On the humbug, I decided to take it back to the first banner I ever had for a blog. A throwback, as it were. Anyway…
This is late, but at racialicious.com, there’s a link to an article at diversityinc that poses the intriguing question, Who’s Ward Connerly Rooting For In The Super Bowl? Given Connerly’s stance on Affirmative Action, it’s not hard to imagine that he would despise the Rooney Rule, which Lovie Smith himself sees as crucial to his being interviewed and eventually hired by the Chicago Bears.
What’s interesting to me in all of this is that people in the press have started to talk about the Dungy coaching tree. I know part of it is because he actually coached (and won) a Super Bowl, but lest we forget, if there is a Dungy tree, its roots start with Dennis Green, who hired Dungy as the defensive coordinator in Minnesota. Dennis Green got his chance in Minnesota after having a significant run of success at Stanford, where he was hired by a selection committee headed by Condoleeza Rice.
So yeah. If we, when in positions of power, would handle our B-I, then maybe AA would be unnecessary. But then again, my premise is that Affirmative Action is not about the superior, it’s about the average. It’s not just about getting one chance to succeed, it’s also about having multiple chances to fail. Remember, an equal sign has both a high bar and a low bar.
Spurred on by Shay at Booker, I’ve started to do some research on my genealogy. I’ve made some decent progress, getting back to the 1850’s, although there’s much more research left to do. Sooner than later, I’m gonna take a road trip to see if I can unearth some more information. The big thing is figuring out what questions I need to ask to get the answers I want.
Plus, that will probably be just the excuse I need to go down South and rent a souped-up Charger for a few days. I’ma see what the Hemi is really all about.
Chris Rock used to joke about making bullets prohibitively expensive as a means of gun control without keeping anybody from owning a gun. Well, the first steps may be pending in Cook County, Illinois. There’s bound to be plenty of wrangling, but it’s definitely an interesting proposition. Granted, at this point, it’s just a 10 cent per-bullet tax, and it’s being proposed as a means for the county to increase revenue, but I can easily see it heading in the gun control direction.
Ever wondered what happens to the championship shirts they print up for the losing team? Well, in Zimbabwe, they’re wearing shirts celebrating the Bears’ win in the Super Bowl.
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Avery
“It’s not just about getting one chance to succeed, it’s also about having multiple chances to fail.”
These words of wisdom are perhaps the crux of the argument for continued support of affirmative action, and perhaps more importantly for the development of an education system which recognizes the root causes of failure and failing students. As someone who works in education I’m sure you understand the importance, the vital necessity of failure.
Everyone, and I mean everyone who is truly successful in whenever it is that they do, has a long list of dismal failures following them. The difference between someone who ultimately succeeds and someone who does not, is their ability to glean vital information from each and every failure. Than take that information and use it to move forward, to construct a new attempt which is perhaps just a bit more successful even if it eventually fails as well.
This ability to sort through the rubble of failure, recognizing what works and what doesn’t before making the next attempt, that is the road to success.
Once you become successful, then you must be able to dissect each of those successes, focusing on each aspect which shows signs of failure, despite the ultimate success which was achieved. Then concentrate on those points in order to keep improving upon your success, thereby heading off possible failure before it can ever occur. You must learn from aspects of failure within your successes.
Both Smith and Dungy seem to have reached a level of mastery in this art, and it shows.
I saw an article in the New York Times about that merchandise which is manufactured before the Super Bowl, those Bears Super Bowl winners hats and T-shirts were locked away in a room at dolphin Stadium, to be immediately shipped out of the country to Third World locales. The NFL strictly prohibits their appearance on eBay and for sale anywhere in the United States, doing so will get you sued.
This may present some interesting dilemmas for future anthropologists, when they examine our civilization, and find these pieces of the past which conflict with the history books, doubtless spouting all kinds of conspiracy theories.
I for one, know that the Bears actually won the Super Bowl, and that stuff we saw on TV was just a CGI lie to try and deceive America and defame the great city of Chicago.
Go Bears!
But I must admit, that it disturbs me to think that the Steelers got beat by Seattle, I’ll never except that no matter how many hats and T-shirts I see.
Not entirely random commentary…
That banner above makes me grin, makes me haunt for the the good ole daze of bloggin…”Remember, an equal sign has both a high bar and a low bar” = brilliant summary … renting a powerful sportscar for a lil while is a weensy slice of heaven, b’lee me. lemme know when you firm up that date and i’ll see if i can’t come ride shotgun (called it!). i believe i have some southern roots m’self…the bullet tax is also a great idea. iono how it is stateside, but in Canada hefty (hefty) “sin” taxes, on stuff like cigarettes, gas an booze, are an amazing revenue generator and, what’s more, more or less accepted by the populace….i’m not even going to click on that zimbabwe link.