Today's P-I has an op-ed from Sen. Ted Kennedy lamenting yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the Seattle School District's racial-profiling school assignment system. Kennedy characterizes the SCOTUS decision as a vote "to block voluntary efforts to achieve racial integration in public schools".
Actually, no. The Supreme Court struck down the Seattle plan not because it was a "voluntary effort to achieve racial integration", but because it was the diametric opposite of a "voluntary effort". The suit was brought by families whose children were assigned to a particular school against the parents' wishes and on the basis of their skin color.
What then would be a "voluntary effort to achieve racial integration in public schools"? One example would be when a white parent voluntary chooses to enroll his son in a mostly black public school (as opposed to, for example, enrolling him in Phillips Andover).
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 29, 2007 10:27 AM | Email ThisIf you don't want your school-age child to be sent to a school across town, you will find a way to move to another school district or find a private school.
Posted by: Clean House on June 29, 2007 10:31 AMAnd it's not just Senator Kennedy. It's the NEA, WEA and public teachers in general. When a majority of large urban district public school teachers send their children to private school, you know the system's broken. The workers in the system don't even trust it!
Oh well, at least we got a great quote out of this by Chief Justice Roberts:
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”
If only Senator Kennedy and many others of his ilk would actually live by that basic truism!
Posted by: Edmonds Dan on June 29, 2007 10:58 AMI had some of the best high school teachers in the country (the Marist Brothers of Archbishop Molloy) many of whom had advanced degrees and could have taken high paying jobs in industry if they hadn't taken vows.
As far as Seattle public schools -- abandon ship!
Maybe Bill Gates can buy the whole thing and reform it like the effort he's doing here on Kent East Hill, but short of that...
Posted by: John Bailo on June 29, 2007 11:09 AM"when a community (through its elected representatives) decides to do it, it's "voluntary".
That's a magnificent perversion of the word "voluntary". It's not much different than your first sergeant "volunteering" you to clean latrines.
Your elected representatives impose taxes on you, and confiscate your property to hand to someone who will pay them more taxes, but no one recognizes either of those situations as "voluntary". So why Orwellize the meaning of "voluntary" to support segregation according to race, just because your legislators can't comprehend the 14th Amendment?
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on June 29, 2007 12:48 PMBut the Seattle School racist still want to define everything in terms of race and culture. They will absolutely enforce a particular culture or a particular color on everyone, until they get told no by the SCOTUS.
How ridiculous. Why not just focus on raising people to understand that they are defined by their choices and their character and not their color or historical background. And with that, stop the reverse-racism that teaches exactly the wrong and divisive viewpoint to our children.
Yet another failure of the left.
Posted by: Jeff B. on June 29, 2007 12:52 PMIt's like if a business is forced by the court to hire someone, or does so voluntarily. In either case, the person who does NOT get hired does not do so (or not NOT do so!) "voluntarily." But the business is still, obviously, acting voluntarily in the latter case.
Posted by: pudge on June 29, 2007 01:31 PMIf the Demoncrats think it's fine and dandy to discriminate based on one's skin color then they should try to pass a constitutional amendment allowing the government to be racist, until then, it's just un-American to do so.
Posted by: Doug on June 29, 2007 02:33 PMMe - "Officer, the speed limit is part of the RCW enacted by the elected legislature and therefore is voluntary, and I chose not to volunteer to obey it. No ticket for me."
Officer - "Please get out of the car sir, spread your legs, and place your hands on the roof."
Kennedy's brain has been pickled over the past half century, so feel free to ignore anytning he says.
Posted by: Steve on June 29, 2007 03:12 PMIn a voluntary action, each member of the community wishing for it takes one step forward and both of them go off to commit their heroic deed. Under Communism, every member is forced to join the heroes, individual opinion be damned.
But it's easy to see, when we see daily use of the word "community" perverted to mean simply those members who harbor correct opinions, that activist insiders might prattle about unwanted actions by non-goodthinkers being voluntary.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on June 29, 2007 03:21 PMNote - the above is entirely satirical and should not be confused with the truth. The same goes for all utterances of the distinguished senior Senator from Massassachuetts.
Posted by: Steve on June 29, 2007 03:47 PMYou don't want your kids to have to go to school with black or brown kids. Separate but equal is just fine, eh?
Not all of my Republican acquaintances are racists, but 100% of my racist acquaintances are good, solid, true-believer Bush Republicans.
Posted by: Nor Republican on June 29, 2007 04:44 PMTake a walk! I went to the most racially diverse school in the nation growing up. The problem is all of you white, liberal pussies who move up here from California and elsewhere. You've driven up the real estate prices and you've driven out blue collar families and minorities.
This is why, other than Portland, Seattle is the least racially diverse major city in the United States.
Posted by: Don Ward on June 29, 2007 05:30 PMSteve, that shows how you don't understand what Kennedy said: again, this is about context, and he was speaking in the context of the school acting voluntarily. Yes, of course, in a DIFFERENT context -- that of the individual -- it is not voluntary. Two different contexts.
Don Ward: you go, girl!
What would horrify #12 the worst would be for his/her kids to be educated in a school with real ideological diversity - that is, serious consideration being given to all ideas from right to left, instead of the current WEA spectrum from soft to hard left.
Assuming too that #12 practices the sort of personal relationships that produce children, intentionally or not. Otherwise this profound philosophy is wasted.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on June 29, 2007 05:57 PMEveryone has been dissed by someone else at some time and if you haven't give me your name and I will diss you so you can be a part of the club. We need to focus on quality schools and not faux or phony integration.
The second strain in Brown v. Board is the real issue and that is that segregated schools were at the time of Brown not receiving equal funding and school supplies. As long as all public schools receive the same basic funding this is not as much of a concern, although there is an equalization argument to be made for public schools with more special needs students and more
students for whom English is a second language. The focus should be on quality neighborhood schools.
like Hollywood idealogue moguls, everyone loves "diversity" in theory as long as THEIR private estates and compounds are not visited by us 'diverse' unwashed masses, race nothwithstanding.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on June 30, 2007 06:37 AMWhich side constantly attempts to divide us along racial lines? I don't think anyone needs more than one guess at the answer.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on June 30, 2007 08:16 AMIf there's a lot of drug activity and a disrespect for academics, then what parent in his right mind would send his kid to that school?
Posted by: Peggy U on June 30, 2007 11:26 AMNah, Bill Gates is an uber-socialist and totally agrees with Jesse Jackson/Ted Kennedy on forced busing.
Posted by: Manco on June 30, 2007 11:48 AMIn a voluntary action, each member of the community wishing for it takes one step forward and both of them go off to commit their heroic deed. Under Communism, every member is forced to join the heroes, individual opinion be damned.
But it's easy to see, when we see daily use of the word "community" perverted to mean simply those members who harbor correct opinions, that activist insiders might prattle about unwanted actions by non-goodthinkers being voluntary.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on June 29, 2007 03:21 PM
My god man, you so nailed it on the head, I'm speechless. That's everything that I hate about "democracy" and communism. What happened to our Constitional Republic, the shining city on a hill Reagan told us existed somewhere?
Posted by: Manco on June 30, 2007 11:52 AM