The Monday Musings: Evening Edition
***I am so very honored to announce that starting today, I have joined the faculty of the Rise Anyabwele Academy as a part-time middle school "Mwalimu" (instructor). My subject? History, of course, one that will also blend civics and analytical reasoning skills that are so very critical to long-term success across multiple disciplines!
While I served as an adjunct professor in the Department of History and Political Science at Florida A&M University from 1999-2009, today marked the first time since my law student days at the University of Florida that I taught pre-teens and, suffice it to say, I was a tad apprehensive about: 1. Whether the Zoom technology would work for me (as a non-techie with a fecund mind but two left hands); 2. Would I be able to hold these kids’ attention for a full hour? Well, I'm proud to note that I was blessed on both fronts and that class went well!
My set of students, collectively known as the "Ashanti Tribe" within the school's designations, is filled with a group of EXTREMELY bright young girls and boys who 'understood the assignment' (the first five chapters of Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington), and seemed quite receptive to my age appropriate—but totally unfiltered—manner of teaching REAL facts about President Abraham Lincoln, Reconstruction, and Booker T. Washington's early experiences!
So yes, I'm grateful for the opportunity to inspire the next generation of scholars—and I have so much more in store for them in the months ahead.
Stay tuned…
***I was saddened to learn that lawyer, author, and law professor Lani Guinier died this past weekend after a long bout with Alzheimer's Disease. A brilliant progressive thinker, Guinier was a student at Yale Law School one year behind former President Bill Clinton; his wife, former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and classmates with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Guinier was a somewhat obscure legal scholar at the University of Pennsylvania when, in 1993, the newly elected President Clinton tapped her to serve as assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Republicans at that time, still upset that Democrats had blocked Ronald Reagan nominee Robert Bork from the Supreme Court in 1987 (due to concerns about his conservative stances on civil rights), pounced on the opportunity to return the favor by blocking Guinier due to her progressive stances on civil rights.
Among the issues that concerned Republicans was Guinier's journal writings about whether the notion of “one person, one vote” was insufficient to protect the rights of racial and ethnic minorities; Republicans argued that such would unfairly skew voting power against whites, who comprised the majority. As Matt Schudel of the Washington Post wrote this past weekend: "...Winner-take-all elections, Ms. Guinier argued, too often allow the majority to ignore the needs of everyone else. She called for proportional voting and other measures that would ensure increased representation of minorities and a more cooperative, nonpartisan approach to legislating."
Instead of realizing the wisdom of Guinier's theories (that arguably could have averted the rigid partisanship that stymies democracy to this day), the resulting Republican weeping and wailing was so pronounced that Clinton, eager to get his agenda passed with bipartisan help, withdrew the nomination after calling her views “anti-democratic” and “very difficult to defend" in the press—comments that drew the ire of the Congressional Black Caucus (to no avail).
Undaunted, Guinier returned to the classroom, penned the book The Tyranny of the Majority and, in 1998, became the first Black woman designated a tenured full professor at Harvard Law school.
Prof. Lani Guinier was 71 years old—may she rest in eternal peace!
***As I've lamented time and again in my articles and blogs over the past decade, mid-term elections typically find Democrats struggling with voter turnout across America. Cognizant of this fact, former First Lady Michelle Obama announced this weekend that her "When We All Vote" Foundation will recruit 100,000 volunteers in hopes of registering 1 million new voters by November!
Said Obama, “We’ve got to vote like the future of our democracy depends on it…And we must give Congress no choice but to act decisively to protect the right to vote and make the ballot box more accessible for everyone.”
I agree, and I wish the former First Lady much success in this worthy endeavor!
***There were numerous headlines this past weekend about Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic's inability to play in the Australian Open due to his still unknown Covid vaccination status. Andy Murray, a British tennis star and friend of Djokovic, said, "It's really not good for tennis at all, and I don't think it's good for anyone involved."
While I concede that it's not good to have one of the top players in the world not competing in a Grand Slam tournament, I can't help but wonder what makes a Djokovic, or basketball star Kyrie Irving, or a football star like Andy Rodgers, believe that they don't have to comply with rules based upon sound science and adopted by their sport's governing boards?
I'm all for freedom of actions, but I remind that none of us is free from the consequences of our actions, thus, my inability to feel sorry for any athlete that has to sit on the sidelines for refusal to get vaccinated.
***Kudos to the 11 North Carolina plaintiffs that are challenging U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) from running for a second term. The complaint filed today argues that Cawhtorn's speech last year prior to the January 6th MAGA Riots was violative of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which proscribes conduct from those "who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress ... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
Lest we forget that the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, just three short years after the Civil War, and while often famously cited for granting formerly enslaved Blacks both citizenship and, in theory, "equal protection under the law," the measure's language cited above was designed to punish members of Congress who would dare repeat the secessionist, insurrectionist banter that led to over three quarters of a million combat deaths during the Civil War.
As the January 6th Commission continues to learn more about which Republican congresspersons helped the MAGA rioters with logistics in the Capitol Complex or rhetorical support, I believe that we will see similar lawsuits and punitive measures enacted to bring those in violation to justice!
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a great evening!
I am a student of Mwalimu Brother Chuck. I tell you, i learn something from you every time you submit a new edition of The Hobbservation Point. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom. I pray those youngsters realize the value of their new instructor.
Congratulations!