The last word
GOV. GOODHAIR, aka Rick Perry (R-TX), would have made a good topic for my usually political column. However, I chose positive thoughts instead, ones about what had shaped my experience at the University of Virginia.
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GOV. GOODHAIR, aka Rick Perry (R-TX), would have made a good topic for my usually political column. However, I chose positive thoughts instead, ones about what had shaped my experience at the University of Virginia.
IN DUBLIN on Jan. 28, Maeve and Brendan were sitting down to breakfast and The Irish Times. "Look at this, Maeve," said Brendan. "In Salt Lake City, they want to have guns at the Olympics and students bringing guns to school. Can you imagine bringing a gun to university?"
BLACK or white. Right or wrong. Honorable or dishonorable. Patriot or traitor. With us or against us.
AS GRADUATION approaches, those fourth-year students who are not drowned in their theses can take a moment to wonder what their diplomas will mean. Huge, grand frames for these papers are on sale, and presumably the meaning behind the diplomas will live up to the dark wood and gold seals. We will wave them at employers and put them on display in our homes or offices, thinking that they testify to - what? To a good liberal education? To readiness for graduate school or the "real world?" To our capacity to pay tuition and stay just sober enough to make a "C?"
DO NOT let them get away with it. "It" is the series of attacks that have taken the lives of dozens of Israeli civilians during the Jewish holiday of Passover. "Them" refers to the perpetrators of the attacks: the people who murdered themselves and others, and the people who helped in planning the attacks or knowingly funded them.
JESSE Helms has gone and lost his mind. Thank God. The Republican senator from North Carolina and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, known for his opposition to foreign aid, wants to add half a billion dollars to the American contribution to a fund for fighting AIDS in the developing world.
SEPARATE but equal has achieved its highest point - or, arguably, its lowest point - in higher education. Instead of trying to maintain different classrooms and cafeterias for different races, America has put all the students in the same buildings, and students voluntarily segregate themselves. "Self-segregation" appropriately describes this behavior, as segregation can be either imposed or chosen. We now have facilities so equal that they are not separate, while the separation of the students continues.
THE WAR is dead. Long live the war. This appears to be the attitude of the current Bush administration. George Bush Sr. oversaw the end of the Cold War. Bush II - not just the president, but also the mood of America as a whole - revives many of that era's worst aspects. Cold War misinformation, secrecy and witch-hunts are combined with features of a "hot" war in the new war on terrorism, which might be called the Lukewarm War.
UNTIL recently, I have thought of the University as a collection of intelligent, hard-working people - students, faculty and staff - who care about one another and the world at large. We have an excellent record of community service, created by the thousands of students who donate their time through Madison House and other groups. Many of our graduates go on to work for the government and non-profit organizations, even though they could make more money elsewhere.
CATHOLICS hate Protestants in Northern Ireland, Muslims hate Hindus in Kashmir, Israelis hate Palestinians in the Middle East. Over time, people who watch global politics become, perhaps not comfortable with, but accustomed to these norms of international conflict.
IF STATES can be schizophrenic, Virginia is. In the Commonwealth, internet companies build over horse farms and one-time hippies teach the children of Republican politicians. The legislature represents, appropriately, this combination of looking forward and remaining stuck in the past. Some of the General Assembly's latest moves show that Virginians have gotten past the days of "Old Massa," as long-overdue legislation receives broad approval. Other actions indicate a depressing inability to see the 21st century, high-tech millionaire governor be damned.
TODAY thousands of business and government leaders are meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan. They are there for the World Economic Forum, which "serves as a platform for discussion, debate and action on the key issues on the global agenda," according to the WEF Web site (www.weforum.com). Students for Global Justice (SGJ) take a different view. Their Web site (www.studentsforglobaljustice.org) says, "At the New York WEF summit, the world's richest CEOs will collaborate with the world's most powerful politicians to set the global economic agenda."
HOW DID you celebrate Religious Freedom Day? I attended a lecture on Theology and Politics. I had to, because I registered for the class. Don't worry if you didn't have time to commemorate religious freedom on Wednesday. Here in Virginia, the second full week of January is designated as Religious Freedom Week, so you still can get down with it until Sunday.
CYNICS often trash Christmas as a stressful, consumerist holiday that probably was invented by Hallmark and Sears. They note the decreasing religious imagery as a sign that the holiday is losing whatever meaning it originally had. For many Christians, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus poorly replace Jesus in the manger and the Three Wise Men.
COLLEGE is a strange place, and college students are strange beings. Most of us are nominally adults, yet people in the "real world" frequently treat us like babies in incubators. As extremists on both ends of the political spectrum attempt to limit what goes into our bubbles, they threaten the purpose of a university education.
OLDER people especially are fond of pointing out, in listing the blessings of the college-aged, that we still have our health. Despite the ravages of cold and flu season, this is essentially true for most of us. Of course, the elderly generally forget to note that they have guaranteed health insurance, through Medicare. Unfortunately, we young whippersnappers live precariously when it comes to any defect in our usual picture of health. We need to be aware of the shaky system of American health insurance, both for our personal safety and as a larger national issue.
ALTHOUGH he persists in saying President Bush "stole" the election, Prof. John Arras actually is a very diplomatic man. In his philosophy seminar on reproductive ethics, he always denotes people who oppose legal abortion as "pro-life." For many who would not allow the choice of abortion, however, "pro-life" is a misnomer. To be truly pro-life means more than being pro-fetus, because there's quite a bit more to life than the time one spends in the uterus.
I HATE trashing fun ideas, but someone has to do it. Several people have suggested that politicians should physically wear the corporate logos of major campaign contributors. The proposal rises from frustration with legislation written for the benefit of large companies. If politicians displayed their corporate colors, the public would know who was behind the tax breaks to IBM or subsidies to tobacco growers. This would provide me with great personal enjoyment, but the Federal Election Commission already publishes information about both companies' and individuals' donations. Having politicians wear their sponsorship would merely further publicize this information, and would not stop them from taking corporate money.
ALLEGEDLY, Americans have a hard time talking about race. Perhaps we do. What we have an even harder time talking about, however, is money - who has it, who doesn't, and why that matters. Our unwillingness to talk about money may be even more damaging to our children than any reluctance to discuss race.
POP QUIZ: Which did more for world peace, the Treaty of Versailles or the Marshall Plan? The winners of World War I, "the war to end all wars," dictated the terms of the Treaty of Versailles to punish the losers. The big winner of World War II - America, because our allies had mostly been bombed into poverty - created the Marshall Plan to help both our friends and enemies recover.