Trying to allow latest Supreme Court term decisions to shake out

As the Supreme Court releases its final judgments of the current term today, there is a tendency to instantly react to each case. This leads to focusing on today rather than trying to see longer trends, deeper meanings, and more complex interactions between individual cases and larger societal changes.

I dimly remember President Johnson's creation (along with a national agreement) of affirmative action, for instance, back in 1964 through the Civil Rights Act. I did not remember clearly that the whole idea of going beyond mere statistics and test scores to add more diversity to college enrollments only truly affected about 100 colleges. The vast majority of universities welcome students who qualify, often defining "qualify" much more broadly than a Harvard or University of North Carolina. 

There are great arguments to be made both for and against admissions policies such as "every student from x state will be admitted to the school if they rank in the top half of their class." There are even more intriguing arguments around whether to use "class" or socio-economic group as a major factor in adding more diversity to a campus.

After all, it is not logical to suggest that a wealthy Black student who scores high on tests and show great academic promise needs a bit more a "thumb on the scale," so to speak. But it is also not appealing to imagine a student body that consists only of the top one percent of all applicants (however that it determined). Colleges make all sorts of exceptions to "the rules," particularly when it comes to athletics or music performance or even computer programming. Demonstrating raw talent often pushes a few students past others who boast of equally impressive SAT scores or high school grades. 

And it's important to realize that there are a lot more students with "raw talent" than can fit on our "elite" campuses. We love to have winners and losers.

Not everyone gets into Harvard. And it turns out that the old cliche: "You can achieve anything you can dream" is a myth. Really? I dreamed I played catcher for the Cubs for several years of my life, but no matter how much I dreamed and hoped, I just didn't have the elite skills. Thanks, mom and dad.

In many ways, the Supremes eliminating affirmative action based on race was just an argument among the rich and well-educated, signifying almost nothing for most Americans. Most Americans don't even attend college and most college students attend schools that admit most applicants. 

The fact that nearly all the Supremes attended Ivy League schools is a comment on how we run our government and how we defer to "paper" credentials in so many cases. 

But unlike the appalling Roe decision last year, which flew in the face of the vast majority of Americans' views, yesterday's affirmative action demolition actually sides with the 70 percent of Americans (even a majority of Black voters) who are not strong backers of racial quotas. 

Americans prefer to believe in one of our national myths: that merit should always win the day. That no one should be given added advantages and that we all can succeed if we just try hard. Many Black Americans reject being branded as "victims" who need special treatment, and that is understandable. 

Once we reach a goal or experience a success, it's very human to look back and see how we, of course, deserved our success. How hard work and talent paid off... no favoritism involved. It's much harder to see how generations of advantages (or lack of them) might produce specific outcomes.

In fact, the real issue in education is that so much power is concentrated in the hands of so few "elite" schools... and they remain elite mostly because they claim that status and society doesn't challenge the idea. But a Supreme Court and a large number of the nation's other leaders being a product of those elite campuses just perpetuates the challenge. 

Only a "lucky" few will reap the benefits. There won't be a Supreme Court case that reduces America's own class system that grows from just a few universities. 

Is it any wonder that lots of Americans mostly just hate colleges and college students and professors and all those self-proclaimed elites? And there's a lot more hate in the country that needs fixing... somehow.

Baseball's ebbs and flows help us remember to keep our chins up

In less than two hours, the Angels and Rockies will begin the third game of their series in Denver and they have split the first two games, with the Rockies taking game one 7-4, and then losing game two 25-1. Yes, you read that right. 25-1... and those 25 runs were scored in just four innings.

If you were looking for some logic here, good luck. The run totals in the two games favor the Angels 29-8, yet each team has earned one win. Who knows what will happen this afternoon? It might be another blow out, or a slug fest, or a tight pitchers' dual (I wouldn't bet heavily on that last one). 

I tuned into last night's laugher just as the third inning wrapped up and was astonished to find that LA had scored 13 runs just that inning. I was drawn to the TV much like we find it difficult to turn away from natural disasters or car accidents, and I was rewarded with an 8-run fourth inning by the Angels. At that point, the entire game had become a joke. Announcers were at a loss. The sell-out crowd had to settle for a spectacular sunset and another Rocky Dog. I felt embarrassment for the home team, though I understand that the Rockies have about 10 potential starters on injured reserve (or lost for the season).

But here's the thing. Today the 25 runs from last night don't carry over. The loss was so lopsided that no one on either team could claim much enjoyment. Is there a "thrill of victory" when the game should have been stopped by a mercy rule? 

Unlike "real life," most sports don't carry much residual power or pain or joy or grief. The new contest begins all even, and even the worst team in the league often triumphs, at least occasionally, over the best. That is one attraction of sports for me. Yes, the worst teams prove their inadequacy over time, but you need a longer season or series to see the trends emerge.

The disaster at Coors Field yesterday is weirdly tied to my thoughts on the tornado that swept through Highlands Ranch last Thursday, damaging lots of trees and buildings. It passed within a couple hundred yards of our house, according to the storm track map. 

But Kathleen and I were in Seattle, enjoying sunny and mild weather while the storms ravaged the Centennial State. We learned of the tornado the way we tend to learn about all breaking news: on Facebook and other social media. I called our neighbor and she reported no significant damage, though she did say that she was frightened by the wind and hail and pouring rain. She's a Nebraskan, so she has seen some storms (as have we), but she said that was as scared as she could remember.

We arrived home yesterday, just three days after the tornado, and couldn't see much evidence of the destruction that some of our neighbors in our little corner of Colorado had endured. A few tree limbs lay on the parking and there were workers buzzing around some roofs about half a mile from us. Our roses and peonies took a hit, but I assume they will recover quickly. 

Today the sun is shining and there isn't a cloud in the sky. 

That same sun will be shining on Coors Field this afternoon. The pride of the Rockies took a hit yesterday, but they will take the field again. There is a decent chance they will win the game. 

And life goes on, despite the occasional threats, disasters, and mishaps. 

Postscript: Not all that surprising, but the Rockies did take the third game of the series, 4-3. A great reminder that baseball, like life in many ways, is more a marathon than a sprint.

Mom's birthday was so long ago... and yet

Today would have been my mother's 96th... though she died at age 70 after a brief battle with cancer. Far too young. She's been gone for 26 years, which is too much for me to fully process since many of my memories of her are timeless.

But beyond a sense of vague sadness and loss, today got me thinking about how close to us the past really is. Let's look at what was going on in 1927, less than a century ago.

• The 1927 baseball season was the year Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs.
• Charles Lindbergh flew The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic nonstop and solo, direct from New York City to Paris, as the first solo transatlantic flight.
• Work began in October on Mount Rushmore (finished in 1941).
• In a unanimous opinion the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Nixon v. Herndon case during March, declaring a Texas law that prohibited black voters from participating in the state’s primary elections to be unconstitutional. Texas immediately passed a state law that retained this blatant discrimination.
• Joseph Stalin took control of the Russian Communist party (Trotsky was expelled, as well).
• Six striking miners from the Columbine Mine are massacred with machine gun fire at Serene, Colorado. Many more were injured.
• In Britain, 1000 people a week died from an influenza epidemic during the fall and winter of the year.

Baseball lost its place as the National Pastime, supplanted by the much more violent football. Lindbergh became a famous white supremacist, if not a Nazi. Mount Rushmore remains a top tourist destination, though Crazy Horse Mountain has arisen as an ongoing project that sends a different message. The degenerated Republican Party seems set on restricting voting rights for as many Americans as possible. Putin is the newest version of Stalin, and seems to hunger for long-gone days of Soviet power. Unions continue to struggle, though management refrains from using guns on workers. Epidemics continue and pandemics keep challenging humanity.

In some ways, so much has changed in 96 years. In others, we see that the past isn't really the past, after all. 

Barbara Fern Guffey was born just before the Depression in Freeport, Illinois, site of one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Her mother and father clearly had hope for the future, bringing a daughter into troubled times... but maybe we are always in "troubled times." Her father had been a sailor in WWI, which ended just nine years before her birth. 

She lived through the Depression and then WWII, set aside her personal dreams to get married, move to Iowa City and have a family, beginning with me in 1950, and then bore seven more children. They are scattered up and down the west coast, along with me in Colorado and brother Mike, the only one remaining in Iowa.

Someday I hope to write something more meaningful (and personal) about my mother and father, though I must admit to spotty memories of many of the specific moments we shared. Mom never met her great-grandchildren, of course, which is sad because she loved and treasured babies so much.

And now her eldest great-grandchild is about to go away to college, in the very town Barb's husband whisked her away to over 73 years ago. Grace is not like Barb in any clear way, yet she owes something to what her great-grandmother taught and modeled and endured and enjoyed.

I suspect that my mother might have achieved a lot had she been able to pursue her professional dreams (teaching? music? business? medicine?). But she became a mother among millions of mothers who produced the Baby Boomers. Being a housewife had to be enough, and none of her children regret her care and attention and love.

I also suspect that Barbara would embrace and celebrate the independent, sassy, and passionate young Grace as she begins a new adventure, back in the town where she spent nearly 50 years. 

As William Faulkner said, “The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past.”

And that is why remembering my mother's birthday today led me to think more about the future.

Fear and worry... our nation's primary emotions

A former president is indicted, with more charges still likely to come this summer... and there is hand-wringing about how this MAY affect our future politics. 

Canadian wildfires send smoke into New York City and the northeast generally, and there are endless think pieces about how this should awaken the eyes and minds of Americans skeptical about climate change.

The Rockies' relief pitching blows yet another game, surrendering a ninth-inning lead. I was in attendance at the game yesterday and felt certain my fears of the team finding some way to lose would come true. 

Over a dozen Republicans have announced campaigns for president, and the biggest outcome of all those is to worry about how a diluted field benefits Trump.

There is some fear that Trump will call for his rabid supporters to rise up and overcome those doing the prosecutions... and how that fear has often led to the authorities letting the Fraudster in Chief to get away with yet another unsavory deal or another media outrage.

The ongoing writer's strike will delay next season's TV schedule, leading to worries about how to survive fall and (maybe) winter without learning what comes next with the many series that ended with a cliffhanger episode. Oh, dear. How will be manage?

There is a human tendency to wonder about all the things that COULD go wrong in life. Heck, I am approaching 73 and we know that health concerns can crop up quickly for seniors... and that our ability to bounce back from some physical setback diminishes with age.

And don't get me started on the fears that President Biden might not survive a second term. Also, don't bother Americans with the more likely chance that he DOES survive. 

I saw a poll that said over 70 percent of Americans thought Biden's mental acuity was quite worrisome, but many of those same citizens weren't so worried about Trump's mental acuity. Talk about misplaced fears.

Our fears range from the earth-changing to the mundane, and I would argue that there is good reason for humans to focus on potential negative consequences. That focus has kept the species alive for millenia, after all. 

Humans have a fine ability to entertain fears right alongside hope, despite all the inherent conflicts and paradoxes. 

Today I am balancing some fears that the Nuggets will suffer a letdown after an emotional game three win in Miami and will let the Heat climb back into the NBA finals series. But I also hope I am wrong.

It's great to root against yourself.