There are a few sweet pockets every few light years around the universe here and there, but throughout the apparently ever-expanding whole, it's either stupendously too hot or cold for life like anything we know to exist.  In the vast stretches between the pockets of viability - and thus for the most part - the universe surely seems utterly hostile to life.

So now that we get our own little greenhouse thing going here on planet Earth, putting up shelter, establishing agriculture, breeding cats and dogs and cattle so the greenhouse is well-gassed - now that we finally can enjoy some time away from the struggle against the Mostly Inhospitable Cosmos - do we all join in gratitude and peace and relief, as brothers and sisters on vacation from the primordial struggle, free for a brief precious time to love and laugh and play music like at Woodstock?

Well, not so much. 

Like zoo animals with nothing to do in our self-created cages, we get antsy and play deadly games using fake tokens like borders, class, race, gender, gender preference, height, weight, gods, gold, and glory to fight and die over.  Perhaps that is the true manifest destiny of humanity: whenever we get a gasp of fresh air to breathe, we suddenly decide to take up smoking, or see how long we can hold our breath.  (Envelope-pusher David Blaine did it for seventeen minutes, four seconds on Oprah last week.)

It's the same principle that guarantees every time we come up with something cool and ambitious, like the Tower of Babel or the Internet, some jerk is going to wank it up by making us all speak different languages, or infecting our computers with viruses.

But as every sage from Socrates to Camus to Gene Roddenberry to Martin L. King to Barack Obama can tell you, human dignity comes when we struggle against the absurd; when despite the vast Inhospitality of our world, we plow bravely on, and strive in our way to be good neighbors, if not skilled lovers.

Pres. Franklin, Healer-in-Chief

Penn Valley Community College is of course a microcosmic play-out of humanity grappling with its own delusions to pass the time, where every day we get the chance to behave with some kind of but-for-real-now dignity, at least within our carved-out Green Zone.

So, how we doing?  What's our PVCC D.Q. (Dignity Quotient)? 

We uh...dunno.  We're pretty sure some students are racking up decent GPAs, and we have flags from every country hanging in the Campus Center lobby...

Okay, we haven't taken a valid scientific survey, but in our informal internal investigation, of the teachers we chose to interview, it would appear there might be a significant number who are passionate about being fair and nondiscriminatory in their work, and would like to know more about the PVCC D.Q., especially since the protest a year ago.

Our proposal is simple:  Let's go back to G&H Consulting and Dr. Gayle Holliday, who says she still wants to be involved, and ask her to do Part Two of the external investigation.  How about a scientifically valid study of attitudes and other relevant attributes of the Penn Valley population, so all the new committees and other recommended groups are able to work with solid information instead of speculation?  And how about a research team more reflective of the population they're studying, such as one comprised not only of African Americans, but other minorities and whites as well?

Alternatively, why not perform Part 2 ourselves, involving students, faculty and staff?  It can't  be that hard, and in fact might give us a sense of working together that could contribute not only to better morale, but a deeper understanding of exactly what we need to do.

We have ultimate faith in all the humans who people fair Penn Valley.  Let's get the truth, and reconcile, and start all over again next day - because we care about each other, and because we all need a good vacation.

Tell us what you think. Write Spectrum at editor@mcckc.edu.

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