Ban steroid users

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports Editor Garry Howard says that because the steroid scandal is in the past that baseball should, in his words, “Let it go.” Criminal laws were broken and, in many cases, the league’s own rules were cast aside, but, hey, let’s make as if nothing ever happened. After all, attendance is up, revenues are up, and home runs are up. And that’s all that matters, right?

Howard’s apparent lack of an ethical compass is exactly what’s wrong with sports – and society – today. Let’s hold no one accountable, particularly highly paid athletes. And, in fact, let’s sign them to even bigger salary increases. That’s a wonderful message to send to the world, especially young people who idolize these players: Be rewarded for breaking the law and cheating.

By Howard’s logic, then, we should perhaps overlook every crime against society because as soon as any crime is committed it’s in the past.

Until sports franchise owners, general managers, coaches, and people like Howard begin to understand the value and need for principles, things in the long run are only going to get worse.

Eighty-five (and counting) wrongs don’t make a right. But this one big wrong needs to be made right. And the way to do that is to ban any player who used steroids from ever playing again at the so-called professional level. I’ll even concede that only those players who violated league rules should be banned.

Only then will Bud Selig be able to crow about how he saved baseball and a whole lot more … things like responsibility, accountability, integrity, and respect.

Thanksgiving weekend observations from in and around my neighborhood

What does it say when there are more sports team flags flying on homes than American flags?

What does it say when dogs being walked have better clothing than many people?

What does it say when more people are able to get up for a 4 a.m. after-Thanksgiving sale than are able to make it to a 9 a.m. church service?

Who should be laughing now?

An opulent $800 million MGM Grand Hotel and Casino recently opened in downtown Detroit. While Milwaukee leaders continually like to poke fun at Detroit, when was the last time any developer thought that highly of downtown Milwaukee? The only Milwaukee project of that magnitude was the deep tunnel sewer. But that was built with taxpayer dollars. I can't think of any private sector development in Milwaukee as large as the one in Detroit. So who should be laughing at whom?

Public-sector salary scam

While Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines, Jr. is seeking a cap on police overtime, he ought to also throw in an overtime cap for janitors (Building Maintenance Mechanics) at the Department of City Development (DCD). Either that or someone ought to teach DCD employees how to be more cleanly. Perhaps a “trash sensitivity course” would do the trick. In many cases, janitors make more in total pay than DCD planners. From the jsonline.com list of annual and total salaries paid to city employees, I counted 11 janitors who made more than $10,000 in overtime last year. One made over $20,000! And DCD is located in a relatively small four-story building. I remember a summer job I had with the county 40 years ago in which I was charged with keeping a one-story park building clean. It took me three hours a day to make the place spotless, and even that was stretching it.

And Milwaukee’s mayor wants to raise taxes by how much next year?

The bigger picture, of course, is that the list of city of Milwaukee employee salaries is testimony to the con job the public sector has done in convincing people that public-sector employees are so woefully underpaid, particularly compared to their private-sector peers. Add in the princely benefits and pensions that public sector employees enjoy compared to what’s available in the private sector and the argument about poorly compensated public employees becomes even more ridiculous. To a certain degree I don’t deny public employees their largesse because that’s what they negotiated, but to listen to them whine when asked to pay something for their benefits or moan about their sad situations is just insufferable and disingenuous.

They should shut up and thank their lucky stars they don’t have to compete in the private sector.

Manpower's world headquarters decidedly suburban

I just received an invite to the grand opening of Manpower’s New World Headquarters “in commemoration of the company’s return home to downtown Milwaukee.” There’s going to be champagne, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and valet parking. The attractive invite was die cut in the shape of Milwaukee’s skyline, which really didn’t require much die cutting since the skyline consists of one or two modestly tall buildings. Nevertheless, the invite gives the impression that Manpower’s new building is adding something to the skyline. But that would be misleading because the new building is four stories. Its parking garage is taller!

When I asked Manpower CEO Jeff Joerres during the building’s groundbreaking about 18 months ago why Manpower wasn’t putting up a tower that would be a landmark and that would make people stop and take note, he said that Manpower wasn’t a tower kind of company (does that mean no one in the company likes to move up?), not showy or flashy. I think that was Milwaukee-speak for, “We don’t want to spend a lot,” even though the city kicked in $25 million in tax incremental financing to help defray the cost of the $64 million building.

This world headquarters looks decidedly suburban. There’s nothing architecturally or even visually interesting or inspiring about it. It’s simply your typical Milwaukee red brick structure with some glass thrown in to keep its daytime inhabitants from becoming mole people. And the side most people will see – along Martin Luther King Drive – resembles the back side of a strip mall, complete with an asphalt surface parking lot. The only things that make the building palatable are that it fronts on the Milwaukee River and the colorful flags out front. The plaza that opens to the river, however, is stark. A fountain reinforcing the building’s connection to the river would have been nice, but it probably would have been considered too showy, flashy, or expensive. No, I think I’ll pass on this invite.

For the world headquarters of an $18 billion company, this building is bland and boring. And for the $25 million the city gave to Manpower, it should have held the company to higher building and architectural standards, but that’s what happens when a city has no real leaders.

TPG deal will leave Milwaukee stranded

While the Greater Milwaukee Committee and the Milwaukee media seem to think TPG Capital’s purchase of Midwest Airlines is a good deal – keeping the headquarters in Milwaukee with the same management team continuing to serve chocolate chip cookies – I believe it’s the shortsighted view.

This deal was a relatively low-risk, low-cost defensive move by Northwest Airlines to protect its two nearby mega-hubs in Minneapolis and Detroit. In its present condition, Northwest can ill afford additional competition, no matter if it’s from a small airline like Midwest or in a slowly shriveling city like Milwaukee. And this was a small price to pay to be able to eventually take control of and then remove an annoyance that is siphoning traffic from its hubs. With Midwest out of the way, Northwest will offer Milwaukeeans two options: flights to Minneapolis or flights to Detroit, from which they’ll connect – assuming the flight hasn’t been cancelled – to their final destinations.

(Milwaukee to Memphis will be another Northwest option, but that hub isn’t as close to Milwaukee as Minneapolis or Detroit.)

But, you say, Northwest is merely a minority partner in TPG so it can’t call the shots. Not yet perhaps. And let’s not be naïve. TPG is strictly a front for Northwest, like an opening act is for the main attraction. And in the not too distant future, Northwest will have the right to acquire TPG’s interest in Midwest.

AirTran’s offer, on the other hand, represented an offensive move that would have raised Milwaukee’s image and put it at least a step closer to big-league status. Milwaukee would have become AirTran’s second largest market behind Atlanta and bigger even than AirTran’s headquarters city of Orlando. The number of daily flights would have gone from the approximate 140 offered by Midwest to just over 200. New nonstop destinations would have included San Diego, New Orleans, Miami, and Montreal, among others. More important, AirTran has a presence among travelers and travel planners nationally and internationally that Midwest doesn’t have. That alone made a merger with AirTran the more logical and sensible choice, even though AirTran could have taken over Midwest only to find that Milwaukee wasn’t what it thought it was and then left town. Nevertheless, I’ll take my chances with a successful and growing airline like AirTran than with an erratic and unreliable performer like Northwest.

And why was the decision made to go with TPG rather than AirTran? Well, you’d have to ask Midwest CEO Tim Hoeksema. But I would guess that somewhere along the line giant-sized egos entered into this: “This is my airline and I’ll make the decision who gets my airline.” History is littered with businesses killed off by egos. That’s especially true in the high-profile, seemingly glamorous world of commercial aviation. Eastern and Pan Am come to mind immediately.

But why approach an airline like Northwest? Not only does it have no incentive to see Midwest prosper much less survive, but Northwest at one time owned about 30% of AirTran Corp., a relationship in which there apparently was no love lost. (AirTran Airways subsequently was spun off.) So Northwest probably has a greater than normal competitive interest in seeing that airline founder as well. It just doesn't make sense, especially when Hoeksema says how much he cares about Milwaukee's future. Of course, ego has a way of trumping logic, common sense, and civic pride.

If you’re one who judges an airline by the cookies it serves, the TPG deal will be good for Milwaukee. After all, Hoeksema jubilantly proclaimed, “The cookies stay,” when announcing the TPG deal. That’s nice because I believe this deal leaves Milwaukee headed for another big bruise to its image and a half-empty airport. Rather than giving Hoeksema a standing ovation as the Downtown Milwaukee Rotary Club did the other day after his speech about the TPG deal, I'd be giving him the thumbs down.

How really proud is US Bank of the US Bank Championship in Milwaukee?

The Golf Channel scenes of Milwaukee downtown and the lakefront were excellent, but I found it interesting that the scenes I saw didn’t include the US Bank building, even though it’s on the lakefront and the tallest building in the city. I would assume that because US Bank was the tournament’s sponsor it would have asked The Golf Channel to include its Wisconsin headquarters in the scenes. But apparently it didn’t, which begs the question, is US Bank embarrassed about its Milwaukee building or at least of the cheesy signage atop the building, signage you won’t find in any other city in which US Bank has a significant presence, including Nashville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, or Minneapolis?

There was a promo for the tournament done with Richard K. Davis, president & CEO of US Bancorp, saying something to the effect that US Bank is proud to be hosting "the tournament here in Milwaukee." The background was a golf course, but it certainly didn’t look like Brown Deer Park Golf Course to me. Perhaps US Bank was proud, but not proud enough to do the promo in Milwaukee or at least use footage of the right golf course as background

Milwaukee, put a Band-Aid on it

Milwaukee leaders are fond of publicly poking fun at Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh by condescendingly asking the question, Does Milwaukee really want to be like these cities? Obviously these so-called leaders are extremely insecure about promoting Milwaukee and consequently they feel the need to resort to such classless rhetoric. My advice to them is to knock it off because all it does is embarrass the city – and themselves – even more.

The latest edition of US News & World Report (7/23-30, 2007) ranked America’s best hospitals on a number of criteria. Guess what? Milwaukee can’t hold a scalpel to Detroit, Cleveland, or Pittsburgh. With Milwaukee having some of the highest health care costs in the country – $2,653 annually vs. $2,496 annually nationwide from 2003-2004, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics – one would think the city has a surplus of great hospitals providing great health care. That might be true, but certainly not compared to these other cities.

The magazine ranked hospitals in 17 disciplines. Milwaukee hospitals showed up a disappointing total of four times in four categories. Pittsburgh hospitals, however, showed up 15 times in 15 categories; Detroit hospitals 17 times in nine categories; and Cleveland hospitals a heart-stopping 24 times in all 17 categories.

The highest rank a Milwaukee hospital reached was 24th (out of 50) in “endocrinology.” The best a Cleveland hospital did was 1st (out of 50) in “heart & heart surgery.” In fact, Cleveland hospitals were in the top 10 in 13 categories. The highest rank a Detroit hospital reached was 12th in “heart & heart surgery,” but it also had five hospitals that made the list in “neurology & neurosurgery.” The best a Pittsburgh hospital achieved was 3rd (out of 50) in “ear, nose & throat.”

Milwaukee likes to tout its children’s hospital, but it was no where to be seen other than in a paid ad in the magazine. On the other hand, Cleveland had two hospitals ranked (4th and 20th out of 26) in pediatrics, while Pittsburgh’s children’s hospital was 11th.

Instead of cutting on other cities, Milwaukee’s leaders should put a Band-Aid on it and focus on making our city healthy in every sense of that word.

Milwaukee: The city that time always seems to forget

An article in the most recent Business Week magazine (7/23/07) noted that despite the slowdown in housing development, there is a continuing explosion in office and hotel building nationwide. In May, according to the article, nonresidential outlays jumped 2.5%, with office space spending up 1.6%. CB Richard Ellis Group, the commercial real estate services company, was cited in the article as saying that U.S. office-space vacancy rates fell to 12.6%, from 13.7% a year ago, despite a 21.5% yearly increase in new office space during the second quarter. Would someone tell me where all the office and hotel building is taking place in Milwaukee, specifically downtown? Other than the small Staybridge Suites development on Water & Juneau, there is nothing under way. And all of those pie-in-the-sky proposals for the Park East are just that, a bunch of dreams that will never come true. Once again, Milwaukee is left behind.

Park East: Good for a few laughs

Normally, I’m not a told-you-so guy, but this one is too good to pass up. While the media and all of elected officialdom were running around crowing about Robert Ruvin’s big plans for the Park East, including an office building to house the advertising firm of Cramer-Krasselt (C-K), I was telling anyone who would listen (or wouldn’t listen), including a couple people from C-K, that Ruvin’s plans were as fleeting as all his hot air. Well, the story finally came out the other day that C-K is pulling out of the development because, well, they apparently finally also realized that there is no development, which doesn’t say much for the management of C-K that it took this long to reach that conclusion. C-K has to be out of its present digs by the fall of 2008.

Here’s a guy, Rob Ruvin, whose only development experience was converting a few apartments to condos in the Blatz building, all of a sudden putting up a 30-story opulent tower and a 10-story office building (to house C-K) in the Park East. What really convinced me that this guy was a joke was a meeting I attended where Ruvin talked about his plans. His whole presentation was about a building in Dallas that he wanted to duplicate here in Milwaukee. No one but me questioned him about the fact that everything he showed was of the building in Dallas. He had no drawings of his Milwaukee tower, yet he said he would be breaking ground soon. How soon, I asked. He wasn’t really sure. Never mind that I don't believe he even owned the land – and still doesn’t –where his developments were going to be built. I then went to the Web sites of all the nationally and internationally-known architects, hoteliers, and developers he said he was partnering with and not one mentioned anything about Milwaukee or Ruvin. Yet ground breaking was imminent. But the media (which could have gone to these Web site as well, but apparently didn’t think to do so) and everyone else kept lapping up everything he was peddling.

So Ruvin’s house of cards is crumbling. My question now is what’s going to happen to the "historic" Gipfel brewery that he moved to the proposed site of his 30-story tower in the Park East? How many years do you think that eyesore will sit propped up on pilings next to the even bigger eyesore, the former Sydney Hih building that also was going to be incorporated into the tower project?

Oh look, it's a bus!

Milwaukee philanthropist Michael Cudahy recently whisked Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker on his private jet to Portland, Oregon and Denver to take a look at those cities’ transit systems. That’s nice, but how many times do these guys have to travel elsewhere to see what a bus, streetcar, or light-rail car looks like? How will seeing yet another bus or streetcar help them make a decision on whether to use or give back the $91 million in federal money that Milwaukee has been dithering about for the past 10 years?

I can just hear the deep, thought-provoking conversation during this latest junket: “Hey Scott, I think I see an electric streetcar coming now.” “Really Tom, where? Are you sure that’s not a bus?” “Wow, that really would be fun to ride in Milwaukee.”

Here’s a thought: Instead of traveling to other cities, why don’t these two stay in Milwaukee and actually do something here. On second thought, maybe it might help them to see how real cities do things.

Park benched

The new island state park just off the Summerfest grounds is a wonderful addition to Milwaukee’s lakefront. The bridge connecting the island to the mainland is stunning, the walkways ringing the perimeter are wide and lighted for evening strolls, there are boat slips, the views of Milwaukee’s albeit lame skyline are the best you’re going to find, and when the prairie grass grows in it will be an even more attractive setting. Unfortunately, one amenity* that should have been a no-brainer is missing: benches. Once you’re on the island, it’s probably a 30-60 minute walk to make the complete tour, depending upon your age and/or pace. And there are no trees to provide relief from the sun. So if you feel the need to take a breather or just sit and ponder, you’re out of luck.

I don’t know what it is about this community’s disdain of benches. Leaders brag about the beautiful downtown and lakefront, yet there are few public benches to sit and take it all in. The art museum has a few, but they’re useless, especially for older folks. While looking nice and artsy, they’re just big slabs of masonry. So forget about sitting back and relaxing. But perhaps those in charge don’t want people to sit and think. It could be dangerous, after all, if people were allowed to ponder how little they really get for the high taxes they pay.

*Restrooms are missing also so you’d better hope Mother Nature doesn’t suddenly come a-knockin’.

Governor Doyle's convenient memory lapse

Several days ago during an event honoring local government put on by the Milwaukee-based Public Policy Forum, Wisconsin Governor Doyle pointed to Ireland as a model for the state to emulate in reinvigorating and strengthening its economy. After several recent trips to the Emerald Isle to help get a fix on why the country now has Europe’s second strongest economy, he cited its emphasis on universal educational opportunities and on some wishy-washy concept about everyone taking a step up together. Well, the one thing, perhaps the biggest reason in Ireland’s rather quick economic surge, which the governor overlooked, is the reduction in the corporate tax rate for all companies to about 15%. It’s easy to see why he conveniently ignored such a “small” point when his current budget includes hundreds of millions of dollars in tax and fee increases.

Milwaukee Hyatt's sale has to make chain happy

With the downtown Hyatt hotel now up for sale by its current owner, Milwaukee MECCA Partners headed by Milwaukee construction executive Gary Grunau, perhaps there is still hope for the property … and for Milwaukee’s downtown hotel business.

Until recently, when new carpeting was installed in its public areas apparently in anticipation of making the property more saleable, not much has been done to improve the 27-year-old, 483-room hotel. Even the Hyatt signage on the building’s exterior is several iterations behind the chain’s current brand identity. Compare Milwaukee’s Hyatt with any other downtown Hyatt and you’ll see how outdated it is. But as with most locally based downtown property owners, the key word is cheap. Do things as cheaply as possible in the hope of making the most money. That same mind-set is evident in the new Manpower headquarters being built downtown, also by Grunau.

You’d think that as Milwaukee gets left further and further behind in the dust of other similar-size cities, these local owners and developers would realize that attitude no longer cuts it. Perhaps with an outside investor, the Hyatt might finally be brought up to the high standards usually identified with the Hyatt name.

Midwest flies on wing and a prayer

It’s no longer a question of “if” Midwest Airlines will be sold to AirTran Airways. It’s only a question of when. AirTran now has three “friendlies” on Midwest’s nine-member board and AirTran says the majority of Midwest stock will be tendered in response to its offer. My guess is that by September of this year, if not sooner, Midwest will have flown into the sunset.

While for many of us, including myself, it will be a sad and fond farewell to another Milwaukee-based success story which has done so much to raise the image of the city, it certainly isn’t the end of the runway for those who fly to and from Milwaukee.

AirTran – which has a very small market share here now – isn’t buying Midwest so it can shut it down. That simply wouldn’t make sense, much less business sense. Rather, it’s buying the airline so it can expand its presence here. Milwaukeeans should be happy about that for several reasons. It will mean a busier airport with service to more destinations. That translates into more airline jobs, more interest in other businesses locating here, and more energy for the city – a buzz that maybe something good is happening here for once. And it will mean a greater presence on the national scene for Milwaukee, something it so desperately needs in its effort to get noticed. When was the last time a high-profile, national company like AirTran wanted to invest in Milwaukee because it thought the city had a bright future? Few, if any, examples come to mind.

For those who mourn the loss of chocolate-chip cookies or slightly wider seats, you need to get a grip on reality. I fly to get from point A to point B as quickly, safely, and inexpensively as possible. I don’t do it for the food, the cookies, or the furniture. I recently flew 7-1/2 hours to Ireland and 7 hours back in your standard narrow airline seat. Guess what? I’m none the worse for wear and no one in our party said, “The trip was wonderful except for those narrow seats.” (Oh, and the food was pretty good.) The longest segment on the Midwest system is 3-1/2 hours to the West Coast. If someone can’t put up with a narrow seat for that amount of time, then their problems go far beyond narrow seats.

Life will go on after Midwest. In fact, life may take several new directions, or routes, with an expanded AirTran presence in Milwaukee.

The bridge on the River Milwaukee . . . and other foibles

It’s now been more than two years since the State Street bridge over the Milwaukee River has been under construction. And the roughly 120-foot span still has a ways to go. It took 4-1/2 years back in the 1930s to complete the 1.7- mile-long Golden Gate Bridge over the shark-infested San Francisco Bay. But this is 2007 and we’re only talking about 120 feet over a smelly, tire-infested river! Had the city of Milwaukee had been involved in the building of the Golden Gate, people would still be taking a ferry between San Francisco and Sausalito.

It would be one thing if when completed the State Street bridge would be some marvelous tourist attraction or an engineering marvel, but it’s just your everyday, garden-variety bascule bridge that occasionally goes up and down. With such bungling on the part of the city, can anyone be surprised that the Park East Corridor will remain one big surface parking lot for years to come, or that a prime piece of real estate directly across from the convention center and owned by the city of Milwaukee has remained a blighted surface parking lot for more than 25 years, or that $91 million in federal transit money has been sitting for 10 years because the city can’t develop a consensus on what should be done with it?

Welcome to Milwaukee, city of lost opportunities.

No truth to entrapment

Locally, we’re going to see the word entrapment used quite often during the next few weeks and months as the trial of Michael McGee, Jr. gets underway. It’s already been lobbed out there several times. Nationally, we’re going to see it used also as the trial of Rep. William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) begins. Jefferson’s the guy who gave new meaning to cold, hard cash when $90,000 was found by the FBI in his freezer, presumably a portion of the bribes he received for using his office to arrange business deals in Africa. (Isn’t that where all law-abiding people put their legal tender, in the freezer?)

My question is how does a person of integrity and high ethical and moral standards ever become entrapped? If a person possesses these qualities, then no matter how conniving or enticing the would-be entrappers are, the person will see the offer for what it is – illegal or wrong – and consequently turn it down. If, on the other hand, a person is devoid of values or a moral compass, illegal or wrong behavior is simply the usual or typical behavior of such a person and thus there can be no entrapment.

No, entrapment is just another weasel word conjured up by liberals and eaten up by the media to once again characterize people of little or no moral standards as victims. By using it, people simply attempt to take the focus and responsibility off of themselves and put it somewhere else, usually on “the man” or “society” or, in the case of McGee, on “whitey.”

When even McDonald's avoids downtown Milwaukee

I can think of only one big American city that doesn’t have at least one McDonald’s restaurant in its downtown. Milwaukee. While McDonald’s fare is not my cup of tea, it is a ubiquitous American icon and a well-run company. Perhaps McDonald’s thinks downtown Milwaukee is such a haven for the fit and trim that it wouldn’t fit in. Sure and maybe the moon is made of cheese. More likely, McDonald’s – like most other national brands – just doesn’t think too much of downtown Milwaukee. While this may sound humorous and many will say good riddance, what does it say about downtown? And before you say Milwaukee’s too good for McDonald’s, don’t forget that such highly regarded downtowns as midtown Manhattan, Chicago’s Loop, Minneapolis, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, Boston, Seattle, Indianapolis and on and on and on all are lovin’ it.

Milwaukee's inferiority complex

Invariably, whenever one of Milwaukee’s leaders - usually the mayor or the head of the Greater Milwaukee Committee or the chamber - makes a speech about the city’s wonderful assets and great future, they include a statement comparing Milwaukee to another city. They’ll say something like, “The last thing Milwaukee wants to be is another ….” Oftentimes, the blank is filled in with Detroit, but I’ve also heard Des Moines and Cleveland.

I’ve wondered why these leaders feel the need to take swipes at other cities if Milwaukee is so great. I remember my parents telling me when I was small that people who tear down other people only do so because they want to make themselves look better. That certainly appears to be the case regarding Milwaukee.

The latest issue (June 2007) of Inc. magazine ran a list of the country’s fastest-growing inner city companies. Guess what? Detroit has six such companies, all of them technology or manufacturing based, while Milwaukee has one, a janitorial service. Moreover, the day after I received Inc., The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story about a Cleveland developer, John Ferchill, who is turning the former Book-Cadillac hotel building in downtown Detroit into a 455-room Westin hotel and 67 condos, all of which already are sold. Ferchill has assumed more than $80 million in loans and other debt for the project because he sees a bright future for downtown Detroit. When was the last time a big-time outside developer saw a bright future for Milwaukee?

Indeed, the city of Milwaukee has owned a prime piece of real estate along Wisconsin Avenue directly across from the convention center for more 25 years because it can’t find anyone who wants to develop it. So it remains a blighted surface parking lot.

If I were one of Milwaukee’s leaders I’d be a bit more careful about poking fun at other cities to make Milwaukee seem better than it really is. They’re only making themselves look foolish in the process.

No such thing as a "stray bullet"

Stray bullet?

Why do the media call the bullet from the gun of some thug that doesn’t hit the intended target a stray bullet? The implication is that if the intended target would have been hit, everything would have been fine and dandy. It also feeds the victim mentality that advocacy groups like to propagate. The thug was simply a victim of a bullet that somehow went astray. As if no one’s responsible for what happened. After all, it was the bullet’s fault for not finding the target.

Instead of headlines like, “Stray bullet strikes 13-year-old girl” or “Stray bullet kills 4-year-old girl,” how about something like, “Young girl gunned down while jumping rope” or “Police hunt for murderer of young girl.” Such headlines might bruise the sensibilities of those who think responsibility for one’s actions is passé, but they give a more accurate picture of what really happened. Plus, they’re honest journalism. They rightly imply that the perpetrator wasn’t some well-meaning person who simply couldn’t shoot straight.

Stray bullets are what happen on shooting ranges and during hunting accidents among professionals or trained individuals, when the intention is not to harm anyone and when a real honest-to-goodness accident can and sometimes does take place.