From The Right, You Get Demagogues Shouting

Society Becomes How You Behave.

We All Want Merit To Mean Something, And We All May Be Tempted To Reduce That Meaning To Something Measurable And Concrete Like An Sat Score. The Reality, Though, Is That Who Deserves Entry Into An Institution Depends On What The Institution Exists To Do.

Why Does An Iphone Cost Only A Couple Hundred Dollars? Because, As The Stage Performer Mike Daisey Depicted In An Arresting One-man Show Called 'the Agony And Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs,' Apple's Shiniest Products Are Made By A Shadowy Company In China Called Foxconn.

To Love Country Means To Rise Above I Am Because I Am. It Is To Recognize That I Am Because We Are.

Here's A Proposal, Offered Only Partly In Jest: No Resident Of The United States, Whether Born Here Or Abroad, Should Get To Be A Citizen Until Age 18, At Which Time Each Such Resident Has To Take A Test.