There was a time when the average person living on the earth lived in a kind of darkness. The wealthiest and most powerful men had some access to learning how to read, write and calculate but most men and virtually all women were confined to ignorance.
This did not mean that they were lacking in the ability to think and create, but it was certainly more difficult without the benefit of a more formal education. The rich and powerful were often able to maintain their hold over the peasants because they denied the common person the incredible gift of an education. In fact one of the most abusive ways of holding groups of people down has always been keeping them unaware by outlawing them from learning.
It was illegal to teach slaves to read or write because the owners understood that keeping them ignorant made them easier to manage. One of the first things despots often do is tear down educational systems, burn books that suggest freedoms, deny certain groups the ability to learn truths. It is a devious plan that has been used again and again as in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge executed teachers, destroyed schools and kept a generation of children from learning anything but propaganda.
We like to believe that we have come a long way from the times when only the elites in a community or nation were allowed the incredible gift of learning but in this year of 2025 there are still efforts to destroy public education and freedom of thought. Here in the United States of America there are attacks on the work of scientists. An anti-woke effort demonizes the idea of attempting to understand differing cultures and ways of living. Intellectuals are being scorned and bullied and even threatened for daring to submit their honest analyses of our society.
In the name of meritocracy we are reverting to backward time when it was assumed that women were less qualified than men, when certain races were deemed more intelligent that others. Some among us look at any woman or person of color who has achieved status as a probable winner because of DEI efforts and rules.
How sad and insulting it is. The diversity that we now see in our daily lives has enriched our nation, not made it less effective. The equity means that no one group can use its power to push out those that they believe to be inferior. The inclusion allows for a variety of ideas and skills that might not have happened had we simply stayed with the mindset in America when my grandmother was illiterate but her brother was a doctor simply because society believed that women had little to offer other than bearing children and caring for the home. We have all too often undervalued and underestimated the brilliance of those descended from slaves well into the current time. When the power of our nation did not include entire groups of people we were missing out on talents that had been hidden before we made the effort to give people a fair opportunity to demonstrate their skills.
it is insulting beyond measure when people automatically pronounce certain individuals as being inferior or when they insinuate that minority groups, including women, have stolen the rightful awards of White men. The truth is that once anyone is invited into a particular university or job they have to prove their mettle. People do not rise to the top out of pity or a desire to push them along. They always do it by their own hard work and merit.
We have an incoming group of mostly men who will be running the important agencies of our government. Most of them are unqualified and lacking in the kind of experience and intelligence they will need. If ever there was an effort of Affirmative Action or DEI it is visible in the choices made for the Trump cabinet. With few exceptions these individuals have only one quality to offer, a willingness to be unremittingly loyal to Donald Trump. Rather than bringing resumes of success to the jobs they are known for spreading lies and hoaxes. To suggest that they represent a return to meritocracy is a joke.
Donald Trump is an unserious man who has gathered together a stunningly unserious group of individuals to help him guide our country. In the meantime this ship of fools is promising to attack the very bedrock of our educational system, our medical and scientific excellence and our willingness to recognize the need to hear all voices, not just those beholden to a single man or set of ideas.
I hope that the damage done to the incredible progress we have made in reaching toward the ideals of our Founding Fathers will not be too destructive. It would be a travesty to create an oligarchy or to take an axe to public education. it would be wrong to shut out huge blocks of Americans and to send them into a modern day dark age. I truly hope that those of us who see the danger will be ready and able to right the ship of state when the storms arise.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 