Saturday, February 11, 2023
Roberto Clemente was a star baseball player who died in 1972 on a mission to help earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He was Puerto Rican and a big local hero. However, a biography of Clemente written for children has been removed from Florida public schools because of references to the discrimination he faced in his life. You see, Florida doesn’t like ethnic discrimination so much, it won’t allow its kids to read about it.
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Speaking of ethnic discrimination, the United States Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of affirmative action in higher education. Actually, it is reconsidering the issue and poised to overturn precedents in another rejection of judicial restraint that has been the hallmark of the supposed conservative majority. Chief Justice Roberts will be able to assert again his spigot theory of social relations: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”
Although a history major at Harvard University, Roberts seems to conveniently believe that history started this morning, at least in regard to race relations. The past is past, best forgotten, the way it is in Florida. Unfortunately, the present belies the Chief Justice’s rosy view. A story appearing on-line this morning carries this headline: “Childbirth Is Deadlier for Black Families Even When They Are Rich, Study Says.”
Examining 2 million births in California from 2006 to 2017, the study “combines income tax data with birth, death and hospitalization records and demographic data from the Census Bureau and the Social Security Administration.” It seems that while we might have liberty and justice for all we just don't have good medical care for all. You can find the study itself here, but definitely not in any Florida school:
Maybe, in the best Nancy Reagan tradition, we should tell pregnant black women, Just Stay Healthy.
. . .
We New York Giants’ fans had a victory today. The Philadelphia Eagles lost.
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
In today’s headlines: “German ballet director suspended after smearing dog feces in critic’s face” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/german-ballet-director-fired-feces-critic_n_63ee5b34e4b07f036ba20fee
. . .
I listened to "The 'Normalization' of Antisemitism," a broadcast by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, President of the Center for Jewish History, today. He gave convincing examples of rhetoric and memes that morphed from benign to ironic to vile, arousing less and less indignation along the way. However, I think that he is overly optimistic when he cites the pushback against Kanye West as the representative of public opinion. He ignores Kyrie Irving and Mel Gibson, as high on their respective perches as they have ever been.
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
"In the Ivy League, children whose parents are in the top 1 percent of the income distribution are 77 times as likely to attend as those whose parents are in the bottom 20 percent of the income bracket." This fascinating piece of information comes from an excellent discussion of the legal landscape of affirmative action.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/
. . .
There was a special celebration at dinner tonight. The Boyz Club was augmented by the newly-minted epidemiologist, David Goldfarb, an acolyte of America’s Favorite Epidemiologist. We gathered at Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, in night air that was so mild (60+°) that we ate outside. And ate we did.
Egg rolls, duck chow fun, Singapore chow mei fun, crispy honey chicken, shrimp with lobster sauce over shrimp fried rice, and beef with scallion and ginger. It came to $25 each, but, for the first time in recorded history, there was food left over, enough food for 2 or 3 more people celebrating the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln the 16th president, Michael Jordan #23 Chicago Bulls, Adam Fox #23 New York Rangers, George Washington #1 in war and peace and your humble servant.
February 16, 2023
Just in case you are tired of having peaceful nights' sleep, consider the results from the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment. Only one-third of American fourth graders tested "proficient" in reading.
https://www.nationsreportcard.
While proficient was not the lowest level, it is what it is.
NAEP
is a congressionally mandated project, administered within the U.S. Department of Education. How well one reads will strongly influence how well one writes and if you have (tried to) read any materials related to any newly-acquired electronic device, you know that we have a failure to communicate.
. . .
We missed Ken Klein at dinner last night, but he caught up with me at lunch today at Pho Vietnamese Sandwich Shop, 141 West 72nd Street, a reliable source of food from a deadly enemy. They have removed the grungy hut on the sidewalk, so dining is all indoors in a totally forgettable setting. The food, however, is easily remembered and appreciated. I had a Bánh mì, the Vietnamese hero sandwich. Mine was grilled sesame beef, with mayo, pickled radish, pickled carrots, cucumber, cilantro, hoisin sauce and a fried egg on a very crispy, 8" long baguette ($14.50). This only proves that we had nothing to fight over.
Friday, February 17, 2023
This is, of course, a very special day, but it became more special when it was announced this morning that NYU has appointed a woman as president, for the first time ever. https://forward.com/fast-forward/536519/linda-mills-nyu-president-filmmaker-documentary-family-holocaust/
As it happens, Linda Mills is my original wife's first cousin once removed. I knew her as a teenager and, by coincidence her husband, Peter Goodrich, joined the Cardozo faculty while I was in law school. He and I only interacted casually in hallway conversations. Besides her work in academia, Linda is a documentary filmmaker and has notably recorded a part of her family's fascinating story, "Auf Wiedersehen, 'Til We Meet Again." Her maternal grandparents, my former mother-in-law's sister and brother-in-law, were prosperous merchants in Vienna. When the Nazis took over Austria, they agonized over the future of their two adolescent daughters. Anticipating "Sophie's Choice," the parents sent the younger girl on the Kindertransport to England, keeping the older daughter, Linda's mother, with them. Fortunately, all three escaped the Nazis and eventually made their way to Los Angeles.
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