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San Francisco Carnaval 2024

San Francisco Carnaval 2024 took place on May 24 and 25. The weather on Saturday was a bit cold and cloudy but on Sunday the sun came out for the parade. It was a glorious day.  Below are some photos I took of the parade and the fun on Harrison Street. The Radio Valencia Rumberos were amazing. Grand Marshall Rigoberta Menchú was on a float. A very brave and interesting person.  https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1992/tum/biographical/

Indigenous icon Rigoberta Menchú Tum met her main mentors in SF

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Emerson Quote

These novels will give way, by and by, to diaries or autobiographies – captivating books, if only a man knew how to choose among what he calls his experiences that which is really his experience, and how to record truth truly.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Adaptability

“My takeaway is human adaptability to almost anything is just like much more remarkably strong than we realize, and you can get used to anything as the new normal, good or bad, pretty fast,” Altman said. “Over the last couple of years, I’ve learned that lesson many times.”
Sam Altman – OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he can no longer eat in public in S.F.

Sam Altman is 39 years old and seems to be a darling of the tech industry. He SMS messages usually in all lowercase, was a key player in OpenAI, a new artificial intelligence software company, and seems to use the word “like” in random places.

If Sam were to write a book, it would certainly be a good idea to send it through the AI rewriter. Perhaps it would say instead: “My takeaway is human adaptability to almost anything is just like much more remarkably strong is stronger than we realize, and you can quickly get used to anything, good or bad as the new normal. , good or bad, pretty fast ,”

I am convinced that a lot of the new tools, while remarkable, are making humans less intelligent and dependent. Most people today surely have a hard time writing longhand with a pen.  Spelling is an ancient skill. Along comes credit card transactions with predetermined tips and people no longer have to do basic math. Long-form math. Forget about it.

So Sam Altman just realized that being worth billions of dollars and trying to live a life of anonymity is impossible. Probably a good idea to “like” add that algorithm into that “like” ChatGPT thing.

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News from SF – The Quarterly Report – May 2024

The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. You are now reading “Slow News That Doesn’t Break” – the exotic internet.

Sporting News

Baseball season has begun. Recently a new lovely park opened just south of the ballpark with tables, places to sit and a lovely statue of Willie McCovey. I was riding my bike when I saw the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The ceremony seemed a bit subdued –  like someone wary of a new luxury car getting its first scratch. The Giants are 17 and 21 as of this report. I will check back in after the All-Star Break. That is my usual mode of operation.

McCovey Cove

Weather

The season changed to spring sometime in mid-April. The 20 knot northwest winds started up and you just knew that the fog was next. The temperature of the water at Ocean Beach went from 58 degrees Fahrenheit to 52.  Now in early May we are experiencing some exceptionally warm spring weather with temperatures in the 80s and wind blowing from the east. The real news these days is definitely the weather report. Pay attention, as at anytime the temperature can drop twenty degrees and the fog machine will start up.

Politics

The 2024 mayoral race in San Francisco is going to be one wild ride. There is a lot of outside money coming in with front groups like GrowSF and TogetherSF supporting various well-off candidates. What is different this time around is that there are many candidates that San Francisco Chronicle calls “moderates” running while there are just two “progressive” candidates, Ahsha Safai and Aaron Peskin. Good grief! The labels that these newspapers bestow on politicians is beyond silly. Daniel Lurie and Mark Farrell are not moderates. In another era, in another town, they would simply be the usual pro-business Republicans.

Aaron Peskin, with his years of knowledge of the city, his neighborhood credibility, excellent speaking skills and a new-found sobriety may be a tough candidate to beat. I traveled down to Portsmouth Square and heard Aaron Peskin’s mayoral announcement speech. It was extremely refreshing to hear a politician speak in complete sentences and have something meaningful to say.

Aaron Peskin among supporters

I will be a Mayor who loves this city, and doesn’t beat up on it for political gain.  A Mayor who works for everyday San Franciscans and their neighborhoods, not just the well-to-do and the well-connected. And I will be a hands-on Mayor, using my 25 years of governmental know-how to once again make San Francisco the city that knows how.
Aaron Peskin – Candidacy Announcement  – April 6, 2024 Mission Local

Let me be clear. I support arresting fentanyl dealers and holding them accountable. But arresting drug users, and doing nothing more, is a cynical and dangerous policy that results in more overdoses, and not more treatment for addiction.
Aaron Peskin – Candidacy Announcement  – April 6, 2024 Mission Local

After the event I was able to talk to former San Francisco mayor Art Agnos who supports Peskin. He said that being mayor was the hardest job he has ever done. He said that when the 1989 Lomo Prieta earthquake hit during the World Series he was at the game and then whisked off to a command center where he found out the head of emergency services had just had had a heart attack. For the next few days he was winging it. I thanked him for the great job he did as mayor during those unpredictable times.  He was an awesome mayor.

National Politics

When Donald Trump was asked about whether he raped Jean Carroll he said that it was not possible as she was not his “type.” Isn’t it interesting that he has not said the same thing about Stormy Daniels. Perhaps Stormy is his type?

Road Repairs, Parking Tickets, Do Not Parks Signs and Other Treacherous Endeavors

Sooner or later you figure out the plan. Starting at Geneva and Mission and heading north they are repaving the bus stops with concrete. It is about time. What is odd is that they pretty much pour the concrete and then slop asphalt in between the new and the old.  Thanks for the effort.

Valencia Bike Lanes and the Sunny Side of the Street

Merchants and many people are still angry about the center bike lane on Valencia. The parking has changed with the installation of individual digital meters. What is strange is that in many places half of the block is for only drop-off parking. This is silly, not practical and a gift to companies like Uber and Lyft.

Valencia Street center bike lane

Parklets, Microclimates and Where the Sun Does Shine

Not much to report. The parklet situation has stabilized but the red-tape for merchants is often too much and they remove their parklets. This is a topic that a city mayor Breed could have a lot of impact and instead it ends up highlighting the incompetence of city government.

That is The Quarterly Report –May 2024

Photo Gallery of SF

The Quarterly Report – May 2024

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Washington’s Dream – SNL – Weights and Measures – Excellent Slow News

I do not know who wrote the Saturday Night Live skit above, but it is very funny. It was probably a team of writers. But nobody knows.

I have always wondered why comedians today do not make more use of historical figures, especially the “founding fathers.” Humor can then merge with irony in a way that reaches a wider audience. It is like slow news, perhaps “slow humor,” where the vantage is long, and the costumes essential. You do not cringe. Instead everyone simply laughs as the truths are often of the everyday, non-political, small world. It is humor that is self-evident.

A while back I had the idea of a skit where Benjamin Franklin uses a time-machine that he had invented but did not tell anyone about as the plans were lost in a fire. Ben travels to the United States in our current era and then to a drawing room where seated are Jefferson, Washington, Adams and probably others. Someone’s wife. Perhaps a black enslaved person or mistress.

Hand on his knee, Franklin would calmly explain what he saw – explain what he had observed in the twenty-first century America on his time-travel. The majority of the content would be the others commenting and asking questions. These comments would be based on history and their actual writings, personalities and known beliefs. The possibilities are endless. It would shine a light on how originalism is an absurd concept. The world changes, but things also stay the same as in the ending line, “where all Black men are free,” to which Washington ignores like a Florida history book. Evidently, we still have much work to do with our weights and measurements. Equality on many fronts is still but a dream.

NOW THE FUN STUFF! FOURTH GRADE WEIGHTS AND MEASUREMENTS

Weights

16 ounces in a pound. 2000 pounds is a ton There is no word for 1000 pounds

Liquids

Liters and milliliters are used for soda, wine and alcohol

Gallons, pints and quarts are used for milk and paint.

There are 3.78541 liters in a gallon (but nobody knows).

1 liter = 33.814 Fl oz

Distances

Inches, feet, yards and miles

12 inches to a foot. 3 feet to a yard,

5028 feet to a mile

1760 yards to a mile (but nobody knows).

Sports

Meters are used in unpopular sports like track and swimming. (Also springboard diving, but no one asked.)

In football, where the field is 100 yards long, an extra-point after the touchdown is worth 1 point. A field goal is worth 3. A touchdown is  worth 6. A safety is worth 2.

Temperature

The great nation of the United States of America measures temperature in Fahrenheit. You spell Fahrenheit  F-a-h-r-e-n-h-e-i-t.

Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit and 100 degrees Celsius.

To convert temperatures in degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 (or 9/5) and add 32

For example

10 C = 50 F
20 C = 68 F
30 C = 86 F
40 C =  104 F

You can also, multiply Celsius by 2 and add 30 to get an approximation.

CODA

Mel Brooks used recent political history and satire in The Producers. He did it very daringly in “Springtime for Hitler” which is over the top. It combines Broadway showtunes and dance numbers in a Busby Berkeley style with the Third Reich. It is absurd and you laugh because of this absurdity. Oddly, it was a premonition for things to come.

Another amazing use of history and satire in humor is Monty Python’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail..

Let us know of other routines that have taken this tack. So far, nobody knows.

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Louis Menand Quote About Music – The Free World

Most musicians are much more eclectic than their fans. If he had nothing else to do, Presley sang gospel, as did Jerry Lee Louis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash, three other Sam Philips discoveries. (A recording of the four of them jamming in a studio in 1956 was discovered and released several years after Presley’s death.) Muddy Waters sang “Red Sails in the Sunset.” Robert Johnson sang “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby.” James Brown liked Sinatra and disliked the blues. Leadbelly was a Gene Autry fan. Chuck Berry’s “Maybellee” was a cover of a country and western song called “Ida Red,” recorded in 1938 by a white band, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Race had a lot to do with the music business in the United States. It had much less to do with the music.”
Louis Menand – The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War – 2021

Ideas about the quote above. April 5, 2024

Menand is attempting to show that musicians have diverse tastes in music. Many fans do too. James Brown probably did not dislike the blues. He was the blues. He probably did not like the blues when it is played poorly. A more, and better quote is one credited to Louis Armstrong.

“There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.”
Louis Armstrong

Coleman Hawkins, the iconic tenor saxaphonist of the post World War II era loved to listen to Classical Symphonies and operas on his new stereo. Lot’s of people did.

The redeeming point of Menand’s quote is that musicians often gravitate to all kinds of music. In that way race does not matter.

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San Francisco Photos – March 2024

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Books I Read in 2023

In 2023 I finally got it together and started really using the San Francisco Public Library, putting books I wanted to read on hold, reading parts of books and checking out books that I was simply curious about. The library is an amazing resource. Below is a list of books that I finished. I do this exercise to simply reflect on the previous year.

Books I Read 2023

The Shipping News
Annie Proulx
Charles Scribner’s Sons

Without a doubt you can find this book in any Goodwill or Salvation Army. A very interesting read.

Beloved
Toni Morrison
Vintage; Reprint edition

In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist
Pete Jordan
Harper Perennial;

A Black Woman’s West: The Life of Rose B. Gordon
Michael K. Johnson
Montana Historical Society

This is an interesting book I picked up in a restaurant in Glacier, Montana. It chronicles the life of a black woman and family. What is interesting is that the Gordon family became an integral part of the town that they lived in and according to this account the racism was pretty muted.

Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle
Jody Rosen
Crown

Candide
Voltaire
Penguin Classics

Whenever I get a bit too optimistic about things, I like to read this classic to bring me down to earth.

Micromegas and Other Short Fictions
Voltaire
Penguin Classics

Very cool book that actually has a short story about traveling by space ship and visiting other planets and alien beings. Sort of amazing that this is not talked about more and on reading lists. This was written in the 18th century!

Two Wheels North
Evelyn McDaniel Bibb
Oregon State Press

Blindness
Jose Saramago
Harcourt, Brace and Co

Read review

American Studies
Louis Menand
New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2002.

Mexico City – Cradle of Empires
Caistor, Nick,
Reaktion Books

A Most Remarkable Creature the Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey
Meiburg, Jonathan,
Alfred A. Knopf

My Bike & Other Friends
Henry Miller
Capra Press, 1978.

Gulliver’s Travels
Swift, Jonathan
Doubleday, Doran & co., inc.,

Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller
MEDVSA

One of the great banned books of the 20th century and I found a signed copy! Miller has the ability to make the ugly beautiful. It is understandable why they banned this book. It should only be for adults in the first place, but then again the youth would surely not even understand most of it.

Zionism – A Brief History
Brenner, Michael
Princeton

A very good book for our times. A “just the facts” look at the creation of Israel. Theodor Herzl, one of the early Zionists obviously began something that we are feeling the ramifications of today.

If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?
Kurt Vonnegut
Seven Stories Press

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News from SF – The Quarterly Report – February 2024

The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. You are now reading “Slow News That Doesn’t Break” – the exotic internet.

Sporting News

After two very close playoff games, the San Francisco 49ers are headed to the Super Bowl to take on the Kansas City Chiefs.  A miraculous catch by Brandon Aiyuk on a very deep pass that actually bounced off the defender’s facemask may be the reason they are in the big game.  Of course, the entire Bay Area is excited and it will be a wild weekend. Go Niners!

Weather

The new word of the year is “atmospheric river.” San Francisco has been pummeled by this weather phenomenon which is basically a river in the sky that dumps large quantities of rain in short periods of time.  Nevertheless the weather has been wet lately mixed with glorious days of sunshine. Often the sunsets have been beautiful. Out at Ocean Beach the parking lot continues to be eaten by the ocean. It is amazing how the contour of the beach changes.

Politics

Nothing to report as all the entrenched powers that be remain in hold of city government.  No one seems to be irate that drug overdoes in the Tenderloin and homelessness are still major problems. Chesa Boudin was recalled a year ago and Brooke Jenkins was installed at D.A.. For the most part, things have remained the same on the street, but for most people San Francisco looks like most west coast large cities. People just living their lives in the tidy neighborhoods. We have a tough on crime D.A. but people often drive their cars like there are no laws. Stop signs evidently are simply a suggestion.

The Depths of his Dishonesty is just astounding… He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.
– John Kelly on former President Donald Trump as reported in The Atlantic

The Depths of his Dishonesty is just astounding… He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life. – John Kelly on former President Donald Trump as reported in The Atlantic

Road Repairs, Parking Tickets, Do Not Parks Signs and Other Treacherous Endeavors

A street cleaning ticket in San Francisco is now $90. Always best to keep track of your wheels in this town.

Valencia Bike Lanes and the Sunny Side of the Street

The center bike lane has many people up in arms. Merchants say people are not coming into their stores. The center lane is pretty awkward. I have no opinion on the matter but think that the center lane is ugly from an aesthetic perspective. What is more problematic is the fact that the parking is all done with the new digital pay stations and there are no coin meters. This is very confusing as the parking rules are not stated on the street.  After some research I have learned that it is basically the concept that between 9am – 6pm you must pay for parking. To me this is discrimination to those not tied into using their phones for everything. Very confusing.

Here are the Valencia Street Parking Rules for you edification

12am – 9am Free 
9am – 3pm $2.25 per hour 2 hours
3pm – 6pm $2.00 per hour 2 hours
6pm – 12am Free

https://www.sfmta.com/demand-responsive-parking-pricing

Parklets, Microclimates and Where the Sun Does Shine

Not much to report. The parklet situation has stabilized but the red-tape for merchants is often too much and they remove their parklets. This is a topic that a city major Breed could have a lot of impact and instead it ends up highlighting the incompetence of city government.

In February 2024 rarely do bands play outside – more often the music is inside. Remember to tip the band

That is The Quarterly Report – February 2024

Photo Gallery of SF

The Quarterly Report – February 2024

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Candlestick Park – Now Just a Field of Dreams

At the very south end of San Francisco, at the eastern edge by the bay, along Highway 101 is Candlestick Point. At one time it was home to Candlestick Park, the massive concrete stadium where the San Francisco Giants played baseball and the San Francisco 49ers played football. It has surely been home to many events – monster truck shows, rock concerts, soccer matches. It was a large stadium made of concrete and a place best used to watch the 49ers play their gladiator sport. No soft chairs and few cozy luxury boxes. It was made like a parking garage and had that same lack of warmth.  You could get a seat high in the upper deck and watch the little ants down below. If you missed the amazing play, there was no instant replay – too bad.  You spilled your beer and missed the interception all at once. The accommodations and locker rooms for the players were surely not as they are today. Candlestick was a fitting place to see grown men push and shove each other around for an afternoon.

In the 1960s Willie Mays caught fly balls out in center field. By the 1990s you could get into the bleacher seats in left field for a few bucks, squint your eyes and see Will Clark nervously try to send a runner in from second. Of course, Candlestick is famously known for the 1989 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s when the Lomo Prieta earthquake hit and everyone thought for a second the world might end.

In the late fall the weather would often be that Indian summer time of year when the the temperature was at a human ideal, the wind light out of the east and the light would have that warm autumn glow. It was football weather. The 49ers played many classic games at Candlestick. Joe Montana connecting with Jerry Rice. John Taylor running back kickoffs. Steve Young running wild until the doctor said that it may be better just to throw the ball to keep all the marbles upstairs intact. Then there were games in the winter storms when the field would be wet.  The storm coming in from Alaska and a high tide would make the field like a pig slop.

When you landed at San Francisco International Airport and caught a cab into town, you would often drive up 101 past Candlestick and see the stadium there poetically on the point. True to its moniker, at night it would often be lit up. It seemed a bit timeless, like the Parthenon, and you innocently thought that it would somehow always be there watching over the bay. For a time the name would be bought out. The speaker cable company, Monster Cable, purchased the naming rights and called it Monster Park, not realizing that people assumed it was for the job website.  Other large companies, usually in the telecommunications industries, would then take over the naming rights. No one remembers their names now.  People in San Francisco would always just  call it Candlestick.

Which brings me to Candlestick Park. The stadium was torn down many years ago. One day it was there and the next it is gone. Phfff! All that concrete surely broken up and hauled away to be recycled one truckload at a time.  Now when you get off the plane and drive north along the bay, you have to explain to your friend that once a large stadium loomed there. Remember that hill that you would see from the blimp.  That’s the same lonely hill.  Where the stadium was is now fenced in. It is mostly grassy fields and when it rains ducks and redwing black birds hangout in the ponds that once was around the fifty yard line. It is quiet save for the never ending hum of Interstate 101 a half mile away.

The 49ers left Candlestick years ago and now play down in Santa Clara. The South Bay and all the tech money bought them out. On Saturday, January 20, 2024 they will play the Green Bay Packers in a classic playoff match up. Two young quarterbacks will duel it out and try as best they can to not make mistakes. They will push and shove, run, pass, block and kick. People will go into the blue medical tent to see if their marbles are still round. There is rain in the forecast so the field may be a bit wet. No one will care how high the tide will be at game time. All that matters now is which team scores the most points and maybe who gets the ball last.

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Dear New York Times – Please Unsubscribe Me to Your Publication

Dear New York Times,

It was probably just a matter of time. I started paying for a subscription to the NYT after a friend suggested I start playing Wordle, the clever five letter word game. It was sort of like giving a taste just to draw me into your house of mirrors. I have enjoyed the game and have had a streak of fifty-four continuous wins at one point.

With the paid subscription I began reading the news primarily and some of the essays by the opinion writers. The guest essays are often quite fun. Big names like Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates and various U.S. Senators  have often been interesting reads. I suddenly felt like I was in the “know,” given a view into the rich and powerful.  I tend to open the comments section for articles about Trump. Your readers then go on and on in a sort of cathartic release of how insane our times are and “how in hell that guy is not in jail yet” monologues.  I have joined in on the ruckus at times but little lately.  It really is a waste of time in the end.

And then  in November you began publishing your Presidential race polls, which made it so we should rename out country “The United States of Anxiety,” as somehow the guy who was impeached twice and is in all kinds of legal problems is running neck and neck with the other guy. How is this even possible? One thing is for sure. I do not want to spend 2024 watching this horse race that you started.

In a recent episode of “On The Media” –  “Is The New York Times A Tech Company?”  does a good look at how the The New York Times refactored itself as not a newspaper or even a news publisher, but as a tech company. Publishing is dead. It is about a “platform.” No longer do you make money with good content and intelligent editors and stagnant ads but the with surveillance of your readers. Cull the ads for a demographic. Tease them with sticky content that will make them stay on the site.

I began to notice the formula. News more often than not started to become not events but merely conjecture and what people said.  “Trump has decided to
not show up in court tomorrow.” “McConnel says he if feeling just fine.” “George Santos says he may parley his fame and become a gameshow host.” And even Ross Douthat goes so far as staging a hypothetical situation where Hillary Clinton (not Donald Trump) stages a coup.

The sticky content just kept coming. The rich and famous, the shysters and scandal were given prime real-estate on your paper. People would often should be in jail were treated as celebrities.  Every time Trump would say something outrageous you would put his photo in a suit and a slick red or blue tie on the front page.  Make him and our neurotic political environment seem “normal.” Someone who sent an angry mob on the capital is presented as a slick guy in fancy suits. You give the guy free real-estate on a hourly basis. Enough!

So I’m done. Please cancel my subscription to your echo chamber. I will not follow your polls or read your op-eds by your mostly corporate conservative, neo-liberal columnists. I will not read the witty comments from your dedicated readers. I will no longer have to wade through the 10 Ways to Lose 20 Pounds articles.  I am done with your high-brow tabloid corporate journalism.

I decided to free up that time I was sucked in to your world for better things. I will get my national news from the many available sources out there.  I am giving money to my local paper, Mission Local and 48 Hills. I subscribe to Matt Stollers BIG.   But worry not. I will still play Wordle. That was sold to you with the stipulation that it would always be free.

Below are some of the easy to find examples of the new high-brow tabloid journalism at the New York Times. 

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The April 2023 Atlantic Essay That Went Under the Radar – The Moral Case Against Equity Language

THE MORAL CASE AGAINST EQUITY LANGUAGE
What’s a “justice-involved person”?
By George Packer

In the April 2023 issue of The Atlantic is an article by George Packer that was very insightful that oddly did not seem to stir up any debate. The article brings up something that is under the radar in our current society, but on everyone’s minds. The Moral Case Against Equity Language outlines how language today is being regulated by new equity guideline teams. In marketing lingo these guidelines often are a part of what are called style guides.  Words have power and the object is to make language more “equitable.” The article explains how these new equity guidelines are used by The Sierra Club, non-profits, corporations, academia and other large organizations to craft their writing. It  explains the complicated way that language and words enforce power structures and define identity. How important it is for everyone to “get it right.”  It looks at current efforts to equalize and defang language of some of it historical biases and prejudices. Words matter indeed. One cannot help but think of Orwell’s thought police. The article starts out with:

“The sierra club’s Equity Language Guide discourages using the words stand, Americans, blind, and crazy. The first two fail at inclusion, because not everyone can stand and not everyone living in this country is a citizen. The third and fourth, even as figures of speech (“Legislators are blind to climate change”), are insulting to the disabled. The guide also rejects the disabled in favor of people living with disabilities, for the same reason that enslaved person has generally replaced slave : to affirm, by the tenets of what’s called “people-first language,” that “everyone is first and foremost a person, not their disability or other identity.”

The article goes on with

“Although the guides refer to language “evolving,” these changes are a revolution from above. They haven’t emerged organically from the shifting linguistic habits of large numbers of people. They are handed down in communiqués written by obscure “experts” who purport to speak for vaguely defined “communities,” remaining unanswerable to a public that’s being morally coerced.”

That’s the spooky part that is often the elephant in the room these days. Who are these people? The article closes with an argument that the guidelines maybe doing more harm than good. Whether you are “homeless” or “unhoused,” you still do not have a roof over your head. Changing the language does not solve the problem. It really often simply makes people feel less guilty and temporarily more comfortable.

This huge expense of energy to purify language reveals a weakened belief in more material forms of progress. If we don’t know how to end racism, we can at least call it structural. The guides want to make the ugliness of our society disappear by linguistic fiat. Even by their own lights, they do more ill than good—not because of their absurd bans on ordinary words like congresswoman and expat, or the self-torture they require of conscientious users, but because they make it impossible to face squarely the wrongs they want to right, which is the starting point for any change.

Brilliant thinking and something no one dares touch. I am surprised that the article did not stir up more debate. Indeed, “the guides want to make the ugliness of our society disappear by linguistic fiat” is a fair assessment.

Excellent topic. Choice writing. Subscribe to The Atlantic today!

Epilogue

It is important to not confuse the new equity guidelines with other issues of freedom of speech. That someone who commits multiple felonies and then threatens judges and elected officials receives a “gag-order” has absolutely nothing to do with the topic in this article.

And to that point, the writing and thinking of authors from before the equity guidelines, who use “slave” instead of “enslaved person” are no less valid in their works because of this use of language. Furthermore, if authors today use the old nomenclature, it does not invalidate their theories or ideas. A vigorous intellectual pursuit is not meant to be a journey towards making everyone feel comfortable.