From San Francisco, of course.
Is there such a thing as being too politically correct in San Francisco? Yes — but a public official has to overreach drastically to hit that mark. Everett Middle School Principal Lena Van Haren did just that when she chose to withhold the results of her school’s Oct. 9 student council election because students elected too many white kids. “It’s not OK for a school that is really, really diverse to have the student representatives majority white,” Van Haren told The Chronicle’s Jill Tucker, as her decision made national news. On Monday, Van Haren finally released the names of the winners.
Van Haren insists that she never intended to interfere with the results — she just wanted to wait to release them until the school had developed a plan to increase the student council’s diversity. One possible remedy would be to add seats so that African American and Latino students are better represented. And: “I think it still can be a teachable moment.” Problem: I don’t think Van Haren understands that she’s the one who has a whole lot to learn.
Read the rest of the article here.
Sort of reminds me (in microcosm) of the former Soviet Union: it just imploded from its own weight.
Terms like “equality”, “justice”, “greed” and “fairness” get kicked around a pretty good bit. Usually, we just nod because those are good ideas, at least in the general sense. But we better make sure that the person using those terms – especially when they’re trying to take the moral high ground and/or looking for the government to do something with your money – is using the same dictionary that we are.
For starters:
- Equality is fine, as long as you’re talking about equality of opportunity and not equality of results.
- Fairness – now there’s a vague term. My first thought is that fairness means you get what you deserve. Thankfully, God is not fair. He does not give me what I deserve. Boy, am I glad.
- Greed. Someone please define this for me. One point if you can; two points if you can do it without reference to a moral/theological worldview.
- Justice – see definition of “Fairness” above.
H/T to J.Dillman