Letter to the editor: Why stop at affirmative action ruling?

Yes, the Supreme Court and its painfully and reliably conservative ruling bloc were, perhaps, correct to rule that America’s institutes of higher learning had no right to give any sort of break to those whose lives and schoolings beforehand may have offered few or no breaks. Overcoming long odds and rags-to-riches stories no longer have a place in American mythology, except in Hollywood.

But why stop there? Why should kids with rich and connected daddies who are generous donors get preference at, for example, Yale or the Wharton School of Business, over really smart and hard-working kids? True, some of these Fauntleroys grow up to be president someday — including one asleep at the switch on 9/11 while the other being the switch on 1/6 — but aren’t learning institutions supposed to be about educating first and money grubbing second?

And what about star athletes? Unless much smarter than the average fencepost, why should they be allowed to snatch dorm space from the more academically accomplished?

But maybe I’m wrong here. Perhaps the matriculating not smart but rich, or the exceptionally big, strong and quick might be learning even more useful life lessons. If you can’t hack it yourself, you can always pay someone else to do the work and give you the credit. Write your papers, even take your exams. Or some powerful bigwig can twist a few professorial arms and get you those passing grades.

Yeah, faking it until you’re making it. What possible harm can come from that?

Joseph Jamison

Greensburg