Notes from the road: college, crime, and hidden codes

This post from the road looks at college orientations, America’s scary Cultural Revolution, crime, and more.

Academia College Race university educationMy apologies for being quiet for so long. I dropped a Little Bookworm off at college, which kept me away from my blog and am now visiting a friend who has minimal internet connection.

Since blogging is a bit of a challenge for me under these circumstances, this post will confine itself to general observations, without links to or quotations from other websites. So, here are my thoughts over the last few days, in no particular order.

The college my Little Bookworm is attending is one of the nation’s Jesuit colleges. I’m sorry to say that it has been infected with Leftism, because it just established a social justice program and a professor emailed my Little Bookworm asking or his pronouns before class began.

Still, it’s not Leftist in the way my other Little Bookworm’s college is. To begin with, there’s a better sex balance, with the ratio being pretty much 50-50 male and female. The other college was overwhelmingly female, with many of the small cohort of males presenting as gay or effeminate.

That other college didn’t have the vibe of a traditional all-female campus. Instead, it just felt unbalanced. Colleges, with their focus on young adults are already unbalanced places, so skewing them even more makes for a very unnatural hothouse atmosphere. The Jesuit campus avoids that problem.

At the welcoming ceremony, the President didn’t lead with his pronouns, there was no Leftist invocation, and no one spoke in maudlin, creepy terms about her own child’s transition to college. While that other college was addressing parental fears as if the new students were toddlers leaving home, the welcome ceremony at this Jesuit college actually addressed the students and talked about their growth.

Just as important, there was not a single mention of the word “diversity.” Nor did the president mention “safe spaces.” Hurrah!

My only quibble was that the welcome only once addressed academics. Otherwise, it was all about the “community.” I would have loved to hear more urging to be a scholar and less urging to be a communitarian.

The other thing that appealed to me about this Jesuit college was the assurance from the Title IX people, who gave a little seminar for concerned parents, that the college provides protections to the accused (almost always a male) in cases in which there’s a claim of sexual impropriety. All parties get notice, all parties are allowed to present written questions, and all parties are allowed to have someone at their sides during a hearing. It’s not as good as full constitutional due process, but its a heck of a lot better than the kangaroo courts at other campuses.

So those are my thoughts about orientation weekend.

On other fronts, I finally realized what the mobs of young people tearing down statues remind me of and it’s not good. What’s going on is reminiscent of the student takeover during Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

While the Great Leap Forward “merely” starved millions to death, the Cultural Revolution turned the nation into a horrific nightmare of re-education, Chinese-style gulags, brutal murder, and the breakdown of any systems that were still functioning. When ignorant young people take control, only bad things happen.

On McCain’s death, I honor the brave warrior who passed away.

If you go to American Thinker, you’ll see a blog post about an Apple store robbery. I know that store well, because it’s the only Apple store in Marin. Ed Straker, who wrote the post, is absolutely right about the way in which the local media went out of its way to avoid identifying the culprits as black. The reality is, though, that two cities — majority black Richmond (just across the Bay) and majority black Marin City — contribute disproportionately to Marin’s shoplifting, burglaries, and car theft. It’s a nasty little problem that no one in liberal Marin wants to admit exists.

On a nice note, while hanging out in the airport waiting for a late flight, I ended up speaking to a nice young man. We were talking about the different places in which he had lived, including Fremont, California. I know a little about Fremont, because a dear friend raised his children there. He always told me that it had exceptional racial harmony because all the families wanted the same thing: a good life for the family and a good education for the children.

The young man agreed and said, “You know, the mainstream media blows these things up and says things that aren’t right about most Americans.” “Mainstream media?” I recognize that secret conservative code. So I told him, “I see we’re kindred spirits.” I’m betting he’s a Trump voter. We parted with smiles.

Gotta run. I’ll try to check in again tonight or tomorrow, but won’t be back at my computer until Wednesday morning. I think, though, that you should check in before then, in case Wolf Howling has something to say. Everything he writes is well worth reading.