce.
One of the people I heard from about
nutrition is organic consultant Charles Benbrook. He and colleague Donald Davis developed a nutrient quality index a way to rate
foods based on how much of 27 nutrients they
contain per 100 calories. Four of the five lowest-ranking foods (by serving size) are salad
ingredients: cucumbers, radishes, lettuce and
celery. (The fifth is eggplant.)
Those foods nutritional profile can be
partly explained by one simple fact: Theyre
almost all water. Although water figures
prominently in just about every vegetable (the
sweet potato, one of the least watery, is 77
percent), those four salad vegetables
top the list at 95 to 97 percent
water. A head of iceberg lettuce
has the same water content as a
bottle of Evian (1-liter size: 96
percent water, 4 percent bottle)
and is only marginally more nutritious.
Take collard greens. They are 90
See HASPEL Page 5P

Michelle Collins/
Staff Artist;
iStock

amar Haspel argues that salad is overrated. And sure, salad gets a lot of attention but Haspel calls salad overrated not because of the hype but because, she
argues, its nutrient-poor, expensive and a tax
on our food system.
Hold that thought. To me and my colleagues at Food52, a salad can be so many
things not just a bowl of lettuce so how
could this be true? We have a salad confusion
on our hands. Here are where Haspels assertions steer us wrong:
1. Salad is lettuce.
What is a salad vegetable? Theres no
definition of what a salad is, or the type of
salads that are being discussed in fact, she
seems to equate lettuce with salad. My salad
today couldve been any number of things (its
summer, so theres a lot to play with), but it
had zucchini, grains and cheese no lettuce.
Saying that salad has a lettuce problem is like
saying pasta has a cream sauce problem. Not
all pastas have cream sauce, and not all salads
have lettuce.
Haspel does define some of these salad
ingredients: Four of the five lowest-ranking
vegetables (by serving size) [on the nutrient
quality index] are salad ingredients: cucumbers, radishes, iceberg lettuce and celery. (The
fifth is eggplant.) Ill get to the nutrition part
in a second, but Im not sure why these four
ingredients are siloed as salad ingredients
and eggplant is left out when you can make
a salad with eggplant; a soup or two, drink or
taco with cucumber; and a soup, pizza, saut,
braise or pickle with radishes. Celery is the
start of so many dishes, and lettuce doesnt
always mean salad.
2. Salad fools dieters into making bad
choices.
Salad, youre so sneaky! Wrong. Salad isnt
fooling anyone misinformation about
ingredients and their nutritional value is. So
what do we do about this? The solution to the
misinformation about salad/lettuce isnt to
eliminate salad/lettuce or the consumption of
salad/lettuce entirely, as this article purports.
Rather, its to know what youre eating.
3. Salad ingredients are low in nutrient
quality.
Yes, I can make a salad with lettuce (which
the article says is full of water, not nutrients),
fried chicken, croutons and mayo dressing,
and it might not be great for me nutritionally.
But I can also make a burger out of black
beans and quinoa and it can be really good for
me. Salad is a type of food, like a burger; neither are ingredients with innate nutritional
values.
4. Lettuce has unfortunate repercussions on our food supply.
Haspel mentions that lettuce is the top
source of food waste, becoming more than 1
billion pounds of uneaten salad every year,
but she doesnt explain why or whether that 1
billion refers to lettuce leaves, pre-made salads and other salad ingredients. Moreover,
the study credited with this information did
not include mixtures of fresh fruit or vegetables (e.g., fruit salad, platters of vegetable
sticks, and pre-packaged salads made from
See SLAGLE Page 5P

Twitter: @JimMitchell18

Email: jmitchell@dallasnews.com

Masses of young men in their 20s with

beards singing Allahu akbar across
Europe. Its an invasion that threatens
our prosperity, our security, our culture
and identity. Right-wing Dutch political leader Geert Wilders, on waves of
refugees entering Europe from Africa
and the Middle East (Reuters, Thursday)

To save the planet,

end craze for wasteful
and wasted lettuce,
says Tamar Haspel

Jim has been with The Dallas Morning News since

1984, joining the editorial board in 1998. His
specialty is business and economics, but hes
been known to craft editorials on topics as
diverse as the Wright amendment battle, emerging technologies,
international AIDS policy, city politics and cultural and societal
shifts. Jim graduated from Loyola University, earned a masters
degree in journalism from Northwestern University and attended
business and economics workshops. Meeting Nelson Mandela in
South Africa was his most unforgettable career moment.

Jacquielynn Floyd, a sixth-generation Texan, is a

veteran journalist who has written an opinion
column for The Dallas Morning News since 1999.
Born and raised in Austin, Floyd lived in Fort
Worth and in suburban Washington, D.C., before moving to Dallas.
Prior to joining The News, she was a reporter for the Dallas Times
Herald. She has worked as a beat reporter and general assignments
writer, covering everything from lurid murder trials to the Winter
Olympic Games. Once, while on assignment, she was a passenger
in a hot-air balloon that caught fire during a rough landing. She was
unharmed, but the soles of her sneakers were melted. Floyd, who
joined the editorial board this month, is married to fellow News
editorial writer Mike Hashimoto. They live in Denton County.
Email: jfloyd@dallasnews.com

When we laugh with each other and

not at each other Gods love is present in a special way. Pope Francis,
promoting the app-based campaign
Joke With the Pope, a charitable fundraising project (CNN, Thursday)
We will have so much winning if I get
elected that you may get bored with
winning. Believe me. Republican
presidential hopeful Donald Trump, on
what kind of foreign policy to expect
from a Trump White House (The Dallas
Morning News, Thursday)
Were All Mexican. Title of upcoming
musical track featuring a bevy of Hispanic recording stars, in response to antiimmigrant statements from Donald
Trump (Billboard, Thursday)
That was a mistake. Im sorry about
that. I take responsibility, and Im trying
to be as transparent as I can. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary
Clinton, on using a private email server
during her years as secretary of state
(ABC News, Tuesday)
Corporations can only commit crimes
through flesh-and-blood people.
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Q.
Yates, on a new government focus targeting individuals in prosecuting corporate
wrongdoing (The New York Times, Thursday)
Its not going to be based on genitalia
alone. We will have an advisory committee, experts that help represent the
transgender population. San Francisco County Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, on a
new policy to house jail inmates together
based on gender preference (The Los
Angeles Times, Thursday)
Today, we
have the
biggest news
in iPad since
the iPad.
Apple CEO
Tim Cook,
unveiling a
faster, bigger
model (Fox
News,
Wednesday)

This is archaeology on steroids.

British archaeologist Vince Gaffney, on
the discovery of a much bigger ring of
giant stones hidden beneath the earth
near Stonehenge (USA Today, Tuesday)

Have questions
or comments about Points?
Email points@dallasnews.com.

Correction: In the Sept. 6 Points section, a box on the Sept. 19 One Day University gave the incorrect cost to attend
the event. The cost is $179, but you get a
15 percent discount by entering the code
POINTS. Register at onedayu.com.

Twitter: @jfloyd_dmn

JAMES RAGLAND
Metro columnist and editorial writer, 54
James began writing for The News in 1985. It was
supposed to be a brief stop on his way to a law
career inspired by Thurgood Marshall and Atticus
Finch. Three decades later, hes still using his pen to crusade for
justice and equality. James covered City Hall for The News and the
mayor of D.C. for The Washington Post. From 1994-99, James
worked as an editor on the DMN metro and political desks. Hes
gone through executive training, taught at a university and picked
up a Certificate of Leadership from SMU (1998). He became a Metro
columnist in 2000 and joined the editorial board this month. James
is a Distinguished Alum at Texas A&M-Commerce and a member of
the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Hall of Fame. Hes married, has three children, and loves antiques, poetry and sports. And
long ago, he wrote a country song.
Email: jragland@dallasnews.com

Twitter: @jamesragland61

MITCHELL SCHNURMAN
Business columnist and editorial writer, 60
Mitch has been a columnist since 2001 and has
covered business news in North Texas for over
30 years. His early stories were about Ross
Perots push to reform public education, including the no-pass, no-play rule that challenged the primacy of
Friday night lights. Perot set Texas on a path of progress and
showed how business leaders could inspire public policy. Mitch
joined The DMN in 2012 after working at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
and Dallas Times Herald; this is his first month on the editorial board.
He earned his bachelors in journalism at the University of MissouriColumbia. He and his wife, Kay, live in Coppell and have four sons.
Email: mschnurman@dallasnews.com

A13 01-04-2016 Set: 16:38:44

Sent by: cci News

Twitter: @mitchschnurman

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