Rebecca Nappi

At the same time 7-year-old Jessica Dubroff was trying to lift her airplane in the air, another pilot at the Cheyenne airport - facing the same terrible weather conditions - decided not to fly. The commercial pilot and his 19 passengers are alive today. Jessica died because she and her dad were in a rush. In a rush to fly across the country before Jessica's 8th birthday so that she could be the youngest child ever to do it. Many now play the blame game. Oh, those pushy New Age parents for encouraging their daughter to fly. Oh, the media for hyping Jessica's journey. Oh, the government for not banning this activity.

They get to keep the trophy. It's nearly 3 feet tall, shiny and impressive. But every time they see the trophy, Ferris High School students will remember one thing. Adults they trusted to be competent screwed up - big time - and the students paid the emotional price. Last Saturday, 15 Ferris students competed in the Science Olympiad state competition in Everett. They returned home champions. Monday, the phone rang. Olympiad officials had some sobering news. Sorry, we made a mistake. Toledo High School in Lewis County won, really. We counted the points wrong. Toledo will now go to the national tournament in Atlanta, not Ferris.

Here at Common Ground we are always on the lookout for stories from women who have made the "best of a bad situation." Kathy Higgins of Spokane sent us this wonderful story: "Last May, after undergoing a mastectomy for breast cancer and beginning chemotherapy, I made a trip to Nordstrom to purchase a breast prosthesis and appropriate bra. It was necessary to leave the bra with the alteration department to sew in a prosthetic pocket.

The FBI was closing in on the suspected Unabomber and CBS knew. The network agreed to hold its story for two days to avoid jeopardizing the investigation. CBS News president Andrew Heyward explained the decision this way: "We consider ourselves citizens first and journalists second." Would CBS have made the same decision a decade ago? Impossible to say, but in the past few years, some of the media have engaged in soul-searching about their relationship with - and responsibility to - the communities they serve.

In September 1991, something so horrible happened to Whitworth religion professor Jerry Sittser that if you think on it too long, if you imagine it happening in your own life, your mind changes the subject quickly. It's that painful. Sittser's van, in which his entire family was riding, was hit head-on by a racing car on a remote stretch of Idaho highway. Sittser's wife, mother and 4-year-old daughter died at the scene. Sittser, and three of his children, survived. He immediately faced unspeakable agony. And the overwhelming task of raising his children amid his grief - and theirs. Sittser's recent book "A Grace Disguised: How The Soul Grows Through Loss" describes his journey through tragedy and grief. Though he has vowed not to talk publicly anymore about the accident and its aftermath, Sittser's book is selling well. Try to find a copy at an Inland Northwest bookstore - Christian or secular - and chances are your name will be placed on a waiting list.

Her braces are off. She turned sweet 16 in February. And last week, millions worldwide watched Chelsea Clinton in action as she accompanied her mother on an eight-day overseas trip. Chelsea chatted up the troops in Bosnia. Met leaders and common folk in Turkey. In a trip with her mother a year ago, she saw firsthand the poverty of India and Pakistan and snuggled babies at Mother Teresa's orphanage. The Clintons have tried to shield Chelsea from the press. They want her to have a normal childhood. She's no Amy Carter whose every move was documented. Who can forget Amy reading a book at a state dinner? Despite the shielding, Chelsea doesn't escape scrutiny. And that's not all bad. Chelsea's behavior on the overseas trips provides young people, both here and in other countries, a role model. Chelsea has demonstrated that teens can walk in the world of adults, see the same harsh realities, and respond with compassion. Maybe Chelsea is trailblazing a new way to be a child of the president. You lead as ordinary a life as possible, but you show other young people the extraordinary world around them.

Women talk too much. Get too emotional. They hug you! Those are some of the reasons workers don't like women bosses as much as men bosses. A recent Gallup poll showed that 46 percent of people surveyed (men and women) would prefer a male boss. Twenty percent favored a woman. The rest had no preference. "We find a persistent gender bias in the workplace," the editors of the Gallup Poll concluded. Women of the work world, put away those victim hankies. Maybe several years ago women would have reacted emotionally to this news. Tried to force those male - and traitor female - employees to appreciate them more. Tried to convince them to appreciate their leadership styles of cooperation and compromise.

Reba's mom told her to be herself.

Quick review of the hit "Bridges of Madison County" with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood: "just adultry."

Patrick Hakes, a 32-year-old Eastern Washington University student, has a 3-year-old son named Collin. Hakes, like all other students, pays a $99-per-quarter service and activity fee. Hakes is on the student council, but he doesn't have much time to participate in other clubs and organizations. Hakes, however, has benefited from the fee through a day-care subsidy of $135 a quarter, which paid 14 percent of Collin's childcare expenses. But this spring quarter, there won't be any child-care money for Hakes or for the more than 100 other EWU students who have received the subsidy. The day-care money abruptly was pulled from the budget by student body president Justin Franke - pulled because Franke says the money can be better spent on other activities. Hakes says it is no coincidence that a team-building "ropes" course was added to the budget by Franke this week, a course that will cost $51,000 - the same amount saved by cutting the subsidies.

Once long ago no one talked about cancer. The word itself was rarely uttered. Obituaries dealt in euphemisms. She died after a long illness. Betty Ford was one of the first to speak openly and honestly about her personal experiences with cancer. Others followed her lead. Our society grew more candid and everyone benefited. In many ways, we now communicate about race the way we once did about cancer. Awkwardly. Ineffectively. Racism is a cancer, too. A cancer of the soul. And the same "plain talk" approach that helped us deal with cancer might help us deal with racism.

Roseanne showed promise in her editing debut at New Yorker.

Several months ago, Spokane Police detectives Jerry Poindexter and Jerry Keller visited an apartment complex where a registered sex offender lived. They were handing out fliers and informing residents about the man's presence. Two parents thanked the men profusely. They told the detectives: "He volunteered to baby-sit our children this coming weekend!" That day, the two Jerrys felt good about their job. It can be a thankless one. The detectives work almost full-time making certain Spokane's 600-plus registered sex offenders live at the addresses they've given police. And they inform and educate citizens when a registered sex offender moves into a neighborhood. The two detectives also meet with neighbors and talk with them about their fears and concerns. They hand out a flier that lists some good tips on how a neighborhood should deal with the disturbing news that a sex offender has moved in. "Tell your children to walk away if the sex offender tries to talk to them and to tell you about the contact. ... The worst thing parents can do is to intimidate or harass the offender."

Cordelia tortured Elaine with words, with actions. At home, at school. One day Cordelia buried Elaine in a hole she dug in the back yard. Another time Cordelia threw Elaine's "stupid" hat in a river and ordered her to collect it. She did and almost drowned. Elaine kept it all inside. Didn't tell her parents, her teachers, her other friends. She handled it another way. "In the endless time when Cordelia had such power over me, I peeled the skin off my feet. I did it at night, when I was supposed to be sleeping. Nobody but me ever looked at my feet, so nobody knew." Elaine, the main character in Margaret Atwood's piercing book, "Cat's Eye," was the victim of a bully, Cordelia. As an adult looking back, Elaine can still recall the horror, and her silence in the midst of it. There are thousands of Elaines out there. And thousands of Cordelias.

Allison Cowles, a Spokane civic leader for the past 36 years, is marrying Arthur "Punch" Sulzberger, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of The New York Times Co. The couple will marry March 9 in a small family ceremony in Spokane. Cowles is the widow of William H. Cowles, 3rd, who was president and publisher of The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle when he died April 18, 1992.

TV's supercouple laughs at absurdi-

The ad on the side of the school bus shows a teenager green and coughing and ostracized because he's smoking a cigarette. The ad reads: "Smoking when you're young isn't cool; it's stupid." Tobacco manufacturers, who insist they don't target kids and, in fact, want to educate children about the dangers of smoking too young, paid a local school district $100,000 for the ad space. With the money, the district bought computers. OK, OK so we're engaging in some creative daydreaming here. But that scenario could come true if the Washington Legislature passes a bill that would allow advertising on school buses.

The husband and wife were in their late 70s. They'd been in a horrible car accident and were recovering in the same hospital room. Their eyes peered out from small holes in the casts that covered their faces. The husband, despite reassurances that his wife would live, remained inconsolable. He finally told his doctor it was because he couldn't see his wife through the eye holes. He missed her face.

In the 1960s and 1970s in Spokane, you saw Catholic grade school and high school uniforms everywhere. The colors and styles varied from school to school, but much was similar. They were made of wool, a white shirt was mandatory, and public-school students teased about the uniforms. Parochial-school students didn't ever question why they had to wear them. Was it to spare large Catholic families clothing expenses? To make the students all look alike? Or was it part of the overall discipline package for which Catholic schools were famous? The reasons didn't matter because the uniforms served an important purpose. They were a great leveler. It was impossible to tell, by clothes alone, who had money, who didn't.

Rituals are important part of Naomi Judd's life.

The poster with Martin Luther King Jr.'s picture on it lists statistics from his public life. Arrested seven times. Home bombed twice. Jailed, beaten, stabbed - several times. The statistics prompted nostalgia for national leaders who have a vision and then use their energy fighting for that vision. They don't worry about public opinion. About media pundits giving them thumbs up or thumbs down. About money and prestige following their message. They have a dream and they work toward its realization, no matter how much trouble it means. Most national leaders these days get in trouble for lesser things. For taking bribes. For harassing women. For lying. For having their campaign contributions stolen by their husband.

He was going to be a lawyer. A lawyer! Hard to picture Thomas Hampson, world-renowned baritone, using his voice that way. But those were his plans. Then he met Sister Marietta Coyle, voice teacher at Fort Wright College. She didn't discourage the lawyer thing, Hampson said in a 1991 interview, but "she was very concerned that I remain open to my literary and musical sides." Open, indeed. Now he's famous. And Sister Marietta had much to do with prodding him down the path of his destiny. Sister Marietta died in 1986 at age 79. Ten years ago. Yet her name surfaced again Sunday in an IN Life profile of Frank Hernandez, a 25-year-old man with a voice that many predict will soon make him famous. He was too young to be taught by Sister Marietta. But his voice teacher at Whitworth College, Marjory Halvorson, was taught by her. Hernandez calls the Holy Names sister "the common thread."

"Voices for Change: New Directions for American Jewish Women" is a recent report based on in-depth interviews with Jewish women around the country. Sponsored by several Jewish organizations, the report explored the concerns of Jewish women today. It indicated that half of all Jewish women are college graduates, 46 percent work full-time outside the home, and their views on social issues are significantly more liberal than those of non-Jewish women.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Hear that bell? It tolls for you, baby boomers. On New Year's Day, the first wave of boomers turns 50. The oldest of the generation (born between 1946 and 1964) have now put in a half century of living. What have they contributed to society? Mediocrity, whining and narcissism, says Christopher Hitchens (a boomer himself) in the January issue of "Vanity Fair." He writes: "In the 50 years since the first boomer uttered the first wail, the wailing has never stopped. Will there be enough Social Security when it's my turn? What about my retirement fund. Who's gonna take care of me?