http://www.techpresident.com/blog/entry/33764/why_the_white_house_s_embrace_of_drupal_matters
Drupal developers are abuzz with the realization that the White House’s new Recovery.gov site was built using the free and open-source content management platform Drupal. Pre-Recovery.gov, the perhaps highest-profile use of Drupal had been the Onion website. But that’s not the only reason that Drupal fans are excited. I asked two CMS expert friends to help me understand the situation, and here are a few of the reasons they gave for why the White House’s embrace of Drupal is momentous:
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“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
The whole speach can be read here.
This is interesting. A large group of people in India are protesting to lower the status of their caste. Why? Because the government gives preferential treatment in hiring to people who are on the lowest rung of the caste ladder.
I see it in the U.S. all the time, and here it can be seen at work in India. Past discrimination is hard to fix. The solution that seems to be used in many places is to try and give some preference to those penalized in the past – to try and even things up. In America we call it affirmative action. The problem is that discrimination hasn’t stopped, it has just been enforced in a new direction. Would it be better to just say sorry, but do nothing? Or is there something that could be done that would fix things without hurting someone else? I don’t think doing nothing would be better. I personally have been unable to come up with a solution that doesn’t have draw backs. The bottom line is that sin has a lasting impact that extends beyond the people who were originally involved. This looks to be as dependable as gravity.
