MODERN IFIGENIA

I remember being a young adult and cramming into a van with 26 other people: this van was designed to hold only nine. Had I been wealthier, I could have gotten on a nicer and safer bus, but I was not wealthy and had to get home ASAP. I hated my country for things like that and loved America because America had nice buses, no overcrowded bus. I had been on American buses and trains while on vacation and they felt glamorous compared to what I had to get on on a regular basis. Years later, I would move to America. I would depend on public transportation to get to work, school and leisure. I lived at the border between a wealthy area and modest one, lucky enough to have been assigned to the wealthier neighborhood's school system. It turns out, PT in America was not that glamorous. The fleets were nicer, but the routes and expense couldn't get me to where I WANTED to be. They were good enough to get me to where OTHERS wanted me to be. I have since moved around and lived all ov...

Right now everyone is in a tizzy. James Comey, head of the FBI was fired while conducting an investigation into the shenanigans of the guy he helped get into office. Most people are discussing the implications of these recent events: what does it say about Russia? Clinton e-mails? I am less sophisticated and see these events in more mundane terms. What just happened at the national level happens every day  in most work places. Comey is that mediocre white guy in the office who gets promoted despite his lack of skills. We all know him, he is competent enough to have a conversation in the jargon of his field, but not competent enough that one would rely on his work, however, he has two great skills the mediocre often have: He knows how to kiss ass and he easily identifies the next hand that will feed him. He also benefits from the fact that people are more likely to trust an incompetent white man to lead an agency than a competent woman or competent man of color. We all know how ...

It appears Trump has been satisfied with the long form of President Barak Obama's birth certificate. I guess the various affirmations and certifications from Hawaii's officers that he was in fact born in Hawaii were not enough. Trump may be satisfied, but the rest of the birthers are not. Frankly, they never will be. Fundamentally, they are not so much concerned with whether he was born or not born in the U.S. Their concern is whether he is a "Citizen" in the truest and purest meaning of the word. Whether he is a human being endowed with rational thought and entitled to the same rights as any other human being who is endowed with rational thought as they imagine themselves to be. In other words, is he just as important to society as they are? Is he as human as they are? They would like the answer to be no. What I always find fascinating about the birthers' position is that they have never challenged President Obama's mother's citizenship. They have onl...