Here are the topics for this week's blog: my large distraction; whither the Republicans?; George Will on Trump; a changing America; a historic end; the university "within;" the "new" No Child Left Behind law; final holiday thoughts.

A bump in the road. I apologize for the lapse in my weekly blog, but our telephone rang this past November 21st with our Breckenridge management company telling us that there had been massive water damage to our condominium due to a frozen clear water pipe in the third floor. Of necessity, for the next few months our time will be divided between the city and mountains, fighting the insurance wars and shepherding the unit back to good order.  :-(((
 
The "New" GOP. This article from The Atlantic discusses the future look of the GOP, not a promising forecast. The American political system has been, essentially, a story of two competing parties, from the original Federalists and Anti-federalists to today's Democrats and Republicans. Our forays into third party politics have been short-lived and mainly issue- or personality-oriented: the mid-19th century Know Nothings, TR's Bullmoosers, Eugene Debs's Socialists, Strom Thurmond and the Dixicrats, George Wallace's Southern Democrats, Eugene McCarthy's Anti-Vietnam movement..... Whatever the outcome, for better or for worse, The Donald has pledged his undying love, support, and allegiance to the Republicans, no third party candidacy, where he'd be a sure loser! ¿Quién Sabe?

George Will on Trump. Yet another conservative writer, George Will, expounds on Trump's vexatious  personality. When you next have the chance, turn off the sound watch Trump, then try to picture a President Trump meeting one-on-one with any prominent world leader or group -- friend or foe. Talk about a bad dream!
     After citing the results of 1912 (Taft, Wilson, and TR) and 1964 (Goldwater and LBJ), Will continues, "In 2016, a Trump nomination would not just mean another Democratic presidency. It would mean the loss of what Taft and then Goldwater made possible — a conservative party as a constant presence in American politics." I am definitely not a Republican, but I would consider a diminution of our two party system a very large problem for America.

Not your "old" America. The story in the Washington Post about a recently argued Supreme Court case noted this interesting factoid: "...nearly half of the [America's] under-18 population is made up of racial minorities, while 70 percent of voting-age citizens are white. The United States is undergoing a boom in demographic diversity..." and those most affected will the aging white population.
     In many other nations, a number of which are now under duress, those under-18 account for 70%  or more of the national population.There the now-dominant groups are aging and very unsure how to accommodate/deal with their new demographics and political realities.

The last lump. A lump of coal is often thought of as a bit of Christmas-time lore: you were "bad," so you received a not-so-fine present, a lump of coal. On a more economic and current issue, an article from Foreign Policy noted the closure on December 18th of England's last deep pit coal mine. It was, of course, British coal that fueled both the industrial revolution and the British Empire. At the end, though, only 450 deep pit miners remained, all of whom now face uncertain futures. Coal also provided the initial fuel for America's entry onto the world's industrial stage and has been in the news lately as the Obama administration has moved to put in place ever-more stringent emissions standards. American miners, too, face an uncertain future.

The Clemson football team's "new" facility. If you were wondering what else might be wrong with higher education -- in addition to "trigger warnings," "safe places," and demands for political correctness -- consider this story, with its accompanying architectural renderings. Clemson University has decided that their football players need their new, very own, private sanctuary. Note that in the following quote, athletic deficits, are a major driving force behind the ever-increasing (and unpopular)  "athletic fees" charged to each enrolled student.

     It’ll be their home on campus, when they’re not in class” said Clemson athletics spokesman Joe Galbraith of a building that represents the latest innovation in the athletic facilities arms race that is costing many of America’s largest public universities hundreds of millions of dollars and shows no signs of subsiding.
      Facilities spending is one of the biggest reasons otherwise profitable or self-sufficient athletic departments run deficits, according to a Washington Post review of thousands of pages of financial records from athletic departments at 48 schools in the five wealthiest conferences in college sports.[emphasis added]

   
     Left unsaid in the first paragraph: the facilities already available to Clemson's students are not good enough for the football team. Really?

Every Student Succeeds (ESS) Act. The teachers reading this blog (in the classroom or retired) might want to peruse conservative columnist Michael Gerson's thoughts on the new education law just passed/signed in Washington. While admitting that No Child Left Behind was a "mess" from the beginning, Gerson sees new problems on the horizon with ESS.

Finally, I will close this year's last blog with the hopeful thought from the Christmas column by the Washington Post's  E.J. Dionne.

The narrative of Jesus’ birth in Luke’s Gospel has retained its power beyond the realm of believers because it renders one of the most peaceful moments in all of scripture: a gathering of angels and shepherds celebrating the “good news” and “great joy” of the birth of a baby “wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger....[with] no rumors of war, no clashing armies, only a bright and blessed  calm.

And, from Michael Gerson, here are Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thoughts on the content and future of religion.

As a theologian, Bonhoeffer was farsighted. Modern Western societies, he argued, were becoming “radically religionless.” It is not possible to re-impose this consensus, and mere nostalgia is pointless. But religion — in Bonhoeffer’s view, a changeable form of “human self-expression” — is not the same as faith. “If religion is only the garment of Christianity — and even the garment has looked very different at different times — then what is religionless Christianity?”

Thank you for reading. May your New Year begin on a hopeful note.