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My major problem with many of the people who oppose affirmative action programs is that they were often silent BEFORE affirmative action programs were in place, when the inequitable conditions were the result of a silent oppression that passed for the natural order. In other words, affirmative action is usually designed to counter discriminatory practices that go unchallenged because they are advantageous to the more powerful. We get affirmative action because women, visible minorities, and others are discriminated against, and merit is not the deciding factor in job selection. Affirmative action attempts to counter the inertia (not disinterested) of usual practice. It challenges our silence. Suddenly, those usually held powerless are given a level playing field, and the male, or white, or North American or whatever who doesn't get the job is cast as the victim of "political correctness," an insidious term that suggests that conditions that prevailed before affirmative action weren't politically correct for those in power. The status quo is never a neutral condition, it always favors someone, and affirmative actions of various sorts attempt to disrupt that imbalance. I think any effort to dismantle them must be closely observed. Anthony.