Michael M. Thomas Checks In; Readers with Herpes; MUGGER and Gail Collins; Lori Berenson in Jail
To be once mentioned in New York Press is heart-warming, but twice is bliss! For yes, 'twas I who riposted so smartly to my old friend Claus von Bulow on the platform at Paddington Station ("Taki's Top Drawer," 9/6). And actually, if there's any Thatcher I resemble ("The Mail," 9/6), it's more likely Denis.
Michael M. Thomas, Brooklyn
Salt to Taste
Not only does George Tabb have a sore dick, he's got big balls as well! Bravo, George! In the future try using Wesson, Crisco or any vegetable-based oil. It works wonders. With much love,
Joe Lerner and Bill Jackson, Manhattan
Ed, Lover
Re: Last week's cover story: George Tabb is not half as funny as I think he is.
Ed Pratt, Brooklyn
Queen Itchie
I read last week's cover article by George Tabb about herpes ("Jimmy Lube: How I Learned I Had Herpes," 9/6), and, I must say, at the very least, I was strongly offended. How do you think it feels to have some little smug white dope write about a disease I have had to live with for a number of years now, and make light of it? Herpes is a very serious condition, and for your newspaper to make crude jokes shows your lack of journalistic integrity. I hope George Tabb, as well as the rest of you rich white fratboys at your fascist newspaper, doesn't have to live with a disease as debilitating as herpes. What I do hope is for your dicks to fall off from all your editorial masturbation.
Linda Simon, Stamford, CT
The editors reply: No member of the New York Press editorial staff has ever been a member of a fraternity, but if we ever go trolling through bars in Stamford, we'll be grateful to have received Simon's letter.
Gail Storm
MUGGER: God, you fucking idiot, how could you not get that Gail Collins was being ironic in that column (9/6)? Granted, it was heavyhanded and clumsy and not at all witty, but Jesus, how could any remotely literate person fail to notice that the line about buying a steelworker a drink was meant to make fun of Bush's and Gore's outreach to working people? Really, try to tune in a bit, because when you fail to pick up devices as obvious as that it really makes you sound stupid, even if your editor doesn't have the taste or balls to tell you so.
Your column is sometimes a good read, but it would be a heck of a lot better if you did two things. First, can all the ideology immediately. Tedious and very, very predictable. I mean, we already know what you think of Joe Conason and Frank Rich. We've been reading the same opinions for what, five years now? Can't we move on, already?
Second, bag the constant use of lines like "It makes me cringe" or "I almost wretched," as in, "I almost wretched when I read..." Who gives a shit if you cringe or wretch or scratch your ear or pick your nose or whatever at this or that line, you fucking egomaniac?
Here's an idea: Get a red pen, and anytime you read a line you don't like, scribble something in the margins. Then, after you've calmed down a bit, write your column. And each time you make a point, ask yourself a simple question: Have I ever said this before? If your answer is "yes," then delete said point, and replace it with a new one. A surprising and unpredictable column in two easy steps!
Name Withheld, Via Internet
Revolutionary Strumpet
Taki: Excellent article about Lori Berenson ("Top Drawer," 9/6). It is the first I have seen that even addresses the possibility that she may have been the cause of her imprisonment. I found a recent New York Times article about her particularly galling, as the lengths the writer went to cover up the revolutionary "holes" in her resume was disgraceful.
I have read in more than one place that prior to being romantically involved with a leader of the Tupac Amaru, she was involved with a leader of the FMLN in El Salvador.
By the way, I would also like to thank you for your wonderful article ("Top Drawer," 6/7) regarding your speech at the City Tavern Club in Washington, DC. I am a nonresident member (since I moved to Ohio), and it gave me great pride to know we are appreciated.
Jamie Hailer, Piqua, OH
What They Don't Mention in the Campus ISO
A special thanks to Taki for pointing out that Lori Berenson is a three-star terrorist. I'm sick to death of her parents whining about how tragic it all is that their brat got caught.
Judith Willms, Omaha
Dusted
I just finished George Szamuely's 9/6 "Top Drawer" column about Richard Nixon. I agree generally, but I'm pretty sure Nixon's war on drugs did, in fact, involve spraying herbicides. I specifically recall that as the first time I'd ever heard of paraquat. I seem to remember Mitchell, upon being told that it might wind up poisoning marijuana smokers in the U.S., responding that that was an unexpected bonus.
Also, in fairness to "the purveyors of official history," the American people themselves, especially those who would be called upon to do the fighting, are much more troubled by tough fights.
R. Skeean, Ann Arbor, MI
George Szamuely replies: The use of paraquat to spray marijuana fields in Mexico started in the fall of 1975, more than a year after Nixon left office.
Unless You Caught A Worm
Tanya Richardson: I just finished reading your hysterical review of MaddyFest 2000 ("Music," 8/30). I appeared at last year's fest as a performer and almost made it to this year's fest, but a spontaneous nine-day trip to the Dominican Republic saved my ass. I guess I really dodged a bullet here, didn't I?
Chris Markopoulos, Queens
Packed with Pleasure
Thank you for the 8/30 edition of New York Press. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed, laughed with and thought about so many columns, particularly those of Russ Smith, C.J. Sullivan, Eva Neuberg, the various writers in "Taki's Top Drawer," Christopher Caldwell and Alexander Cockburn.
Dionne Kendrick, Manhattan
New in Town, Matt?
Russ Smith: I recently read an editorial of yours (8/30) in New York Press while sipping a beer at a downtown drinkery. Based on the appearance of the newspaper, not to mention the colorful ads at the end, I had fully expected another leftist rant. Your article regarding the need for George W. Bush to get tough and stop pandering to the middle was right on the mark. I had recently been arguing via elongated e-mail with my brother, who is far to the right of right about this very issue. His point was that Bush has to play the politician's game to have a realistic chance.
Your point of view is much appreciated. The country needs more "tell it like it is" journalists to objectify the media bias of the country. I realize now that it takes a periodical that has no concern for heart-tugging/fever-inducing liberal-slanted drivel to sell its papers to make an objective point.
Keep up the good work.
You've just gotta love that ever-so-clever and ever-so-snide way in which Charles Glass (and all of his fellow Brits who seem never to have gotten over what Israel did to them in the 1940s, and their fellow travelers) allows his true colors to be displayed.
In his 9/6 "Taki's Top Drawer" column, he refers to "courageous Israeli defense lawyers" (apparently not all Jews have horns) who protested Israel's interrogation/torture policies. Pardon me, Mr. Glass, but what did they have the courage to do? Courage involves standing up to some danger. Perhaps Mr. Glass has been asleep for the last few decades (or at least since Sept. 13, 1993), but it doesn't take much courage to argue for Palestinian rights in Israel today. After all, it only places the "courageous" advocate in the same camp as the Israeli judicial, legal, academic, cultural and, yes, even governmental establishments. Some courage. And some evil Israel.
One wonders if the sanctimonious Mr. Glass would feel the same way about the "ticking bomb" defense if it were one of his kidnappers being interrogated, and the information the prisoner could reveal was the whereabouts of one Charles Glass. However, a perusal of Mr. Glass' columns (on the Middle East in general and Lebanon in particular) indicates a severe case of either uncured Arabism, Stockholm Syndrome or both. I imagine the same question could be asked where the prisoner was an anti-British Jewish terrorist, or if the interrogators were from the Palestinian Authority (no, Arabs don't have it too good under Arafat, as Amnesty International recently reported?and crimes there are a lot less than planting bombs).
Note to Jim Knipfel ("New York City," 9/6): NATO has 19 members. Get a new almanac.
Nathan Lamm, Queens
Stockholm Syndrome
A few mistakes in Joe S. Harrington's 8/30 "Music" article about John Coltrane: Om was released along with both versions of Ascension, Kulu Se Mama and Selflessness on the 1992 GRP/Impulse release, The Major Works of John Coltrane; Roy Haynes plays drums on the only version of "Dear Old Stockholm" that I know of, and your description of an "insane staccato delivery" leads me to believe that Roy is the drummer on the track you mentioned. In addition to Jimmy Garrison, Reggie Workman also played bass on "India."
Bill Nelson, Manhattan
Joe S. Harrington replies: I stand corrected on Haynes. As for Reggie Workman also being present on "India," yes, but the fact I failed to mention this wasn't necessarily a slight, or a misrepresentation. As for Om having been reissued, in my original review I actually mentioned the collection you cited, but it got edited, either by me for space reasons, or by the editors as it was going to print. Since I believe that collection has since gone out of print, my statement stands.
Soup Bones
Reading Lionel Tiger I always have the impression of traveling down a groove or a tube, never touching the wall ("Human Follies", 9/6). He skates from one topic to another, carefully avoiding giving any opinion, and I always think to myself, "And your point is?" Why does he do this? Is it some bizarre self-preservation instinct inculcated through years of trying to keep afloat in academia? Is he afraid of possibly offending a colleague by coming down on one side or the other of any question at all?
I thought it was the academic's job to sort the wheat from the chaff, but I don't think Tiger would agree with that?if he has an opinion on the subject, that is. What do those guys produce then, if not opinions?
This week readers came away with this: L.T. doesn't like tattoos. That was it, though. I liked the anecdote at the end: so-and-so asked my opinion "and I told him what I thought"?which was?? Silence, I guess.
Talking to people from the PRC 15 years ago was a bit like this; it is a bit less pronounced now. They were always a bit self-effacing but never so much as when the subject turned to Chinese politics or recent history. Then you couldn't pin them down on anything. Absolutely no opinions. Perfectly understandable; in those days no one who didn't know how to keep his mouth shut had any chance of getting out of China. But still, weird behavior by American standards and more than a little irritating when you first encountered it.
Joe Rodrigue, New Haven
Barrel of, Etc.
MUGGER: Dude! Don't be too quick to turn your back on Peter Noone and th' lads! "I'm Into Something Good" is one of the grooviest of British Invasion songs (8/30)!
Not only that, but they had a string of other great hits: "No Milk Today," "This Door Swings Both Ways," "Hold On," "Listen People," "There's a Kind of Hush," "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" and "Must to Avoid."
Granted, they didn't write a lot of their material and there were probably a fair number of studio cats subbing for various 'Mits on the recordings, but the Rolling Stones of the same era did numerous covers, and now it seems as if they didn't actually play much of anything on those "classic" 1964-'66 records.
Maybe it's because I'm just a little older than you, but I recall allegedly lightweight British Invasion bands like Herman's Hermits?and the Dave Clark Five, the Searchers, the Zombies, the Honeycombs, Peter & Gordon and Chad & Jeremy?with much affection and wonder. They're still fave-raves in my book! Grrrr-ruff! Woof!
J.D. King, Stockport, NY
Smoke? Smoke?
William Bryk: I was delighted to read your 8/30 article ("Old Smoke") about Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy, a naval officer who seems to have lapsed into obscurity today. This was the best biography of him that I've read.
There's only one quibble that I have. Commodore Levy is buried in Cypress Hills, but not in Cypress Hills Cemetery. Cypress Hills Cemetery is but one of many cemeteries in Cypress Hills. Commodore Levy is buried in the Shearith Israel section of Beth Olom Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery that is in Cypress Hills but that has no connection with Cypress Hills Cemetery.
Visitors to Shearith Israel Cemetery will find the monument to Commodore Levy; the grave of Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo; the grave of Emma Lazarus, author of the sonnet the last lines of which are quoted on Liberty Island; and the grave of former world chess champion Emmanuel Lasker.
No one should visit a Jewish cemetery without calling first to be sure that the grounds of the cemetery are open to the public. Beth Olom is accessible by public transportation, but only with great difficulty. If at all possible, visitors should come by car.
Alfred Kohler, Brooklyn
Chris on the Cross
In a presidential election year, I think we all can admit we expect the most guileless and stupid slanders available to be thrown around in the media by all sides. One expects Bush to call Gore a slumlord and plantation owner; one expects Gore to return that Bush is going to sell sick babies, poor people and homosexuals to Exxon and Merck for lab experiments.
What was completely unexpected last week, however, was this from Christopher Caldwell ("Hill of Beans," 9/6):
"Republicans' voucher rhetoric (back when they were a long way from power) was always demagogic rather than programmatic: 'If Bill Clinton can send Chelsea to Sidwell Friends,' they used to say, 'why shouldn't a crack dealer from Southeast Washington be able to send his daughter to Sidwell Friends, too?' This puts one on the expressway to Hoisted-By-One's-Own-Petard City: 'Well, okay, if George W. Bush owns the Texas Rangers, why shouldn't Jose Garage-Mechanic from the south side of Dallas be able to own the Texas Rangers, too?'... 'If Charlton Heston has a house in Beverly Hills, why shouldn't Mary-Lou Performance-Artist have a house in Beverly Hills, too?'"
One could make the case that Caldwell is an ass for throwing stones at those who he admits have a solution for failing schools that will not cost more tax dollars; one could make the case that the Republicans don't put crack dealers up as case studies?even to humiliate Clinton and Company.
But what really brings Caldwell to the front of the "stupidest comments" class of 2000 is his complete misrepresentation of the argument for vouchers.
The Republican argument regarding (as the example at hand) Chelsea's attendance at Sidwell Friends is that the Clintons are advocates of the idea that there is nothing wrong with public schools (that a few more dollars wouldn't fix). Families in the DC school district should have no reason to want to opt out of the local public school their child is slated to attend. Yet, the Clintons send their daughter to a private school rather than to the perfectly good public school a few blocks away. Reality check: the Clintons obviously mean that public schools are good enough for everybody else but them.
To go on to say that Republicans are the hypocrites is complete folly. They are the ones who are complaining that the public schools suck! If one believes a product is worthless, and demonstrates that belief by buying a different product?especially for the benefit of one's children?they are proving they mean what they say.
No Republican has been disingenuous enough to say that vouchers would guarantee that the children of yesterday's guest on Jerry Springer could attend Xavier, York or Marymount. The goal of vouchers is to get public schools to compete for students, and therefore drive toward concrete academic results rather than continue to be laboratories for known-to-fail sociological and psychological experimentation. Principal Ned is a lot more likely to fire Teacher Moe for incompetence and a lot less likely to encourage classes on global ecumenical transgender sexual tolerance if the school has to pay the bills by attracting students?even if it's from the existing pool of public school students.
For Caldwell to call voucher proposals, as he does above, a sort of veiled Republican attempt at co-opting socialist redistribution philosophies is like calling Ralph Nader a corporate flunky. Caldwell's a better writer than this, and New York Press is a better paper than to let him get away with being this stupid.
Frank Turk, Pittsburgh
Did You Heave?
MUGGER: The first time I rode the Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island it was sprinkling rain, the tracks were wet and we rode in the last seat. Wheeeee?what a ride. That was in the 1960s. The best coaster I can recall?better than those metal smoothies that turn upside down. The Cyclone gave us a workover.
Nathan's hotdogs were the best. Guess they still are, but haven't had one in a while.
Anna Rolen, Alexandria, VA
No
MUGGER: Did you notice that Bush with the American Legion hat looks as bad as Michael Dukakis in the silly tank-helmet pix?
Les Bridges, Manhattan
Victim of the Press
Taki's right ("Top Drawer," 8/30), MUGGER's wrong. Bush will lose badly on Nov. 7. It's the liberal media, stupid.
Naively, MUGGER writes, "It is imperative that Bush seize the offensive and not let up until Nov. 7." The minute W.'s top advisers in Austin saw that editorial, they slapped themselves on the forehead and said, "Wow! That's it! Why didn't we think of that? Seize the offensive, what a great idea!"
Okay, and if Bush seizes the offensive, how would 273 million Americans find out about it? On tv? Calculate the combined audience for the liberal media, CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC, and compare it to the combined audience of the lone vaguely conservative news outlet, Fox News.
Sometime between July 25 (the day Bush announced Dick Cheney as his runningmate) and Aug. 14 (opening day of the Democratic convention), the television news operations went completely gaga for Gore. One can argue the media was tilted toward Gore to begin with, but during that three-week period the quantity and quality of coverage shifted decisively in Gore's favor.
Some conservatives would say, "So what? The liberal media was against Reagan, too." Yes, but that was then, this is now. In 1980, most Americans got their news from their local newspapers. Now, most Americans get their national news from tv. Responding to the dominance of the tv networks, newspapers in the legendary "heartland" have shifted toward an emphasis on state and local news.
This means that 60 or 70 percent of the electorate now knows little more about the presidential race than newspaper readers. The opportunities for media manipulation are greater than they were 20 years ago.
So if Bush were to "take the offensive," as MUGGER counsels, the question is whether the networks would bother to notice. Even if they did notice, the spin would be, "Bush today unleashed a negative attack," or "Trailing in the polls, Bush today desperately tried..." You get the picture.
Despite talk of the importance of "alternative media" (talk radio, the Internet, etc.), the major tv news operations still have plenty of clout when the big show begins. The networks have even begun using their entertainment divisions to broadcast pro-Democrat propaganda. What else to call The West Wing?
You can log onto the Media Research Center site if you want to get some idea of just how blatant the pro-Gore bias has become. But it's bad, and it's likely to get much worse as November approaches. If the major media have decided to elect Al Gore, nothing short of divine intervention can stop them. I don't know that the Almighty owes George W. Bush (or the American people) any favors.
Robert Stacey McCain, Gaithersburg, MD
Probably
MUGGER: I don't remember Adam Clymer being discussed in any of your columns. Is he as G.W. described him? I know that Eric Alterman and Richard Berke certainly are. How refreshing that a politician of this caliber did not completely recant. He only regrets that the people there heard him say it. I hope he doesn't apologize. And Al Gore's group saying they respect all journalists? Puh-leeze!
Gordon Smith, Pleasanton, CA
Adam, Ribbed
MUGGER: It's hard to believe that Maureen Dowd devotes her complete Sept. 6 New York Times column to G.W. Bush's calling Adam Clymer "a major league asshole."
This might come as a shock to Maureen, but guess what? There are whole lot of folks who agree with Bush's opinion of Clymer. I personally stopped reading Clymer when I read this quote online from Clymer's biography of Ted Kennedy: "His achievements as a Senator have towered over his time, changing the lives of far more Americans than remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne." It's hard to imagine anyone but a "major league asshole" writing something like that.
With insufferable arrogance Dowd says about the Bushes: "?they get deeply offended when reporters challenge their deeds, rather than simply accepting them as nice, decent people bred to rule." Couldn't the same idiotic statement be made about Al Gore?
MUGGER, I may have to stop reading and listening to the news for the next 60 days or so. I don't think I can take it.
Steve Hume, Canton, MI
Vicious Little Clymer
MUGGER: I am so sick of these self-appointed mainstream press warriors for the socialist cause who will lie, deceive and spin to achieve the great Utopia.
Here in Farmington Hills, MI, one of the two local "papers" is pro-liberal regarding local Democrat political candidates to the point of gushing about them, and at times has totally left out the credentials of a conservative candidate?I mean none vis-a-vis education, career success, military record etc. The other publication is utterly beneath contempt.
Mr. Bush is correct in his view that Mr. Clymer and others of his ilk are assholes. The arrogance and lack of objectivity of a reporter who works for a third-rate newspaper and advises far more intelligent people on who's the best candidate is galling. I believe the public realizes that the mainstream press distorts and slants and omits "news" to the point that the mainstream press is just the propaganda wing of the far-left Democratic Party, including the baby-butchering abortion advocates, socialist family destroyers, communist panderers and other useful idiots to the cause of socialism, communism and the other -isms. I wish these assholes would emigrate to a worker's paradise like China or Russia instead of befouling our nation with their opinions on subjects they are either hopelessly misinformed about or incapable of fully comprehending, such as the vast human suffering brought on by advocates of socialism and communism.
Shilling for Democrats is an egregious abuse of the First Amendment, in my not so subtle opinion.
Ronald Oliverio, Farmington Hills, MI
Pole Lack
MUGGER: First, Dubya ought to use that "major league" line the rest of the campaign. Call people "major league friends" and thank them for their "major league" introductions. At the debate, he should say, "Al, you're a major league vice president, but you will never be a major league president."
Second, be kind. Gail Collins obviously is blind. The steelworkers feel this administration dumped on them by allowing other nations to dump steel here. Sure, Gail and Al can take their steelworker buddies for latte.
Third, The New York Times' Chicken Little routine on global warming (Guppy Little?the North Pole is melting) was hilarious. So many gullible people followed suit. Editorial cartoonists hopped on the bandwagon, with Santa holding onto a barber pole marked "North Pole" bobbing in the sea. Why, if it's in The New York Times it must be true?to paraphrase Dudley Do-Right. Alas, the North Pole isn't melting.
Scientists have a technical term for the annual phenomenon. It is called "summer."
Don Surber, Poca, WV
Dick Hurts
MUGGER: When Lee Atwater ascended unto heaven, it's just possible the Republicans' last hope of ever doing much right in another national election may have gone with him.
He understood the captive-media mechanisms Democrats use to mobilize their base and keep the Republicans at home, and he knew how to counterpunch. More important, he had the backing of a media-and-marketing savvy Ronald Reagan, a guy who could put human interest into borax. This means Lee had the juice to do what had to be done!
Lee Atwater also knew how to sell the idea of a disciplined, coherent attack strategy to the Republican bigs; make them do it; make them change direction fast when necessary. With Lee gone, the country club guys are back, running the campaign their way.
For example, MUGGER, to me Dick Cheney is the archetypal big Republican guy. He's very powerful and very smart. He handles money and big ideas. But he's more of a manager and an owner. He looks to me like he's not one of those who can take direction from those whom he pays.
There's not a marketing bone in his body, either. He has the potential to become the greatest vice president in history. But he couldn't sell dry heat to a wet Eskimo, much less himself to a swing voter. (He is more than capable of doing the deal to buy up the heater factory and move it to Chihuahua, which is a talent, too!)
The big-business guys have turned the fiery party of abolition into a bunch of namby-pamby wimps at election time. They trade away the demands of their base voters and go quietly, in exchange for corporate favors dispensed by the winners.
For example, no one on the Republican team has the balls to mention that Clinton/Gore gave the Chinese military access to top-secret information and equipment. For chrissakes, MUGGER, there was a PLA spy in the White House. The Chicoms threaten to nuke L.A. and Gore takes their money?! And Bush/Cheney wants to talk prescriptions and minimum wage?
This defense issue ought to be a winner for someone like Cheney. Instead, he has looked like an unprepared, fatcat loser in every appearance and utterance he has made. Somebody has got to tell Boardroom Richard that voters don't take orders in an election. They Give 'em!
The Bush-Cheney team has three sure-fire winner issues: education, defense and taxes. What the hell are they doing to bring out the message? What are the Republicans doing with all that money to get out their vote? The only way we Republicans can possibly influence the media is through buying ads. Start buying, already!
J.P. Francomano, Marysville, OH
Coming Up Peaches
MUGGER: Just a note from a behind-the-scenes guy in a major media operator down here in lovely Atlanta to let you know that I enjoy your column every time out. We wouldn't agree politically and we don't come from anywhere near the same backgrounds, but I enjoy your melange of family tales, New York City food reviews and political analysis/analyses.
Can't we establish term limits for Washington pundits? Why not force Eleanor Clift or George Will to cover agriculture issues for a few years? Charles Krauthammer and Jack Germond have to get off of their beats and go write about healthcare or sprawl or whatever. Turn these guys out with the incumbent politicians, I say, and then we'll get a few more viewpoints heard.
Rob Maynard, Atlanta
Look Up "Margin of Error," Dude
MUGGER: Bush should reposition himself as the outsider. All he has to do is talk normal instead of read. The last 10 percent care about three items: term limits, a balanced budget and reform of any kind. The first candidate to speak like a regular guy wins.
By the way, I still think Bush is up by 2 nationally.
Will Richter, West Palm Beach, FL
Circus of Power
Russ Smith's 8/30 editorial reads like something from the mainstream media. He actually wants us to think there's a critical difference between Gov. Death and Persona-of-the-Week Gore.
Either one will answer to George Bush "Sr." and push the NWO agenda. The "issues" are bullshit. The election's a sideshow for people who don't want to peek inside the big top and discover what grim plans are in store for us.
R.A. Davis, Willow Street, PA
Courage, Belinda, Courage
MUGGER: Thanks for pointing out that George W. Bush must continue to push hard in his fight against Al Gore. My children's future for the next 10 years rests on the outcome of this election. They would like to join the military after high school, but if the Democrats are in charge, then I will try to talk them out of it.
You keep up the good work. You words always move me, and I thank you for that.
Belinda Henry, Harrisburg, PA
The Paris of Central CT
"'If Bill Clinton can send Chelsea to Sidwell Friends,' they used to say, 'Why shouldn't a crack dealer from Southeast Washington be able to send his daughter to Sidwell Friends, too?'" (Christopher Caldwell, "Hill Of Beans," 9/6).
Wow! I'd love for you to dig up who said that one. I've heard the Sidwell Friends part, but I've never heard the second part or anything even remotely like it. The discussion over vouchers centers around empowering parents. If the schools are dysfunctional, what is so moral about not allowing the parents of the children who are most at risk a way out? One can go a long way short of guaranteeing every kid an education at Sidwell Friends. The alternatives that Republicans most often mention are parochial schools. (That always gins up the usual hysteria over "the separation of church and state," but that's another stupid argument that irritates?is it really too much to ask people, judges too, to read the damn Constitution?)
I live in a city?Hartford. Most of my neighbors are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. They move into my neighborhood as families. Often, they'll have children who aren't yet school age. By the time those kids are five, those families are gone. They are a stabilizing influence on this community, but we can't hold onto them because those immigrants are not going to let Hartford's screwed-up schools hold their kids back. The same is true for any African-American family who is at all upwardly mobile. The moment they can afford to, they head for East Hartford or Bloomfield. I know people who would move into the city in a heartbeat if they knew they wouldn't be stuck with a public school system that just is not "cutting it."
You can call this letter demagoguery if you want, but I love this city and I hate the way our schools are holding us back. I'm a product of public schools. I don't have anything against public education where it works, but here it ain't working! The public schools are a state-engineered monopoly. I feel no sentimental or ideological attachment to a system that is so clearly indifferent to the stated wishes of those it is supposed to be serving. Poll after poll has shown that parents of children who live in districts like Hartford's are overwhelmingly in favor of vouchers. Where vouchers have been tried, they work.
Have Republicans made mistakes handling this issue? Yeah, sure. Sounds like the California effort isn't going very far. That doesn't change the fact that for places like my hometown, they are on the side of the angels.
G.W. Ruggles Jr., Hartford