Daily Blues & Views

The recent college admissions scandal has touched many nerves.  Those of us who have spent a good deal of our lives working with high school students have smelled rats for a very long time.  What's so troubling, aside from the ability of those in powerful positions to offer and accept bribes, is that the mythology of attending an "elite" school persists.  We know better.  We have always known better.  So why validate the notion that some schools offer a better education than others? Excellent teachers are everywhere.  This is a claim that is easy to prove.  Evidence abounds.  In fact, many have known for years that the so-called elite faculty at many top universities never even teach undergraduates. I was dismayed to see UCLA mentioned as one of the schools involved in the scandal.  Stands to reason, though, the faculty, campus location, and overall reputation of the school make it one of the more desirable choices.  Still, I hate the ...

I'm about to head to a reunion.  Not the school variety, I'm over those.  This one is different, and in many ways a bit more significant.  It's a big one, as reunions go.  50 years.  Just saying that gives me pause.  I'm going back to Austin, Texas for the 50th reunion of the VISTA project in South Texas that I was a participant in so many years ago. (anyone interested in reading my memoir can find it here: http://lifeandtimesofvista.blogspot.com/ VISTA, you might recall was similar to the Peace Corps, only in this country.  In 1969, the U.S. was involved in two concurrent wars.  The one in Vietnam and the "War on Poverty" right here at home.  I chose the local war and fought it with all the conviction and courage I could muster. Volunteers applied, were accepted and went to training and finally were either selected or de-selected and went home or serves in many of the poorest neighborhoods in this country. That was then.  Now, ho...

I've been reading David W. Blight's massive new biography, Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom.  Aside from being a highly readable tour de force from one of our best historians, the book takes a comprehensive look at how the "peculiar institution" of slavery impacted both slave owner and those enslaved.  That slavery is America's original sin, there can be no doubt.  However, there are a few scenes from Douglass's remarkable life that linger long in the mind. One particular scene seems to relate nicely to the current topic of reparations for Americans whose ancestors were enslaved.  A quick review reminds us that after the Civil War and throughout Reconstruction, former slaves never received a proposed "40 acres and a mule."  That would have helped thousands of newly emancipated freedmen reestablish their lives as working, productive members of the newly united country of which they were citizens.  Instead, they became enmeshed in what became...

It is a very soft piece of leather.  I remember it for the tactile quality most of all.  Most bookmarks are paper or cardboard or sometimes metal, but this one was kind to the touch.  It was given to me by my cousin from NY when I was about 9 or 10.  Perhaps it was her mother, my Aunt who picked it out, but when they left for home after this West Coast visit they presented one to me and my sister.  I can't remember much about the one my sister got, but it was similar only mine had an owl on the top.  Her's was another animal, but I can't specifically recall. This morning, right after I awoke, I thought of the soft owl bookmark.  It has an adage that read, "Books like friends should be few and well chosen."  Pretty good advice for a 10-year-old. I've chosen many books and fewer friends since receiving that bookmark.  Somehow, because it lived inside a book, the little trinket has survived on my bookshelf and is actually in fairly good condit...