Dissent

ISUPPORT Sen. Obama, and attended his rally at the Constitution Center. There were just two groups with signs. On one side, his campaign had what was intended to look like a homemade sign: a sheet that was spray-painted, "This is Obama Country. " On the other, activists held up an equally large sign urging the acquittal of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The Mumia case embodies fear and frustration on both sides. People in our neighborhoods feel besieged by crime and understandably equate Daniel Faulkner with every brave officer who serves today.

Is there a role for dissent during a national emergency? If not, why not? If so, what is it and how is it best expressed? What are the limits? Send essays of about 100 words by Nov. 5, including a phone number for verification, to Voices/Dissent, The Inquirer, Box 41705, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101. Send e-mail to inquirer.letters@phillynews.com or faxes to 215-854-4483. Questions? Call Kevin Ferris, readers' editor, at 215-854-4543. To read many of the letters and Voices essays published about Sept.

RE YOUR editorial on school reform ("School Plan: Back to Basics," Feb. 27): You give the impression that new school CEO Arlene Ackerman has persuaded parents and students of the efficacy of her plan. But judging from recent protests, parents and students are far from sold on the idea that 30 of their schools will be closed and reconstituted as charter schools. Meanwhile, their teachers and administrators are being blamed for circumstances outside their control, especially the under-funded and arbitrary conditions imposed by No Child Left Behind.

Here in America we are locked somewhere between torpor and expectancy. A nation defined by its freedoms and arrogance, since Sept. 11 we have been stuck in this uncertain place. Here, the background music is not the clash of diverse voices raised in discussion or argument, but the drumbeat of war. Voices of difference and dissent are overwhelmed by cries for vengeance and retribution. Overnight, our patriotism has been abruptly redefined by the degree of our support for the administration of George W. Bush and the bombing of Afghanistan.

Last night's U.S. Supreme Court ruling featured a withering dissent by Justice John Paul Stevens that laid bare the deep divisions inside the court on whether it should decide the presidency. The case - which ended vote recounts in Florida and thus virtually handed the presidency to George W. Bush - bitterly divided the court, producing a total of six separate opinions, totaling 65 pages and separate dissents by each of the court's four most liberal members. Stevens said, "Time will one day heal the wound" to the confidence in the rule of law inflicted by the ruling.

A package of salary rates and pay raises for school district employees drew dissent Monday night from two members of the Upper Merion Area school board, who said some of the raises were too generous. After conducting an hour-long executive session on personnel issues, the board voted, 7-2, to approve a lengthy list of personnel appointments and salaries. There was no discussion on the matter at the meeting. Board members Dale Hemmerle and Carol Frisco voted against the entire list.

Presidents who are popular and skilled enough to win a second term often clean house in their cabinet before that term starts. The wholesale turnover now taking place in President Bush's cabinet is no different in that respect. But Bush's appointments to fill out his new team reveal a pattern that may not serve him well. Rather than bringing in "new blood" to many of these high-level posts, the President is reaching into his loyal inner circle time and again to fill the jobs. The danger is that an administration already lacking a healthy range of competing voices at the table will become further insulated.

City Councilman Franny Rafferty is like the brat whose mother sends up a prayer every time she puts him on the school bus. You can dress him up and sit him at his desk. But you can't make him play nice. In 10 years, little Franny has sneak-attacked two of his "classmates" (although few people would admit to being in the same class). He sucker-punched John Street during a Council session for saying something he didn't like about City Council. In another session, Rafferty didn't like something Lucien Blackwell said, so he punched him in the jaw. On Wednesday, Rafferty was at it again.

The Inquirer Sunday endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president and also published a dissenting point of view touting Republican John McCain. This is what some readers had to say: William D. Butler Merchantville For the first time, an African American has been nominated by a major party as its candidate for the presidency. For the first time, The Inquirer has added a dissent to an endorsement. It is difficult to see this as pure coincidence. Ordinarily, offering a dissent is merely meaningless in that conflicting endorsements cancel out each other, losing their potential for persuading or influencing readers.

AMMAN, Jordan - The surprise victory of 37 Islamist and other government critics despite an election boycott injects a degree of dissent into Jordan's newly empowered parliament. The king has portrayed the assembly as a centerpiece of his reform package, but the opposition says it's not enough and vowed Thursday to stage more street protests. Initial results released Thursday showed the Islamists - who are not linked to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood - and other opposition figures winning more than 25 percent of the 150-seat parliament, in sharp contrast to the outgoing legislature, which was almost entirely composed of the king's supporters.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Florida Highway Patrol issued a report Friday defending its actions surrounding a chain of fatal crashes on a fog-choked roadway, suggesting that unpredictable weather and motorist failures made it unlikely that any amount of planning or policy changes could have prevented the 11 deaths. The patrol rejected many findings of an April report by another state agency, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which found errors but not criminal violations were made in decisions leading to the Jan. 29 wrecks that killed 11 people along Interstate 75 near Gainesville.

BEIRUT - The U.N.'s top human-rights body voted overwhelmingly Friday to condemn Syria over the slaughter of more than 100 civilians last week, but Damascus appeared impervious to the crescendo of global condemnation following a string of horrific massacres. Syria's most important ally and protector, Russia, voted against the measure by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Russia has refused to support any move that could lead to foreign intervention in Syria, Moscow's last significant ally in the Middle East.

HARRISBURG — Spring is the season of pushback in the Capitol. The governor's spending plan is on the table, and invariably there are groups unhappy about its contents. With steep cuts proposed by Gov. Corbett in education and social services, the chorus of voices has grown louder this year — no fewer than a dozen rallies are scheduled in the Capitol this week alone — as the June 30 budget deadline looms. So, too, has the response by lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike, who think Corbett's "tough choices" budget cuts too deeply in the areas of education and social services.

The Pennsylvania State University board of trustees is dominated by a few wealthy and well-connected insiders, demands permanent secrecy, silences dissent, and is in dire need of reform, according to a scathing critical essay by a retired trustee seeking to return to the board. The first installment of a three-part, 3,700-word treatise by Ben Novak, a 1965 Penn State graduate who served as an alumni trustee from 1988 to 2000, was published in the Centre Daily Times newspaper on Sunday.

Paul J. Hetznecker is a criminal defense/civil rights lawyer who is representing several Occupy Philadelphia activists The spontaneous, peaceful Occupy movement has challenged us to closely examine the emergent corporate state and the corresponding demise of our democracy. Equally important is the spotlight the movement has put on the heart and soul of our democracy: the right to speak freely, to assemble in protest, and to express shared ideas through a collective, public voice.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The death toll in the Syrian uprising has soared to at least 3,500, the United Nations said Tuesday, a sobering measure of a military crackdown that has bloodied city after city but failed to crush the eight-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Under the strain of daily killings, some Syrians see a fracturing of society as resentments over religion, sectarian identity, and poverty bubble to the surface. Moreover, there were new signs that an uprising that has been largely unarmed is increasingly starting to fight back, threatening more bloodshed.

THE Daily News People's Editorial Board just weighed in on the issue of school governance. I'm a member of the board, but I have to dissent from its solution, which is to change - well, nothing really. Keep the School Reform Commission and the entire top-down, one-size-fits-all system by which public education is dispensed in this city. Leave it all to the "experts" who have presided over the decline and fall of public education, here and elsewhere, for 50 years now. The People's Board suggests putting a parent on the SRC. Are all current members childless?

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syrian troops mounted deadly new raids against dissent Monday as President Bashar al-Assad's embattled regime won key support from longtime ally Russia, which said a U.N. resolution on Syria must not contain sanctions. The top U.N. human-rights official said the death toll in Syria had reached at least 2,600 from the government's violent crackdown on protests the last six months, and the U.N. Human Rights Council named a panel to investigate allegations of rights abuses there.

At this time of year, with the time until the trading deadline measured in hours instead of days or weeks, the tug of war frequently comes down to Today vs. Tomorrow. The late Washington Redskins coach George Allen famously philosophized that the future is now, and it would seem that most Phillies fans concur. There is a strong tide of public opinion that, after constructing a pitching staff for the ages, Ruben Amaro Jr. must now do whatever it takes to get the righthanded bat the lineup so clearly needs and ignore the potential downside down the road.