Strawberries

THE WEEKEND: It was a beautiful, relaxing summer weekend and I look forward to many more. Jason Duplissis, Kate, and I met up at Pizzeria Regina off of Wellington Station after work Friday. The new Regina's location was nice, although it wasn't quite the same as the North End location for obvious reasons. Jason had lasagna and Kate and I shared a pizza. Jason's food looked alright but Kate and I guessed that he should have stuck to what Regina's is known for. I had a beer with my pizza, and we had stuffed eggplant appetizers which were very cheesy, and very tasty. Jason had a couple of mixed drinks which he seemed to enjoy. After our Italian feast, we headed across the street to Cold Stone Creamery before ultimately heading back to Melrose.

Kate and I went to North Andover to go strawberry picking on Saturday. We picked 3 quarts and then put them in the car and returned to the farm stand for some ice cream. Kate had a chocolate/ raspberry ice cream and I had black raspberry with dark and white chocolate chips (casually known by "purple moo"). They gave us ridiculous portions and the ice cream ended up being a filling lunch. We drove around Lawrence and North Andover after leaving and explored the unfamiliar turf. Lawrence seemed a little too sketchy to walk around and North Andover was in large part a slice of suburbia. We drove around Merrimack College a little bit, but we couldn't locate any visitor parking and just decided to return to Melrose for our evening walk.

Upon arriving in Melrose, we cleaned a quart of the strawberries and mixed them with sugar to create a sauce for strawberry shortcake. Our recipe called for the strawberries to sit for 2 hours at room temperature, so it was an excellent time to go for our walk.

Melrose was bathed in the bright June sun. The air was permeated with the fresh scent of grass clippings and the trees whispered in a steady summer breeze. Several teenagers scrambled through the town center in excitement while some seniors meandered down the side walks of main street breathing in the magnificent weather. We walked around the pond in the center of town where ducks paddled about on the glistening water searching for the best vittles.

We eventually made our way to Shaws and picked up some steak tips and the rest of our shortcake ingredients. Our delicious meal of salad, steak tips, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, bread from Calarusso's Farm stand, and strawberry short cake for desert was a fitting end for our great day.

Sunday was a day of errands, and rest before the busy week ahead.

IN POLITICS:

Divided court rejects school diversity plans

Story Highlights

• Court tosses out public school choice plans that consider race
• The 5-4 ruling rejected programs in Louisville, Kentucky, and Seattle, Washington
• Chief Justice John Roberts wrote opinion for conservative majority

This is a huge blow to affirmative action, and I have to say bravo! It is about time. It is amazing how effectively the left has twisted people into thinking that making decisions based on "race" is a good way to fight racism and prejudice. There are many people who may claim that voicing anti-affirmative action sentiment is a exercise in bigotry, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

It is interesting this broadly accepted solution to "racism and prejudice" uses discrimination and selection by race to accomplish its goals. Somehow many people, and much of the news media are on board with the idea that schools in black neighborhoods are segregated. This is B.S. The people who live in neighborhoods of similar ethnic backgrounds often live there usually because they WANT to be with "like people". Sure, there are other factors in play. The social and economic identity of a community and the capability of it's inhabitants to leave it may be a large determining factor of the ethnic composition of the schools.

An excellent away to help those who want a better future for their children would be a voucher system for people whose children potentially have to attend failing schools. This would allow them an opportunity to send their children to better schools voluntarily. Of course the same people who believe that students should reorganized by race, are those opposed to vouchers. Go figure.

Segregation was something done to reorganize people based on race....... which is exactly what Democrats feel we should do. Of course during the turmoil of the civil rights fight, the reasons and the cause of race reorganization (segregation) were different... But ask yourself, do you REALLY believe that the outcome is different? Notice I didn't say affirmative action is still "well intended". With poor, inner city African Americans continuously lagging behind nearly all other minority groups in terms of economic viability (U.S. household income: see race), it is clear that affirmative action only extenuates the problem rather than improves it. It creates a sense of inferiority and entitlement that has been very difficult to escape.

See article: African Immigrants Find Opportunity

From article: "The flip side of the refugee influx is a wave of sophisticated professionals who also are making their way to the United States. Census data from 2000 shows 43 percent of Africans in the U.S. have college degrees, higher than the adult population as a whole. Compared to African-Americans, the immigrants' average household income is higher and their jobless rate lower. "

Affirmative action creates a feeling of jealousy and resentment among many Caucasians over a perhaps exaggerated idea (see article: The Myth And Math of Affirmative Action) that many white people are losing academic spots and jobs to African Americans who may not be as competent as their Caucasian competitors. Another example of a negative impact of affirmative action: colleges also use reverse-affirmative action to limit the number of Asian Americans who get into high-tech and science programs. If people work hard, and if they are the best at what they do, then they should be the recipients of a position in an educational program, etc.

THE ONLY fair way to treat people is equally, based on merits, competence, experience, and education.... AND NOT by race.

Affirmative action is nothing more than a political ploy used to keep people divided for the sake of political gain.