In The End No Segregationist Scheme Has

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.

If Whiteness Were Of No Particular Advantage, Then Having A Fuller Color Wheel Of Skin Tones Would Be Purely A Matter Of Celebration. But Whiteness - Just A Drop Of It - Does Still Carry Privilege. You Learn That Very Young In America.

Love Of Country Cannot Be A Supersized Version Of Individual Narcissism. True Love Of Country-of This Country-is Love Of Our Children, Of A Creed That Promises Them A Better Life Before It Promises Us Anything, And Embraces The Sacrifices Needed To Make That Better Life. True Love Of Country Is Giving Ourselves To A Cause And A Purpose Larger Than Ourselves. And That Cause Is To Make Liberty Worth Having, To Make The Pursuit Of Happiness Deeper Than The Quest For Personal Pleasure, And To Leave A Legacy Of Progress And Possibility.

Sometimes When I Listen To Fellow Progressives, I Wonder If The Only Lesson We Took Away From The '04 Elections Is That Politics Is A Word Game.

What Does Purpose Mean? It Means The Deepest Desire For Our Short Lives To Mean Something. . . . To Speak A Language Of Purpose Is To Return To First Principles And To Be Able To Answer, In Plain English, The Plain Questions Of Why? Why Should We Chip In To Help Someone Else? Why Should We Defer Gratification? Why Should We Care About The Long Term? Why Should We Trust Anyone Who Seems To Be Limiting Our Ability To Do What We Want?