Hollywood’s annual night of self-congratulations – the Oscars – occurred a few Sundays ago. Most of you know that Oppenheimer beat Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon for best picture.

However, I suspect that few of you know that, in order to be considered for Best Picture (starting in 2024), the nominee must comply with at least 2 of 4 Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Standards (DEI) identified as Standards A, B, C and D. Standard A is for on-screen (actors and plot); Standard B is for off-screen leadership (support personnel); Standard C is for training and Standard D for marketing. See Oscars Standards.

But Hollywood being Hollywood, the Standards are more fantasy than real. The best picture nominee must meet 2 of the 4 standards and it’s virtually impossible not to meet at least two.

Group A Standards include the following:

1. One actor in a major role must be from an underrepresented group (all such groups listed below).
2. At least 30% of the actors in minor roles must be from underrepresented groups.
3. The main story line, theme or narrative of the film is centered on an underrepresented group(s).

A movie must comply with only one of the 3 and complying with Number 1 is perhaps the easiest.  Number 2 and Number 3 would really change things a lot but the go to loophole is Number 1. Remember, however, that there are three more standards to go and you only have to hit two of them so, if you fail here, you are not out of the running.

Group B Standards provide for the following:

1. Two or more department heads must be from underrepresented groups and at least one of these positions must belong to an underrepresented racial or ethnic group.
2. At least six other crew members must come from underrepresented groups.
3. At least 30% of film crew members must be from underrepresented groups.

Again, Standard B only requires that one of the three must be met. So having a female Casting Director and a Samoan Cinematographer makes everything good. One down, one to go.

So how did “lily white” Oppenheimer make the cut? Well, it blew through Standard B since at least a dozen women were department heads and the head hairstylist was Hispanic.

And since Oppenheimer was a Universal film, it also satisfied both Standard C (training programs) and D (marketing) since Universal has extensive training programs for underrepresented ethnic and racial groups and, in addition, it has a Black Director of Domestic Marketing.

In other words, Universal films will always make the cut, even if they cannot comply with Standards A and B.

The bottom line: these DEI standards are a farce but allow the Hollywood elite to “signify” their commitment to inclusion (as long as it doesn’t hurt).

What is an underrepresented group? Here’s the list of the current racial or ethnic groups but I am sure that others will soon apply:

This proposal probably made Samuel Goldwyn (MGM), Jack Warner (Warner Bros), Louis B. Mayer (MGM) and Jesse Lasky (Paramount) stand up in their graves as they and other Jewish people are primarily responsible for the creation of Hollywood. As the New York Times reviewer wrote (July 6, 1955) in reviewing a Scott Eyman’s biography of Lewis B. Mayer (“The Lion of Hollywood”) he was one of “the first- and second-generation East European Jews who built Hollywood created an idealized world where all differences were cast aside in favor of a dream in which everything was beautiful.”

The whole subject of DEI standards has become a lightning rod in the cultural wars we are now experiencing. For those on the right, they are “red meat” and, for those on the left, they must be vigorously defended. I think that the right may be more correct than the left on this issue.

The real hotbed for DEI standards is the American college or university. For example, the Chief Diversity Officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine recently resigned after she sent a newsletter identifying people with “privilege” (Baltimore Sun, March 6, 2024). Dr. Sherita Golden wrote that “privilege” was the “word of the month” defining it as a “set of unearned benefits given to people who are in a specific social group.” The groups she identified were white people, heterosexuals, cisgender people, men and Christians.

Once the conservative media got hold of that newsletter all hell broke loose and the national media picked up the story. And while Dr. Golden has resigned as Chief Diversity Officer, she remains on the Hopkins faculty. Hopkins Medicine has announced that a “national search” for a new Diversity Chief is underway. Think about that. Diversity Officers for universities are in demand on a national basis and I’m quite sure that they are extremely well paid and have well-staffed offices. This may be one of several reasons that college graduates are burdened with overwhelming debt.

I fall into all five of Dr. Golden‘s identified groups so I have “unearned privilege” times 5. But if you look at her definition more carefully, I think 99+% of the population are included given her comment about “cisgender people.” Cisgender means anyone who identifies with the plumbing they were given at birth. Almost all members  of “underrepresented” groups are cisgender. In fact, with the exception of the transgender community, it’s hard to find anyone who does not fit into this category.

DEI Standards identify people in certain groups as being frozen in amber and whose only recourse is through a DEI intervention. Life is much more fluid than that and to think otherwise is fundamentally misleading. To create an infrastructure to carry out DEI interventions is good for the well-paid interveners but not for anybody else.

I don’t think Denzel Washington needed a DEI intervention to become one of the finest actors in my lifetime. He is excellent in good movies (Philadelphia, Malcolm, X, The Hurricane, Training Day, Glory) and even in mediocre movies (Equalizer 1,2,3). Always a joy to watch, he has been nominated for best actor on numerous occasions and has received an Oscar for best actor and another for best supporting actor.

I don’t think Oprah Winfrey needed a DEI intervention to become the GOAT of talk show hosts. She is just incredibly talented.

I don’t think Ellen DeGeneres needed a DEI intervention to become a talk show host with legions of followers. She too is remarkably talented.

I don’t think that Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David needed a DEI intervention to become the greatest comedians of recent years. They too were so talented that they have been keeping us laughing for 30 years.

There is no question that many people are discriminated against. I am quite sure that Denzel, Oprah, Ellen, Jerry and Larry experienced such discrimination and countless sleights, many intentional and some not. In the end, however, talent will out every time.

The DEI police don’t recognize this fundamental truth, nor do the universities who go on “national searches.”

In 1961, Connie Hawkins was expelled from the University of Iowa. He was not expelled for poor grades or misbehavior. Indeed, he had done nothing wrong but was the victim of a false rumor.

Hawkins was a freshman on a basketball scholarship and his name had surfaced in a college basketball “point shaving” gambling scheme centered in New York City where he lived. Hawkins was a well-known high school basketball star in New York City and that had earned him the scholarship at the University of Iowa. He adamantly denied involvement, a denial subsequently confirmed by independent investigators but too late. Indeed, even if he had wanted to “shave points,” it would’ve been impossible for him to do so since, in those years, a freshman could not play on the varsity team.

His expulsion effectively blackballed him from playing basketball for any college or university. The head of the National Basketball Association(NBA) piled on, saying he would not be allowed to play in the NBA.

Connie Hawkins was not only a good player but, by all accounts, may have been the greatest player of his generation. If Nike had been around in the 1960s, there might have been a shoe line known as the “Air Hawks,” a precursor to the “Air Jordans” of more recent times.

The intersection of gamblers and sports figures is concerning. Did Sonny Liston take a dive in the first round of his heavyweight championship fight with Muhammad Ali for the benefit of gamblers? Did Pete Rose take his foot off the gas pedal because he was betting on baseball games? No matter that Pete (Charlie Hustle) played as hard as always. Because of his gambling, he will never be admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame where he belongs as one of the best players of the 20th century.

But 1961 is not only some 60 years ago, it is the Pleistocene age when compared to the present day. Back then, no one would have dared suggest that a professional sports team be located in a place such as Las Vegas.

The most recent version of the Super Bowl was played in Las Vegas. Las Vegas now has an NFL football team (Raiders), a WNBA basketball team (Aces), a NHL hockey team (Golden Knights) and it’s about to get a MLB baseball team (Athletics). The Commissioner of the National Basketball Association has just announced that Vegas is at the head of the queue for an NBA franchise when expansion occurs, and LeBron James has  indicated that he would like to be the owner of that franchise. What could possibly go wrong when professional athletes are in the gambling mecca of the United States?

You really have to wonder about a city whose motto is: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!” Most cities call attention to their museums, their restaurants, their historic sites, their waterfront and the like. Vegas calls attention to the “sins” that can be committed there and adopts a “see no evil, speak no evil” attitude. That’s not exactly a message that you want to give to your children or, for that matter, to almost anyone.

There are surely upright citizens in Vegas, but it clearly leads any location in the United States for the per capita number of gamblers, grifters, hookers, touts and con men. In short, it is a place where things can run amok.

I suppose we should have seen it coming. Anybody watching a televised professional sport in the last few years has been inundated with ads from gambling websites (FanDuel, DraftKings, MGM, Caesars, etc.). You not only can bet on the game you’re watching before it starts but you can make bets on the game as it is progressing. Who was in favor of this? Well, obviously the gambling companies but maybe, not so obviously, the professional sports leagues and the state governments which take a slice of the take. Maryland took in $6.5 million from sports betting in the month of December 2023 and expects to make not less than $40 million a year. Basically, everybody gets a piece of the action.

Things are so out of control that children are now encouraged to use their smart phones to place bets with the equivalent of Monopoly money. The National Football League (NFL) and Nickelodeon launched a kid’s site which has sport betting elements, www.legalsportsreport.com. Sponge Bob, the animated Nickelodeon character recognized by all kids, can now help to pick the winner of the Super Bowl. Presumably, once schooled, kids can then graduate to the real deal.

Well, is this the end of the Country as we know it? Probably not, but I am not comfortable when sports and gambling are so chummy. The genie may be out of the bottle, but the least that the professional sports leagues could do is pump the brakes every once in a while. For instance, get out of the business of hooking kids.

In the end, Connie Hawkins did play in the NBA and was a star. But he only succeeded by bringing a lawsuit against the NBA for its role in denying him the opportunity to play. The NBA relented when it was clear that its defense was going to fail, and it arranged a settlement which awarded Hawkins today’s equivalent of $10 million and the right to play. He had lost at least five good years because of the NBA’s intransigence but still he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The NBA has now forgotten about its old objections as it readies entrance into the Vegas sweepstakes because that’s where the money is. The NFL is already there along with Nickelodeon.

Who knows but it may be a possibility that, in another 60 years, Sponge Bob is inducted into the Football Hall of Fame.

In 1968, the Rolling Stones released their song “Sympathy for the Devil”. While not their best-known song, it is one that you will not forget once you have heard it. The song engendered speculation that the band was worshiping Satan but that seems very unlikely given the lyrics of the song. However, if there had been a church for drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll, those boys would have been in the front pew. Give it a listen Sympathy.

When Donald Trump descended on the escalator in 2015 to announce that he was running for President, I told my wife that he was the “devil” and I meant that he was an instrument of the real Devil who appeared as a Serpent in the Garden of Eden and appeared as himself in the Gospels of the New Testament, tempting a weakened Jesus after his 40 day fast, promising him dominion over the entire world if he would just recognize him. Jesus refused. The American electorate did not share my concern about Trump.

I had been following Trump since the 1980s when he became the owner of the New Jersey Generals, a team in the United States Football League. He then single-handedly imploded that league when he challenged the National Football League in a court case. There are so many things to say about Trump, and most of them have been said, but I think the most succinct summary was just published by David Brooks in the New York Times. With Trump, the whole world is “us” versus “them” and “us” is always being screwed by “them.” Like Satan, outright fabrication is a necessary tool.

A few examples:

“They” stole the election from “us.”

“They” are overrunning “our” country, and “they” are not like “us”, so we need to keep “them“ out. (never mind that current “us” are the descendants of the “them” from an earlier time).

And he has made the Republican Party into a party of “grievance” because he is all about grievance and settling the score with his enemies.

To me, one of his more despicable comments was his reference to former Senator John McCain as a “loser” because he had been captured and spent five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp where he was so abused that he could not raise his arms. Meanwhile, Trump, who loves military trappings, made sure that he concocted bone spurs to avoid that same war.

The current polling data shows Trump winning in the electoral college states over Biden. I think the actual election will be much different as the economy continues to get strong, gas prices drop, and Social Security increases kick in. Nevertheless, the political class is apoplectic and in a complete dither over the current projections.

The editorial writers in all of our major papers, and the opinion columnists in those papers (whether conservative or liberal), in one form or another, believe that a Trump victory, as one of my friends said, would be the end of democracy and that the American experiment, almost 250 years old, would be over.

To which I say, quoting Pat Brady in the Roy Rogers television show of the 1950s, “Whooaa Nellie Bell” (the phrase he used to stop his Jeep, Nellie Bell). This flimflam artist – no matter how odious – has neither the discipline nor the smarts to undo 250 years of the American Republic. Will his four years be pretty? Absolutely not. But he will have a Congress and a Supreme Court to deal with, and he did extremely poorly with both in his first go round. Indeed, even though he self-proclaims himself a “winner,” he has been the regular “loser” in his thousands of court fights. Why should that change?

And don’t count out the American people. Only a handful of true believers are not disgusted by what happened on January 6, 2021 when the Trump hoard overtook the Capitol. You could bet your bottom dollar that those scenes will be run over and over again in political ads. For me, there is little doubt that most Americans blame Trump for that debacle and will remember it in the voting booths. Most Americans do not think that the crowd at the Capitol that day are, in current Trump speak, “hostages” who deserve to be pardoned.

Trump caught lightning in a bottle in 2016 and he may yet catch it again. There are some of you who will agree that Trump is a bad fellow but not agree with me that he is an instrument of the Devil. Well, the Devil is an attractive fellow and very good at persuading people that he doesn’t exist. After all, he led the fallen angels so we know he had considerable charisma although in the end he lost. But he hasn’t given up.

I remember Trump being interviewed by a religious broadcaster in 2016. He was asked what his favorite part of the Bible was. He deflected by saying “oh there are so many that he couldn’t pick just one.” But once pressed, he finally said: “an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth.” I don’t think it’s an accident that this quote was from the Old Testament and that this instruction was radically changed in the New Testament (rather than revenge the new rule is to “turn the other cheek” ). The Devil would never want to acknowledge the New Testament where Jesus refused his offer.

So why all this religious claptrap and stories of fallen angels? Someone says: “You must know that many of us are not religious and do not accept these ancient fables you reference.” I do know this but I think the theological story is a good one and explains a lot. I realize there are other explanations but they don’t seem to be as persuasive.

And Trump supporters? Are they also devils? Absolutely not, but Trump will never call forth the “better angels” in us to which Abraham Lincoln appealed; he only calls for our “worse angels” because, like the Devil, his purpose is to divide not unite, to create anger not love, to pit one against another and keep us from achieving the possibilities within ourselves.

To be sure, Trump has raised a number of significant issues such as uncontrolled immigration and the Democratic Party is hardly blameless. But ultimately Trump is not about solving the issues because that requires hard work, negotiation, compromise, and the willingness not to vilify the people you are negotiating with on Twitter (now X).

If the whole world is divided into either firefighters or arsonists, Trump will never be a firefighter. Nor will the Devil.

On September 22, 2022, Marilyn Mosby, the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City, Maryland, was outside the courthouse preparing to address the substantial crowd but her timing was off. As Marilyn began her speech, Adnan Syed exited the courthouse where his 20 plus year-old murder conviction had just been overturned . Marilyn’s office was responsible for the reversal and Marilyn was there to take a bow. Unfortunately for her, the crowd – on seeing Syed – erupted in cheering and applause and she could not be heard .

If 1999 was the worst year of Adnan Syed’s life, 2014 may have been his best year. In 2014, Syed, then in prison for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, met Sarah Koenig ,a journalist who co-created the podcast, Serial, which originated from Chicago’s NPR radio station, WBEZ. Koenig’s podcast was a part of the This American Life series on NPR.

While there had been podcasts before Serial, it is fair to say that the Serial podcast on Adnan Syed (its very first) came close to breaking the Internet. It ran for 12 weeks at the end of 2014, and, within a year, it had been downloaded 100 million times. To date, it has been downloaded 300 million times.

The podcast world is divided into two parts: BS and AS, meaning Before Serial and After Serial referring to the Serial podcast on Adnan Syed. After that podcast, the number of podcasts exploded so that now there is a podcast on virtually any conceivable subject; in the BS period virtually none.

Syed was a 17-year-old high school student as was Hae Min Lee, his ex-girlfriend who was the victim. He was a member of a thriving Muslim community and it was two members of this community who persuaded Sarah Koenig to give his case a look almost 15 years after his conviction. Koenig had been a reporter for the Baltimore Sun some years before and had known Syed’s advocates when she lived in Baltimore and believed that they were serious and believable people. Once convinced that a wrong may have occurred, she spent a year researching the case and preparing the podcast which convinced more than a few people that Syed was innocent. To be sure, there are also those who were not convinced.

The power of the Serial podcast resulted from several factors. First, Sarah Koenig had done exhaustive research into the 15-year-old case. She reviewed every court document available and talked to every witness from 1999. Second, her voice and her delivery were both distinctive and pleasing. Third, when listening, you felt you were somehow involved in solving the case.

Listen now to the first of the 12 episodes entitled “The Alibi”.(https://serialpodcast.org) and see if you don’t agree.

Koenig has detractors. Some are just plain jealous that she has done something so original and so good that is now owned by the New York Times. Others believe she had an agenda to show that the criminal justice system does not work properly because of prosecutorial misconduct, false witnesses encouraged by investigating detectives, the failure to pursue alternative suspects and the use of “junk science” which, in Syed’s case, had to do with cell tower transmissions. That criticism now appears more accurate given her comments after Syed was released.

So, while Marilyn Mosby was attempting to give her speech and while the crowd was chanting that day’s version of Kumbaya, the question remains: was he guilty or was he innocent? The judge’s decision is now on appeal on the basis that Hae Min Lee’s brother was not given sufficient time to participate in the hearing on the motion to vacate Syed’s conviction. No matter the outcome of that appeal, it is clear that Syed will not be retried given the “problems” with the original prosecution.

Frankly, there does not appear to be the “problems” that the State’s Attorney now maintains. Even the new discovery of a “Brady” violation is not without controversy. A “Brady” violation involves a situation where the prosecution is aware of mitigating information (e.g., alternative suspect) which is not properly revealed to the defense before trial. A Brady violation means a new trial. The State’s Attorney now maintains that it discovered a note in the original prosecutor’s handwriting indicating that another person wanted to kill Hae Min Lee (if true, a clear “Brady” violation ). The prosecutor in question maintains that his note referred to Syed and not to someone else.

People who have listened to the podcast come away with different conclusions. Sarah Koenig was of the belief that Syed’s conviction was improper. In my family, my daughter agreed with Sarah. My son-in-law, my son and I thought that Syed was guilty. Political leanings do not appear to have affected the outcome as the “guilty” votes range from very conservative to very liberal. The State’s Attorney was careful to note that its action was not a declaration of innocence but a determination that the trial was flawed and that the conviction could not stand.

What is crystal clear is that without Serial, Syed would still be in prison. He became nationally and internationally famous and, all of a sudden, got what an inmate always hopes for: lawyers banging down the door to represent him. Ultimately, it was “pro bono” lawyers who freed him with the help of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s office which, no doubt, was well aware of the Serial podcast.

We are most accustomed these days to the use of DNA to free the wrongfully convicted. There was no DNA in the Syed case. A witness said that he helped Syed bury Hae Min Lee’s body and took detectives to her car which had been abandoned after the burial. So, the Syed case depended on whether you believed this individual or not. The jury clearly did.

While 2022 was the year of Syed’s resurrection, it was not a great year for Marilyn Mosby and the least of her problems was the speech which was not heard. In January, in a spectacular fall from grace resembling a Greek tragedy, she had been indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for perjury and also lying on a mortgage application. She was denied a third term by the voters in July. She would be convicted of perjury in November 2023.

Unlike Syed’s trial, the testimony in Marilyn’s trial was reported each morning in the paper.  In 1999, Hae Min Lee was one of 300 plus murders in Baltimore and very few received any notoriety.  We know the details of Syed’s murder trial only because of Serial.

So did Serial result in the release of a person actually guilty of premediated murder?

Maybe. Maybe not.

I have not done a blog in a while because of health issues and also because I could not find a subject that I thought was interesting. Recently, however, I realized that there are many subjects that catch my attention.

There is a columnist in the local paper who occasionally writes a column entitled “Nobody Asked Me But…”. and then proceeds to comment on multiple issues. So here is my version of “Nobody Asked Me But ….”.

Humpty Dumpty

It might seem odd that the children’s nursery rhyme applies to a present day political situation which, if it were not so serious, would be laughable. So, consider the present reality that our House of Representatives has no leader and then consider the centuries old plight of Humpty Dumpty.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy, like Humpty Dumpty, had a great fall. It was engineered by 8 Republican wing nuts, who were ably assisted by 212 Democratic congressmen and women and together they voted McCarthy out. 217 votes were needed, and they got 220 (the 8 wing nuts plus 212 Democrats).

Would be Kevin McCarthys cannot assemble the necessary votes to become Speaker and, again, the Democrats are quite happy with the Republican dysfunction. They will now have talking points in the 2024 election to show that they, not them, should run the show. Meanwhile, necessary legislation related to the Ukraine, Israel, the budget and to meet the fast-approaching deadline for government default are all ignored.

Current commentary blames the fractious Republicans on the mess and that is correct. However, commentary also suggests that the Democrats are the only adults in the room and that is absolutely incorrect. Adults are those who find solutions and a way forward. Neither party seems capable of that and their absolute tribal allegiance guarantees failure.

Pox on both parties. Neither of the Republicans nor the Democrats have any rightful claim to our support.

Hopkins Hypocrisy

In Baltimore, Hopkins is the 800-pound gorilla. There is the medical school, including the hospital, which is regularly in contention to be the number #1 hospital in the world. And then there is the University (entirely separate, both legally and geographically, from the sprawling medical campus) which is one of the most selective schools in the nation. Criticizing Hopkins in Baltimore may not be a mortal sin but it’s pretty close.

Which brings us to the case of Caroline Donovan. Caroline, in 1899, gave the University $100,000 to endow the Caroline Donovan Professorship in English literature. All went well for almost 125 years until the “Name Review Committee” of the University decided that Caroline’s name must be stricken because Caroline’s money had been derived from the slave trade .

There were, however, complications. Caroline’s gift had specified that her name must remain on the endowed professorship. So, the only way to remove her name is to petition a court and, of course, that’s what the Name Review Committee plans to do. If the court agrees, the Name Review Committee will rename the professorship to remediate “the harm associated with the original funding“ and “to reflect the core values” of the University.

So that seems all well and good. The Name Review Committee took about 18 months to make this decision. Around the time it was beginning deliberations, it was announced that the University’s founder, Johns Hopkins, had owned slaves. This was completely contrary to the century-old belief that Hopkins was from a Quaker family which opposed slavery.

However, don’t expect the Name Review Committee to be asking any court to rename Johns Hopkins University. Why? Because Hopkins is a national “brand” which is far too valuable to give up while Caroline Donovan is somebody that nobody knows or cares about. After all, the faculty members of the Name Review Committee have an elevated reputation because they teach at Johns Hopkins. They surely do not want to lose that distinction. Meanwhile, they can prove their “bona fides” as enlightened faculty by making sure that Caroline Donovan’s name is erased.

The Name Review Committee wants to have its cake and eat it too. Apparently, it’s alright to be hypocritical as long as you are “enlightened.”

Your Call Is Important To Us

I’m really not sure whether the same female voice is heard on every customer service line. If so, that lady should be very well compensated. When you call the typical 800 number, she speaks to you, on average, perhaps 25 times before an actual person answers. Usually, it takes about a half an hour before a person comes on the line.

The other day I called an 800 number to cancel a service, and when I finally got through the gentleman said: “Cancellation Department.,” I then asked for the address so I could mail the required cancellation notice . He then said:“ I’ll have to transfer you to customer service for that:” You would’ve thought that since he was in the Cancellation Department that he would know the mailing address of his workstation. It’s almost like they really don’t want you to cancel but, no, that cannot be the case because my call and my issue was very “important.”

When I was listening to the lady 25 times, the obvious thought occurred that – if our calls were so “important” – why didn’t the company employ enough people to answer them.

Birds Of A Feather

The last time that an ivory billed woodpecker was seen was 1944. It is a handsome bird (see below)

but has been on the possible “extinction list” of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but so far has been not declared “extinct.” The principal reason is that various individuals have insisted that they have seen the bird over the years since1944, although grainy photos are not really conclusive. Indeed, detractors say that the bird being seen is not an ivory billed woodpecker, but rather a pileated woodpecker which is remarkably similar in appearance.

So who cares? An awful lot of people are invested in this particular controversy. I became aware of it only because I had purchased “forever stamps” which featured animals that could become extinct. Since the mid-1970s, when the Federal Endangered Species Act was passed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been tasked with declaring extinct species. One of the stamps showed a desert bighorn sheep, a handsome animal, (see below)

that I would not like to see extinct. On the other hand, I did not have similar feelings for the San Francisco garter snake, the Nashville crayfish, the long-eared bat or the prairie chicken.

The whole point of evolutionary biology is that certain species make it and certain don’t. The Endangered Species Act tries to identify species that are not making it because of human development. I’m not sure what to think of this since the human species needs to evolve in order to survive, which can mean that other species might not make it. The idea behind the Endangered Species Act is noble but, perhaps, unrealistic.

That being said, I am all in favor of saving the desert bighorn sheep and the ivory billed woodpecker if that fellow is still around.

Nobody asked me, but the award for the most remarkable bird might go to the Bar-tailed Godwit (see below).

The Godwit summers in Alaska and winters in New Zealand. What is remarkable is that the Godwit flies that 7,000 miles in a week without stopping. For those of you who are having trouble making 10,000 steps a day, just think about the Godwit.

If affirmative action had been a boxer, it would have been on the ropes for most of its career but was regularly saved by split decisions. However, in what appears to be its final fight, it lost. On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court, in a 6 to 3 decision (Students For Fair Admissions, Inc. vs. President and Fellows of Harvard College) ruled that affirmative action programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard discriminated against Asian students and were illegal and unconstitutional.

From the beginning in the 1970’s, the Supreme Court had ruled against certain types of affirmative action but maintained that carefully tailored programs would be allowed. An individual challenging affirmative action at a particular institution (see Alan Bakke below) might be admitted. The challenged affirmative action program was declared illegal but, at the same time, the Court indicated that appropriately designed affirmative action programs were desirable and, hence, affirmative action was effectively salvaged.

Since affirmative action is based on “race,” one wonders how it survived this long. In the last 75 years any racial category which disadvantaged black Americans would be struck down immediately as a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause which was enacted after the Civil War. But “affirmative action” was a racial category which theoretically advantaged black Americans so what could be wrong with that? Pretty much everything because racial categories are inherently unfair to those who are excluded.

Suppose, for example, in the interest of diversity, a university determined that no less and no more than 15% of its students should be black Americans. In turn, other groups were awarded a percentage cap (first time college student 15%; Hispanics 10%; Asians, 20%; legacy students 20%, LGBTQ student 5%, all others, 15%). A prospective black American student sues, saying that he or she has been excluded simply because of the 15% rule. Is there any doubt that such a policy is and should be unconstitutional?

Alan Bakke was twice turned down for medical school at the University of California, Davis. He alleged that the quota of 16 black students for 100 spots violated the law. In 1978, the Supreme Court agreed (Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke) and ruled that Bakke should be admitted but also held diversity was a desirable outcome and, while quotas were illegal, any attempt to achieve diversity, was laudable although it would be judged by a “strict scrutiny.”

In 2003, the University of Michigan was involved in two cases that reached the Supreme Court over the issue of affirmative action and were decided the same day. In one case (Grutter vs. Bollinger), a white woman complained that she had been excluded from the law school because of unfair consideration given to certain minority groups. Her claim was unsuccessful, and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, in a 5-4 decision, that the Constitution “does not prohibit the law school’s narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.” The Michigan law school admission policy passed the “strict scrutiny” test announced in Bakke.

However, in the second case (Gratz vs. Bollinger), Supreme Court (6-3) struck down a point-based admission system that awarded an automatic bonus of 20 points to the admission scores of minority applicants to the undergraduate school without any consideration of their individual merit. Automatic credit without individual consideration was not permissible.

While the Grutter vs. Bollinger decision affirmed the rationale in the Bakke case, the majority opinion by Justice O’Connor contained the following sentence: “Race-conscious admissions policy must be limited in time,” adding that the “Court expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”

The “25 years from now” phrase became, for the dissenters, a swinging piñata begging to be smacked and smacked it was. Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the majority opinion on this single point: the policy in question would be unconstitutional 25 years from 2003 and, if it would be unconstitutional in 2028, he wondered how it could not be unconstitutional in 2003.

Attention has now turned to the issue of “legacy admissions” which have been described as “affirmative action for wealthy white people.” Legacy admissions are surely a benefit to prospective students whose parents or grandparents attended the institution. They may well be white although there probably is no shortage of black students whose grandparents or parents were the beneficiaries of affirmative action programs. Indeed, the most recent data concerning Harvard legacy students indicates that only seven out of 10 are white (New York Times, July 27, 2023).

In a broader sense, legacy students contribute to diversity. They may come from wealthier backgrounds, prep schools and the like but they will mix with other students who do not have the same background. Such exposure can be meaningful. A non-legacy student may look at the legacy students and decide that he or she wants to have values like them or decide to never be like them. The point is that a legacy student provides a model, good or bad, to be evaluated by the other students.

Then, of course, there is the money. One of the standard arguments for legacy students is that policy encourages granddad/mom or dad/mom to continue to make contributions to the college. At one school, $30 million got the giver a named quad and an expelled son readmitted: a classic case of someone with too much money and school administrators who knew it. The money, which is often quite substantial, can be used for many things including scholarship support for those who could not otherwise afford the tuition.

So, was affirmative action good or bad? It may have been good for those who benefited from it, but it was bad for those who were excluded because of it. It contributed to the notion that every black person who was accepted at a school or got a particular job was being rewarded because of their race and not because of their merit. There is little doubt the black people must have felt the condescending stares of fellow students or coworkers. It resulted in the creation of the phrase “reverse discrimination.”

Moreover, it was completely unnecessary. Colleges could have created a program that gave preference to first-time college students and to students from the lower socioeconomic groups. That would have effectively helped black students and white students as well. And, as a result of the Supreme Court decision, Harvard and other colleges can use these policies to select their student bodies.

The Supreme Court decision generated the usual political blather. The White House and the Democratic Party bemoaned the decision blaming it on the conservatives on the Court while the other side applauded the return to sanity. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, no stranger to hyperbole, said “the Supreme Court has put a giant roadblock in our country’s march toward racial justice.”

What is more interesting than politicians canned or tweeted reactions is the public’s reaction. A substantial majority of the public agreed with the decision, unlike last year’s abortion decision reversing Roe v. Wade which was wildly unpopular. Aaron Blake. writing in the Washington Post on July 6, 2023. indicated that one poll showed Americans approving it by more than 2 to 1 margin. The same poll indicated that more black Americans approved the decision than disapproved of it. Indeed, 31% of black Americans “strongly” approved of the decision. Just 20% of black Americans felt that affirmative action had put them at an advantage and, strikingly, 35% actually said they felt that it had put them at a disadvantage.

My take is that the decision was correct and that it will really not make much of a difference going forward. Indeed, it really was about time for affirmative action to be concluded. 

In this, I am reminded of the story of the farmer, his wife and his beautiful teenage daughter, who lived next to a military base. His wife spent every waking minute, trying to protect her daughter’s virginity. The farmer returned from the field, one day and found his wife crying inconsolably on the front porch. He asked why she was so upset. The reply: our daughter is pregnant.

The farmer consoled his wife as best he could, thinking all the time: “Thank God that’s over.”

There are many who believe there is no such thing as a “good” war. I disagree but I have to admit their position certainly merits support if one looks at the wars that America has been involved in since I was born.

My generation suffered through the Vietnam war which began in the early 1960s and ended ignominiously in 1975 when the helicopter left the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon, leaving many behind, the war lost with 55,000 Americans dead and tens of thousands who returned and many of them not in a good way.

Then there was the invasion of Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) which toppled Saddam Hussein and bestowed “democracy” in Iraq with the result that Iraq is no longer a bulwark against Iran but rather its majority population of Shia Muslims has made it a vassal state of Iran, America’s great enemy.

Then there was Afghanistan, America’s longest war, begun because of the horror of 9/11. It became a nation building boondoggle and when it ended, like a carbon copy of Vietnam but 50 years later, the last American plane left with people trying to scramble aboard, the war having been lost, and the Taliban having returned.

The toll of these three conflicts: Trillions of dollars spent, thousands of American lives lost and not only no victories, but awful outcomes.

Then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year. But this one may be different. It may be a “good” war in the sense that there is a “good” versus a “bad” side. In my neighborhood, small blue and yellow Ukrainian flags dot lawns and hang from mailboxes. I think it is more than rooting for David against Goliath and has to do with rooting for freedom.

Many are not enamored of support for the Ukrainians. They include the current Republican presidential front runners, Trump and DeSantis, as well as academic experts, who argue that Russia has the need to protect its borders. Some of these characters even posit that Ukraine is to blame because it sought to be a part of the European Union. DeSantis issued a statement to Tucker Carlson just this week calling the invasion of Ukraine a “territorial dispute.” Noah Rothman described DeSantis’ comment as follows: “Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is a ‘dispute’ over the territory in the same way a bank robber and a depositor have a ‘dispute’ over money.”

President Biden has been remarkable in his ability to marshal the resources of the Free World against the Russian invasion. In this endeavor, he has been assisted by another octogenarian, who usually says “no” to everything that Biden wants. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader, and President Biden are on the same page. Both Biden and McConnell were born during the “last good war,” that being World War II when there was a “good” side, and a “bad” side. Both came of age at a time when there was a general consensus that World War II had been absolutely necessary and correct. It helped that the war was “won.”

In fairness, there was not an unblemished end to World War II. The Russians were also “winners” and they, in Churchill’s words delivered in 1946, had placed an Iron Curtain around Eastern Europe, a curtain that would not be lifted until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Thus, from 1945 until 1989, the peoples of Eastern Europe had to suffer living under surveillance in police states without the freedoms that Western Europeans and Americans were then enjoying.

Churchill was one of the very few who, early on, understood Hitler. He certainly understood Stalin (as did the Ukrainians since he intentionally starved millions of them to death in 1932-33 in a genocide known as Holodomor) and he would’ve understood Putin. Churchill, despite his outdated defense of the English Colonial Empire, had a remarkably keen eye for messianic leaders. He understood that they were not to be bargained with nor their demands met. Hitler, Stalin, and Putin were, or are, messianic leaders. Hitler, with his devotion to the Aryan “race;” Stalin, with his insistence in 1945 that the next war would be between the communist East and the decadent West; Putin, with his vision of a renewed Russian empire. Messianic leaders care only for their vision, the rest be dammed.

Biden and McConnell grew up in a world where Churchill’s insights were valued and, I believe, this contributes to their current joint position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Contrast Biden’s behavior with that of President Obama who did not grow up in a world infused with the lessons of World War II. These are really the lessons of history. Obama was an inept “foreign policy” President. He announced a “redline” against Bashar al-Assad’s use of poisonous gas against Syrian civilians; Assad, assisted by his Russian ally, used the gas and nothing happened. When Putin took over the Ukrainian area called the Crimea in 2014, the White House protested but effectively did nothing.

If America hopes to compete with China in this century, it must do more than limit TikTok. America and its allies are “shining cities on the hill” proclaiming the value of freedom to the world. They have what surveillance states like Russia and China will never allow.

The war in Ukraine is a clear instance of where freedom is a stake. It is not a fight over territory, although territory is involved. It is really a fight over values and there’s only one place for America to be in this particular fight.

I do not consider myself a warmonger. I came of age during the Vietnam war which, I believe, was a total mess from start to end. I have seen the results in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, there may be such a thing as “good war” and I believe we are seeing that in the Ukraine.

A few Sundays ago there was a Gospel at Mass in which Jesus said that if somebody struck you on your cheek, turn and offer the other cheek.

I turned to my companion, Sister Dot Malone, SSND, and said: “Boy, I’m glad the Ukrainians didn’t listen to that advice.”

Two women are discussing Christmas and the first says “I can’t stand these supposed miracles.”

The second replies: “Oh, you mean the stuff about the Virgin Birth?”

“No, I’m all right with that. But Three Wise Men.

Really?”

Ned Buchbinder

55 years ago, my college classmate, Ned Buchbinder, saved me.

Ned always had a whimsical charm. With a Jewish background, he would remind his almost all Catholic classmates that the statue on the iconic Golden Dome at Notre Dame was a Jewish lady.

But in 1968, while the unwinnable war dragged on in Vietnam and I and all my classmates were about to lose our student deferments, the Selective Service Administration (it no longer exists as the draft no longer exists) was our next stop which meant one thing: we were likely to be drafted and fighting in the Mekong Delta in a matter of months. Many left the country; many went to Vietnam; too few came back and those that did were marked forever, often not in a good way.

Ned was what was then called a “draft counselor” which meant that he had mastered all of the rules in the Selective Service system. He found me a provision (unknown to me) that would allow me to remain a civilian in the United States rather than an infantryman in Vietnam. That provision was that a student who had been deferred could still qualify for a fatherhood deferment, but for the next 2 weeks only.  For that, I have been eternally grateful.

So last week the very same Ned Buchbinder sent an email which just quoted Carl Sagan: “In all our searching, the only thing that we have found that makes existence bearable is each other.”

This got me thinking about the people we meet. Over the last week, I have been with three people who have made my life better.

Adwoa Bonsra

Last Thursday, I was at a physical therapy session with Adwoa Bonsra. Adwoa (pronounced ADJOA) was born in Ghana. At age 8, her father, who was in the United States, brought her to live with him. Initially, it did not go well. She was mercilessly teased by her classmates for being “African,” for her very dark skin and for her accent.

In any event, her father told her that she had three things going against her: she was African; she was black and she was a girl. That conversation apparently took. Thereafter, Adwoa regained her footing and there was no stopping her. She would be the Salutatorian of her very large high school class, receive her bachelor’s degree and then a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the University of Maryland Medical School.

Today, Adwoa is as American as apple pie. She knows and quietly sings the lyrics of every song on the radio which is always playing in the therapy room but she still is from Ghana. She recently married Francis Boadi who is also from Ghana and has been in the United States for just a short time. They had a tribal wedding in Ghana which was then redone at a church here just so it would be “legal.”

Dr. Linh Nguyen

On Friday I went to see my podiatrist, Dr. Linh (pronounced LEAN) Nguyen in Jacksonville, Maryland. She is only here because a Japanese freighter picked up a floundering boat in the South China Sea in 1978.

The boat had been built under cover of darkness by her father and turned out to be not entirely seaworthy as water had to be constantly bailed. They had left Vietnam eight days before and were shortly out of food but, more importantly, water. She was 3 years old and one of 50 or so, mostly children, on the boat.

She and her extended family ended up in a refugee camp in Malaysia. Six months later, they were sponsored and settled in a Baltimore suburb. Her dad worked a variety of entry level jobs until he obtained sufficient education to locate a better position. Her mom was a manicurist until she retired.

As her time in high school was coming to an end, Dr. Linh, despite exemplary grades, was not thinking of college but rather thinking that she would like to be a stay at home Mom raising kids. There was only one problem with that thought process. She did not have anyone to marry. That would come later.

Ultimately, she received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and her medical degree from the Temple University Podiatric Medical School. Along the way, she met her husband and is the mother of three sons with a very active podiatric practice.

So Thursday and Friday were pretty interesting but then came Sunday.

Sister Laurentilla Back, SSND

The School Sisters of Notre Dame were founded in Bavaria in 1833. They take lifelong vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience, vows which most of us could not follow for any appreciable time at all. Their primary mission is to provide education at the elementary, secondary and college level.

They have always had a strong presence in Baltimore. One of their high schools (the Institute of Notre Dame just now closed) graduated former United States Senator Barbara Mikulski and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Villa Assumpta is the local SSND Mother House in Baltimore and Mass is said there every Sunday at 10 AM. The typical congregation consists of 40 retired nuns and usually two men, me and the priest. Jesus said that he was leaving the Holy Spirit to guide his newly founded church. Apparently, The Holy Spirit is speaking more clearly to our Protestant brethren and some Jewish believers as the Catholic Church squanders the opportunity to have women conduct our masses. I know 40 women who would do a superb job.

In any event, the last person that I usually see on Sunday is Sister Laurentilla. She was introduced to me by Sister Dot Malone, SSND. Dot and I sit together in the back of the church, she in her electric wheelchair and me in my walker. Sister Laurentilla is 90 and has been a nun for 70 years. She is always joyous and welcoming.

She gave me a way to remember her name: think of Lauren Bacall (the actor Humphrey Bogart’s great love) and Attila the Hun and then put them together.

A pinch of salt usually makes food taste much better. So too there are people who make our lives better.

These are stories of perseverance and commitment. There are many other stories out there. There are stories of love gained and love lost; of chances taken and not taken; of triumphs and defeats, both small and large, and many others. All of these stories are worth repeating and sharing. All you have to do is to be a little nosey, talk a lot and ask many questions.

Then, just listen.

It was just another day until it wasn’t.

For Americans alive in 1941, the date of December 7, 1941 will not be forgotten as it was the day the Japanese decimated the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. It was, according to President Roosevelt, a “day that will live in infamy.” For those alive in 1963, the date of November 23, 1963 will always be remembered as the day President Kennedy was assassinated. For those alive in 2001, September 11, 2001 will be forever etched in their memories as a day when the planes hit the Twin Towers in New York as well as the Pentagon.

But if you were not alive at these particular times, those days might have little meaning. While most seniors describe the effect of 9/11 as “uniting” the country, only 22% of the millennials (born 1980-1996) and 21% of Generation Z (born 1996-2010) agreed.

For those alive at the time of these events, they know exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. But there are other events which do not have historical significance but which evoke responses depending on your station in life.

Given my inability to walk any distance, my normal position is in an easy chair with my legs up which means that the most I usually do is read. My daily regimen includes the New York Times and the local newspaper. While the NYT provides considerable information including the crossword puzzle (not the big one but the little one), the local paper contains nuggets not otherwise found. For example, there is a column on people having birthdays although it appears that only entertainment celebrities have birthdays (My God, Stevie Nicks is 74 and I remember her when she was only 25). Barack Obama’s birthday, no; Michelle Obama’s birthday, no; Oprah’s birthday, definitely. Oh, and don’t forget the Rapper Pit Bull.

Just as the passage of time renders certain historical events unimportant to after born individuals, so too my knowledge of the individuals whose birthdays are being celebrated pretty much stops at 25 years younger than me, Pit Bull being one obvious exception.

Another nugget in the local newspaper was this: bird enthusiasts complained that wind turbines killed too many birds. They are right. The American Bird Conservancy estimates that wind turbines kill 681,000 birds a year but, as it turns out, cats kill 2.4 billion and cats provide static electricity only occasionally.

One of the other features of the local newspaper are the death notices. If you are at the point where you have more days behind you than ahead of you, obituaries are of interest. As Carl Reiner once said: “I get up and read the death notices and, if I’m not in them, then I have breakfast.”

Someone recently told me that the death notices were the only accurate information in the paper. I don’t think that is necessarily correct because, almost without exception, the notice speaks about the loving spouse left behind even though that can’t be 100% true, can it?

On December 29, 2022, Edson Arantes do Nascimento died at age 82 in Santos, Brazil. He was known to the world as Pele’ and, in his time, was the best paid and most well-known athlete in the world. He played what the world calls “football” and what people in the United States call soccer. He led Brazil to World Cup Championships in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

When he visited the White House, the President stepped forward, extended his hand and said “I am Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States, and everybody knows you.”

Pele’ was born with two huge strikes against him. He was very poor and he was very black but he was able to overcome because he had an athleticism enjoyed by only a few in every generation.

American football commands the attention of over 100 million people. Pele’s football has well over a 1 billion and maybe 2 billion fans. His 24-hour wake drew 230,000 people in his hometown of Santos, population 430,000.

What made Pele’s death one of those days? I think it really depends on your age.

The whole thought of death is one that many do not want to contemplate. Everyone knows it’s coming but why think about it? Their response in the teenage patois of today (“not cool bro”) or that of yesterday (“you’re bringing me down dude”). Or as one of your aunts would say during a family scuffle “let’s talk about something nice.”

Then there are the graying baby boomers sitting in church, preparing, as my friend Tom Figel says, for the “final examination.” Some have been attending church all along while others have recently joined. The business of aging has a person thinking about the end. First the hair recedes, turns grey, then the pot belly, the sagging neck, the lack of physical or mental strength, the daily pill containers, the health scares cured by medical interventions.  For those 25 years younger, no worries but just know it’s coming.

The boomers all fondly remember their youth as well as the music of that time and now may be partial to Bob Dylan singing “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”.

There are those who are sick and infirm and quite willing to go quietly.

Many more follow the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and refuse “… to go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

I don’t remember whether the line occurred in a war movie, a cowboy movie or a spy movie.  It may be apropos.

I don’t think we are getting out of here alive.

For those who find this blog somewhat morbid, let me reintroduce some of you and introduce the rest to a more uplifting version of “Mama Said” by the Shirelles. Listening to this song, one thing occurs.  It was not very hard to produce a hit record in 1961.