CLARENCE THOMAS / ANITA HILL

In 1991, a vacancy existed on the U.S. Supreme Court. Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall had died. Marshall was the first person of African-American descent to sit on the Supreme Court.

President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to fill Marshall’s seat.

A contentious hearing was held before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee at the time was controlled by the Democrats. Senator Joe Biden, now Vice-President Biden, was Chairman of the Committee.

Anita Hill had worked as a legal adviser to Clarence Thomas when he was Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Later as Thomas’ legal adviser when he became Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Hill worked for Thomas a total of two years. Following which Hill left public service. She became a law school professor. First at Oral Roberts University. Then at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

It was ten years after Hill left public service under Thomas that Thomas was nominated for the Supreme Court seat.

Hill claimed that Thomas had sexually assaulted her when she worked under him. Her testimony before the Judiciary Committee was required.

Thomas was neither approved nor disapproved by the Judiciary Committee. The vote was 7-7. Normally a tie vote would be considered a failure by the nominee to obtain approval to proceed to a vote by the full Senate.

For some reason, the Judiciary Committee referred the matter to the Senate for its advice and consent vote. The Senate approved Thomas’ nomination 52-48. The closest approval vote in more than 100 years.

Thomas’ approval might be considered a rejection/disbelief of Hill’s sexual harassment charge. Others believe Thomas only squeaked by because of it.

The story as told thus far is merely the bones of the situation. The meat/motivations of certain individuals more interesting and important.

I am approaching this column with the background of the five persons primarily involved in the battle over Thomas’ nomination. Much of what follows is generally unknown.

The five key players in the Senate Judiciary confirmation process were Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill, Joe Biden, Arlen Specter, and John Danforth.

We start with Clarence Thomas.

In his youth, Thomas was a devout Catholic. He attended Conception Seminary College in Missouri. His goal to become a priest.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination intervened. Someone at the seminary made a racist comment re King. As a result, Thomas left the seminary.

Thereafter, he began attending Episcopal services.

Thomas was a product of affirmative action. Were it not for affirmative action, Thomas would not be a U.S. Supreme Court Justice today.

Interestingly, Thomas derided affirmative action during his professional career and in his votes/decisions as a Supreme Court Justice.

It was thought at the time of the Judiciary Committee hearings that Thomas was not a supporter of Roe v. Wade. His votes/decisions in the 25 years he has been a Justice reflect the same.

He is considered the most conservative member of the Court.

A Yale Law School graduate, his professional time has been primarily spent in federal public service. First as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil rights. Then as Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. From 1990-1991, he was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Thomas during his time on the Court has not distinguished himself as a Thurgood Marshall. He is not a Thurgood Marshall.

An appellate judge asks questions. He probes counsel’s reasoning while searching for the proper decision. In his 25 years as a Justice, Thomas has asked 2 questions. In instances where he wants a question asked, he writes it on a note which he passes to Justice Stephen Breyer to ask.

Thomas claims to have been greatly influenced by the writings of Ayn Rand. Most, including this writer, consider her a nut. She wrote amongst other books The Fountainhead. The movie starred Gary Cooper as the strong willed person standing alone against society.

While heading the Washington departments, it is said he made the movie obligatory viewing for staff members.

Hill’s charges of sexual harassment involved words, comments, stories, date requests. No touching.

Thomas’ hearing was not going well because of the sexual harassment questioning by the Committee. The sexual questions were most embarrassing.

At one point in the proceedings, he expressed his deepest feelings to the Committee. He compared the Committee and Hill’s charges to a legal lynching: “…..it is a high-tech-lynching for uppity blacks…..it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order…..you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.”

I watched most of the Committee hearings on TV. To a lawyer, this was edge of the seat drama. I felt up to the point of the lynching exclamation, Thomas was losing the battle. The lynching comments were dramatic. The comments turned the tide. They made Thomas appear greatly wronged.

I believe they were connived.

Thomas’ second wife Virginia Lamb is white. He married her in 1987.

Mrs. Thomas is a distinguished conservative in her own right. She worked as a lobbyist and aide to Congressman Dick Armey. The second most powerful man in the House of Representatives at the time. She has been a consultant to the Heritage Foundation. Founder and President of Liberty Central, a non-profit conservative political advocacy group. In 2011, she stepped down to open a conservative lobbying firm. She describes her participation in the lobbying firm as that of “an ambassador to the Tea Party.”

Anita Hill.

A Yale Law School graduate also. A product of affirmative action.

Following her work under Thomas, she became a law professor at two law schools. Today, she enjoys a full professorship at Brandeis University.

Her accusations came ten years after the events occurred. The delay in reporting them did not help her position. She did tell several other people at the time, however. They were not permitted to testify by Chairman Biden and the Judiciary Committee.

Prior to her testimony, she was asked to take a lie detector test. She did. She passed. Thomas was asked to take a lie detector test. He refused.

She was calm and straight forward in her responses during Committee questioning. Never  lost her composure. The Committee questioning was rough. Tough. Especially by Senator Arlen Specter.

Following her testimony, Hill returned to her teaching career. Rarely to be heard from again.

Joe Biden.

I know Joe Biden. I have watched his career for years. Then when I was Chairman of the Board of Visitors at the Syracuse University School of Law was privileged to know him personally. A nice guy. One of the best.

Not during these hearings.

Joe Biden has been a great public servant. He is a good man. Nevertheless, I disagree with his conduct during the hearings.

Biden handled the Anita Hill phase poorly. He was chauvinistic and condescending.

Biden had chaired the Committee four years earlier during the equally contentious hearings regarding Robert Bork. Perhaps he did not want such a war repeated in the Thomas hearings.

He refused to permit Angela Wright to testify. Wright’s testimony involved similar charges as Hill had made.

Nor would he permit expert testimony on the issue of sexual harassment.

Biden’s excuse was he was trying to preserve Thomas’ right to privacy and the decency of the hearings. I disagree with his motivations. His responsibility was to protect the rights of the American people. Additionally, where sex is charged, sexual testimony is a must in being permitted. Not avoided based on a decency argument. Today, the decency argument would not fly.

Biden was severely criticized following the hearings by legal groups and women’s groups. For mishandling the hearings and not having done enough to support Hill. The appearance was the deck was stacked against Hill.

Arlen Specter.

Arlen Specter was a member of the Judiciary Committee. A long time Republican Senator from Pennsylvania. Prior to becoming a Senator, he was the District Attorney of Philadelphia.

He was politically a centrist. Time Magazine considered him one of America’s Ten Best Senators.

His conduct during the hearings was not representative of the manner in which he was viewed by people generally. It was abnormal.

Specter started his questioning by saying, “I do not regard this as an adversary proceeding.” He then proceeded to conduct a most antagonistic and fierce examination of Hill. He was hostile and adversarial. He treated Hill as if she were a murder defendant and he the district attorney cross examining her at a criminal trial.

I considered his conduct disgusting.

At one point, he stated to reporters that Hill’s testimony was perjurious in its entirety. She lied.

Specter’s conduct was so awful that 1,000 telephone calls were received by his office in protest. The calls kept coming in. Specter’s Senatorial office was required to have 40 people on the telephones. Eventually, the calls became too heavy for the telephone system. It died.

Let me interject at this point that both Specter and Biden’s conduct were not what the public had come to expect from them. They stepped out of their normal roles and became bad guys in pursuit of Hill.

Last, John  Danforth.

Danforth was respected by all. Thirty years a U.S. Senator representing Missouri. A political moderate. A conciliator.

An ordained Episcopal priest, he officiated at Ronald Reagan’s funeral.

Danforth carried considerable political clout.

Danforth and Thomas were two of a kind in that they both had attended a seminary.

Early in Thomas’ legal career, he served in Danforth’s office when Danforth was the Attorney General of Missouri. When Danforth  became a U.S. Senator, Thomas worked as his aide in the Washington offices.

The two were close.

When a person is nominated for the Supreme Court, a Senator becomes his guide through the approval process.

Thomas could not have had a better and more respected person guiding him.

Conclusion.

Everything herein is how I view the Thomas / Hill events. My personal thoughts and conclusions. As I watched the Committee hearings on TV 25 years ago and supplemented by my readings over the years. How I felt about them then and feel about them today.

I believe Anita Hill took an undeserved beating. Come hell or high water, Thomas was going to get out of the Judiciary Committee and to the Senate floor for a full vote by the Senate. What had to be done was done to accomplish the result.

Not quite American. Perhaps I am wrong. The Thomas / Hill scenario is typical American politics.

Consider the games being played today with President Obama’s most recent nomination to the Supreme Court.

SHAKESPEARE INCIDENTALS

William Shakespeare…..The greatest writer in the English language. Bar none. No other held in similar esteem.

He was poet, playwright and actor. His accomplishments consisted of 36 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long version poems, and several verses not fitting into any type description.

I decided to write about Shakespeare because the 400th anniversary of his death is in a few days. April 23 to be exact. The year 1616.

It would be impossible to write a column outlining his many accomplishments. His works and life full and complex. I decided to limit myself to those things few might know about the great man. Ergo, INCIDENTALS in the title.

Confusion exists as to Shakespeare’s actual dates of birth and death. Most agree he died on April 23, 1616. They also agree that he was born on April 23, except in the year 1564.

At the time of Shakespeare’s death, no one compilation existed of all or a substantial amount of his work. Short compilations which did exist were incorrect, maimed, deformed, fraudulent, stolen, and/or in draft form only.

Around the time of Shakespeare’s death, two friends took it upon themselves to compile Shakespeare’s works. The friends were fellow actors John Heminges and Henry Condell. They were familiar with Shakespeare’s writings and knew the greatness of them. They feared if not published into one volume, the works would be lost for all time.

The sonnets and poems are all in the compilation. The thirty six plays are eight short. Shakespeare’s total number of plays was forty four. Interestingly, the existence of the eight plays was discovered after the compilation’s publication. They have followed Shakespeare’s popularity over the centuries and also are well known today.

The compilation totaled 630 pages.

It is referred to as First Folio. The actual title was Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies.

First Folio is considered the only reliable text for Shakespeare’s writings. Of the 36 plays printed, 17 had not been published before. Were it not for First Folio, most or all of them might never have seen the light of day.

Seven hundred fifty copies of First Folio were printed. Two hundred thirty four are known to have survived.

First Folio is also considered the most valuable printed book in the world. Each of the 234 remaining copies have significant value. One copy was auctioned at Christie’s in New York in 2001 for $6.16 million.

Historians and literary critics delve into Shakespeare’s sexual life. Properly so. Certain of his writings were inspired by relationships.

It appears Shakespeare was a womanizer and bisexual.

When 18, he married 26 year old Anne Hathaway. Bans were required to be announced over three days before the marriage could take place. Shakespeare got the time period short circuited to two consecutive days. Anne was pregnant. She delivered six months later.

Shakespeare wrote 26 sonnets which have come to be known as the Dark Lady sonnets. Literary experts believe they were addressed to a married woman, not his wife.

There is also evidence of Shakespeare’s many additional heterosexual liaisons.

Some of the 154 sonnets are autobiographic and are considered evidence of Shakespeare’s love for a young man.

Many phrases/expressions common to our talk today found their birth place in Shakespeare’s plays. Overwhelming in number. A few are set forth herein.

I have always been under the impression Benjamin Franklin coined “Neither a borrower nor lender be.” It was not Franklin. It was Shakespeare in Hamlet.

Other commonly used phrases and their Shakespearean source include “Dead as a door nail” (Henry VI), “Devil incarnate” (Henry V), “Eat me out of house and home” (Henry IV), “Forever and a day” (As You Like It), and “Foregone conclusion” (Othello).

There are more.

“Heart of gold” (Henry V), “Give the devil his due” (Henry IV), “Jealousy is the green-eyed monster” (Othello), “Kill with kindness” (The Taming of the Shrew), “Knock, knock! Who’s there” (Macbeth), “Love is blind” (The Merchant of Venice), “Milk of human kindness” (Macbeth), and “Wild goose chase” (Romeo and Juliet).

Not done yet. And only a handful are being shared with you.

“Too much of a good thing” (As You like It), “A heart of gold” (Henry V), “It’s Greek to me” (Julius Caesar), “Fair play” (The Tempest), and “What the dickens” (The Merry Wives of Windsor).

A few more.

“Foregone conclusion” (Othello), “In stitches” (Twelfth Night), “Naked truth” (Love’s Labour’s Lost),

“Faint-hearted” (Henry VI), “Send him packing” (Henry IV), “Vanish into thin air” (Othello), and “There’s method in my madness” (Hamlet).

In my research, I came across an unauthored comment…..Barry Manilow may claim to write the songs, but it was William Shakespeare who coined the phrases.

So it is and so it was.

WHEN EDUCATION FAILS, A NATION FAILS

When education fails, a nation fails. It is a slow eroding process. Eventually affecting the economic and social well being of a nation.

Satyendra Singh 'Skyamal' said, "Education is the future of a nation." Richard Mitchell, "People who cannot put strings of sentences together in good order cannot think."

American public schools are in a free fall. A 2014 study ranked the United states 29th in math, science and reading.

Student achievement is the best indicator of a nation's future economic health. Applying that standard, the United States is on a downward economic trend. Definitely in the near future. Since the economy presently is not that great, the downward trend may already have begun.

One measure of educational success/failure is the high school drop out rate. 1.2 million every year. An average of 7,000 a day. Equates to 25 percent of the entire high school population.

Sixty percent of black men never graduate. Sixty percent of them will go to jail at some point in their lives.

The United States is becoming less competitive globally. Education in other industrialized nations has caught up or surpassed the United States. Failing schools lead to failing societies.

Grammar and high school teachers are professionals. They want to teach. However federally designed programs ill equip them. Instead of teaching the basics, teachers are compelled to teach students to pass national examinations. Teacher success is based on the results of these tests. Students are not taught to think. They are taught how to score highly on a given test.

Federal programs such as No Child Left Behind and Common Core have done more to hurt young students than help them.

Teachers are further burdened by lack of class room decorum. They are required first to maintain a degree of order in the class room. 

Another problem involves the mental approach of students to learning. They have not been socialized at home or by society to understand they come to school to learn, that the teacher must be left to teaching and not acting as a disciplinarian.

Schools are overcrowded. Federal, state and local governments fail to provide adequate funding. Classes are too large.

School spending is stagnant. Thirty four States are contributing less today per student than prior to 2008.

The present system sends graduates into the working world ill equipped to compete. Half of high school graduating seniors are not ready for the real world. They have not mastered math or reading. Yet they are graduated because society today demands they not be held back. Move minorities and poor whites through school to graduation.

If they are not ready for high school graduation, they are not ready for college either. They have an increased chance of becoming college drop outs 

Michael Snyder is one of the finest investigative reporters in the United States. He recently did a guest post for Blacklisted News. The article, How Extremely Stupid America Has Become: Depressing Survey Results Show. Much of what immediately follows has been garnered from Snyder's article.

The Untied States has become a "dumbed down society." 1950s and 1960s persons of average mentality are mental giants compared to those of average intellect today.

Why? One survey claims the following.

Criminals in some areas of the United States are paid today not to shoot or kill people. $1,000 a month. Washington, DC is in the process of adopting such a program. $500,000 a year is being set aside to finance it.

The highest paid public employee in most States is a football coach.

Few read books anymore. The average American spends 302 minutes (roughly 5 hours) each day watching television.

Seventy five percent of young adults cannot find Israel on a map. Yet know where to find smut on the internet.

Ten percent of college graduates think Judge Judy is on the U.S. Supreme Court.

More than 25 percent did not know FDR was President during World War II.

Another survey found the following.

Newsweek did a study several years ago. One thousand U.S. citizens were asked to answer questions taken from the Official Citizenship Test of the United States.

Twenty nine percent could not name the Vice-President. Seventy three percent could not say why the U.S. fought the Cold War. Forty three percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. Six percent could not circle Independence Day on a calendar.

An Educational Testing Service study revealed the following. The study included 22 industrialized nations. 

Americans born after 1980 lagged behind their peers in most of the 22 countries. Americans were falling behind in early educational years and at the college level.

Young adults in Japan, Finland and the Netherlands with high school degrees scored on a par with American millenniums holding four yearcollege degrees.

Of the 22 countries composing the study, the United States came in dead last in tech proficiency and numeracy proficiency. Third from last in literacy proficiency.

Snyder's reasons why the preceding has occurred is that the United States become a "stupid nation." He describes it as the "dumb - ification" of the American brain.

One reason is that college courses have been "dumbed down." Even the most challenging.

Malcom X said, "Just because you have colleges and universities doesn't mean you have education."

Today's college students and college courses prove Malcom X's point.

Thirty five percent spend 5 or less hours a week studying alone. Fifty percent have never taken a class where they wrote more than 20 pages. Thirty two percent never read more than 40 pages a week.

College curriculums today contain courses such as What If Harry Potter Is Real, Lady Gaza and the Sociology of Fame, and How To Watch Television. Basket weaving 101 type courses.

Most college students cannot put two sentences together. They are not challenged. The quality of education received incredibly poor.

Move being challenged aside. Many college students do not obtain degrees within the customary four years. it is not money. It is pure laziness.Thirty six percent of full time students take six years to obtain a four year degree.

I have some personal observations/opinions to share. My experiences have included sitting on University boards, chairing national university fund raising drives, etc.

The college/university experience is screwed up. Colleges/universities are run like corporations. The bottom line, money is more important than the quality of the student being graduated.

Over the years, I have seen high course grades easier to obtain. Are the students of today smarter than those of yesterday? Of course not. However, the educations/degrees received are more costly.

 Academic hierarchy decided years ago that parents were entitled to good grades for their children since the parents were generally paying the cost of the education. Better grades they got! An A today many times is the B or C of yesterday.

One function of a Chancellor or President is to build. Newer and bigger campus structures. Regardless of whether the anticipated number of students several years later would increase thereby requiring the new structure. New buildings represent success in the academic world.

College professors are overpaid. Most teach two or three hour courses. That means six or nine hours a week teaching. Not bad for a $100,000 plus a year salary. Of course, these professors will tell you in defense that they actually work 40 plus hours a week. They must be available for their students, they write books, etc. I do not buy it. A plumb .Few hours for big money.

Constructing buildings not needed and paying salaries out of whack for the number of hours worked are two reasons a college education costs what it does today. The same college education that is turning out poorly prepared persons for the marketplace.

Government does not have its head screwed on correctly. Whether federal or state. Republicans at the Presidential and Congressional levels always want to do away with the Department of Education. They say the States can do it better. Actually, they want to free up education dollars from the budget for other budget items. Wars, for example.

The States cannot afford to pay education costs. They do not have the money.

Amazing. No one wants to bear the burden of educating our children.

Proving once again, every area of our society is screwed up!

The bottom line is that if we do not improve the United States' educational process, we will not be numero uno in the world in anything. We may not be already. We may only think we are.