WEEK’S END

WEEK'S END

Hate manifests itself in many forms. Anti-Semitism may be the oldest and most persistent. That the graffiti offends community sensibilities comes as encouraging news.

Murray Fisher personifies the graceful goodness within humanity's grasp. A former resident of Goochland, Fisher is a finalist for GQ magazine's Better Men Better World Search award. Fisher earned the recognition for his work in founding and directing the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, a high school that includes not only a regular curriculum but courses and projects that introduce inner-city students to the beauties and challenges associated with water. New York City lies among rivers and the deep sea. It boasts a legendary harbor. The Harbor School introduces youngsters to history and to the aquatic environment. Fisher's friends in Central Virginia, and his classmates at Collegiate, remember him with affection and, we suspect, are not in the least surprised.

This week the Virginia Coalition for Open Government named Mike Owens of the Bristol Herald-Courier the winner of the 2009 FOI award for media. Owens relied on the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents that exposed corruption involving an Abingdon magistrate judge and his father, a bail bondsman. Owens' scoop sparked a State Police investigation. The Virginia Supreme Court Office of the Executive subsequently fired the magistrate.

The Times-Dispatch proudly salutes Owens, an ace reporter with a sister Media General newspaper. Civil society depends on a watchdog press.