DAILY NEWS – MAY 12th, 2010

DAILY NEWS – MAY 12th, 2010

DATELINE: ANN ARBOR, 50 YEARS AGO – In an attempt to ‘close the achievement gap between white and black students’, a school principal came up with a truly stunning plan... he would create yet another gap, and then be outraged at the response. Lemme explain. Principal Mike Madison arranged for a field trip for some young students. They were to go to hear a black rocket scientist speak to them, to learn about his successes, his challenges. But instead of sending all the students in the class, he allowed only the black children to go, and he says he doesn’t regret that because ‘as I reflect upon the look of excitement, enthusiasm and energy that I saw in these children’s eyes as they stood in the presence of a renowned African American rocket scientist in a very successful position, it gave the kids an opportunity to see this type of achievement is possible even for them’. It’s a wonderful feeling, to see a child inspired, but why just one group? What about the Hispanic students? Were they allowed to go, or not? What about Muslim students? Or Jewish students? Why would one child be more worthy of that inspiration than another? Would not a black child get the same message while sharing the experience with friends who are not black? Instead, we take a group of 5th-graders, and we tell them that because of their skin color, they are more or less deserving of inspiration and dreams. This was absolutely reprehensible in the past. People have worked long hours to fight for the cause of equality, to teach people that their race, color, religion are not issues to be judged on, and yet here is a principal in a school doing just that. Nothing like setting the cause back 50 years for a new generation. The proof of the pudding? Well, when the bus transporting the children who were privileged enough to go returned to the school, the other children booed them. We are talking about 5th-graders, for God’s sake. How else would you expect them to react? How else would you expect them to feel? This small step by a man with incredibly poor judgment in Ann Arbor, was nothing more than a giant step backwards for the cause of equal rights... and more importantly, for equal, mutual respect among people.

DATELINE: IN A DINGY, PROBABLY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA -- A few days ago I blogged about the Somali pirates that had taken the Russian oil tanker hostage, and how the Russians managed to free the ship and the men on it, but that they were going to return the pirates to Somalia rather than prosecute them in Russia. Well, in an interesting turn of events, it would seem that instead of taking the pirates into custody at all, they were tossed into an inflatable boat and set adrift... just as the pirates used to do back in those wonderful days hundreds of years ago when they captured a prize and didn’t want the crew. International reaction to the news of no prosecution by the Russians was one of surprise, but the surprise at this development seems to have had even more impact. The pirates were given a radio beacon, but the Russian ship lost contact with that after one hour, so they assume the dingy went down with all men aboard. I cannot imagine that to be left to drown in the ocean would be a pleasant way to go, however, there is also the possibility that these pirates were picked up, free as birds, by some of the other pirates that frequent those shipping corridors. So, just how was justice served here? If there was not enough evidence to convict the pirates, as the Russians claim (although them forcefully taking a ship and then being captured in the process of taking said ship should have been pretty compelling evidence to start with), then how do they know the pirates should have been facing death by drowning and shark snacks? And if they were guilty, and they were rescued along the way, it is one hell of an example of what happens to pirates when captured... absolutely nothing. Well done. The next people attack, captured and killed by Somali pirates will know exactly who to thank... those Russians.

DATELINE: ISTANBUL, NOT CONSTANTINOPLE – I love this... a story we can all embrace. Under a flood of complaints about tuneless, terrible calls to prayer, Istanbul’s head of religious affairs came up with a totally brilliant idea. He arranged for the imams and muezzins to take singing lessons. The call to prayer is meant to be beautiful and reflective, but the off-beat, tone-deaf cat-in-a-street-fight noises had everyone in the city cringing. Already Imams are feeling the difference, are rejoicing more in their call to prayers. There are some though, who sadly will just never be able to improve, BUT they are at least trying, and the plan is creating a new peace over the city. Well done.

DATELINE: LONDON – The trial in a case where an eight-year-old girl was raped has now gotten underway; the accused? Two boys who were ten at the time of the attack. The boys had taken the girl, who they knew well, to a secluded field near their block of flats. The girl’s mother had gone looking for her when she did not come home with her little sister. She asked one boy, a little brother of one of the accused, and was told that the girl was in the field and the boys were hurting her. The girl was found and taken to hospital when she complained of stomach pains. Two ten-year-olds... what the hell is our society coming to?

DATELINE: THE GULF OF MEXICO – A new containment box, this one smaller than the last so it can be heated with water and methanol, is now being lowered onto the blown-out oil well on the seabed. On Thursday, remote controlled robots will try to position it over the leak, and BP still plans to go ahead with their ‘junk shot’ of using high pressure to shoot garb into the valve to plug it. The irony of shooting chewed-up tires and golf balls into an exploding hole in the ground is sickening. The back-up for both these plans is still the drilling of a relief well to take pressure off the gusher and allow it to be capped. However, that will not happen for about another three months, and by that time, the damages will be incalculable. While fishermen work frantically to harvest what catches they can in an attempt to not lose everything they own, six dead dolphins have washed ashore. This is the time of year they would be in shallow waters to give birth. This is also the time when sea turtles, also being found dead on shores, are preparing to lay their eggs, and when manatees start to migrate back towards the sea. While there is some hope that sea birds can be helped, for those animals that live totally in the water, where human contact won’t happen until it is too late to help them, this is a signed and sealed death warrant.