JUDGING SONIA

Sonia Sotomayor enters confirmation hearings for her historic nomination to the Supreme Court this morning. If confirmed she will be the court's first Hispanic and third woman justice.

In the nearly seven weeks since President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter, critics have labored without much success to exploit weaknesses in her record. Republican senators also must take care to avoid offending Hispanic voters, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, by attacking Sotomayor too harshly.

The opposition has insisted Sotomayor will twist the Constitution to which she has been quoted saying: "I don't believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it."

Big noise has made the Ricci case where Sotomayor was following the Rule of the Law. Her ruling reflected 38 years of court decisions, had she done otherwise she would've been sidelined as a judicial activist trying to create law.

Sotomayor has been chastised for her saying "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
This is particularly important because while she's been accused of reverse racism (whatever that means) her words have come from a minority living by the rule of a white-males-society, whom had never had to apologize for 'being' since male-whiteness has been taken as the norm. And that's where white-male-senators judging her today don't want to go.

Senior Follies of San Diego good, but Lack Diversity

The Christian Community Theater presented the musical "Senior Follies" last month in East County. With the theme "On the Road Again" the musical journey occupied a cast of San Diego seniors from 55 to 94. That's right a 94-year-young Mrs. Vesta Young vibrant piano player was part of this cast.
The production with more than 50 song-and-dance numbers honors every state in the union, from Ragtime to Big Band, from Swing to Barbershop. Thence, the audience enjoyed geographically themed numbers such as “Kalamazoo,” “Pennsylvania Poker,” “Old Cape Cod,” “Bluest Skies in Seattle,” “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” “Chicago Is My Kind of Town,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “California Girls” and “Moon Over Miami.”
While the performances are impeccable, the lack of racial diversity from the cast made the show look like one sided. Too many blonds, too many white folks, as if blacks, Hispanics and Asians -for instance, didn't exist in America up until "Sweet Home Alabama" or "Viva las Vegas" times. A little disappointing was, also, the script, where the presenters played the smart man and the 'dumb' blond. For every question the guy asked (facts about America)the woman didn't know the answer. Then in two of the numbers there was what looked like a midget, and wasn't very clear what was the purpose of the production to excessively 'shorten' the only guy that could pass by Mexican and was the only one speaking a little bit of Spanish. For some reason the plot only shows white Americans enjoying their tourist lives across the country, and there is a sense of melancholy in it. As if the make up of this country was better off leaving out the real melting pot that America has been, it is and will be. Thumbs up for the scenography, the costumes and the lighting, though.