“Our month of the gaps” in its final week!

MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Return to Tuscaloosa: This week, we’re finishing the series we’ve called, ”Our month of the gaps.”

We’ll be returning to Tuscaloosa—more precisely, to Nikole Hannah-Jones’ fascinating report for The Atlantic, “Segregation Now...”

To our ear, Hannah-Jones displayed an odd part of liberal culture in that lengthy report:

She focused on the racial imbalance in Tuscaloosa’s public schools, a problem which basically can’t be fixed. In the process, she largely finessed a very large problem which must be addressed—the problem of the very large achievement gaps she encountered in Tuscaloosa.

We’ve spent the last three weeks discussing the nation’s gaps. These gaps are large and punishing.

Now that we’ve examined the gaps, we want to return to Hannah-Jones’ report. We want to show you why it leaves us slightly angered, even annoyed.

In our view, Hannah-Jones largely finessed the very large gaps she encountered in Tuscaloosa. Instead, she focused on a situation which tends to make us adult liberals feel good.

As Moses once said to God the Father: “Are we here to play golf? Or are we just screwing around?”

Long ago, we saw Paul Reiser tell that joke. Twelve years ago, we recalled that old joke in response to a book by Ann Coulter.

Are we liberals here to play golf? We’re recalling that joke this week.

Next week: Anthropology lessons!

Advice from a reigning champ: It must have been 1983, although we’d seen him tell the joke a few years earlier.

Reiser said you should always know 45 minutes of old jokes, for the nights when your act isn’t working.

People, we’re just saying!