Theories of Relativity Theories of Relativity
During one pleasant dinner aboard the Nation cruise, one of my tablemates told an amusing story about Einstein giving a lecture in which he stated that he expected the solar sy...
Oct 31, 2002 / Column / Patricia J. Williams
Home on the Range Home on the Range
There's a joke circulating on the Internet: A grandmother overhears her 5-year-old granddaughter playing "wedding." The wedding vows go like this: "You have the right to remain...
Oct 17, 2002 / Column / Patricia J. Williams
But Fear Itself But Fear Itself
It's a scary little world right now. Such wars of careless words. Such panic on every breeze. If Eskimos have a hundred words for snow, we have let bloom a thousand words for f...
Oct 3, 2002 / Column / Patricia J. Williams
Infallible Justice Infallible Justice
I saw a puzzling banner on the door of a restaurant the other day. It was a flag flanked by two aphorisms: God bless America and America bless God.
Sep 19, 2002 / Column / Patricia J. Williams
‘The Enemy Within’ ‘The Enemy Within’
There are perfectly respectable reasons to disagree with, dislike or distrust Jesse Jackson. His flaws as a human being are pretty well-known at this point. Some feel his politics...
Jun 27, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Patricia J. Williams
Racial Privacy Racial Privacy
Ward Connerly, figurehead for California's anti-affirmative action Proposition 209, is up to more mischief. This time it's a push to prevent California's public agencies from cl...
May 30, 2002 / Column / Patricia J. Williams
Racial Prescriptions Racial Prescriptions
A recent front-page story in the Boston Globe proclaimed that New England leads the nation in Ritalin prescription levels. Somewhat to my surprise, the prevalence of Ritalin in...
May 16, 2002 / Column / Patricia J. Williams
For Which We Stand For Which We Stand
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has been traveling around the country recently as part of a nationwide post-9/11 effort to promote debate about civic values in schools and co…
May 2, 2002 / Column / Patricia J. Williams
Sensation Sensation
A friend and I were sitting around commiserating about the things that get to us: unloading small indignities, comparing thorns. "So there I was," she said, "sitting on the bus a...
Apr 18, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Patricia J. Williams
Tests, Tracking and Derailment Tests, Tracking and Derailment
As state budgets around the country are slashed to accommodate the expense of the war on terror, the pursuit of educational opportunity for all seems ever more elusive. While sta...
Apr 4, 2002 / Column / Patricia J. Williams