Published: May 17, 2009 10:09 pm      

Weekly wrap - Monday, May 18, 2009

Excerpts from recent Indiana editorials:

On Manny Ramirez suspension:

If Manny Ramirez was using performance-enhancing drugs, a 50-day suspension is a slap on the wrist.

This is not a case of a player who took steroids five years ago when the rules of baseball might have been a bit unclear. Either steroids are banned or they’re not, and if they’re banned, the penalty for using them should be severe.

Major League Baseball tests every player each year within five days of reporting to spring training and again at a randomly selected unannounced date. Ramirez apparently failed one of those tests.

He says it’s all a mistake. His personal physician prescribed something for a personal health issue, he says, and it turned out to be a banned substance.

If Major League Baseball is convinced that Ramirez was using performance-enhancing drugs, it should lower the boom on him. He should be kicked out of baseball for at least a year.

– Pharos-Tribune, Logansport

On president’s appearance at Notre Dame:

Talking to one another, seeking common ground, never will resolve the differences between those who believe women should have the right to choose an abortion and those who believe abortion is murder. The gulf is just too wide and the feelings are too strong.

We do think, however, that those who disagree with President Barack Obama on abortion, and those who agree with him, can find common ground regarding his upcoming visit to the University of Notre Dame.

Obama was offered the honor of delivering the May 17 commencement address. He did Notre Dame the honor of accepting.

Strong feelings on this issue were to be expected. What wasn’t expected — and what is a very great shame — is the conduct of people who have traveled to South Bend from other places with no purpose other than to make trouble and grab headlines.

No one can stop anti-abortion activist Randall Terry from vowing to turn the Notre Dame campus into a “political mud pit” and the commencement ceremony into a “circus.” But we can, as a community, show our shared disdain for his words. This is a community where not everyone agrees. But it also is a community where people can disagree without threats or expressions of hatred.

– South Bend Tribune