The Questioning Librarian

There have always been anti-intellectual elements in our public life; both Richard Hofstadter and Susan Jacoby have chronicled the waxing and waning of anti-intellectualism in the United States in the past two centuries. What is disturbing is to see that, for all our knowledge, our technology, and the progress we have made, anti-intellectualism is on the rise again. While we have always seen sniping at the edges in the ongoing battles over teaching evolution, and climate change, many of the recent battles have been attacks on education itself, and the very idea that education has value for its own sake. The attacks on education have come largely from the Republican Party, often in the form of deep cuts to both K-12 education and higher education. Sacrifices must be made, the governors and legislators solemnly declare, but those sacrifices never seem to come from those who can afford to make them, nor are they equally distributed. Pennsylvania's now-former Republican gove...

There can be no doubt that our veterans have sacrificed much more than we can imagine. We duly honor them every Veteran's Day and Memorial Day, remembering those who served. We honor not only those who survived and are still with us but those who died, those who gave limbs and eyes and sacrificed forever their peace of mind when they served. We are exhorted to "support the troops," but if we really want to honor our veterans, supporting our servicemen and women has to be far more than a bumper sticker slogan.  We can honor our veterans by not being so eager to make more of them in the first place. Whether it is the Ukraine , Nigeria , or Syria , a number of politicians are ever-eager to send American troops into countries around the world, often without full consideration of whether this is even a good idea. American troops were sent into Iraq on what turned out to be a lie , and as a result over three thousand servicemen lost their lives, with countless more wounded...