Sunday Morning Coming Down

Some things need to reinvent themselves.  Most things evolve and most of the time evolution is a positive thing.   I'm not sure what the Florida Governor is trying to accomplish academically by removing the college president at New College and packing the board of trustees and replacing the college president with a close ally and a salary increase that is way out of line with a current enrollment of about 700 students. It is hard to understand the threat of a rigorous program of independent study given the success that many New College students have achieved.  The New College Website highlights:   Students’ progress should be based on demonstrated competence and real mastery rather than on the accumulation of credits and grades. New College also values having a diverse, equitable, and inclusive academic community. The alumni understand this as trying to fix something that isn't broken and a baldly political attempt to politicize a nationally known honors pr...

 There are limits to what minority rule can accomplish.  Eventually even non elected despots and long reining queens get replaced.  After the death of Queen Elizabeth II who was by all accounts popular, the succession of her son Charles is still a work in progress. The resignation of Boris Johnson and his replacement by Liss Truss shows that even those in power are subject to policy and personnel missteps that require changes if they are to move forward. The successions in the United States with periodic elections for Presidents, Governors, the House of Representatives, some Senators and elections for various offices in the fifty states all at the same time make voting an important part of our election cycle whether or not the election of a president is on the ballot. This year's election is important for the near future and as most commentators speak to on the future of democracy or the acceptance of something very much less than democracy as it has been practiced in the...