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Affirmative Action, Discrimination, and Equality

            In June 2023, right-wing influences on the Supreme Court weakened affirmative action, and so I am thinking about under what conditions discrimination is justified. Discrimination can be used in a couple senses. In the first sense, there’s discrimination in the sense of finding some group or quality less valuable than another group or quality. In previous centuries, only white men were educated. Now women and people who are not white can also receive education. Previously, women and people who are not white were discriminated against in education, meaning they were found less valuable or unable to be educated. In the second sense, there’s discrimination merely differentiating between two things, with no claim in difference of value. I can divide all quarters into those minted before 1979, or those minted in 1979 or later, but they are all still worth 25 cents. Only one person can be President, and we try to choose them carefully. So in some sense we discriminate between
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Long-Term on Education, Healthcare, and Abolition

            As long as some feel that they can maintain their social status by excluding others from education, others will work to increase equality of opportunity, particularly through education. As long as some people lack adequate healthcare, others will work to increase healthcare outcomes. As long as there is slavery, others will work to abolish slavery. If you care about increasing access to education, healthcare, and abolishing slavery, be prepared to support these issues by voting, donating, and volunteering, as long as people are being excluded from education, healthcare, or are enslaved. With the Presidential election this year, I am reminded of how I felt under the first Trump administration, which was mostly anxiety and fear for the future. No one person, whether President Biden, or Vice President Harris, will be able to completely solve these problems, but if we work together, we can move forward.
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The Judicial System in the Weimar Republic

            On July 1 st , 2024, just over a week ago, the US Supreme Court decided in a 6-3 decision that Presidents have immunity for official acts. Since an “official act” doesn’t seem to be clearly defined, the check-and-balance on an American President’s power is unclear. So I started to read about the judicial system in Nazi Germany. I learned that antisemitism in Germany started out gradually with the first antisemitic law passed in 1933, and then rights were continually taken away, until by 1941, very few people who were Jewish remained in Germany, because they fled or were sent to concentration camps. I learned that there were official and unofficial methods in the justice system, particularly for people who were Jewish, dissidents, opponents, or other people who the government decided were undesirable. The Weimar Republic existed from 1918 to 1933, but I read that judges were mostly put in place before 1914, when Germany was a monarchy, and they were accused of dispensing “cl
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A Poem for a Baby Bird

There is a bird nest over the light by the front door. When returning from walking my dog, Lilly, I noticed a dead bird chick was on the doorstep under the light, and I buried it in the backyard. My mom said that she would move the nest after the other birds’ chicks left.   A Poem For Baby Birds   Growth is a process, A process of change. And prepares us to fly.   Whether we fly or not, The process keeps going.    
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Lasker on Learning Quote

            Today, I re-read parts of a book that I bought probably at least 10-15 years ago, Lasker’s Manual of Chess. Lasker was the chess world champion in the early 1900s, was a person of the Jewish faith, and left Germany in the late 1920s or early 1930s in response to the rise of the Nazi party. Of the parts that I read, and I really enjoyed this line, “Of my 57 years, I have applied at least 30 to forgetting what I learned or read.” In this quote, I think Lasker has an idea similar to Albert Einstein’s, who said, “Education is what is leftover after one has forgotten what one learned in school.”
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Humor and Democracy

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               The White House Correspondent Association’s (WHCA) Dinner is a testament to political freedom in America. In more authoritarian governments, satire and political comedy is monitored, discouraged, or suppressed. That President Biden is willing to sit through jokes about him, his opponent, and politics shows that the political system can face its imperfections with good nature, and its shortcomings aren’t so serious that they can’t be joked about. (Also, there is a difference between jokes and bullying. Some but not all jokes are bullying, and not all bullying is joking.) Authoritarians find themselves too serious and important to be the target of a joke. As President Biden toasted at the dinner, to a free press and an informed citizenry! Since 1924, only one President hasn't attended  any  WHCA Dinners. See below. P.S. The image of a goldfish is from Open AI's algorithm, Dall-e. It's not a real goldfish.  Edit: P.P.S. In my haste to comment on US politics, I d
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Why Americans Should Support Ukraine

            Ukraine fights Russia, not just for itself, but for the preservation of political and economic freedom everywhere. Sometimes after a country has an increase in democracy, and then later there may be democratic backsliding. For example, this is what has happened in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Today in Russia, dissidents and protestors are arrested, discredited, or silenced. Barriers creating checks and balances between branches of government are removed.             Both democracy and capitalism require the rule of law, and the rule of law requires justice. Without justice, democracy and capitalism may devolve into dishonesty and exploitation. Ukrainians fight to preserve their freedom to dissent and protest, because Russians do not have those freedoms. If the United States does not continue to support Ukraine, that responsibility falls to the Republican Party, especially those in the House of Representatives.
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