A Wise Decision?

I'm back!

No more pencils, no more books, no more students' dirty looks!!

The grades have just been submitted, and, now that I am no longer teaching until the Fall semester, all of the things that have gone neglected to one extent or another can now be given my attention. Like my sleep! I'm all burnt out from the Summer Session semester, so I'll need a day or two to recover.

Don't get me wrong! I did enjoy teaching the courses I taught. But, like all summer session courses at all universities, this was very intense for student and professor alike.

My brief social commentary for this posting deals with one Clive Campbell -- or rather, The Other Clive Campbell.

There are two reasonably respectable Clive Campbells in the world, namely, the New Zealander soccer player, and the Bronx DJ known as "Kool Herc" who is credited with establishing Hip Hop music in America. [Okay, so I'm not a big fan of Hip Hop music (nor of the Bronx, for that matter), but Kool Herc did work hard and pay his dues and succeed after he came to America from his native Jamaica, so he is in that sense a positive living example of America's greatness.].

Then there is this Other Clive Campbell, who is sullying the names of the DJ and the footballer, is a self-described Brooklyn community activist (sound like Barack Hussein Obama's resume) who has a group called "Da Black Defense League." I shall not link this posting to this man or his group; suffice it to say that the man and his website are everything one would expect and more.

Specifically, Campbell filed a pro se lawsuit against Barclay's Bank and others. The lawsuit smacks of extortion. Justice Arthur Schack, of the Kings County Supreme Court, has dismissed Campbell's lawsuit. It is a long read, but Justice Schack described the Complaint as a "rambling, disjointed, almost 30 page essay dealing with, inter alia: the history of the trans-Atlantic African slave trade; the injustices suffered by African slaves and their descendants; the alleged connection of BARCLAYS to the slave trade; and, the alleged violation by all defendants of international, federal and state laws, including the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United States Declaration of Independence, and the United States and New York State Constitutions."

You can read the case of Campbell v. Barclay's Bank if you really, really want to. I shall not now detail all of the inconsistencies and nonsequiturs and irrationalities in the complaint. Bottom line: Justice Schack dismissed the complaint for failure to state a cause of action upon which relief can be granted.

The social commentary imponderable: How would that Wise Latina, Judge Sonia "So-So" Sotomayor, have ruled on the case had it been before her bench?