21st Century

W e send our elected representatives far from home to conduct the people's business. We send them to Washington, D.C., where they form what our flyboys (and flygirls) call "a target-rich environment" for the lobbyists and for the political party leadership. We send them far from us … to conduct our business. There was no other way in the 18th and 19th centuries and most of the 20th. In the 21st century, of course, this is absurd. As things now stand, it is too easy for lobbyists and party leadership to get at our elected legislators.

We send our elected representatives far from home to conduct the people's business. We send them to Washington, D.C., where they form what our flyboys (and flygirls) call "a target-rich environment" for the lobbyists and for the political party leadership. We send them far from us … to conduct our business. There was no other way in the 18th and 19th centuries and most of the 20th. In the 21st century, of course, this is absurd. As things now stand, it is too easy for lobbyists and party leadership to get at our elected legislators.

New Year's Day is celebrated because it's the start of a new calendar year and another opportunity to look forward, and resolve to do things differently - better, we hope - in the year to come. But what about Jan. 2, 2010? As it happens, this year it's a rare opportunity to look at the date itself - both forward and backward. The date is a palindrome. When written as a series of digits - month, date and year - it reads the same, from left to right, as it does from right to left: 01-02-2010.

I felt surprised when I found out that I would be seeing the Dalai Lama at an education summit in Washington, D.C. I also felt a sense of responsibility after leaving Constitution Hall that afternoon earlier this month. The responsibility, in my case, was about ensuring that the content of this conference enters the public dialogue. Marion Wright Edelman said it best that day by stating that democracy is not a spectator sport. And so my democratic responsibility, in Obama's America, is to trumpet that we must ensure that our public schools educate children for healthy minds and hearts.

The computer in my toaster might be more powerful than the one that guided Apollo 11. But half a century after Robert Noyce launched the cyber age by inventing the silicon-based integrated circuit, computers are curiously scarce in one huge and critical part of daily life. When power goes out in your neighborhood, Baltimore Gas & Electric has no idea until somebody picks up a phone and tells it. BGE still has to send out meter readers to figure out bills. Households are clueless about daily electricity price fluctuations.

Demonstrators filled Annapolis City Dock - one of hundreds of anti-tax tea parties held Wednesday across Maryland and the nation - to toss tea bags into the water in protest of the economic policies of President Barack Obama and Gov. Martin O'Malley. Articles, Pages 2, 3, 12

A documentary about a mad 1960s household, Must Read After My Death, constructed out of tape, Dictaphone recordings and home movies, premieres theatrically today in New York and digitally everywhere via its distributor's Web site, giganticdigital.com. The company charges $2.99 for a three-day "ticket," good for any number of viewings, and promises to stream the film in any quality up to high definition. Viewers will be able to adjust the image according to what looks right for their home screen.

At a time when books can be written and distributed to millions by high-speed computer, there is no earthly reason why anyone would need to spend $5.5 million to create an illuminated manuscript of the Catholic Bible, featuring calligraphy applied by hand on calfskin parchment and other bookmaking methods dating back to the Middle Ages. And yet, that may be exactly why such a project was launched in 2000 by monks from St. John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn. They're not doing it because they have to, but because they want to, for the glory of God and the enrichment of those who view the work.

The security world has changed drastically and unpredictably, expanding the range of potential threats, new missions, new forms of warfare and intelligence-gathering, and new technologies. Combined, these present many national security challenges for the incoming Obama administration. Consider: The perpetrator of the 9/11 terrorist attacks still pursues al-Qaida objectives; the U.S. and NATO fight the Taliban in Afghanistan; the battle against Iraqi insurgent forces continues; Iran threatens to go nuclear and supports Middle East terrorists; Gaza fighting erupts; and Russian tanks are in Georgia.