It's the freezin' season. I suppose because it was May 1, air-conditioning was turned on in my office, in the classrooms at Loyola and on the CTA train I rode home today. Wouldn't have minded if it had been 80 degrees, but it was closer to 60 and rainy. I found myself having to put on a coat to stay warm in the classroom where I administered one of my final exams. Same thing in my office. But my coat did little good on the CTA, where frigid air issued from the AC vents and left me shivering.
No point complaining. This is the way it has become in modern America. We exult when we have a warm winter like the one just past. But the brains who have designed our modern systems have decided that, come spring and summer, we all must be kept refrigerated like so many sides of beef in a meat locker.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Final Exam Time
I am currently administering the final exam in my course in Ethics and Communication. This has been a difficult semester. Neither I nor my students seem to have been as sharp as in semesters past. I don't know why that was so for the students. For me, it was a matter of fatigue--I suddenly seem not to have the energy I used to have. Gotta find a way to get it back. Going to a part-time schedule in the fall should help.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Dick Clark, R.I.P.
Owing to the stroke he suffered in 2004, Dick Clark hasn't been Dick Clark for some time now. Still, it saddened me to learn of his death. He was an indelible part of my life and the life of my generation. Thanks for the memories.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Ozzie the Liberator: Time for a Debate on U.S. Policy Toward Cuba
Something tells me Ozzie Guillen isn't going to survive the firestorm that he ignited last week with his complimentary remarks about Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. And maybe he shouldn't. I don't have an opinion about what should happen to the Florida Marlins' manager.
But if Ozzie's remarks can ignite a conversation in this country about U.S. policy toward Cuba, his political misstep will have served a good and healthy purpose. Because the truth is that America's Cuba policy has for far too long been set with a view to what is acceptable to the most rabidly anti-Castro elements in the Cuban "exile" community, not what is most conducive to the interests of the United States and, for that matter, of Cuba.
Yes, Castro--first Fidel and now Raul--is a dictator and, yes, Cuba is a dictatorship. But the United States has found ways to deal with dictators in myriad other countries, to the benefit of the U.S. and, often, the benefit of the citizens of those countries. Cuba is the great, glaring exception.
Long since it made any economic or political sense, we continue to impose an embargo on Cuba and to isolate it in many other ways. And the reason: because that's what the Cuban exiles in Florida want. And because both major parties covet their votes and Florida's electoral votes, neither party challenges that domination of national policy by a small group.
I don't fault the Florida Cubans for using their muscle on behalf of their cause. I do fault the politicians who are supposed to represent the United States of America for allowing the exile tail to wag the national dog. It's time this foolishness was ended.
With any luck, Ozzie Guillen will have given us the opportunity we desperately need to have a long-overdue conversation about our Cuba policy. Ozzie may not be salvageable, but American policy toward Cuba may be.
But if Ozzie's remarks can ignite a conversation in this country about U.S. policy toward Cuba, his political misstep will have served a good and healthy purpose. Because the truth is that America's Cuba policy has for far too long been set with a view to what is acceptable to the most rabidly anti-Castro elements in the Cuban "exile" community, not what is most conducive to the interests of the United States and, for that matter, of Cuba.
Yes, Castro--first Fidel and now Raul--is a dictator and, yes, Cuba is a dictatorship. But the United States has found ways to deal with dictators in myriad other countries, to the benefit of the U.S. and, often, the benefit of the citizens of those countries. Cuba is the great, glaring exception.
Long since it made any economic or political sense, we continue to impose an embargo on Cuba and to isolate it in many other ways. And the reason: because that's what the Cuban exiles in Florida want. And because both major parties covet their votes and Florida's electoral votes, neither party challenges that domination of national policy by a small group.
I don't fault the Florida Cubans for using their muscle on behalf of their cause. I do fault the politicians who are supposed to represent the United States of America for allowing the exile tail to wag the national dog. It's time this foolishness was ended.
With any luck, Ozzie Guillen will have given us the opportunity we desperately need to have a long-overdue conversation about our Cuba policy. Ozzie may not be salvageable, but American policy toward Cuba may be.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Go Irish!
I'm watching the Notre Dame women's basketball team dismantle the University of Maryland's Terrapins. An awesome display.
Go Irish!
Go Irish!
Friday, March 23, 2012
Proud Dad of a New Grad
As of today my older son Matthew is a college graduate. He finished the last of the coursework for his bachelor's degree in accounting at California State University at Los Angeles. Hail, hail, Matthew! I couldn't be prouder if I had just won a Nobel Prize.
Matt has come a long way. He took some detours after high school, but finally found his direction. He not only has earned a college degree, but he also has become a mature, educated person who thinks seriously about important issues. I love talking with him. He is going to do great work for whoever is smart enough to hire him.
I love you, Matt.
Matt has come a long way. He took some detours after high school, but finally found his direction. He not only has earned a college degree, but he also has become a mature, educated person who thinks seriously about important issues. I love talking with him. He is going to do great work for whoever is smart enough to hire him.
I love you, Matt.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Lawless Florida and the Rule of the Gun
The newest descriptions of the killing of young Trayvon Martin remind me of nothing so much as the scene in the movie "Shane" in which the gunfighter Jack Wilson, played with exquisite menace and malevolence by a young Jack Palance, stalks and kills the sodbuster "Stonewall." Wilson took care to make it look like self-defense, but it was murder, simple and premeditated.
In the case of Trayvon, he didn't even have a weapon, unless you count a can of iced tea. George Zimmerman, the newest evidence suggests, stalked him, probably provoking Trayvon to turn, confront him and "threaten" him--perhaps with a lethal squirt of tea?
In the stories I've read about this case, Florida sounds like the Old West of Shane's day, where the law might as well be a three-day horse ride away. In "Shane," the result of that lawless situation was that people resorted to engaging gunfighters. Hope it doesn't come to that in Florida--for George Zimmerman's sake.
In the case of Trayvon, he didn't even have a weapon, unless you count a can of iced tea. George Zimmerman, the newest evidence suggests, stalked him, probably provoking Trayvon to turn, confront him and "threaten" him--perhaps with a lethal squirt of tea?
In the stories I've read about this case, Florida sounds like the Old West of Shane's day, where the law might as well be a three-day horse ride away. In "Shane," the result of that lawless situation was that people resorted to engaging gunfighters. Hope it doesn't come to that in Florida--for George Zimmerman's sake.
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