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Know new taxes
The problem with lip-reading as a method of
communication is that it lacks the precision of written
English. You don't have to be an expert lip-reader to
realize that no new taxes
and know new taxes
are uttered with identical labial movements; the confusion
apparently results from transcription. Perhaps in the
future, candidates should be required to spell things out,
so that the media won't distort their true message.
That isn't the only problem with the First Family these days. I haven't stayed current on the controversy concerning Barbara Bush's status as the graduation speaker at Wellesley, but the last I heard, it was on again, even after her selection was questioned by Wellesley students because she's not a politically correct speaker for a group of young women graduating from an elite college.
In their view, Mrs. Bush has attained Celebrity Graduation Speaker status only because of her husband's celebrity. They believe that you are supposed to reach such exalted heights on the basis of your own accomplishments, not because you happened to marry well or enjoy other family connections.
It may be refreshing to see a burst of idealism among the young, but that isn't quite how things really work. Wellesley costs about $15,000 a year, and its graduates have been cruelly defrauded if, after four years of expensive education, they actually believe that talent and hard work really contribute all that much toward your advancement in this country.
If the Wellesley seniors wanted a truly educational speaker in that regard, they could have looked elsewhere in the First Family, and invited Neil Bush, the dynamic young Denver businessman. He was so dynamic that when he was only 30, he was asked to serve as a director of a huge and highly leveraged savings-and-loan operation that was even then attracting critical attention from federal regulators.
I even recall reading that it was mere coincidence that his father happened to be vice-president of the United States at the time, and that presumably even if his name had been Neil Kowalsky, he still would have been invited to vote at Silverado board meetings. Sure.
Or they could have invited George Herbert Walker Bush himself, who might explain how the climb to the top is somewhat smoother when your father is a wealthy U.S. senator and you have an uncle who can produce a $300,000 stake when you want to strike off on your own.
The simple fact is that connections work, and work more
reliably than any other single factor. Neither George nor
Barbara Bush is an inspirational example of making it
all on your own.
But Barbara, at least, has been
involved in literacy projects, so that Americans can learn
to read precise written words, rather than be fooled
because we don't read lips the right way.
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