Harvard, Meh . . .

Day after day “Harvard” graces the front pages of America’s newspapers. This week it is the Trump administration effort to bar international students. Last week it was termination of various federal grants. The week before it was threats to take away its tax exempt status.

In dramatic worst case scenario scenarios, apoplectic Harvard-related folks fret that the venerable and venerated institution will perish under the Trumpian barrage.

Color me meh.

I suppose a disclaimer is unnecessary, but I applaud not a note of Trump’s poorly orchestrated campaign. Barring students, withdrawing support, weaponizing the IRS and all else is mean-spirited administrative terrorism. And a dollop of appreciation is due Harvard for not immediately surrendering dignity, as so many others have done.

But among the vile acts committed by these vile people, ruffling Harvard’s golden feathers is petty stuff.

To grind an old axe, the Harvard mystique is perpetuated by the same misconception that pervades education. Simply put, colleges and schools are generally celebrated as superb based on their selectivity. They take a thin slice of the already glittering applicant pool and then boast that they are a great school because their students have shiny credentials.

It is like a school auditioning athletes through a series of regional races and then claiming superiority because their students run fast. These analyses have nothing to do with the quality of the school. It is a self-perpetuating cycle of cutthroat striving that does more harm than good.

This, of course, does not diminish the achievements of some students and faculty members. But their capacities and contributions would be no less at other institutions. I have argued, with evidence, that the grinding process leading to “elite” college acceptance often extinguishes the qualities that matter most and erodes mental health in unimaginable numbers of young adults.

My “meh” is not that I wish Harvard dead. Unlike Trump and his second-rate band of resentful psychopaths, I hold no grudges against so-called “elite” colleges, law firms or inadequately subservient entertainers. I didn’t work hard enough in my carefree youth to even get in Harvard’s  rejection pile.

My “meh” is twofold.

First, if Harvard suffers or ceases to exist, there is little to grieve in that there are several hundred other places than can do everything that Harvard can do. Its death would just cause a quick redistribution of applicants, students, scholars, grants and U.S. News rankings.

The second concern is of much more gravity.

New York Times headlines about these pesky attacks on Harvard are a reflection of misplaced journalistic and social priorities.

They are normalizing genocide by relegating Israel’s atrocities to a small mention below the fold. The dismembering of small bodies by American-made munitions is not less horrifying because it happens every day. It is compounding and more horrifying and we are growing numb. Murder of innocent children, women and men cannot be normalized.

Ask the people of Ukraine how much they care about Harvard’s tax exempt status. Every day Russian attacks kill hundreds of innocent civilians. We never know their names or see their faces.

Scores of organizations serving critical human needs are shuttering their doors every week because of what Trump goons are doing. Trans folks are fearing for there lives. Immigrants, undocumented and fully documented, are being terrorized by Homeland Security thugs who operate with impunity. Civil rights are violated without consequence.

It isn’t really about Harvard. My anger is at the hierarchy of concern that elicits public and media attention. Somehow we stipulate to the idea that attacks on Harvard are so much more important than attacks on lesser known places. It is the celebrity death that we collectively mourn.

The attacks on Harvard are displacing no one. Its international pool is comprised of the privileged. They and all other students can go virtually anywhere they choose. Their preeminent faculty members would be welcomed at any of our community colleges. (Just thought I’d throw that in as a suggestion that would actually be helpful.)

But all over the country, homeless youth are finding hostility and shrinking resources. Public health facilities are closing and leaving millions without care. Reproductive health care is vanishing, leaving thousands with unwanted pregnancies and no resources to care for the children they will bear. Millions of children suffer from daily hunger in miserable living conditions.

The magnitude of this diffuse human suffering is incalculable. Most of American misery is invisible, except to the selfless folks who are trying to hold the shredded pieces of our national compassion together.

These violations of humanity should be screaming headlines every day until the complacent majority starts paying attention.

Harvard can take care of itself.