1/30/2023

JRB,

            Fixing & expanding the Baltimore 7 Potomac Rail Tunnel & naimg the new tube the “Frederick Douglass”. May you live to travel through it.

            Are you following the situation at New College in FL where Gov DeSantis (RDD) has installed new board members to lead an effort “to provide an alternative for conservative families in the state of Florida to say there is a public university that reflects your values?” My daughter’s “mom-in-law,” Patricia Okker, was recently appointed to preside over the place.  I feel for her.

            RDD has no idea how higher ed works. The place is not going to change on a dime & is more likely to close than become the place he imagines. According to a student who goes there, New College is a transparently trans and queer school. Tell me what conservative family is going to send their kids there. State spending for higher ed is way down, so the state’s dollars can’t subsidize the education of a few far-right teens. Besides, there are not enough of them to fill the seats. A decaying school will not attract decent faculty. It’s a short-sighted strategy that may destroy the institution.

            While the campaign against Critical Race Theory may have caught the ire of some, according to Kimberli Williams Crenshaw who coined the term, it’s “a post-George Floyd backlash. The reason why we’re having this conversation is that the line of scrimmage has moved.” Isn’t it fascinating that Christopher Rufo (CR) & his buddies managed to turn an obscure theory into a political football? CR is operating by the Dartmouth Review playbook toying with liberals for personal aggrandizement. It wasn’t pretty in 1982 & it’s not pretty now.

            I’m not sure there’s anything you can do about it, beyond expressing your dismay.

            As you do so, please also express dismay at the situation in Burma.

            BYBS,