STANFORD – When the Berlin Wall fell a quarter-century ago this November, pundits led by Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the end of history – the triumph of democratic capitalism over all rival systems. America’s economic success and the collapse of communism fed the narrative. The long political, intellectual, and, at times, military confrontation that we knew as the Cold War was over.
Normally, no one would care that in a recent Atlantic essay -- "Why I hope to die at 75"-- 57-year-old Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel argued that living to be 75 years old was long enough for anyone. After 75, Emanuel suggests, "We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic."
Last week, California's Employment Development Department announced that the state added 44,200 jobs in August. This news was trumpeted by Sacramento as further evidence of California's comeback.
Amanda Hinchman-Dominguez isn't the typical American college student. She's enrolled in an institution that's more than 1,300 miles away from where her family lives. She's living on campus, in a dorm. And she's attending a small, private liberal-arts college.
