America: An "Aberration"?

Many thanks to                           the several appalled readers who sent us Todd S.                           Purdum's March 29 New                           York Times piece California                           Census Confirms Whites Are in Minority :

"For                           the first time in the modern era, non-Hispanic whites                           are officially a minority in California, amounting to                           a little less than half the population of the most                           populous state, compared with nearly three-quarters                           only a decade ago, according to census figures                           released today..."

We                           were especially entertained by this comment:

"The                           Anglo hegemony was only an intermittent phase in                           California's arc of identity, extending from the                           arrival of the Spanish," said Kevin                           Starr, the state                           librarian and author of cultural histories of the                           state.

"The                           Hispanic nature of California has been there all                           along, and it was temporarily swamped between the                           1880's and the 1960's," Mr. Starr said, "but                           that was an aberration. This is a reassertion of the                           intrinsic demographic DNA of the longer pattern, which                           is part of a California-Mexico continuum."

It's                           real fun, this aberration game.  You can say could say that the Titanic was an aberration between iron in the ground and iron                           on the sea bed. Prosperity is an aberration between                           recessions. Peace is an aberration between wars. Life                           itself, when you think about it, is an aberration –                           ashes to ashes, dust to dust…No! No! Mustn't                           violate the Separation of Designated Place of Worship                           and State.

The aberration                           game gives you a whole new and comforting way of                           looking at the world. (The world is an aberration in                           the void.) And you don't have to think about the                           role of human design, human error, bad public policy,                           stupidity – and treason.

April 6, 2001