And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, Editor Emeritus

... about some things I noticed in the news.
The new University of Iowa President, Harred, is being severely criticized, especially by those most closely associated with the university, such as students, faculty and other employees.
The main complaint is that Harred, a business executive, may try to run the university as if it was a business. But I suspect the main objection is that he is not a member of AFSCME, the union of state employees, nor of any union of educators. Unions are much more likely to support an ineffective employee than is a business executive.
And the university is a business, and a big business at that, in addition to being an educational institution.
There was the story about the teenager whose high school threatened suspension because he brought to school a ticking clock he had put together. The school authorities feared a possible homemade bomb.
These stories are a dime a dozen and seldom attract the attention this one did, which included a special invitation by the White House.
Recent suspensions have been for saying “bless you” after a sneeze, the pointing of an index finger in imitation of a gun, the folding of a scrap of paper so it looked like a gun, etc. etc.
So why the White House invitation this time? Because the teen’s last name is Mohamed! And his father is a Muslim activist. If he was an Anglo-Saxon Protestant and his last name was Matthews, the White House would not have noticed.
So where does prejudice lie?
Pope Francis was in Cuba before heading to the United States.
He met with Fidel Castro. The Jesuit Pope from South America gave Castro, a Jesuit taught Catholic, a book written by another Jesuit. Castro gave the Pope a book he wrote, explaining his religious views.
You just can’t make up that sort of thing!
The Pope preaches economic socialism as opposed to capitalism, which is what Castro promised the Cuban people. How did that work out?
Sometimes, you can’t win for losing.
The Pope also was to canonize the Franciscan Rev. Junipero Serra, who established the famous mission system in California. But some descendants of those subjected to forced conversion with confinement and physical punishment in those missions have called attention to those facts, and object to sainthood for Serra.
Junipero Serra was mentioned in religious classes when I was a student, but I had not heard about the less than glorious circumstances until one day reading a story in a San Francisco daily newspaper.
Who knew? Certainly not me!