The Gadsden Times | Good news on shelters

FEMA has been a major player in Alabama after the April tornadoes and helped build storm shelters at four schools that had to use temporary classrooms because of storm damage. A puzzling FEMA policy would have forced to the schools, once the temporary classrooms were replaced, to either buy, sell (and give the money to FEMA) or demolish the storm shelters. With only Tuscaloosa as an exception, the cash-strapped schools wouldn't be able to afford to buy the shelters nor could their communities. Their investment in the shelters — the schools paid 25 percent of the cost — would be lost. So, too, would the taxpayer money that FEMA used. The policy simply made no sense.

Bachus had introduced a bill to change the policy, but FEMA officials didn't wait and have assured Aderholt and Bachus that they will work with the schools, allowing them to acquire the shelters. Tearing down the shelters, which will serve students and the surrounding communities, made no sense. It's good to know a solution has been reached.

Characters still needed

Let's be clear at the start: There's no constitutional issue involved in Hank Williams Jr, and his song, “All My Rowdy Friends,” being dropped from the opening credits of TV's “Monday Night Football” after nearly two decades.

We've often noted that the First Amendment says government can't interfere with free speech. It says nothing about employers. So ESPN had every right to cut its ties with Williams (he claims he did the “cutting,” but anyone who thinks there was a way he could've stayed is naive) after an interview with Fox News in which he likened the June golf date pitting President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden against House Speaker John Boehner and Ohio Gov. John Kasich to “Hitler playing with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.”

Dropping the “H” word, especially in an analogy involving the president of the United States, means instant trouble, and ESPN doesn't want trouble or distractions from what it's about: broadcasting sports events.

Also, the political divide in the U.S. at present is so stark, every syllable uttered by a public figure is going to be seized on as ammunition in the conflict. There's no hiding anyone's words, and there are no second chances.

Our fear is situations like this will make networks hesitant to hire or feature people with strong personalities and points of view — Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” pointed out that ESPN could've looked at Williams' persona and discography and known what it was getting.

Blandness is boring. Characters are risky, but more fun, and we hope there always will be room for them.

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