Using your intelligence, intelligently.

Kevin Baker has a post up in regards to how one student, at her graduation, sees the education system.

At the end of the post, he links to a Thomas Sowell piece.

A quote from the piece is thus;

The reason a surgeon can operate on your heart, while someone of equal intelligence who is not a surgeon cannot, is because of what different people actually did with their intelligence. That has always varied, not only from individual to individual but from group to group-- and not only in this country, but in countries around the world and across the centuries of human history.

And that made me think of this.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;[6]

You, me, the guy on the street corner cleaning your windshield with a dirty rag and a bottle of Windex all were born with the same set of tools to accomplish something. It is our use of what was given to us that sets us apart from one another.

Again from the Sowell piece;

One of the biggest fallacies of our time is the notion that, if all groups are not proportionally represented in institutions, professions or income levels, that shows something wrong with society. The very possibility that people make their own choices, and that those choices have consequences-- for themselves and for others-- is ignored. Society is the universal scapegoat.

If Society, with its inclusion of all races, religions, income, education, etc., is to blame, how can those parts of society that actively pursue inclusion be held accountable. In this, I am not my brothers keeper.

Now go RTWT.