Americans in Motion

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 24, 2003 | by Jennifer G. Hickey

Byline: Jennifer G. Hickey, INSIGHT

Americans in Motion

Several new reports and briefs released by the U.S. Census Bureau provide a glimpse of where Americans are and where they are going. A report issued Oct. 30 says that more non-Hispanic whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics moved to the South between 1995 and 2000, resulting in a net population gain in that region, while the Northeast experienced a net loss. But the report, Migration by Race and Hispanic Origin: 1995 to 2000, says the loss was not uniform within New England.

For instance, New England witnessed a net gain of individuals identifying themselves as Asian or Hispanic, but saw a net loss of non-Hispanic whites and blacks. Nonetheless the population loss in the Northeast was more than made up for by new immigrants.

Similarly, a population gain in the Midwest largely was attributable to Hispanic migration, which countered a net loss among non-Hispanic whites, blacks and Asians.

According to the report, non-Hispanic whites were the least-mobile group with only 43 percent having changed residences, while Hispanics were the most mobile with 56 percent reporting a change. About 120 million (46 percent) of the nation's population 5 years of age and older resided in a locale other than the one in which they lived in 1995. Nearly 35 percent moved to another residence in the same county or to another county within the same state.

The most transient state was Nevada, with 63 percent of its population having moved. Nevada joined Arizona and California as states with the highest proportion of its population (31 percent) that had moved but remained in the same county. In 2000, about 60 percent of the U.S. population lived in the state where they were born, with Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Michigan leading the way (79 percent, 78 percent and 75 percent, respectively). Not surprisingly, municipalities that host colleges, universities or military bases reported higher incidences of migration.

The report examines the moving patterns of the population 5 years old and older for the nation, regions, states (including Puerto Rico), counties and selected metropolitan areas. The data are based on responses from the sample of households that received the census long form, about one in six nationally.

Political Diversity MIA Among Faculty

A broad range of authors and viewpoints spans the list of nonfiction best sellers, but such diversity seldom is present on college campuses, according to panelists who testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Even as schoolboy critics of the "establishment" invoke their First Amendment rights of free speech under the guise of political correctness, fewer students are being exposed to the history and meaning of those constitutional rights.

Robert David Johnson, a professor of history at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, testified that even though he is a Democrat and was a backer of Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2000 U.S. Senate campaign in New York state, he was deemed "too conservative" and "uncollegial" for complaining that a post-Sept. 11 forum was unbalanced because no speakers were invited to support either U.S. or Israeli foreign policy. On a broader scale,

Johnson argued basic history increasingly is being wiped out of college curricula.

For instance, at the University of Michigan only one of 25 full-time U.S. history professors publishes on political history, while 11 publish on race in America and seven specialize in women's history. And Evergreen College in Washington state features just two courses on 20th-century U.S. political history "Dissent, Injustice and the Making of America" and another course titled "Inherently Unequal."

The imbalance should come as no surprise. According to Anne Neal of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a recent Academic Study Survey conducted by Smith College's Stanley Rothman found 72 percent of faculty members identify themselves as "left," while 81 percent of professors in the humanities describe themselves as such. Furthermore, one-half of American professors identify with the Democratic Party, one-third see themselves as independents and only one-tenth consider themselves Republicans.

Bigger Government Gains More Ground

Republicans and Democrats may hold different views about whether newly released economic data show the cup to be half full or half empty, but the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) is of one view concerning the spending habits of both. And it is a very dim view indeed.

The NTU examined legislation both sponsored and cosponsored by members to determine their overall ratings and used third-party or independent sources to estimate costs of particular bills.

The study also found that in the 107th Congress a mere 26 congressmen sponsored bills that, if enacted all at once, would reduce federal spending. No senators had an agenda that would have resulted in a net cut. In fact the legislative agenda of the average senator would increase the budget by $92.9 billion per year.