Giving up control

The flap over the naming of a stretch of Missouri Highway 160 near Springfield for the late Jewish theologian and civil-rights activist Rabbi A.J. Heschel shows what complications can result when the state privatizes what should be a public function.

The public function at play here is the responsibility to maintain roadways, including removing litter from the roadside. The problem arose because Missouri has partially abdicated that responsibility in favor of private groups, which agree to remove trash regularly in return for the publicity of a state-erected sign.

The New York Times pointed out in a June 20 article that these so-called highway-adoption programs have been exploited by racist groups like the Klan, and that courts have upheld the racist groups’ right to have their adoptions recognized with state-erected signs.

That led Missourians who rightly despise racism to try the renaming jiu-jitsu on the racists. Then Susannah Heschel went public, objecting to the renaming as disrespectful to her father’s memory.

We understand Susannah Heschel’s feelings. But she does not control every reference to her father, who is, after all, a historical figure.
This brouhaha should make anyone who favors school-voucher schemes ponder the sort of problems that could result from such a serious abdication of state responsibility.

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment