Afirmative Action Update: There was an article in the New York Times last week that was quite interesting. It states that 64 Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, General Motors and Boeing along with serval top former military officials have filed briefs in favor of the University of Michigan's Affirmative Action policy.

What's interesting is that Big Business and the Military are not liberal institutions, but are very much the natural allies of Bush. Yet these groups sees diversity as an important goal. Why is that? It could be that they are acting as true realists. Many of the companies have had these policies in place for decades and have seen the benefits of a diverse workforce. The military have been intergrated for nearly 60 years and have seen integration work with little problems. If these two conservative institutions can take a pragmatic look at affirmative action and see that it is beneficial from its results, then why can't the Bush Administration see that? Affirmative Action is far from a perfect plan, but what Big Business and the Pentagon can see is that it works. It has proven that people who were not white or male are just as capable of doing the work asked of them. Conservatives talk a ! lot of about equality of opportunity. We believe that people should be given the chance to pursue their dreams. It seems that Affrimative Action is simply doing just that. Because the business community and the military have to deal with this issue day after day, they see that it works. It appears that the Bush Administration and the detractors of Affirmative Action seem to have shoved pragmatism aside for some kind of idealistic world where racism never has affected women and minorities or where they just don't exist at all.