Opinion

Through its signature Food for Peace Program, each year the United States sends about $1.4 billion in emergency food aid to hungry people around the world. The United States has saved the lives of millions of people with such assistance, and it could save millions more. Unfortunately, much-needed reforms in the way food aid is delivered that would reduce costs and improve effectiveness may be thwarted in Congress.

When I taught critical journalism I never offered Roger Ebert as a writer’s role model. Our guide was William Zinsser, whose On Writing Well distinguished between the reviewer, seen as part of the marketing game, and the critic, who was a literary artist. We turned to H. L. Mencken, for whom the novel or play was like the swimming pool’s diving board, from which the critic would soar into space and show off his style.

In an earlier column I took Baby Boomers to task for the way in which the ideals of their youth had morphed into shallow, narcissistic consumerism in their golden years. The column initiated a number of lively comments among boomers who took offense to my characterization of them.

For decades, if not centuries, educators have been searching for new ways to bring learning to a mass audience. First radio, then television was seen as an ideal means to educate people who did not otherwise have access to advanced education. Books on tape, public television and “long distance learning” were touted as heralding a new age in public education. The arrival of the Internet was seen as another major step in connecting would-be students to the...