Pierluigi Oliverio and Larry Sand continue Opp Now’s favorite political book series

In a day where bureaucratic and cultural “two plus two’s” are too-often warped to seemingly equal three or five, truth remains strong. Opportunity Now heard from changemakers SJ councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio and CA Teachers Empowerment Network president Larry Sand about political books that have impacted their tireless searches for veracity, for wisdom, for hope. To receive daily updates of new Opp Now stories, click here.

Pierluigi Oliverio, San Jose City Councilmember:

My favorite political book is Jonathan Kozol’s “Savage Inequalities.” Kozol goes into detail about inequities of public school funding in the USA and how adjacent school districts can be polar opposites on resources, as well as the lack of political will in providing the same funding per student regardless of zip code.

Larry Sand, California Teachers Empowerment Network President:

My favorite political book is just about anything by the great Thomas Sowell. But if forced to pick one, I would go with “Is Reality Optional?” This superb book is especially relevant today as so-called progressives are replacing traditional America with an unexamined, untried concoction of whacky and ultimately destructive ideas. Sowell writes, “Cultural wars are so desperate because they are not simply about the merits or demerits of particular policies. They are about the anointed’s whole conception of themselves—about whether they are in the heady role of a vanguard or in the pathetic role of pretentious and silly people, infatuated with themselves.”

Pretentious and silly, indeed. Sowell wrote those words in 1993, though they could have been written yesterday.

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