“Political commentator E. J. Dionne has written that Americans are fed up with politics and many among us just want politics to go away. A distaste for conflict is a distaste for politics. The great Frederick Douglass once remarked that you cannot have rain without occasional thunder and lightning. Yet that is what so many […]
Archives for November 2000
A New Beginning Or More Of The Same?
By the time you read this, we will have a new President-elect and, regardless of the outcome, there are issues of enormous significance to be addressed by the new administration. Since the first term of FDR, we have been fond of discussing the priorities of a new President’s “first 100 days”. To induce some reader […]
Thoughts On Cultural Pollution
Last summer, the Federal Communications Commission released a report that was critical of the marketing practices of the entertainment industry, accusing it of, among other things, directly targeting younger children with violent TV shows, CD’s, and movies. This report sparked a flurry of activity among policy makers, including hearings conducted by the U.S. Senate and […]
If Things Are So Good, Why Do We Feel So Bad?
Several years ago, Forbes Magazine published a special issue, a collection of articles with a theme approximating the title of this essay. One of the articles, by Peggy Noonan, made the observation that we are the first generation in world history that expects happiness. This struck me as profound, but also prompted my asking, “how […]
Public Education: Intervention and Accountability Not Enough
Public education, its plight, and what to do about it have been at or near the top of every list of public policy priorities at least since the 1983 publication of “A Nation At Risk”. Since then, the private sector (businesses, chambers of commerce, philanthropists, foundations, etc.), to their great credit, have shown a remarkable […]