Speaking for the Left-Handed Majority

"But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing"
- Matthew 6:3

"Some people are right-handed. Some people are left-handed. There are other people who are able to use both hands with equal ease. Such people are called Handbidextrous."
- Sally Brown in "Peanuts" by Charles M. Schulz

Of all the traits that evolution bestowed on humans, our dexterity is one of the most valuable. Yes, human intelligence and communication are quite essential to our species success, allowing us to create thoughts that can be shared widely and passed down through generations. But we would not be able to readily turn those thoughts into tools without the imposable thumb. Due to the value of our dexterity, one of the more important differences between humans is handedness. The majority of humans primarily use their right hands, and this is reflected throughout our culture and technology. The vast majority of languages are written from left to right. In most countries, traffic travels on the right side of the road, drivers are seated on left, and hence the gear shift is operated with the driver's right hand. Most desks, computer mice, scissors and watches are designed for the right handed. Most cameras are ridiculously right-handed.

The left-handed live in a world not designed for them, and yet many of them become quite accomplished:

• Southpaws that have excelled in the arts include Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Toulouse Lautrec, and M.C. Escher;
  
• The music world has benefited from left-handed artists such as Beethoven, Prokofiev, Mozart, Cole Porter, Judy Garland, David Bowie, and the two surviving Beatles;
  
• Scientists Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Albert Schweitzer, and Alan Turing were left handed; and
  
• U.S. Presidents Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama all won elections from a largely right-handed electorate.

So what percentage of the population is left-handed? This is a hard question, complicated by factors such as how to count the ambidextrous or those who have trained themselves to use the other hand. Depending on how you them, 10% to 20% of the population is left-handed. But in a more general sense, one could make the case that the vast majority of us are left handed. Each individual has some characteristics that differs from the majority, and these differences often have the downside of making it hard for said individual to "fit in". In this sense, virtually all of us are all left-handed.

The simple concept of the left-handed majority provides a pragmatic justification for tolerance. Every time you accommodate someone else's differences, you strengthen the social contract and hence advance acceptance of your own differences.

I am an unlikely spokesman for the left-handed majority. For one thing, I am right-handed. I am also a white heterosexual male and married with two offspring. On the other hand (pardon the expression), I am a member of a political minority (libertarians) and a religious minority (Unitarian-Universalism). This may seem like an odd combination. There is the common perception that libertarians are just conservatives who smoke marijuana. There is also the perception and that Unitarian-Universalist churches are the last refuge for Woodstock hippies. So how can an ersatz conservative join a granola church?

In part, I would answer this question by pointing out that these common perceptions are wrong. For the record, I am not a conservative, and the last time I smoked marijuana was back when disco music was not retro. But for the most part, I am a member of both these organizations due to some common themes. Libertarianism emphasizes freedom as the core political value of modern society. Unitarian-Universalists promote freedom of thought as a core religious value. Moreover, both groups celebrate our individuality, libertarians in the political sphere, Unitarian-Universalists in the religious realm. This is why I am a libertarian Unitarian-Universalist: I am doing it for the left-handed majority.

Update: check this Facebook page for more libertarian Unitarian-Universalists.

Texas School Children: Give Choice a Chance

"Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power."
- John Adams

"Teach, your children well
Their father's hell
Did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick's
The one you'll know by."
- From "Teach Your Children" by Graham Nash.

In this third and final post on the Texas school districts that discipline students using the legal system, I would like to focus on one incident from the Texas Appleseed report that exposes the root of many of the problems with American public education:

"A 17-year-old girl with autism became frustrated [in class]. The teacher who best understood how to manage her behaviors was off work that day. The substitute did not know how to respond and accidentally escalated the situation by talking loudly and getting close to the student. The young lady left the classroom without permission, cursed and then sat in the hallway rocking back and forth to calm herself. When the assistant principal heard what happened, he asked a police officer to write a citation for Disruption of Class. The young lady’s single, low-income mother came to the school to talk to the vice principal, explaining that her daughter did not have full control of her behavior and was not able to understand the citation. She also explained she could not pay for citations. The vice principal told the mom that if she did not want her daughter to get more citations, she should withdraw the daughter from school because she was old enough to drop out."

As the father of an autistic son, I find this incident especially appalling. One's first impression is to blame the vice principle for this injustice, but the problem goes beyond this one employee. True, the vice principle did not act in the student's best interest, but he did act in the school's best interest. But why does the school's best interest differ from those of the students? This perverse incentive system is a result of the lack of choice on the part of the student.

In most circumstances, most American public school students have no choice as to which school to attend. Moreover, school financing is generally based on the number of school aged children in the district, not on how many students actually attend the school. The school's budget is not negatively affected by their students switching to private education or home schooling.

We can empower student's families with a change to the way we finance public schools. Instead of allocating education money to the schools, we could these funds to the child, with additional public funds provided for students with special educational needs. The family would then choose which public school their child would attend, and then that school would receive the funding for educating that child. School that attracts more students would receive more financing, schools that loses students would be forced to tighten their belts. Under such a system, could you imagine a vice principle recommending that a student drop out?

Would the Texas system of legal fines for school offenses such a cursing, talking back and skipping classes be adapted in a school choice system? As we have seen, this system has been particularly harsh with racial minorities and the handicapped. These students would undoubtedly exercise their choice for a school that takes a more humane approach to discipline. No family would be forced to endure the Texas ticketing system.

School choice is not just an academic theory. It is practiced in Belgium, France, Sweden, Chile, Ontario, and New Zealand. The countries where choice has been tried get better student test results than American public schools, and get those results at lower cost. This is the unsurprising consequence of families choosing the schools that works best for their children.

When we buy a product like breakfast cereal or a laptop, we insist on having a choice between several providers in order to get the best product. And yet we settle for no choice in a much more important matter: the education of our next generation. Our children deserve better; they deserve a choice.

One final note: my autistic son Jonathan has his own blog, as well as his own YouTube account. He may be constrained by his condition, but that never stops Jonathan from making the most of what he can accomplish. This is what I admire most about him.

Cartoon Robot Reveals The Meaning Of Life

"The wicked person flees when there is no one pursuing, but the righteous person is as confident as a lion."
- Proverbs 28:1

"Astro Boy there you go
Will you fight friend or foe?
Cosmic ranger, life of danger,
Everything is GO Astro Boy."
- From the Astro Boy Theme by Tatsuo Takai

One of the most influential forms of popular culture is the Japanese style of animation commonly known as anime. Anime can be seen

• on the various network Saturday morning cartoon blocks;
• as part of adult animation networks such as Adult Swim;
• and in the movie theaters, e.g. the Miyazaki features "Ponyo" and "Howl's Moving Castle".

Along with my fellow baby boomers, I witnessed the beginning of Anime in America, in the humble form of the black and white television cartoon series "Astro Boy" (1963-1966). Created by anime / manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka, "Astro Boy" is a science fiction story that takes place in a future society where robots are commonplace. A leading scientist, distraught with the death of his own son, creates an advanced robot in the likeness of his boy. The robot, named Astro Boy, has human-like emotions as well as incredible strength and the ability to fly. Astro uses his special robot abilities to serve as a superhero, fighting crime and injustice.

The series is an appealing combination of adventure and humor, but the appeal of the show went beyond these elements. The show actually dealt with some serious issues in way that the kids in my neighborhood really respected. For example, Astro Boy frequently had to deal with his society's antiquated attitude towards robots: even though many robots in Astro's world had feelings and intelligence, they were often treated as mere objects by the humans. Growing up in 1960's Detroit, I assumed that this unfair treatment of robots was a parable about racism. Later, I learned that Tezuka's WWII experiences galvanized his disdain of racism, and that his works often include anti-racist themes. Reading Tezuka's anti-Nazi manga "Adolf", I could not help but think of Astro Boy.

The episode that had the greatest impact on us was the final episode of the 1960's, "The Greatest Adventure on Earth" (1966). Towards the end of the show , Astro discovers that a planet-destroying missile is heading towards the Earth. Astro barely has enough time to redirect the missile into the sun, but he cannot do so without being pulled into the sun himself. Our hero saves the Earth and sacrifices himself in the process. I was shocked when I saw our cartoon hero die, but only for a second, for it occurred to me that there was something wonderful about this episode. "Astro Boy" was the only show of that era that trusted the kids of our age to be able to handle the important topic of death. They didn't side step it, they didn't sugar coat it, and they didn't talk down to us. They made it clear that Astro Boy was not coming back from his final mission. I really appreciated the trust and respect that the show's creators had in us kids.

In the 1983 "Sesame Street" episode "Farewell, Mr. Hooper", Big Bird learns that storekeeper and friend Mr. Hooper had died. This episode won accolades for its honest depiction of death in terms that child viewers could understand. Granted, "Farewell, Mr. Hooper" episode handled the topic of death exceptionally well, but it should not be forgotten that "Astro Boy" taught children about mortality over a decade before "Sesame Street" did. Moreover, "Astro Boy" dealt with the even more sensitive topic of the death of a child.

There is something uplifting about the final "Astro Boy" episode: he died to uphold the same principles he held throughout his brief existence. Astro's death was a good death in a way, in that it was the finish to a good and honorable life.