A More Sane Civil Rights Commission

Mary Frances Berry is no longer head of the US Civil Rights Commission.

Good. In fact, excellent news. My relief is palpable. Her presence, nay, her "overlording" of the US Civil Rights Commission made a mockery of "Civil Rights". Her rulings demeaned the office and intent of the Commission. What a wicked, racist, anti-male, woman. And the Bush Admin changed the locks and reassigned the bank accounts - it was the only way for her to leave office. She didn't do a massive press whine as she had threatened. She was in the wrong and the law made that clear. She didn't care, obviously. Someone probably whispered... "go quietly... for the good of Hillary in '08!"

Lawrence Henry has a good snapshot on the matter at FrontPageMag in A New Conversation on Civil Rights

"... newly appointed chairman Gerald A. Reynolds. Reynolds, 41, a black Republican, has served as an assistant secretary in the Department of Education's civil rights office. Ashley Taylor, a black Republican and a former deputy attorney general of Virginia, fills another seat on the eight-person commission. Thernstrom has been elevated to the vice-chairmanship. Vice-Chairman Cruz Reynoso, a former lieutenant governor of California, left with Berry. The Commission now has a conservative majority."

The commission is going to be investigating "the spectrum of writing on [civil rights], far left to far right. What kind evidence is out there for what kinds of statements?" according to Abbie Thernstrom, newly appointed vice chairman of the Commission.

[Reynolds asserts to investigate]: "what limits the quality of public education and keeps black and Hispanic students so far behind whites and Asians. We know the problems are not genetic. Is it teachers who are mediocre and sometimes incompetent, or is it lack of involvement of the students -- or both? I think it is both."

Reynolds added that "The violence in black and Hispanic communities is a civil rights issue as well, even though people don't want to talk about it as such. We need to find out the successful techniques that have worked across the country that will take black and Hispanic kids to the top as opposed to holding them at the bottom."

I'm seeing it up close -- the situation Mr. Reynolds wonders about. Right here, in my new locale. It's not racism, but there's an innocence in the dialogues concerning "race" issues. Certainly, the racial ideologues are here. These kids are trying to find "culture". Their culture. And they are looking to the west coast for the clues. I see parents struggling to raise their children; I see the children paying the price for wanting to be like left coast racial chic commercials.

Mrs. Thernstrom's point of focus is that which I got to see up close in the San Francisco Bay Area. A semantics manuever, backed by lots and lots of state and federal funds, to teach a "we speak" ideology to youngsters. Plus, affluence. Perhaps the former feeds into the latter? Hmmm? If those heavy bureacracy-laden ideologues were cut, would we then over time have an environment which resembles the South?

In The San Francisco Bay Area, the very air was laden with charge and fear of lawyers. Out here? I hear racist sentiments -- all sides, and most times it's funnier than not! And from each of the "id" groups -- there isn't this burning hate and rage fueled by lack of grace.

I am amazed by the outrageous comments I occasionally hear from blacks, whites, Latinos about members of other "race" groups -- usually, each of these comments really does fit the shoe! There is a multi-cultural grace here which is organic -- not mandated and ordered by the control freaks of the Liberal Socialist Order of the Whip.

And the kids still wanna grow up to be left coast "cool" cats.

You'd think the kids here would figure out that in order to become left coast "cool cats" they need a solid education to get that particular job which will lead them to fame, fortune, etc.

Of course, many of these kids are coping with parents who were spoon fed on liberal pipe dreams of the 60s: affirmative action, fight establishment authority, seize power, blah blah. Which means... the kids are having a rough time.

Nah. It's not an IQ thing. It is a number of things contributing to low education for minorities.

The first, and hardest healing in the young has to be: Love America. Love Her. That's the root, at core. That's what I'm seeing. The culture wars play out far more clearly here than they did in SF.