The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 11

www.pantagraph.com The Pantagraph Thursday, January 13, 2005 All DOONESBURY Garry Trudeau Department of Education needs lesson on playing fair ksi fm mam BOoms. Ape iou5mev.s 1 SUFFERING FROM 1 COMBAT S7FES5: ty easily, iLT.rr.ri i Amber Alert helping save lives ance on criteria for issuing Amber Alerts. Law enforcement must confirm an abduction of a child has taken place and believe the child to be at risk of serious bodily injury or death; authorities must have sufficient descriptive information about the abductor, the child, andor the suspect's vehicle to assist citizens in spotting the child and calling police; and the Amber Alert data should be immediately entered into the National Crime Information Center database, which gives law enforcement everywhere access to information about the child's abduction. Because of the growing effectiveness of Amber Alerts, a significant trend has begun to emerge, that some abductors, fearing capture, will release a child spontaneously after hearing the Amber Alert on the radio or seeing it on a highway sign. We hope that Amber Alert soon will become such a household term, and its effectiveness become so readily apparent, that its use will not only bring about the safe return of abducted children, but also actually deter the criminally minded from acting.

With the help of law enforcement, broadcasters, transportation officials, and an army of concerned citizens, we are making a difference, creating a safer future for children like Tamara Brooks, and honoring the memory of Amber Hagerman. Assistant Attorney General Deborah J. Daniels is the national cbordinator of Amber Alert, and Edward Smart, an advocate for Amber Alert, is the father of Elizabeth Smart, who was abducted from her home in 2002 and later recovered. This commentary was distributed by Knight Ridder Newspapers. the spirit, and perhaps the letter, of various laws that contain language such as "no part of any appropriation contained in this Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by the Congress" and appropriated funds may not be used "in a general propaganda effort designed to aid a political party or candidates." But conservatives should be less aggressive than Democrats in using taxpayers' money to try to mold taxpayers' minds.

It is impossible to draw, with statutory language, a bright line between legitimate informing and illegitimate propagandizing by government. What is indispensable is common sense, and that is atrophying as this lawyer-ridden nation sinks deeper into the delusion that sensible behavior can be comprehensively codified. Obviously government leaders must try to lead by persuading the public. But government by the consent of the governed should not mean government by consent produced by government propaganda. Unfortunately, as government's pretensions grow, so does its sense that its glorious ends justify even the tackiest means.

Eight decades ago, in a Washington not progressive enough to think that it could or should superintend primary and secondary education, the president set a tone that today's government a Leviathan with attention deficit disorder could usefully emulate. "Mr. Coolidge's genius for inactivity" wrote columnist Walter Lippmann, "is developed to a very high point. It is far from being indolent inactivity It is a grim, determined, alert inactivity-After the debacles of hired and faked journalists, we need a contagion of Coolidgeism, beginning in the Education Department, if it is educable. The George Will column, distributed by Washington Post Writers Croup, is published Mondays and Thursdays in The Pantagraph.

citizens as crime-fighting resources. Seventy -four percent of children who are abducted and later found murdered are killed within three hours of being taken. If 24 hours elapse, the rate increases to 99 percent. A case in point is that of Tamara Brooks. Now a fresh- man at UCLA, Tamara was 16 when she was abducted along with 17-year-old Jacqueline Marris at gunpoint in Lancaster, Calif.

An Amber Alert was broadcast on the radio and posted on highway signs. The perpetrator's vehicle was spotted, and the girls were recovered just as their abductor prepared to kill them. Tamara is one of 182 children who have been recovered with the help of Amber Alert since its inception. Most of those recoveries 148 have occurred since President Bush called for the development of a National Amber Alert network at the White House Conference on Missing, Exploited and Runaway Children in October 2002. The president's call set in motion a plan to coordinate Amber systems across the country In 2001, only four states had statewide Amber Alert plans.

Since then, we have made rapid progress today, 49 states have statewide plans, and many interstate collaborations are now in existence, foiling abductors who try to evade capture by crossing state lines. To help achieve a uniform, interoperable network of Amber plans nationwide, while reserving this powerful weapon for true emergencies, the Department of Justice has issued guid George F. Will partment of Health and Human Services of illegal spending when it distributed fake "news" videos, which were used by 40 local stations around the country. In them the many benefits of the new Medicare prescription drug entitlement were "reported" by a fake reporter whose actual status an employee of an HHS subcontractor was not revealed. The English language version of these "video news releases" concluded, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting." This scofflaw enterprise was an appropriate coda to the lawless making of this law.

Republican leaders traduced House procedures by holding open the vote for three hours, giving them time to pressure sensibly reluctant legislators. And the Justice Department says the Bush administration broke no law when the Medicare program's chief actuary was told he would be fired if he gave Congress his estimate that the program's 10-year cost would be third more than the $400 billion the administration claimed. The GAO has frequently had occasion to insist that taxpayers' money cannot be used when the "obvious purpose is 'self-aggrandizement' or 'puffery'." Last week, it had another occasion, chastising the Office of National Drug Control Policy for also disseminating fake news videos. It is difficult to calculate how many billions of dollars the government spends on indefensible, if not illegal, self-promotion. Democrats, too, have violated GUEST COMMENTARIES about 800 words long and are subject to editing.

If a commentary, is accepted for publication, the author will be notified within two weeks. Send your original thoughts, with your name, home address and daytime telephone number for verification, to: Guest Commentaries Pantagraph Opinion Pages P.O. Box 2907 Bloomington, IL 61702-2907 Fax number: (309) 829-7000 E-mail: bwillspantagraph.com In communist East Berlin, one sign of the government's swollen self-regard was the cluttering of public spaces with propaganda banners by which the government praised itself for providing socialism. In Washington today, the Department of Education building is an advertisement for its occupants. Eight entrances are framed by make-believe little red schoolhouses labeled "No Child Left Behind." High on the building's front are two other advertisements for that 2002 law: large banners hector passers-by to visit NoChildLeftBehind.gov.

This building-as-billboard is the workplace of those eager beavers who had this brainstorm: Let's pay a million taxpayer dollars to a public relations firm to manufacture enthusiasm for No Child Left Behind, including a $241,000 payment to columnist and television talk-show host Armstrong Williams for his praise of the legislation. The eager beavers are long on energy but short on judgment. Just 10 years ago, ton trembled because many Republicans who had won in the cymbal-crash elections of 1994 had vowed to abolish the Education Department. Education, they said, is a quintessentially state and local responsibility. But soon Republicans in Congress and a Republican president were deepening Washington's reach into education.

In 1996, Republican appropriators gave the department a 15.7 percent increase in discretionary spending. And No Child Left Behind increased federal education spending more than any increase requested by President Clinton, who was the teachers' unions' poodle. Some of that money went to When conservatives break with their principles, they seem to become casual ahout breaking the law, too. Last year the General Accounting Office accused the De- Readers are invited to be guest writers for The Pantagraph. "We are particularly interested in hearing from people who can provide a unique insight into public issues based on personal experiences or expertise.

Guest commentaries should be Audiovox 8900 Camera Phone US. Cellular. AUTHORIZED AGENT P5P 'J- (' A it '4 lu jfZ imJi.i.,ii.iiil-.Trt. 1 luggprf I a By Deborah J. Daniels and Edward Smart Nine years have passed since we first heard about one of the most brutal and brazen acts ever committed against a child.

On Jan. 13, 1996, in broad daylight and in full view of witnesses, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was snatched from her bicycle by a stranger, thrown into a truck, and taken away. Four days later, her body was found in a drainage ditch a few miles from her Arlington, Texas, home. Her murder remains unsolved. The public shock and outrage generated by the crime was not without precedent, but the powerful legacy it left is without equal.

Immediately after Amber's kidnapping, citizens of DallasFort Worth flooded area radio stations with calls, not simply venting their disbelief or registering their disgust but actually suggesting ideas for preventing similar tragedies from occurring in the future. The result was a unique partnership between broadcasters and law enforcement officials created in memory of the murdered girl. Amber Alert is an early warning system set up to thwart child abductions, which it has done time and again. Amber, which stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, allows authorities to tap broadcast media, electronic highway signs, and even the telecommunications industry to seek out child abductors and their victims. Its effectiveness is rooted in its ability to mobilize our greatest asset, the public, and enlist i if I a i SAVE YOUR HOME STOPS FORECLOSURE STOPS I.R.S.

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