<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">The Today's Issues group is meeting at 9:30 on Sunday mornings in the parlor of the Religious Education Building next to the church following social distancing guidelines.  For this Sunday, we selected two essays from the January 14 issue of the New York Review of books:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br>Diane Ravitch, "<a href="https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/diane-ravitch/">The Dark History of School Choice</a>,<br>How an argument for segregated schools became a rallying cry for privatizing public education.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Ferdinand Mount, "<a href="https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/ferdinand-mount/">Democracy’s Demagogues</a>,"<br>A new history  of five heroes of the revolutionary period considers the power and instability of charismatic leadership.  The essay discusses five of the most memorable leaders from the revolutionary period: Pasquale Paoli of Corsica, George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, Toussaint Louverture—liberator of Haiti and leader of the greatest slave revolt in history after Spartacus—and Simón Bolívar, who led the northern half of South America to liberation from its Spanish masters.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">I"m sure we will also discuss this week's remarkable events involving our own demagogue.  Please do the reading and join our lively discussion.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Since the January 14 issue of NYR may not be readily accessible, I am attaching  printable copies of both essays.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Ravitch, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-2rB6JubMFTNzwtBR4RzTNqAEtG7GwLLEfa4bnhZ53U/edit?usp=sharing">The Dark History of School Choice</a></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Mount, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IIjSeYCFLsfrSx6r9zFHfQd3k8BcI81GSaIiMWr-H6w/edit?usp=sharing">Democracy's Demagogues</a></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div></div>