Common Ground Book Review

I recently finished the book Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas, it is about the integration of schools in Boston through busing. Being a Bostonian for almost 9 years now I found this book a great incite in to my second home. Lukas tell the story through three family's, one poor and black, one white and educated, and the last Irish and working class. Through these three very different family's you get a very complex perspective on the Busing issue in Boston that raises many issues.

What struck me the most from this book was the lack of dialog on the issue of busing. For those who don't know it was a Judges ruling that forced Boston to introduce busing. (There was talk of "activist" judges at the time too) Because of this top down solution to the problem, people immediately staked a claim on one side of the issue or the other. There wasn't much middle ground available. Some of the most moving stories were about the people caught in the middle.

While reading the book it became clear that there were larger questions that needed to be discussed beyond whither to bus students of not.

• "White Flight"
  
• Unspoken or de facto racism vs. institutional racism.
• Equitable funding of public schools.
• What responsibility do wealthy suburbs have to the City?
• A parents right to choose where the child go's to school.
  

All these issues and more we're never talked about by the public at large. For better or worse a court decision was forced upon people that was intended to fix all there problems.

I know I am opening another can of worms here too. What about other decisions that were handed down by courts like Brown Vs. The Board of Education. Clearly this was a good and just decision. Although there was a period of turmoil, schools were integrated. It was clear to me that, for Boston, perhaps there could have been a better way to integrate schools.

However we address problems in the world, there needs to be space made for public discussion. It frustrated me when only one solution is discussed for an issue. It forces people to choose sides too quickly, creates division, and we usually never get to discuss the underlying issues that caused the problem.