Free Republic

Gregory Washington, George Mason’s first Black president, runs a university that prizes diversity. That has made him a target of the Trump administration.Gregory N. Washington, the first Black president of George Mason University, remembers the tumult on campus as he began his new job in 2020.It was the era of Black Lives Matter, and students were protesting over the man the school is named after, a complicated Virginia historical figure and slaveholder. Demonstrators were demanding that a statue of Mason on campus be torn down, Dr. Washington said.Five years later, George Mason’s statue remains intact, and politics are once again...

**SNIP** 1. City officials have long claimed that Portland’s form of government makes it impossible for them to do their jobs well. 2. When the Portland Charter Commission was formed, members settled on their own set of goals. 3. The commission emerged with three proposed reforms. No city in America has tried to achieve all three at the same time. 4. Perhaps the most popular aspect of the proposed reforms is that Portland would be run by a city administrator. 5. The reform measure calls for ranked-choice voting, an unfamiliar and controversial method, to elect city commissioners. 7. Portland voters...