No, I don't think so. Fascism and Nazism were horrific, criminal singling out of certain types of people and persecuting them or holding them down in some way. However, there are a significant number of people who simply will not succeed at a level that most people consider "normal" because they either don't have the capacity, or they simply don't want to. If you don't explore space until all of the homeless people in the park across the street have homes, then you will simply not ever explore space - and if you don't humanity looses much more than if we don't shelter everyone who doesn't have a home...

Watching Discovery fly over Washington is not an occasion for smiling and taking pictures but an occasion to reflect on the declining greatness of this country and a call-to-arms to try and fix it.

Yes, you are right in that American society has problems and insensitivity is one of them - at all levels, from the Mother who drives around all day by herself in a GMC Yukon to the criminals at Lehman Brothers. However, our slipping world position in technology, education, and innovation is a much bigger problem.

I spend a lot of time in my job providing opportunities to less fortunate students and in fact, that's what I like about working at a "lesser" university - we provide an opportunity for students to enter a career that they otherwise would not have. A *significant* number of our students are the first ones in their family to ever go to college. That is great... We need to provide opportunities for people, but making sure that everyone has everything that they need regardless of their situation is a recipe for mediocrity - just ask the Soviets...


Bob