the market participant exception. my dad.

I only have fifteen minutes to write because all the teenagers took the unlimited time computers here at the library. So --

The most frustrating feeling coming out of an exam is realizing that you know way more than you were tested on. This is inevitable since a 3-hour essay exam can't possibly trigger every single concept of constitutional law, which has percolated for over 200 years. Nevertheless, I now feel that I have much too much useless information in my head. Did you know that a state cannot regulate interstate commerce, but if the state participates directly in the market -- say, by selling cement or buying services -- it may exert full leverage on the market? Did you know this is true even when the state is the only market participant and is, for all intents and purposes, "regulating" the market it inhabits? See, what the heck am I supposed to do with this now?!?

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Saturday was the thirtieth anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. My dad was a doctor for the South Vietnamese Army and was captured several days before the Fall. The North Vietnamese placed him in a re-education camp for two years, and during the first month or so, he didn't know where my mom was. He sent a letter to her home in Saigon, which eventually got to her, and he basically told her how he loved her and missed her; that he didn't know where she was; that even though it broke his heart, she should leave the country because it was too dangerous and because he didn't know when he would be let out. My mom always complains about my dad to me, but this was one of the first times that I saw her speak so tenderly about something he did. My father probably could have avoided this fate several times: (1) by taking the scholarship to go to the US years before to study medicine [he was scared], or (2) by running away before they captured the city he was assigned. His medical doctor friends escaped, but he stayed -- he believed that leaving at that moment wasn't the right thing to do. When he eventually tried to escape, he got in a boat off the coast but was almost immediately captured.

I had friends whose grandfathers were in WWII and had these amazing war stories to share. For a long time, I wished that I had someone like that in my family, not realizing that the man in my house that likes to watch Survivor re-runs and to talk about Amber and Rob was a hero in his own right. I can only hope that the same passion and commitment to something good stays with me for the rest of my life. My dad's not perfect: he's anti-social, temperamental, and stubborn. But I'm happy to have him as my father and to have his story to guide me.