Editorials and Opinions

Dave Nyczepir •

There’s an understated resilience in Lex’s eyes. Caught in his soft gaze, the recognition hits that he’s experienced far more in his lifetime than any human would wish to. The Iraqi War veteran has witnessed the terrors of combat. He has weathered that storm. For a nine-year-old German Shepherd, that’s saying something.

A commemorative Purple Heart recipient, Lex was a Marine Corps bomb-sniffing canine stationed in Fallujah, a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar. More than once, the job he and his handler performed out on the front lines saved lives. On March 21, 2007, Lex survived the rocket-propelled grenade blast that claimed the life of his handler, Corporal Dustin J. Lee. Battered but not broken, Lex’s recovery has been an arduous process. Fortunately, he has not undertaken it alone.

Through the efforts of Walter Jones, the Republican U.S. Representative from North Carolina, Cpl. Lee’s parents, Jerome and Rachel, were able to adopt Lex. This was an unprecedented occurrence in the Marine Corps’ history. Nine months following the passing of his handler, and in the midst of his second tour in Iraq, Lex faced early retirement. However, upon arriving in Quitman, Mississippi, it became clear that Lex still struggled to walk.

Despite receiving treatment at Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, Lex’s condition persisted. Still, fortune continued to smile on the veteran. As a result of correspondence between Connie Harriman-Whitfield, Senior Advisor to the Humane Society of the United States, and her husband, Kentucky Congressman Ed Whitfield, Lex’s situation came to light. The Whitfields, being clients of Georgetown Veterinary Hospital’s Dr. Lee W. Morgan, had heard of a cutting-edge stem cell treatment he offered that could be applied in Lex’s case.

The only issue was cost.

According to Dr. Morgan, “They raised some money and I lowered my price. I cut it to what it cost me to do it, and they raised money through private donations.”

In the end, Harriman-Whitfield convinced the Humane Society to contribute $2,000 towards the Vet-Stem procedure’s final cost of $4,400. Lex was flown up, and the three-stage treatment began on November 16, 2010.

Dr. Morgan has practiced in Georgetown for nine years and is the only veterinarian in the area to offer the radical Vet-Stem procedure. The first phase of the treatment consists of fat collection. Once procured, the fat is sent to a lab, where the adult stem cells it contains can be isolated. After the stem cells have been purified in phase two, they are returned to Morgan. In the final phase, Morgan transplants the stem cells into the affected tissue, which in Lex’s case was his hip, knee, and spinal cord.

Given the extent of Lex’s war wounds, his x-rays are a jarring sight. When asked how many pieces of shrapnel remain embedded in Lex’s body, Dr. Morgan replied, “I don’t know, 50 maybe. This was hard, showing this to the parents, because this was the shrapnel that killed their son.”

The piece causing the most problems is lodged in Lex’s spine and appears surgically inoperable. But if all goes as planned, once injected, the stem cells should be attracted to the damaged tissue and hopefully differentiate into the articular cartilage Lex has lost.

For his part, the war hero seems to be taking it all in stride. Aside from the wobble in his gait and a drain on his back, meant to prevent fluid buildup where the fat was extracted, Lex appeared no worse for wear. He’d been sleeping well in Dr. Morgan’s care, undoubtedly due to the vet’s commitment to alleviating Lex’s chronic pain. Moreover, Lex’s kind, gentle demeanor has gone unaffected. He sauntered over to say hello and gratefully accepted a belly rub, before his inquisitive nature took over and directed him towards the waiting room. “You can tell that the owners really love this dog,” says Morgan.

Cases like Lex’s are what drove Dr. Morgan to learn how to perform the Vet-Stem procedure, and he is impressed with its success. In one instance, a dog, Lucky, had completely lost use of his hind legs. Following treatment, he regained their full function. Fox News went so far as to film footage of Lucky playing in the beach surf. This transformation is a testament to what the treatment is capable of accomplishing.

“This will be my ninth [surgery] that I’ve done since last year,” says Morgan, “and I’ve gotten complete success in seven of them and partial success in one. It usually takes four to six weeks to see whether it’s going to take.”

Thus, following Thursday’s surgery, the Lee family will play the waiting game. The 48-hour procedure is reported to lead to continued cartilage development for up to 24 months. 80% of dogs that undergo the treatment experience slight to significant improvement.

Emotions are high because all who have heard of or met Lex empathize with the Lee’s story. Dr. Morgan is acutely aware of what is at stake.

When asked what drove him to help Lex, Dr. Morgan was heartfelt in his response: “You can see what the family’s been through. What would you do? I consider it a real honor to be allowed to do this. This is the biggest case of my life and one of the most emotional ones. And I’ve been practicing for 14 years.”

Lex is scheduled to head back to Mississippi on Friday, November 19. He will stay with Dr. Morgan until he is ready to return home. This will enable the veterinarian to ensure that there are no postoperative problems. Only time will tell if Lex’s cartilage will repair itself, but those involved are optimistic. The Vet-Stem therapy could go a long way to restoring Lex’s health while preserving Corporal Dustin J. Lee’s memory—a result befitting these American heroes.

Gary Tischler •

Candidate Forums, at this stage in the campaign to fill the At Large City Council Seat vacated by Kwame Brown’s winning bid for the City Council Chair, are a little like large meet and greets. They resemble the political equivalent of speed dating.

The election for the seat isn’t until April 26, which leaves plenty of time for voters and interested parties to get to know the candidates, and vice versa. And there’s a lot to choose from in terms of quantity, with the quality being currently evaluated. Close to ten candidates are in the field, and one of them is already sitting on the council.

We went to a couple of these forums, one in the Downtown area sponsored by the Penn Quarter Association at the Madame Tussauds wax museum, another the Good Will Baptist Church sponsored by the Kalorama Citizens Associations in Adams Morgan. Another forum was recently held by the Georgetown Citizens Association.

Three things frame these forums and this election. Most importantly, this is a citywide election, and whoever wins will get some political cred for having citywide voter appeal. This is not a small thing, because of the second critical factor in this campaign: it is being waged with a noisy background of scandal and uncertainty—so much so that it almost seems like a re-waging of the Fenty/Gray mayoral race.

The third thing is that this is a time when candidates stake out their territory, test their appeal, make claims to being this or that kind of candidate. Like for instance “reform”—this time not of the schools, but of the city and its political culture—a word much overused here.

You’ll hear a lot of that from Joshua Lopez, the Georgia Avenue resident and seeming firebrand who is vocally calling for cutting the salaries of the city council members and who paints himself as an anti-establishment type who “will stand up to people.” He also presents himself as the first serious Hispanic candidate for a major citywide elected office.

Be that as it may, many—but not all—of the candidates gathered at the Penn Quarter forum in monumentally odd circumstances.

Surrounded by wax figures of presidents and politicians—a figure of Marion Barry, no less, greeted visitors to the forum as they walked down the stairs—the candidates were placed at a dais where life-size figures of the Jonas Brothers stood behind them, frozen in mid-performance, and Britney Spears, apparently working a strip pole, flanked the podium. Videos of Miley Cyrus and a gyrating Beyonce played on continuous reel in the background, which may explain the “flimsy top” reference in my notebook.

“I have to say this is the strangest setting for a forum I’ve ever attended,” Bryan Weaver, a veteran ANC commissioner from Ward 1 quipped. He too is a reformist, but Weaver, articulate and known for his community involvement in Adams Morgan for years, wants to reform the political culture. “You have to change things, you have to change the way the council doe’s things, and the way the mayor’s office does things. There are lots of good ideas, but it’s the implementation of policy that matters the most. We don’t have oversight about who gets contracts and how things get done. It’s all well and good to write legislation, propose change, but ideas, once they leave the council chambers, don’t seem to get implemented.”

Sekou Biddle is the focus of a lot of attention these days—the Washington born educator was named to the seat vacated by Brown by the local Democratic committee, pushed by both Mayor Vincent Gray and Brown himself. That might have been an advantage two or three weeks ago, but now it’s an iffy endorsement, which can be used by his opponents against him.

“It’s not about endorsements,” Biddle said. “It’s about experience, what you can do and what you can get done.”

He’s the only one who can say he’s a councilman, which does count for something, because he’ll have a lot more name familiarity, a heads up on the council culture and ways of business, and he can speak from the experience he’s gained. Biddle also comes from the Teach for America environment that brought Chancellor Michelle Rhee and current Chancellor Kaya Henderson to Washington. There’s no question about where Biddle stands on school reform, nor is there a question about his expertise.

Vincent Orange has had a lot of experience too, having served as Ward 7 Councilman before running for mayor five years ago. “I have more experience than anyone, I came with Mayor Anthony Williams, and together, all of us changed the political and practical environment of the city,” he said. “We got things done.”

With Orange, the problem isn’t experience, but familiarity. This is his second recent major run for major office, not counting his mayoral bid, and the first one, in spite of being endorsed by the Washington Post, ended in defeat against Brown in the race for chairman.

Then there’s Patrick Mara, the jaunty, young Columbia Heights residents, who reminds everyone that he is the only Republican in the race. A school board member—and an unsuccessful at large candidate several years ago, in which he helped oust long-time GOP council member Carol Schwartz—he calls himself progressive on social issues and conservative on financial issues. “I’m not your typical Republican,” he says.

He was late to the Adams Morgan meeting, saying, “You know, when you have a name like Patrick Mara, you get invited to a lot of St Patrick Day’s parties. I apologize for being late.”

Weaver hammers the theme of accountability and transparency, but he can get lost in the wonk and details sometimes, peppering his words with acronyms that not everybody is familiar with. But he also comes across as dedicated and smart, with no ax to grind. Lopez says he’s the outsider, but he’s also spent a lot of time working for Adrian Fenty campaigns and in his council office, according to his campaign biography. He also worked as a deputy manager of Muriel Bowser’s Ward 4 City Council Campaign.

The campaign has now become part of the background landscape, and that landscape sees Mayor Gray mired in controversy and Kwame Brown again under fire. The winner in this campaign gets something nobody gets right now: a fresh start.

Gary Tischler •

People of grace and the graceless: We have nothing but admiration for the Japanese people, especially those who suffered directly from the earthquake and the tsunami. No lootings, stoic bearing, grace under pressure. A nice word, too, for the media reporters who stayed and covered this disaster amid the obvious dangers, as well as those covering the tumultuous and continuing events in the Middle East and North Africa. They too placed themselves at risk and worked in dangerous conditions, and some of them paid the price.

Not so for the home front television newsies who keep thinking that all news is about us. How else to explain the amount of time allotted to a local mother and her son who were in Tokyo at the time of the quake, were scared by the swaying buildings, were ripped off at the airport and had to drive from all the way home from Chicago. No disrespect to the people interviewed, but doesn’t that seem a mite less than devastating when compared to the losses suffered by the victims of the disaster? Get a grip or get a gripe.

The scandal at City Hall…don’t get me started. Have you noticed that the wheels of government seem to be grinding like teeth? Now that Mayor Vincent Gray has hired a high profile lawyer and basically dumped his chief of staff—shortly before she was supposed to testify before the city council on hiring matters—things have not gotten better. They’ve just gotten quieter, except for Sulaimon Brown’s occasional forays on local television.

Brown appeared for a Fox TV News interview last week in which he again accused the mayor of being a crook. “The public needs to know that their mayor is a crook,” he said, more than once. Asked about his own status, he said he could not answer that question, or other questions about proof of his charges that he was paid by Gray aides and promised a job for going after Fenty at candidate forums.

He’s kept his concern about what the public needs to know to himself for quite some time, precisely to the time he was ousted from the $100,000 plus job he did end up getting.

Gray’s reactions to all this, and the furor that his hiring of friends and the children of friends at over-the-limit salaries remain strangely muffled and muted, to friends and foes alike.

In the meantime, there’s a growing power vacuum in city government and on the city council. Chairman Kwame Brown, with his own troubles, is becoming less of a factor in the dealings of the council by all accounts. And we hope Mayor Gray isn’t listening to Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry, who’s an expert on matters like these. According to a Washington Post columnist, he’s arguing that Gray is a victim of Fenty supporters on the council and that hiring friends and their children is no big deal. Maybe in Mayor Daley’s day it wasn’t, but it should be for a candidate who ran as a man whose integrity was above reproach.

Barry’s done this kind of thing before when he’s been under fire, or gotten caught on tape. It’s an old Barry game: we call it divide and con.

What it isn’t, and what Mayor Gray shouldn’t let it become, is a barrier to his most effective campaign slogan which is fast becoming an impossible dream: One City.

Now the city is faced with the possibility of investigation by the house oversight committee, which is licking its chops.

This isn’t one of those tempests in a teapot you can ride out. We’d still like to hear some straight, heartfelt and mindful talk from Mayor Gray. A lot of people who supported him based on his apparent merits are sorely disappointed. Among them appears to be Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, who, at considerable political cost, supported his candidacy when her constituents were markedly against it.

Where is all this union bashing and anti-collective bargaining coming from? The governor of Wisconsin seems to have touched off both a concerted effort on the part of local governments to punish, debilitate or get rid of public employee unions, which has caused unions (what’s left of them) to rise up. So far the governor insists that he’s a deficit cutter, not a union buster, but he has not shown how busting public employee unions cut the deficit.

But hey, the GOP did manage to pass legislation to cut off funding for Public Broadcasting. Only a trillion and change to go. Way to go, tough guys.

Drawn by the slogan pachyderms and clowns, we ran up to the hill the other day thinking it was a meeting of GOP regulars and their Tea Party additions. Turns out it really was a parade of elephants and clowns. But I repeat myself.

Gary Tischler •

Earlier this week, I was talking to a neighbor of mine in Adams Morgan. The usual stuff—the Mayor, the budget, the at-large election, the government shutdown, the weather—almost everything but Charlie Sheen.

And like a lot of people in my neighborhood and across the city, he’s interested in the Mayor’s budget proposals—as well as the mayor’s perceived and otherwise problems. Or, as one of my other neighbors put it: “He hired the guy, that’s it.” And everyone thinks there’s going to be trouble over the budget.

Over what? The total of $187 million in spending cuts? Well, yeah. Gotta do it. The $18 million in cuts in education as well as public safety? Well, that’s troubling, sure.

How about the $113.4 million cuts in social services. You’d think that might be a little controversial, given that it’s the biggest percentage of cuts in the budget and is bound to hurt a lot of those who have the least already.

Alas, no. The biggest political struggle is going to be over the tax increases for those earning more than $200,000 a year.

That’s the big divider in the budget issue, the big combat zone when it comes to the city council, which has to approve the Mayor’s budget, and now likely to be a big topic on the campaign trail for the at-large city council seat.

It’s a city divider in a way, but maybe it shouldn’t be. The Mayor’s hiring scandal is a potential city divider and continues to be so. Councilwoman Mary Cheh’s hiring hearing commenced into part two this week, with the appearance of former Gray Chief of Staff Gerri Mason Hall, who was fired in the wake of controversy and investigations surrounding the hiring (and then firing) of Sulaimon Brown, the former mayoral candidate who has accused the mayor of “being a crook.”

According to written and television reports, Hall said that she had not spoken to the Mayor about hiring Brown, as she had been asked to do. Brown showed up at the hearing but left after he decided that it was “a witch hunt,” going to what he thinks might be the friendlier atmosphere of a U.S. Attorney’s investigation and a congressional committee.

Yet to be heard from are Brown and Lorraine Green, the Mayor’s close advisor and longtime close friend who ran his campaign, and who appears to be at the center of the controversy. Still not heard from in any definitive way is Gray himself, who has yet to make any aggressive attempts to clear up the unanswered questions surrounding the controversy.

When it comes to the budget, and to the budget battles on the hill which may yet (as of this afternoon) cause a government shutdown: if people with nothing are going to see drastic cuts in safety net services, why shouldn’t people with a little and a lot more than everybody else do a little and a lot more of their share? Of course, President Obama made this a campaign lynchpin and instead ended up having to extend President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy a little while longer. And tax cuts for the wealthy seems to be a core value for the proposed 2012 GOP version of a budget.

What is it about everybody sharing in sacrifice during hard times—you know, state budgets imploding, bankruptcy, high (if declining) unemployment—nobody is appalled about the idea of the rich getting richer and not even paying their fair share.

Why, in short, should General Electric, with profits in the billions for 2010, not pay ANY taxes? Because loopholes exist that allow them to do that? What would happen if you tried to end the loopholes? Stuck pig time, that’s what would happen. It’s all perfectly legal.

Where did we get this notion that raising taxes is a discussion and vote killer?

Why, in short, aren’t people doing Peter Finch’s out their window about this—and about CEO’s who have prospered mightily during the upward surge of the DOW, the fact that the only person going to jail during the economic collapse was Bernie Madoff? They’re angry all right—stoked by the Tea Party. They’re mad at teachers, policemen and firemen, not billionaires who outsource jobs that should have stayed here.

Not only that, but you rarely hear about corporate excesses—no taxes?—because corporations like GE own quite a bit of media outlets, notably NBC. According to a Washington Post story, the GE tax situation has rarely if ever been mentioned on the nightly news with Brian Williams. Shouldn’t Brian Williams say something about Brian Williams not saying something?

I’ve always felt when network news—especially millionaire star reporters, pundits and anchor people—tackles such issues as tax policy, they should first preface anything they might have to say by stating what their yearly income is—how many millions—and how they might profit or lose money from the tax policy under discussion.

Fat chance on that one. But the NFL football players, another group of overpaid millionaires, are on strike for their fair share of billions in television contract revenue, thus making a joke of the collective bargaining process that’s such a combative issue in the national politics.

And speaking of the nightly news on NBC, how about that Donald Trump? Two evenings ago a major segment of the news showed a poll, which showed that Trump, who cast about his usual rumors of a presidential run like pearls before media swine, is second among potential candidates for the GOP nomination, and something of a darling of the Tea Party.

Mind you, this was something like an 8% thing, right up there with such stalwarts as Romney, Palin, Bachman and Huckabee, and for something light years away. But still.

Turns out, as NBC political expert Chuck Todd pointed out, that Trump, who managed to go broke in Atlantic City just like all the other suckers, had a taped interview with Meredith Vierra set to air the next day on the Today Show (on NBC), in which he revealed himself to be something of a birther, asking the president to produce a birth certificate and expressing his doubts about Obama’s citizenship. This plays well with the tea party, but it’s not news. What it was was a plug for the Today Show disguised as news. I expect Billy Bush to someday become the anchor of the nightly news, because he’s really good at this sort of thing, with the added gift of having no shame whatsoever.

As I write this with one eye on the Internet, there’s still no word on a settlement on the hill. But they’re close. The only hitch: that dratted Planned Parenthood thing which is not about cutting spending and, of course, who gets the most blame if a shutdown occurs, which is not about spending either. It’s about politics and politicians. Only lawyers are detested more than politician, and on the hill, that’s a twofer.

Where is H.L. Mencken when we need him? Dead, still. And sit down, Bill Maher. You’re not it.

Veena Trehan •

“Ask not what your city can do for you,” said DC Mayor Vincent Gray at his inauguration two weeks ago. “Ask what you can do for your city.”

Gray’s reiterating of President Kennedy’s famous speech reminds us that 2011 cannot only motivate personal improvement, but also inspire contributions to our community. Adopt five New Year’s resolutions to do just that:

Donate Food – Hunger is a huge problem in Washington. A down economy and high unemployment have left over 600,000 DC residents hungry, including an estimated 200,000 kids. The Capital Area Food Bank collects and delivers food to 700 partner agencies. “It’s life’s most basic need,” says communications manager Shamia Holloway.

But for the primarily “working poor” population who struggle with child care, transportation and rent expenses, “it’s the easiest budget item to cut.” Ironically Americans waste, on average, a half a pound of food daily. So donate produce or nonperishable items to the Capital Area Food Bank, Martha’s Table, or another worthy organization that serves the city’s hungry.

Volunteer in the Schools – More than half of DC public schools’ third graders read below grade level. Mount Pleasant resident and Obama canvasser Mark D’Agostino saw this as a challenge. After the 2008 election, he and a few friends used their volunteer list and free weekends to start the Grassroots Education Project. About 60 volunteers help Tubman Elementary School students learn to read on Saturday mornings, often searching for books that target kids’ interests. “It’s really inspiring to see the initiative they show and how much they enjoy working with the kids,” says D’Agostino. It’s effective too; twice as many children in the program achieve grade-level reading compared to those not in it. DCPS certifies volunteers who want to work with kids and e-mails them opportunities, suggesting they then coordinate with local schools.

Green It Up – Exposure to nature has been linked to stress reduction, a longer attention span and more creativity. But many in the US are getting out less. Residents in one of America’s greenest cities have no excuse not to visit and live off the land. Bike on the Rock Creek Park or go hiking at Great Falls. Sign up for a plot in one of over 50 community gardens in DC or the suburbs, or build a backyard vegetable garden. Compost. The benefits? Relaxation, fresh vegetables, camaraderie and, of course, keeping DC beautiful.

Appreciate the Arts – DC’s cultural scene is thriving on the whole, but some organizations are struggling. Fortunately, Washington will have especially compelling historical, political, cultural and literary offerings in 2011. Bring a friend to enjoy the city’s many scenes. Glance at Richard Avedon’s pictures of President Kennedy or immerse yourself in India during The Kennedy Center’s March festival. Watch the civil rights movement unfold at the National Museum of American History, or listen to indigenous voices speak about climate change at the National Museum of the American Indian. Laugh through the Folger’s “The Comedy of Errors,” or contemplate the cost of your iPhone at Woolly Mammoth’s upcoming production of Mike Daisey’s “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs”. The result is a spiritual yet paradoxical reward: “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time,” said monk Thomas Merton.

Tip Well – DC had the greatest income inequality of large cities, according to a DC Fiscal Policy Institute study that analyzed census data from 2000. Since then, the city has seen stock of low income housing drop and a tremendous influx of high-income neighborhoods, says DCFPI Director Ed Lazere. Help out by emulating New York, which has a culture of extensive and generous tipping. Tip staff members who keep you glamorous, fed, healthy and safe – and don’t forget the workers mostly behind the scenes. The benefits will accrue to overqualified staff, underemployed citizens and those otherwise struggling.

Enrich others as well as our schools, theaters, museums and parks in 2011. Keeping DC growing and green will benefit both Washington and Washingtonians.
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