Bangor Daily News, Sept.6
A year ago, many Mainers learned for the first time that hundreds of Central American men spend their summers toiling in the Maine woods. They learned this after 14 of these men died when the van they were riding in plunged off a remote logging road bridge into the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 12 accident, those close to the men from Honduras and Guatemala and many who had no connection to them went through the gamut of emotions that follow a tragedy. …

A year later, it has become increasingly clear that the crash was less a symptom of deeper problems in the woods and more what it first appeared, a terrible tragedy, the worst traffic accident in the state’s history. …

Given this conclusion, it is not clear that changing “the system,” as some lawmakers and advocates have suggested, would have saved the men’s lives. …

Woods landowners were criticized for housing workers far from work sites. In fact, workers choose where to live and this crew decided to live in Caribou, more than two hours from the land they were working on, and not in a closer community. Attempts to provide housing in the woods have fallen out of favor in the past, but the state’s largest landowner, J.D. Irving Ltd., is going to try it again. … It remains to be seen whether workers will want to live there, far from the diversions of even a small town.

There have been other positive steps since the accident. The Forest Resources Association, a coalition of landowners, gave first-aid, brush-saw operation and van-driving courses to more than 260 workers this summer. The courses, many taught in Spanish, will be reviewed for possible improvement later this month before being offered again next year.

The biggest disappointment since the accident remains the U.S. Department of Labor, which earlier this year moved to revoke the license of the contractor who employed the men killed in the accident. His license was to be lifted for violations of labor law, including failure to provide workers with safe transportation, because the van was driven at imprudent speed, and to properly register the driver of the van.

However, because Evergreen Forestry Services did not renew its license earlier this year, the department dropped the proceedings. Problem is that Evergreen popped up again in Maine this year with a new name, Progressive Environmental, but basically the same management and many of the same employees. The Maine Department of Labor says it cannot investigate the ownership and past record of a company; that is up to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Maine labor department approved Progressive to hire 340 foreign workers in Maine this summer because “they followed the procedures.” An official at the federal department said the conversion of Evergreen to Progressive was “interesting.”

With the perspective of a year, the tragedy seems less likely to point toward significant changes in the woods, even as the sadness remains.


Danger was hidden


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on Sept. 10
Weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, a shroud of smoke and dust blanketed Lower Manhattan. Although the search for survivors – and answers – was the most urgent priority, a local newspaper raised concerns about the dangers airborne pollution posed to thousands of residents and rescue workers. … In various EPA press releases and public utterances at the time, the air around ground zero was declared “safe to breathe.”

As it turns out, those statements were at the very least premature, and perhaps willfully inaccurate. …

It’s troubling that no one has assumed responsibility for the flawed air quality reports or offered a cogent explanation of what went wrong. …


Price must be paid


The San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 9
The price tag for Iraq’s reconstruction, detailed by President Bush in his televised address to the nation, is indeed huge. But it is a burden Americans must bear willingly. To do anything less would risk Iraq’s disintegration into a fertile land for Islamic extremism, terrorism and adventurism.

In the end, the costs of U.S. failure in Iraq would be many times greater than the $87 billion in postwar assistance sought by President Bush. …

The long-term security interests of the civilized world would be irreparably undermined. …


Too much to ask


Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, Sept. 9
The central theme of U.S. President George W. Bush’s address was a request to Congress for a supplementary budget of $87 billion to maintain a troop presence in Iraq while the reconstruction process continues.

At the same time, Bush characterized Iraq as “the central front” in the fight against terrorism and asked Japan and countries in Europe and the Middle East to provide financial assistance, which he characterized as a “contribution.”

It is just too much to ask other nations to provide financial contributions without specifying the anticipated future of Iraqi self-rule and discussing ways to achieve it. …