Category: Wisdom
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Picture this as satire: you’re driving down Pennsylvania Avenue and the White House has become a tollbooth—pure metaphor, not a factual claim. Inside, a neon-vested Donald Trump leans out and says, “Pay up,” lowering the striped barrier. What follows is commentary and opinion based on publicly reported facts from U.S. and international outlets. Those reports describe payments, settlements, lobbying, and access-seeking…
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Paul Bloom’s recent essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Why Aren’t Professors Braver?,” makes a point that resonates beyond universities. He argues that the very process of American education selects for caution rather than courage. From the earliest stages of schooling, US students learn that advancement depends on following rules, deferring to authority, and…
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If you have ever worked with someone like Doc Brown from Back to the Future, you already know the thrill and exhaustion that comes with proximity to brilliance. The brilliant, unpredictable mind who sees things no one else sees, solves problems no one else can, and sometimes drives everyone else just a little bit crazy in…
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A university president I respect recently recommended that I revisit Derrick Bell’s book Confronting Authority: Reflections of an Ardent Protester. The timing could not have been more precise. The timing could not have been more fitting. The suggestion came just as I stepped back from the presidential track—after six intense, successful years as dean and…
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A viral social-media post recently struck a deep chord with me: “If you’re flabbergasted that we are ‘turning into Nazi Germany,’ perhaps it’s worth remembering that the Nazis based many of their policies on segregated America. This is not new. We were Nazis before the Nazis were Nazis.” It’s easy to dismiss a line like…
Cloaking Inequity 