Women, Justice, Christian Schools, and Universities
We all celebrated the ushering of the New Year just three months ago. 2023 is turning out to be worse than 2022. Can't we just focus on the Emily Warners of the world?
Did you know that March was Women’s History Month? I only knew this thanks to the fine work of two good friends, Drs. William and Penny Hamilton. Renowned historians and authors, the Hamiltons are leading a national effort to commemorate March 8th as National Emily Warner and Women Airline Pilots Day. Kudos to their Colorado US Senators, John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, along with their local Democratic US Representative, Joe Neguse, for sponsoring the legislation. This website tells you how to email your Senators and Congressperson to ask them to cosponsor.
Read about Emily Warner here and please ask your Senators and Congresspeople to cosponsor the legislation, House (H.Res. 211) and Senate (S.Res. 98). It’s nonpartisan and non-controversial. The Hamiltons operate a museum at Granby, Colorado’s airport, named after the historic female aviator, our nation’s first professional female airline pilot.
You also might be forgiven if the name Audrey Hale is more memorable than Emily Warner. And what a shame that is.
You’d also be forgiven for asking, “what’s a woman?” Especially since our newest Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, doesn’t seem to know, asserting in Senate testimony that a biology degree - advanced, no less - is required to provide a definitive answer.
Apparently, the White House also lacks a biologist on their premises. Their major event honoring Women’s History Month feted a biological male with their “International Woman of Courage” award. I guess Lia Thomas wasn’t available. Oh, wait.
Many women, alive and not, are perfect honorees for Women’s History Month. I can think of several, including my favorite, gun-toting and underground railroad runner Harriett Tubman. Emily Warner, of course. Several women, including Jeanette Rankin (R-MT) and Shirley Chisolm (D-NY), were women pioneers in Congress and politics. The former head of the Red Cross and GOP US Senator and Secretary of Transportation and Labor, Elizabeth Dole, also tops my list and is still very much among us. Rosa Parks, Sacagawea, and the famous women suffragettes, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. The last three have a permanent place of honor in the US Capitol rotunda.
Perhaps if Woodrow Wilson had declared himself a woman (he was President when the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote was ratified), he, too, could share space with Lucretia, Susan, and Elizabeth in their marble tub.
As for April, I hope it isn’t “American Justice Month” or something similar. Fortunately, Law Day doesn’t arrive until May 1st. But there should be no doubt that our legal system is in the throes of stage four political cancer. We won’t see President Trump's sealed indictment (!) by a partisan Manhattan prosecutor until Tuesday. Still, one need not rely on this case for evidence of the grotesque politicization of our legal and federal law enforcement systems (I’ll add our intelligence community).
Usually, Grand Jury indictments are sealed only under fear of a flight risk, which is hardly the case here. Trump, raising millions of campaign dollars from his legal foibles, can’t wait to share his mug shot and have his perp walk photographed for his next fundraising appeals. Imran Khan, call your office.
Meanwhile, as Manhattan’s district attorney basks in public attention for his promised prosecution of Trump, other crimes within his jurisdiction are taking a back seat. Or worse.
Much has been written elsewhere about Trump’s indictment. But it doesn’t take a college degree or an IQ over 70 (college degrees are not tied to IQs, obviously). to see the double standards at work, from Hillary Clinton’s sweetheart arrangement with the FBI to erase over 30,000 emails or the failure of prosecutors to indict a single person on Jeffrey Epstein’s underage-girls ex-client list (happy Women’s History Month). The list goes on. But don’t take my word for it. Most Americans know we have a two-tiered system of “justice,” which means we no longer have a system of justice. And when Americans lose confidence in our justice system, Katy bar the door.
Speaking of universities, a new Wall Street Journal poll this week suggests that most Americans don’t think a college degree is worth the cost. A gender studies degree (among others) and its ability to produce income and a positive career trajectory to cover the cost of exorbitant college loans has run into a law of economics.
The survey, conducted with NORC at the University of Chicago, a nonpartisan research organization, found that 56% of Americans think earning a four-year degree is a bad bet compared with 42% who retain faith in the credential.
Skepticism is strongest among people ages 18-34, and people with college degrees are among those whose opinions have soured the most, portending a profound shift for higher education in the years ahead.
In 2013, 53% of Americans were bullish on college, and 40% weren’t. In 2017, 49% of Americans thought a four-year degree would lead to good jobs and higher earnings, compared with 47% who didn’t.
“These findings are indeed sobering for all of us in higher education, and in some ways, a wake-up call,” said Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, which counts more than 1,700 institutions of higher education as members. “We need to do a better job at storytelling, but we need to improve our practice, that seems to me to be the only recipe I know of regaining public confidence.”
Dr. Mitchell cited student debt, which has reached $1.7 trillion, and the 60% graduation rate at four-year colleges as two of the biggest problems undermining confidence in the sector.
Public skepticism toward higher education began to rise after the 2008 recession and compounded during the pandemic. Enrollment in U.S. colleges declined by about 15% over the last decade while the growth in alternative credentials, including apprenticeships, increased sharply.
Given the dramatic emergence of ChatGTP and artificial intelligence, our future will consist of managing AI systems that we hope and pray don’t become sentient. A college degree may not be necessary. The woke orientation of today’s colleges, where diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE) programs and bureaucracy trump teaching you how to think, is a detriment.
Something tells me that our education systems are about to be revolutionized, and no current university or public education system will survive long in its current form. Buckle up.
For the record, no item on this blog, past or present, has been written with by, or with the aid of, artificial intelligence.
What, you want me to edit out “artificial?”
Of course, the week's major story was the tragic murder of six people, including three 9-year-olds, in an obvious hate crime at Covenant Christian School in Nashville by a former pupil, a biological female who identified as a male.
Lots have been written about that, too, but the reactions from some on The Left are mind-boggling and shameful. Consider:
The White House has yet to mention the word “Christian” in what was obviously a hate crime. Not a word from the White House about the three nine-year-olds or three other school administrators being “under attack.”
Imagine if Donald Trump or his spokespeople defended the white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017 claiming THEY were under attack as one of them mowed down protestors, killing one. Believe it or not, some people believe Trump did, proving again that mental illness is a major crisis.
I do not equate white supremacists with trans activists, even those who blast their way into schools to kill children indiscriminately. They are not the same, with one exception. Mental illness is a factor in both, perhaps with different diagnoses. I’ll leave that to professionals. Trans radical activists and fellow travelers are working overtime to accuse “conservatives” of blaming trans people for the crime. That’s a classic case of the Strawman Fallacy. Only one trans person is to blame, not all, but her “trans status” is a factor worthy of investigation. Perhaps “her” manifesto, once released, will help us understand. Where is it, by the way?
One cannot help but note the radically different reaction to this mass shooting compared to many others in recent years. It amazed me how quickly so many sympathized with or defended the killer.
Of course, The Left and their sycophants in the media are also quick to blame so-called “anti-trans” bills in state legislatures, which prevent the senseless mutilation of young children by malevolent medical “professionals.” The propaganda wars are in full tilt.
Trans activists stormed state capitols. And some even put on drag queen shows. Happy “Women’s History Month,” indeed.
Speaking of drag queen shows, they are the ultimate example of misogyny. But don’t take my word for it.
March was a bad month. The first quarter of 2023 was worse. And the rest of the year isn’t looking very good, either.
Can’t we focus on the Emily Warners of the world?