Admiral,

I believe that most public school systems here are adequate – Baltimore City Schools just happen to be stunningly bad. With 85% of the nation’s pupils in public schools it is most likely that the worst schools will be public (I just wish they were somewhere else).

I’m not so down on religion as some are, the latest in peer-reviewed research indicates that weekly attendance at religious services accounts for an additional 2 to 3 years of life. Remember also that the tens of millions deaths caused by Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and Communist China can hardly be attributed to religious fundamentalism. I still see intolerance as a human rather than a religious limitation.

I’m uncomfortable with the “clash of two cultures” idea. My take is that it is more complex. The culture of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, is quite different from that of Saudi Arabia, where Mecca and Medina are located. Try telling a German or better yet, a Frenchman that his culture is essentially the same as America’s.

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Eudaimonia