It's just far too late

In the doctor's office the other day, the receptionist asked me if I read and understood the patient privacy statement. I glanced down at all the legalese and then said, "It's too late. Everyone already knows everything about me." Information is out there for anyone who wants it; privacy is officially dead. The three credit reporting companies know just about everything except my favorite color. Google has even made my house visible online to anyone who knows my address. Government laptops with Social Security information go missing routinely (more than 400 so far, according to the General Accounting Office). So, what's the big deal?

In the same way, it's too late to expel all the "guest workers," as liberals call them. The proper term is "illegal aliens," and they are costing us billions of dollars in enforcement and government services every year. There are 12 million of these folks in the United States. We can't call them all felons and jail them, we can't deport them and we can't give them amnesty as long as there are more coming across our borders every day. To illustrate how late it is, N.Y. Senator Hillary Clinton wants to give them drivers licenses, and some schools in the southwest are proudly flying the Mexican flag. To amuse yourself, try speaking English to anyone in a service job in south Florida or Texas. Our government is seriously debating re-printing its thousands of forms in both English and Spanish. It's sadly too late to make English the official national language of the United States.

It's also too late to prevent the rap culture from poisoning the current generation of young people. Pimps and players are now the role models. Ludacris and his buddies are here and are not leaving. While a particular rapper may be shot on any given day, someone else will be there to take his place. Ebonics is spoken on more and more radio stations, including at least two in Toledo. I can't understand what these people are saying, no matter how many times they say, "Know what I'm sayin'?"

I fear it is too late to change the trends in education. According to the National Association of Scholars, the number of days a student must attend college has been shortened from 204 per academic year (in 1914) to 156 as of the year 2000. Ninety years ago, 82 percent of universities had traditional math requirements; today it's 34 percent. Sandra Riley, spokesperson for the College Board, explained that the SAT has been adjusted (read that: dumbed down) "to align the test with what students are learning in high school and college." We are in big trouble. As the basic building blocks of what we used to know as education crumble, they have been replaced by such courses as Swarthmore College's "Non-Violent Response to Terrorism," "Cyberfeminism" at Cornell, "Blackness" at Occidental College and "Managing Diversity in the Workplace" at none other than the University of Toledo. Let's not forget "Taking Marx Seriously" at Amhurst College. That would be Karl and not Groucho, for those of you who came through the Toledo Public Schools. Thanks to Humanevents.com for researching some of these dubious courses.

In an article in the Washington Post by Lois Romano called "Literacy of College Graduates is on the Decline," she cites a survey that states that only 31 percent of college grads are capable of reading a complex book and extrapolating from it. The study, conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics, notes that most incoming college freshmen don't even understand how to use a library. Read about how much educational standards have declined at Nces.ed.gov.

While we live in an era of blazing technology, expanding media choices and universal access to the platforms of free expression, for some things, it is just too late.