Walter Kirn, author of the novels Up in the Air and Mission to America, has written the most enticing recent indictment of education in this country.

Now that the dust from the Gates dust-up has settled, a bit of perspective is in order. Glib invocations of a color-blind society were always too breathless.

Discussions of race are not merely a distraction from more important matters; they are essential to understanding political mobilization around many of the significant policy issues facing us today.

We are the "we" who can make ending racial profiling in America part of President Obama's here-and-now agenda, not just another slot in the portfolio of the presidency.

The Gates-Crowley controversy offers an opportunity to gain a takeaway that might be beneficial far beyond police-citizen relations, or even black-white relations: regular mental health checks.

What happened to Gates is a daily occurrence in American ghettos. Police officers sometimes unfairly stop black men while driving their cars. It's called a "DWB" incident: driving while black. .

Umbrage at a Harvard professor's class snobbery might derail this generation's greatest hope for actually mitigating the class divide.

Nobody has the right to obstruct anyone else's pursuit of happiness. Have a brewski, and chill. For God's sake! Let's get the wheels back on the wagon.

Anger, if you are a minority, is dangerous. If you are a woman, a person of color, gay, etc., your movements must be calm, your voice must be modulated, and your anger must never show.

A Presidential National Commission of Race and Reconciliation is something you should now seriously consider, President Obama. If not you, who? If not now, when?

If the Relationship Age, coupled with the power of the media, is seized by leaders with intent to transform, teachable moments will become an ongoing part of our national curriculum.

Why do economic and racial segregation still dog us in 2009 -- the forty-fifth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act -- and what, if anything, can be done?

The president followed the classic, three-part standard of crisis management: acknowledge your mistake, do it as quickly as possible and, ideally, do it yourself and not through a surrogate.

Senate Majority Leaders Harry Reid says no vote on Obama health care plan until after recess. If ever.

The arrest of Professor Gates outside his house in Cambridge, Massachusetts is hotly disputed--in part because it brought about a murky interaction of three competing legal principles.

Given the opportunity for improved police-community relations, it's actually a good thing that Sgt. Crowley didn't know who he was "messing" with.

One thing is clear: Gates did not violate any law. Under Massachusetts law, which the police officer was supposedly enforcing, yelling at a police officer is not illegal.