Current Issues: Random Walk

Herewith a random walk among various headlines and stories:

• Vice President Joe Biden recently attended a fundraiser in Central Virginia. The event was well advertised. Gov. Tim Kaine's office cites security concerns for its refusal to include Kaine's appearances on behalf of the Democratic National Committee on his official schedule. Hmmmm.

• Kaine does have a good idea regarding rest areas. He wants to privatize them, and has asked for a waiver from federal rules that restrict privatization. We sympathize with those who want the stops to remain open, but the areas simply are not as important as transportation maintenance and construction generally.

• Speaking of sympathy: The quality is related to empathy -- a sentiment that in some quarters generates sneers. The confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor included an appearance by Frank Ricci, the New Haven firefighter disadvantaged by an appeals ruling in which Sotomayor participated. Although we believe Ricci and his fellow firefighters were wronged, we note that he testified not as constitutional scholar or legal expert but as a layman directly affected by the judicial process. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee invited him because they wanted to generate sympathy for their positions and empathy for someone whose life was touched by Sotomayor.

Last week the University of Virginia's Center for Politics sponsored a conference on Massive Resistance, Virginia's attempt to defy the ruling that found segregated schools in violation of the Constitution. During an address to the NAACP's 100th anniversary celebration, President Barack Obama stressed education: "We've got to say to our children, yes, if you're AfricanAmerican, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that somebody in a wealthy suburb does not have to face. But that's not a reason to get bad grades, that's not a reason to cut class, that's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands -- you cannot forget that."