Wednesday the 14th

So, every morning I'm up between 6:00 and 6: 30. I shower and dress and get to the train—the Red Line from Rockville. Every day I wear a tie, and Sunday was the first time I've worn one since my older son got married a few years ago. I had to go on YouTube to relearn how to tie one. Oddly enough, I kind of like wearing the ties, and I might end up wearing them more often. We'll see.

The Seminar—We began again with C-SPAN's Washington Journal Live. This morning's guest was Dana Perino, White House Press Secretary. It was a good interview, but she seemed to be too much the Press Secretary and too little herself—at least I hope she has more to her than the naïve and narrow opinions she spouted and touted. A caller rambled on about the Iraq war's being for oil. Eventually Steve Scully cut off the caller and turned to Perino. Initially she simply said the war was not for oil, but she then went on to say it was about getting rid of Saddam Hussein. She also made the claim, somewhere along the way, that President Bush's record was boosted by his being the first to identify the Darfur situation as "genocide."

Let me pause a minute. We heard questions from students and callers, but I want to consider the callers briefly. We have lots and lots of smart and passionate people in the United States. You can hear it in their voices and in their ideas. They're familiar with the issues, and they have definite opinions. But the minds of these callers tend to be unfocused and uncontrolled. They try to get to their questions and have a hell of a time doing so. They ramble. They ramble on and on. One thing a formal education does, if I may, is to organize and discipline a mind. It's certainly not the only means to do this, but when undertaken seriously, it's a clear and effective means.

C-SPAN quickly tore down its setup after WJL and exited, making way for our next speaker—Ted Koppel. This man amazed me in both his formal comments and in his responses to student questions. During formal comments, he told a few stories, but his basic mode was to talk about the way things are in the world. He took Dana Perino to task, for example, saying that for her to sit there and say that the Iraq war has nothing to do with oil was either some kind of "silliness" or just part of her Press Secretary duties extending beyond the White House Press Room. Of course oil was involved, he said. Saddam Hussein had been known as a brutal dictator since 1988 at least. And suddenly in 2003 he's a brutal dictator that must be immediately removed? As for Bush and his "genocide," Koppel said that being first to use that word in relation to Darfur is fine, but it was rhetoric without action. What good is that?

Koppel is brilliant, and his training as a broadcast journalist is apparent. Throughout his comments, he never used "um" or "uh" or any other such vocal space holders.

Next was Clarence Page, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He was entertaining in talking about the transition in our culture that has brought us President Obama. With a lot of good sense and good humor, he traced the evolution of identifying African-Americans from "colored people" to "people of color." Funny and brilliant! In his lifetime, he has been "colored," "negro," "black," "African-American" (he was thrilled to get the hyphen) and a person "of color."

Our small group site visit this day was to the organization DCVote (http://www.dcvote.org/). The issue they're working on is that the several hundred thousand people in the District of Columbia don't have voting representation in Congress—no representative, no senator. They pay high income taxes and their children serve in the military, but they have no representation for the setting of tax laws or the managing of war. Folks in the Virginia portion of DC have gone back to Virginia for representation. Opponents of DCVote say the Maryland folks should return to Maryland—either physically (as in moving) or by returning the area Maryland gave to form DC to that state. But DCVote folks want to remain as the historic District of Columbia, but they don't want to go unrepresented. At issue? One main factor—political, of course—is that DC is heavily Democratic (Obama received 92.7% of the vote), so any representation granted them will almost certainly strengthen Democratic numbers in Congress. You can see how Republicans would have a problem with this. One possible fix on the table is to create two new positions in the House of Representatives. One would be Democrat, representing DC, and the other would be Republican, representing a growing Republican population in Utah.

Personal time—I got hold of my friend Chuck, and we went to supper at an Afghan restaurant. I had a chicken kabob, something like a cross between Indian and Asian food. This "red" chicken was served on a large piece of tasty flatbread. On the side was a pumpkin dish and a cucumber sauce. I also had "salata"—diced onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and cilantro, dressed with vinegar and olive oil. All this with two Coronas (apparently no Afghan beer is imported). The evening was made pleasant meal and time spent with Chuck.