The charismatically outspoken Winston Churchill once candidly remarked: “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”

The statement could not ring more prophetic to today’s American voter given the virtual partisan gridlock currently gripping the nation’s capital and, to a greater extent, the very legal foundation of the world’s oldest continuous democracy.  The American political system is in disarray. The Republican Party, founded as a moderate and fiscally conservative body, has now become the very antithesis of what its founder Lincoln had intended ruled by neoconservatives and TV personalities. The Democratic Party, although more diverse in ideas and in its base, is in danger of losing its supermajority in Congress because of the same ideological discord that has plagued it for decades. Issues are no longer issues but identifiers of party lines. Don’t tell me a Republican cannot be both conservative and an activist for climate change legislation and the same for a liberal who is pro-life.

The very nature or novelty of the very idea of a democracy is, in itself, an anomaly. Aristotle defined it as “mob rule” and the recent unjust, draconian anti-immigrant bill recently passed in Arizona gives perhaps great credence to such a characterization.

Despite what we Americans are taught from the womb until we perish, the will of the majority in a democracy is neither always just nor fair. In the pre-Civil Rights era, minorities were virtually excluded from a chance at the elusive “American Dream.” Certain political and social actors, such as Dr. Martin Luther King to John F. Kennedy to Dorothy Height, championed the cause for human rights and the dignity of all regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation bringing the unheard voices of millions to the hallowed corridors of the Capitol where legislation brought an end to decades of wrongdoing and hardship.

Even amidst the chaos, our democracy remains the cornerstone of our social fabric. The will of the people is still honored as witnessed through the recent historic passage of health care reform legislation and the soon to be financial and immigration reform overhaul.

As I write this being my final political column for The Hurricane, I urge my fellow students to continue to work for human rights, inform themselves on the most pressing issues facing our generation and, most importantly, continue the great work of those who came before us so that we do not move backwards as a people, but progressively forward towards a more fairer society for all.

One that would honor even old Churchill’s legendary satire.

– Daniel Medina is a U. Miami senior majoring in broadcast journalism and political science.

The latest “A Nightmare on Elm Street” remake revisits one of my all-time, top horror films and horror icons, Freddy Krueger. So much for dreaming big.

The premise brought over from the original remains one of the greatest concepts ever imagined by fright-master Wes Craven. The fact that this horribly burnt man with a deadly razor-adored glove can even kill us in our dreams, the one place we are supposed to be safe, makes one wonder how on earth can we escape this terrifying menace.

It’s certainly true that the original series of films lost their way. The majority bombed as Freddy Krueger became someone we’d support for his hilariously dark and cheesy one-liners. The last time we saw Freddy was in the unbelievably stupid, (but just great over-the-top silly fun) “Freddy vs. Jason.” It was clear that Freddy needed to become scary once again and keep us wide awake with fear.

But it just didn’t happen. The plot, with just one or two unimpressive tweaks from the original, is that the teens of Springwood, Ohio, are being terrorized in their dreams by Freddy Krueger. They don’t know why he’s coming for them, but it’s clear that the parents know something. The kids are determined to get to the bottom of it before falling asleep with their lives at stake. You’d expect a buildup of tension and fear that boils over until your armrest cant take the strain any more. Not so here. This “nightmare” stumbles along aimlessly like a drunk. There’s no sense of impending doom, just lazy pacing and the occasional jump that you’ll forget in a nano-second.

It’s not so much awful as just oppressively dull and “by the numbers” horror film making. The idea of micro-naps where reality and dreams are unclear is a good one, but even then, we can still tell when they’re coming from the next field over. For a “re-imagining,” the number of famous moments and lines ripped from the original is just ridiculous. Sure, they may have been given a slight gloss thanks to advances in special effects, but as I’ve always said, excessive blood and guts and flashy CGI do not make a good horror film. It’s interesting to note that first time film and former music video director, Samuel Bayer, is on record as saying, “If people say it looks like a music video, then I have failed.” Oh ho, Mr. Bayer, you do make my job too easy.

The “teen actors” are so unbelievably wooden and lack any ability to show shock or fear that you could replace them with trees, and you wouldn’t notice a difference. In fact, you may feel more compelled to sympathize when they get cut down (last pun, I promise).

The saddest part about this film is that the effort put into the character of Freddy is totally wasted. Were it not for appalling direction, drones of a supporting cast and a script of lame one-liners, I’m willing to say he would have been absolutely terrifying. The remake was always going to suffer, however, because the original has Johnny Depp’s first big screen performance. This doesn’t, so clearly it loses.

This trend of remaking, oh I beg your pardon, “re-imagining” *cough* the classic horror films has got to stop. They may look slightly old now, but that’s what gives them their charm. In particular with the original “Nightmare,” the simpler effects look a thousand times better and more realistic. The originals hold a place in our hearts so much because they had story, depth, relateable characters and were masters of suspense and sheer terror. Hollywood, it’s time to stop “re-imagining” and start imagining once again.

This will not give you nightmares, and the only people who’ll finally be able to sleep well again are the Pullman Village Center Cinemas staff because I’ll no longer be around to tell people to stop seeing certain films, and therefore cutting potential business.

Goodbye and sleep well …

All exams in all four undergraduate colleges at Vanderbilt U. were canceled May 3, in light of the weekend’s storms and subsequent widespread flooding around Nashville.

Several university buildings — including some residence halls and Central Library — have experienced minor flooding, according to an update on Vanderbilt’s website. If students experience any issues related to flooding, they are encouraged to contact either their RA or HR immediately.

In his official statement, McCarty said the decision to cancel exams was not taken lightly and that his primary concern is the safety of students, staff and faculty.

“Some of our students have been displaced from their residence hall rooms because of water damage, and many of our faculty and staff are dealing with damage to their homes or live in areas threatened by rising waters from nearby streams and rivers,” he wrote in the e-mail sent to all students, faculty and staff.

“If a given faculty member and his or her students can go forward with the exam as scheduled, I trust them to make that decision. However, my guiding principle is that no student should be disadvantaged given the events of the past two days. I ask that all faculty members work with their students to schedule an alternate time or times to administer their exams, including extending the exam period by one day.”

Professors have been instructed to contact their classes with more information about how these chagnes will affect individual courses.

Emergency officials are urging all Nashville area residents to stay in place unless they are threatened by rising water.

If the stress of exams and personal problems is causing tossing and turning at night, there are ways to help get a good night’s rest.

For freshman and students getting ready for the work life, sleep begins to play a major role in the day-to-day activities.

“It’s easy to see it in a freshman, especially those who live in the dorms, because it is not a quiet atmosphere late at night,” said Dr. Fred Kam, the medical director at the Auburn U. Medical Clinic. “You tend to see it in that group and the students 21 and older who start hitting the bars, and they suffer from sleeping disorders.”

These are normally the times in a person’s life where their sleep pattern is changing drastically, Kam said.

Kam said freshman come in to the medical clinic all the time because they come to college and their sleep routine is far different from when they were in high school.

“A lot of students aren’t nocturnal,” Kam said. “They tend to do stuff later at night. They don’t have a particular pattern for sleeping, and the one they had in high school easily gets thrown off.”

Developing a good sleep pattern can be vital not only to a student’s success, but to their health, said Kelley White, a registered polysomnographer at the Decatur General Sleep Lab.

“It is definitely good to maintain a sleep hygiene, where you go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time,” White said. “It’s hard to do when you are studying for exams, but that’s what we recommend to do.”

A polysomnographer is someone who performs sleep studies to help diagnose and treat sleep disorders.

White also said sleep disorders can affect your blood pressure and cause heart attacks.

Sleeping disorders also becomes apparent in the work place and can be very dangerous for someone who is falling asleep on the job or behind the wheel of a car.

“Being sleepy during the daytime is a big issue,” said Brad Wheeler, registered sleep technician at Brookwood Sleep Disorders Center in Birmingham, Ala., “because it can cause accidents by falling asleep at the wheel or if they work around powerful equipment or stuff like that. Obviously there are some safety issues there.”

There are ways to help prevent sleeping disorders and ensure a good night of sleep.

“Stay away from caffeine after three in the afternoon,” White said. “Don’t exercise too close to bedtime. Some relaxing routines are good. Eight hours of sleep a night at the same time is very important. We were created to get seven to eight hours of sleep every night.”

Kam said it is good for people to have a routine like flossing their teeth and changing clothes to tell the mind it’s time to go to bed.

“Your brain can be affected by what you train it to do,” Kam said.

It’s not just the kids that stay up and party all night who are affected by sleeping disorders. Playing video games or dealing with anything electronic before going to sleep can stimulate the brain and cause you to stay awake, Kam said.

“You have to eliminate all activities or any kind of stimulants,” Kam said. “You don’t want to be playing Halo at 3 a.m. or within two hours of going to bed.”

White said there are approximately 100 types of sleeping disorders, so failure to go to sleep can be very common.

If maintaining good sleep hygiene isn’t the solution, there are medicines recommended to help people fall asleep.

“If you are waking up in the morning and you don’t feel refreshed, you probably need to see a sleep physician so he can run a thorough investigation on why you’re not rested,” White said. “They recommend Lunesta or Ambien, which is a much stronger drug.”

Although students want to get to college and stay up late, sleep is very important for the body and the health of a person in the future.

It can be good to find a routine and try to stick with it through a college career and into the next chapter of life.

“Something that helps you relax, and everybody is different,” White said. “It could be a warm bath or a book. It’s a good thing to shut your mind off and then just go to sleep.”

James Cameron is a busy man.

The hit director behind “The Terminator,” “Titanic” and “Avatar” said his flight into Columbus, Ohio marked airport No. 114 that he has traveled through in the last three months.

“I’m due for a day off any month now,” he said.

Before Cameron delivered his lecture to students at Ohio State U. on April 28, he made rounds across the globe to raise awareness on the themes he presented in his last film, “Avatar.”

“I’ve been contacted by so many groups from around the world dealing with environmental issues, indigenous rights issues and so on that I’ve been busier than ever,” Cameron said.

Cameron decided to take a break from activism to give his first-ever college lecture in the Ohio Union’s Archie M. Griffin Grand Ballroom.

“It seemed like an opportunity to share my life experience and the journey that I’ve had and see if people can find some way of mapping it to their individual journeys,” he said.

Now, with “Avatar” in his rear-view mirror, Cameron is taking some time away from filmmaking, but is currently talking with 20th Century Fox about an “Avatar” follow-up.

“If we make it right away, it won’t even be out for three-and-a-half years,” he said. “But it will be a continuation of the story and deal with some of the same themes, but in surprising ways.”

Attention to Cameron’s every move will be heightened thanks to the record-breaking box office of “Avatar.” Apart from earning more than $2.7 billion in worldwide box office, Cameron’s epic also took home three Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards.

All eyes at this year’s Oscar ceremony were on a juicy battle between Cameron’s “Avatar” and his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” in the Best Picture and Best Director categories.

Both trophies went to Bigelow.

“I’ve worked with Kathryn a couple of times as producer and I know her artistic integrity is extremely high and we both value that,” Cameron said.

With Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” which had a $15 million budget, taking home top honors at the Oscars over “Avatar,” which reportedly cost between $300 million and $500 million, Cameron said the Academy’s recent preference for smaller, independent films gives directors no incentive to make big-budget movies.

“What they’ve done historically is create a disincentive for filmmakers to make high quality, big movies,” he said. “And then all the critics whine that big movies are just these hollow, clanking commerce machines when in fact, there’s not a huge incentive for filmmakers to go that extra distance because they’re not honored for it in any way.”

Though Cameron didn’t walk away with either the Best Picture or Best Director Oscars for “Avatar,” he did end up taking it to the No. 1 spot in all-time box office.

Cameron’s quest for success has led his actors and crew members to speak out against the director’s demanding nature. On the set of “Avatar,” actor Sam Worthington said a frustrated Cameron confiscated the crew’s cell phones and stapled them to a wall.

“Go find a quote, a quote, which you won’t be able to, of an actor saying that I was demanding, at least in a negative way,” he said. “They may say that I challenge them to do their best work, but in actor speak, that’s a compliment.”

Cameron said the actors he works with love the challenge he presents.

“I tell them going in, ‘We’re going to the Super Bowl, so be ready,’” he said. “But they love that. Are you kidding? An actor wants to be challenged.”

It must be working.

Cameron’s last two films, “Titanic” and “Avatar,” have grossed $1.8 billion and $2.7 billion worldwide, respectively.

“I’m a big movie fan and I just make movies for what I would want to see,” he said. “What I would want to see in a movie theater is a film that takes me out of myself, takes me on a journey, immerses me in the characters, gives me a powerful emotional reaction to the story and then spits me back out onto the street kind of dazed and wanting to go see it again.”

Part of Cameron’s box office success with “Avatar” stemmed from the surcharge added to 3-D ticket sales. Despite the tough economy, cinema-goers still forked over the extra cash to watch “Avatar” in 3-D.

“It’s completely immersive,” Cameron said about 3-D. “It’s an enhanced experience. It’s a premium experience. You enter the world. It seems more palpable, more real to you as you’re watching it. People are transported; they lose track of time, they lose track of space, where they are. They’re fully immersed in the story.”

With “Avatar” serving as the catalyst in making 3-D popular in cinemas, Cameron went on the defensive against those saying 3-D is still just a gimmick.

“That’s a very, very tiny minority. The audience has spoken,” he said. “I think the jury’s in. It’s not a gimmick. It’s the way people want to see their movies.”

And when “Avatar” hit store shelves April 22 on DVD and Blu-ray, it achieved more success, already topping “The Dark Knight” as the No. 1 best-selling Blu-ray in the format’s history.

“I love Blu-ray. Great format,” Cameron said. “You get all the quality and resolution in the image that you would have in a movie theater.”

And now, with an “Avatar” sequel confirmed to be in development, Cameron is keeping his lips sealed on where the next film in the franchise will go.

“I don’t want to spill the beans before the fact,” he said.

And what about the sequel dealing with the themes of “Avatar” in “surprising ways?”

“The key word there is ‘surprise,’” he said. “And if I tell you what it is, it won’t be a surprise.”

The current war between Adobe and Apple over Flash is, well, ultimately futile. The war is over Apple not wanting to include in its mobile products Adobe Flash, a program that, according to Adobe, is delivered to 99% of Internet users. If you’ve seen annoying animated ads on Web sites, used browser-based games or watched Web-based animation and movies, chances are it was Flash.

On the one hand you have Steve Jobs, who is being his usual self along with Apple. On the other you have Adobe (makers of Photoshop, etc.), which doesn’t really have a persona that embodies the company. Envision this: The two camps on either side of a net made entirely out of rubber chickens with yells of “closed system” being bandied back and forth like a shuttlecock a few goose feathers shy of a badminton match.

Jobs has seen fit to write an approximately 1,700-word letter about the virtues of not using Flash. Parts of it are snarky and immature and (the closing remarks are especially brutally direct toward a company who has sizeable Macintosh user base) for the most part, it reeks of a sales pitch, rather than an explanation. The Adobe people write blog posts about it which get picked up and essentially used as counter points.

Apple thinks it knows what’s best for consumers and rather than allowing them to choose for themselves, they choose for you. While some may see a virtue in not having to think for themselves, there are a lot of free-thinkers in the world who would simply like the option. Perhaps they’d make the same choice and not install Flash, but it’d be their choice. Jobs is also afraid that developers will use Flash to create applications for Apple’s mobile devices. Oh, the horror.

The first real point of contention that Jobs brings up is that Flash is all closed source. He even uses the phrase “100 percent proprietary” to describe Flash products. Then he points out that “Apple has many proprietary products, too.” It’s essentially a moot point that by bringing up, continually, only serves to waste the end-users’ time.

Adobe says Macintosh devices can’t access the “full Web” because 75 percent of the video on the Web is in Flash. Jobs quips back that the majority of video is in many other formats you don’t need Flash for. He completely skips over animation. Pre-rendered video is one thing, but Flash’s ability to provide interactive applications, animation, and interactive animation is a huge selling point. In regards to Apple products not being able to play Flash games, he points out that the Apple Application store has a large selection. Way to push that sell, Jobs, but you completely forgot to mention that Apple can take any piece of software out of the App Store on a moment’s notice without any input from the developer. Out here in reality, where logic does tend to matter to some degree, that’s what we call a closed system, beating the cyclic bush right back to the first point.

Jobs’s third point is that it drains battery life on mobile devices. True, but running any sort of processor-intensive application does that. Jobs seems to think that people will be using Apple’s mobile products with high-intensity applications and then complaining when the battery runs out. I think that as a society we’ve been using battery-powered devices long enough to know that if you make the device work harder, the batteries don’t last as long. This also goes back to the choice thing. Perhaps I’d rather have five hours of Flash animation on my mobile device than 10 hours of pre-rendered video.

Jobs points out that Flash was made for the point and click world, and he’s absolutely correct. All Flash-based Web sites would have to be rewritten to allow touch-screen controls. That’s fine, but why not allow users of mobile devices to have multiple ways to navigate through a Web site? Oh, right. Choices are bad.

Jobs points out that Symantec says Flash is a huge security risk as if it’s supposed to mean something. Mac users have been laughing at Symantec for years as it tried to break into the Mac market, saying its claims that Macs were vulnerable were laughable, even as the iPad has already had its first virus deployed, and OSX has suffered viruses in recent years.

Apple just needs to be honest with themselves. It isn’t about any of these flimsy reasons Jobs has brought up. The fact of the matter is they want to control the end-user experience because then people have to use their products and they make more money. The practices may not be good for anyone other than the company, but they need not be ashamed. Adobe wants the same things; they want people to switch and use their products instead — exclusively, they hope. That’s called capitalism.

They’re both on their respective side, and end-users are the rubber chickens constantly getting smacked by being in the middle. If Flash was incorporated into Apple mobile devices, then there would be competition, as well as choices. Consumers would win.

April’s Autism Awareness Month just ended, but the work of researchers and educators is continuing.

Recent studies have found that males and females with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience different symptoms according to gender. Educators and students in the education field still have a lot to learn about ASD.

“We don’t get it like we thought we did,” said Mary Ann Winter-Messiers, coordinator of Project Preparing Autism Specialists for Schools.

A lecture and training session Friday at U. Oregon, titled “Understanding Girls on the Autism Spectrum: We Have a Lot to Learn,” welcomed students, professors, professionals and the parents of children with ASD. The speakers focused on new information that shows females with autism have different symptoms than males with autism.

Disorders under the ASD umbrella include autism and Asperger’s syndrome. Historically, little research attention has been paid to females.

“Girls weren’t being focused on from the beginning,” Winter-Messiers said.

The previous assumption of the 1:4 ratio, that for every girl with autism there are four autistic boys, is old and outdated, agreed speakers Winter-Messiers and Cynthia Herr, research associate and assistant professor in the College of Education. Winter-Messiers and Herr are both on the board at the Bridgeway House, which serves more than 150 families a month affected by autism by offering home programs, social skill groups and many other resources, according to the Web site of the lecture host, the University’s Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service.

According to the lecture slides, research has demonstrated males and females are not alike at all. Boys begin to show autistic tendencies at a younger age than girls. Usually in the pre-school age, boys will begin to show signs of autism. Girls will generally show signs around 12 years old.

Boys will have social impairments, repetitive and limited play, and will be easily distracted.

Girls on the autism spectrum take longer to process information and understand the fundamentals of social communication, and will show social impairments in adolescence.

Many boys with autism often have few or no friends, while girls may have “little mothers,” girls their own age who nurture and help them. Girls with ASD also have stronger pretend-play skills and mirror-neuron skills than boys with ASD.

If girls with autism do not receive assistance and are not diagnosed at an early age, they are at a high risk for depression, anxiety, isolation, identity crisis and eating disorders.

Winter-Messiers is currently researching depression, anxiety, friendship quality and suicidal ideation in males and females with ASD and comparing the data results to see the differences.

“The field of autism is going through growing pains,” Herr said. “The more we know, the more we know we don’t know.”

The speakers cited information from a book published in 2009, titled, “Girls Growing Up on the Autism Spectrum,” by Shana Nichols, Gina Marie Moravcik and Samara Pulver Tetenbaum.

Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, and Belgium on May 10, 1940. Within weeks, Nazis forced Jews — including many of my relatives ­— into restricted areas, and commanded them to affix a yellow Star of David to their upper garments. Yellow to the Nazis symbolized racial impurity, and Jews they considered to have derived from inferior racial stock.

What the Nazis perpetrated onto Jews throughout Europe was a form of what has come to be labeled as “racial profiling.” The Nazis killed my Polish relatives in a mass grave in Krosno, and eventually shipped most of my Belgium family to Auschwitz concentration camp where they murdered them.

We need to keep in mind that the notion of race is socially constructed. The concept of race arose concurrently with the advent of European exploration as a justification and rationale for conquest and domination of the globe beginning around the 15th century. Race, therefore, is an historical, “scientific” and biological myth. It is an idea. Geneticists tell us that there is often more variability within a given so-called race than between races, and that there are no essential genetic markers linked specifically to race.

Though race is a social construction, its implications are far reaching and impact individuals and groups in profound ways.

“Racial profiling occurs when race is used by law enforcement or private security officials, to any degree, as a basis for criminal suspicion in non-suspect specific investigations,” said the human rights organization Amnesty International said. Racial profiling constitutes a form of discrimination, based on race, ethnicity, religion, nationality and other identities, which, Amnesty International declares “undermines the basic human rights and freedoms to which every person is entitled.”

While social realities between Nazi Germany to the contemporary United States America are not identical, some clear parallels exist. This was brought to light last week as I was watching a CNN report of a demonstration by opponents of a new Arizona bill signed into law by Gov. Janice Brewer. One of the demonstrators, a Jewish man, wore an armband with a Star of David.

The Arizona law mandates that police officers stop and question people about their immigration status if they even suspect that they may be in this country illegally, and criminalizes undocumented workers who do not possess an “alien registration document.” Other provisions allow citizens to file suits against government agencies that do not enforce the law, and criminalizes employers who knowingly transport or hire undocumented workers.

Last week while speaking at a naturalization ceremony in the White House Rose Garden for 24 members of the armed forces, President Barack Obama called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform while making it clear that the Arizona law is “misguided” and that “the recent efforts in Arizona, [have] threatened to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”

“By signing it, this bill, Gov. Brewer has thrown the door wide open for racial profiling,” said Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the civil rights organization National Council of La Raza.

The Arizona action follows a series of discriminatory race– and nationality-based immigration laws passed throughout our nation’s history. For example, back in 1790, the newly constituted U.S. Congress passed the Naturalization Act, which excluded all non-whites from citizenship, including Asians, enslaved Africans and Native Americans, the later whom they defined in oxymoronic terms as “domestic foreigners,” even though they had inhabited this land for an estimated 35,000 years. The Congress did not grant Native Americans rights of citizenship until 1924 with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act, though Asians continued to be denied naturalized citizenship status.

Congress passed the first law specifically to restrict or exclude immigrants on the basis of race and nationality in 1882. In its attempts to eliminate entry of Chinese (and other Asian) workers who often competed for jobs with U.S. citizens, especially in the western United States, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to restrict entry into the U.S. for a 10-year period, while denying citizenship to Chinese people already on these shores. The act also made it illegal for Chinese people to marry white or black U.S.–Americans. The Immigration Act of 1917 further prohibited immigration from Asian countries, in the terms of the law, the “barred zone,” including parts of China, India, Siam, Burma, Asiatic Russian, the Polynesian Islands and parts of Afghanistan.

Fearing a continued influx of immigrants, legislators in the U.S. Congress in 1924 enacted an anti-immigration law (Origins Quota Act, or National Origins Act) setting restrictive quotas of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe (groups viewed as representing Europe’s lower races), including Jews (the later referred to as members of the so-called Hebrew race). The law, however, permitted large allocations of immigrants from Great Britain and Germany. In addition, the law included a clause prohibiting entry of “aliens ineligible to citizenship,” which was veiled language referring to Japanese and other Asians dating back to the Naturalization Act of 1790 restricting citizenship to only “white” people and affirmed by a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Takao Ozawa vs. United States) in which Takao Ozawa, a Japanese immigrant, was denied the right to become a naturalized citizen because he “clearly” was “not Caucasian.”

Returning to today, if we learn anything from our immigration legislative history, we can view the current debates as providing a great opportunity to pass comprehensive federal reform based not on race, nationality, ethnicity, religion or other social identity categories, but rather, on humane principles of fairness, compassion and equity.

– Warren Blumenfeld is an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at Iowa State U.