Stinkbombs in the Piñata

Many years ago, when my son was a 4th grader, I decided to celebrate his birthday in school. It was easier, with a ready-made guest list (his classmates, a captive audience), plenty of space in the school gym, and no worries about cleaning. I only had to buy a cake and candles, and, for entertainment,throw in a piñata.At the time, he was attending private school in a serene enclave north of NYC. The invasion of Puerto Ricans from the Bronx hadn't started yet--so nobody in the school knew from Piñatas. They had never seen or heard of such an object. They marveled at the prospect, overcome with the joyous anticipation of breaking up the thing and getting showered by candy. It was up to me to stuff the Piñata with goodies, so I did. But while I wasn't looking, my son snuck in several stinkbombs. The following day, a general uproar ensued when unsuspecting kids got enveloped in a cloud of putrid smells. School administrators shuttered the gym for two days, and my son's teacher almost got fired. Thank God I wasn't there, and I must note that in the end, nothing of consequence happened. But such is life. Stinkbombs in a piñata. Sometimes, the nastiest things come in pretty wrappings.

This is the case with the United States Supreme Court, an august group of individuals in lofty black robes. They're supposed to spout wisdom from those distinguished mouths, be a beacon of justice and fairness while lesser institutions descend into mudslinging partisanship.Instead, this Court, where rabid conservatives reign Supreme, amuses itself throwing stinkbomb decisions at a population that mostly hates its rulings. Last year, the court practically outlawed abortion in large parts of the US. This year, it weakened gun control,refused to secure access to water for the Navajo Nation, weakened labor unions' right to strike, and promoted discrimination against gays. Most recently, the court outlawed affirmative action, the practice of using race as a determining criteria for minority students in college admissions. Now race will become only one of several factors in the process of judging candidates for admission. So, is that a bad thing? Depends on who you ask, and how. Personally, I believe there are some stinkbombs in the Affirmative Action piñata. Of course, liberal black and white activists-- I haven't seen or heard too many Latinos- have set up a prodigious howl. This move, they say, will surely eliminate impoverished minorities' access to higher education. But the American public is curiously faceted on the subject. According to surveys,the majority opposes the Supreme Court being able to rule on Affirmative Action, yet it disagrees with the concept of race as a determining factor in college admissions. Moreover,this whole thing has come about because another minority, Asian students,sued Harvard University, alleging that it had used Affirmative Action to discriminate against them and favor black and brown students. It has also been said that Affirmative action doesn't really help impoverished minorities, who cannot afford college anyway. Instead, it favors middle and upper class minorities, who really don't need it because they have the advantages of affluence. Maybe the real objection is to eliminating Affirmative Action as a quick and easy way to expand minority elites. Because,you see, this ruling affects only a handful of elite institutions, the Harvards,Yales and Princetons that privileged kids compete for in large numbers. You certainly don't need Affirmative Action to get into community college, or most state-funded universities, or even run-of-the-mill private schools. All you need is a decent grade point average and the means to pay for tuition that is usually too high, even at the humblest schools. We need tuition reform for everyone more than Affirmative Action for the few. Some steps in that direction have already been taken: the Federal Government issues undergraduate grants based not on race, but on income. And they're fairly easy to obtain (you can even get help filling out the application). Finally, as a former civil servant, I've witnessed the results of the kind of tacit Affirmative Action that's practiced in government offices. Through it, and the cronyism it engenders, too many unqualified individuals manage to gain supervisory positions. This, to the detriment and disillusion of genuinely qualified employees.