This week's topic:
Gardening: nirvana or nightmare?

Previous topics:
Drinking on campus |  Banning smoking |  Census: multi-racial box
M-O-M rail line |  Are kids too busy today? |  Is Internet isolating us?
Rutgers football |  Is America at its zenith? | Electronic toys for cops
Victims' rights | New millennium wish list | Social promotion
The growing salary gap | Political indiscretions | Is two-party system working?
Workplace meetings |  College courses | Federal surplus | Dressing casually
JFK Jr. tragedy | Youth sports | Consumer information
Value of travel | Mandatory gym | Teacher contracts | Parental notification 
The deer problem | Primary elections | Charter schools | Advice to graduates
War in the Balkans | Route 92 | Hiring of Peter Singer | Suburban sprawl

   Randy Bergmann, editor of Packet OnLine, and Richard Willever, editor of the Packet Group, are longtime friends. They went to college together, worked side by side for years and continue to play golf together. But they don't always see eye to eye on issues. More often than not, it's nose to nose. Those differences are debated on Packet OnLine.
   Bergmann, who was managing editor of The Princeton Packet for eight years before taking over as editor of Packet OnLine two years ago, considers himself a democrat with a small "d." He believes the American political system is corrupt and undemocratic, the market system tilted in favor of the rich and powerful, and U.S. foreign policy heavyhanded and arrogant. He is as distrustful of private power as he is of public power and believes government has failed to protect the majority from the tyranny of the minority. He draws inspiration from many sources — Mark Twain, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Liz Phair, Alexander Cockburn, Ally McBeal and P.G. Wodehouse, to name a few. When he isn't working, he likes to see how the rest of the world lives. His favorite destinations: Havana, Prague, Panama City and Anguilla.
    Willever, a reporter for and managing editor of The Princeton Packet during the 1970s who now heads the corporate news department, is a misplaced 18th century liberal. He believes in handshake agreements, individual liberty, private property, the Constitution and what was known as the Protestant work ethic. He accepts that all systems are corrupt, tilted and heavyhanded, but trusts that America's is generally better than any of the others. He supports his family, the public's right to know and the Phillies — not necessarily in that order. He hates airplanes, voice mail and his VCR. He believes travel, quiche and patience all are overrated.

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