The Daily Top Five: Jan 15, 2007

1. What does Martin Luther King and the ethics and lobbying refrom bill now being debated in the Senate have in common? Steven Hoerstring has the connection for you. Hint:

We cannot forget that King was out front on an issue of national importance. We cannot forget his fate, and that it was a tragedy. In such an environment, we might wonder how secure would be his backers and consultants if the “Big Six” had to register with the government, disclose their spending, and report the names of the consultants brave enough to help them.

snip

It is easy to kid ourselves that there will never be a cause so divisive and deserving as racial equality that disclosure could now impede its progress. But we cannot know this with certainty, and, if the past is to be our guide, it seems that there surely will be such an issue in the future. That it is why it is important to remember Martin Luther King Jr., the civil-rights struggle, and the 1963 March on Washington, when we are considering measures that may frighten tomorrow’s skilled consultants away from tomorrow’s unpopular causes.

Read the whole thing.

2. To the readers of this space, it doesn't take a great leap of inference to know that I support school choice programs. One program that I have been reading about and studying is KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program that is growing nationwide. Here is an interview with of one of KIPP's early graduates. The KIPP leadership could not find a better spokesman for their program.

3. Philip Mella demolishes the Left's treatment of Martin Luther King's Dream and the post-King racial politics. In fact, it is the bastardization of King's vision that has come to roost in the Left's vision of diversity--a vision that has King no doubt rolling over in his grave. Had King survived, I believe he would be heartbroken that we are still talking about race more than the content of one's character. Of the left, Mella writers:

Their ideologically rigid belief that motivates their fervent desire to socially engineer every aspect of our civic lives is anathema to Dr. King's vision because it presupposes that race and ethnicity have special values in and of themselves. Their civically acerbic philosophy would have more credibility if they analyzed people's values and politics and ensured there were a balanced mix in our schools and our corporate offices.

Although that too would be hostile to our nation's original notions of civic freedoms, it's a system that is far more faithful to our founding principles because it would feature a mix of conservative blacks, pro-choice suburban whites, blue-collar libertarians, and atheists and theists of all stripes.

Although we certainly wouldn't support that, it does highlight the corrosive way in which the left has exploited race not only to our civic detriment, but in ways that Dr. King never intended. From our corrosive college entrance programs that pigeon-hole students according to race to our presumably 'enlightened' diversity programs in corporate America, it is predicated on a fundamentally flawed understanding on the nature of race and ethnicity.

4. If only more American leaders looked at terrorism this way. Sure, some of the proposals and actions would have some constitutional difficulty in our nation, but that doesn't detract from their relevance. As Mark Steyn says, in the end it might be only America and Australia fighting the global war on terror in the near future.


5. On the really good news front, Captain Ed brings us the wonderful story of two Minnesotans hiking in New Mexico who came across a woman who had been lost for five weeks and had the search for her called off two weeks ago. Smart thinking and effort by these two hikers saved the wayward woman's life and their own as well. Too many would be rescuers take on a task they are ill-equipped for and end up putting themselves and their found victim in more trouble.