| ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ridge resigned, who cares?
Buzzing through the Tuesday headlines of a few major news sites -- ABC, CBC, MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times and Fox -- it appears that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has resigned. I am still trying to figure out why anyone should care. Why does this man's resignation matter so much so that his mug shot, of the classic old-white-guy-in-business-suit type, should be pushing any other news out of the way? Why does this man matter to anyone, especially now that he's leaving? Perhaps it was his elegance and passion. In a much reported e-mail quote, Ridge "praised the (Homeland Security) department as 'an extraordinary organization that each day contributes to keeping America safe and free.'" What a gift of being concise, public-relations savvy and utterly, meaninglessly neutral. It is, indeed, mentioned in several articles that Ridge is a "career politician." A newsworthy fellow, indeed. I suppose my incomprehension of the importance of Ridge's resignation also stems from my incomprehension of the value that the media constantly assigns to "administrators." Administrators are important; they organize things. Sometimes they think about important issues -- new ways to go about things and the like. But why the excessive attention, especially in this case? Another statistic frequently mentioned in articles about Ridge states, "He has presided over six national 'orange alerts,' when the government boosted security out of concern that an attack may be coming." Not as frequently mentioned, but noted in The New York Times, was that Mr. Ridge came up with the "color-coding" alarm system, is friends with Bush from back when they were both governors and was often criticized for calling "orange" at politically-sensitive times. In one article, however, he maintained that, "we don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security." I would certainly hope not. I suppose if you're a designated administrator, you have at least a degree of credibility if you were voted in, maybe more for your status as a figurehead than your ideas, but credibility nonetheless. But, in this case, Ridge wasn't even voted in -- he was appointed. And now it's big news when, two years later, he resigns "for personal reasons" and mentions something about a "time-consuming, stressful post." I can think of several other "time-consuming, stressful" posts that people can't just resign from, for personal reasons or otherwise. I can think of several other topics for the media to cover, too. Most of the articles about Ridge contained a short biography of his life and a quick peak into what makes a man worthy of being the first secretary for a new government institution. But no article really discussed what he actually did during the last two years, other than a vague reference to "leading a massive undertaking to rethink all aspects of security within the U.S. borders in the wake of the terror attacks of September 2001." One man, in his late 50s, after a life of safe, secure, homeland politicking, is credited with administering a relatively abstract concept, and his picture is suddenly reverenced by many worldwide news organizations, while the small headline next to it, "U.S. toll in Iraq equals grim mark," sits quietly in the corner. Tomorrow must be better. |
| ||||||||||||||||||
