I have been on a long hiatus, thinking about writing and what would be important enough to say here. So much has happened in the world since my last post. Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. The Democrats increased their majorities in Congress. I bought a new laptop and a new laptop for my wife. I watched the economy disintegrate as greedy bankers decimated the financial system which has had a domino effect in the economy. I watched as the American automobile industry, a dinosaur that has outlived its usefulness (except Saturn), collapse. I don't understand the hypocrisy of the free marketeers who after they make bad decisions rush to the federal government for a bailout. I watched the world begin to respect the United States again. I suffered through a wet, cold winter that had lots of gray, dreary days. My family got a dog. I should never have let my younger daughter talk me into going to look at puppies. How could I resist her holding up a little fur ball and saying in her most innocent voice, “Daddy, can we have a puppy????” The right answer was no. Then suddenly my hand was making out a check for this puppy. Of course I am happy that my daughters are happy. Having a dog around is a blast. I got a cracked head in the engine of my Saturn VUE. The Service Department told me it would be three thousand dollars to fix it. So my dilemma was to spend three grand on a six year old car or spend four thousand as a down payment on a new one. I wanted to get a hybrid and make a contribution to greening the planet. So now I am driving a 2009 Saturn VUE Hybrid. The gas mileage is phenomenal. I get about 150 miles more to a tank of gas than I did with my first VUE. I have been interested in electric cars but then it occurred to me, could our current electric grid survive millions of new electric cars or would we be risking brown outs and black outs to keep our cars charged. The best Hybrid will be the run that runs strictly on bio-fuel that charges the batteries. That will be my next hybrid.
And then there was my job. Our former president was invited into retirement and an interim President was appointed. That was the last good thing that happened at CSU from a leadership perspective. The board foisted a under-qualified candidate on the university as president after a sham search process. The university community has risen up in outrage. The applicant responds, not in a spirit of conciliation but in a spirit of attacking the faculty of the university. War has been declared on the university by the board of trustees who through their own malfeasance and incompetence have destroyed the financial integrity and reputation of the university on the core of the institution. Their misconduct in a variety of areas led the Faculty Senate to request that the governor remove the Board of Trustees. Of course, the governor declined fearing the loss of the Black vote in the February primary election. It is sad that white politicians in the 21st century still rely on Black preachers for votes. Didn’t that sort of politics die in the last century? So my faculty colleagues and I feel like Britain did in 1940 and 41 after France was defeated; left alone to battle Germany. And like that titanic struggle, our smaller struggle is to uphold the higher ideals and aspirations of the university for our students and ourselves.
It has been a heck of a hiatus. More to follow.
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