If Whiteness Were Of No Particular Advantage,

We All Want Merit To Mean Something, And We All May Be Tempted To Reduce That Meaning To Something Measurable And Concrete Like An Sat Score. The Reality, Though, Is That Who Deserves Entry Into An Institution Depends On What The Institution Exists To Do.

Jeremy Lin Is The Only Asian American In The Nba Today And One Of The Few In Any Professional U.s. Sport. His Arrival Is Surely Leading Other Talented Asian American Athletes This Week To Contemplate A Pro Career.

Great Numbers Of Asian Americans Do Not Fit The Model Minority Or 'tiger Family' Stereotypes, Living Instead In Multigenerational Poverty Far From The Mainstream.

To Be Sure, The United States Has Profound Problems, Not Least Our Faltering Educational And Physical Infrastructure.

The Boomers Will Eventually Have To Accept That It Is Not Possible To Stay Young Forever Or To Stop Aging. But It Is Possible By Committing To Show Up For Each Others In Community After Community, To Earn A Measure Of Immortality.