7/28/2006, 12:02 pm
An oldie but goldie - from The New York Times (of all places)
POLITICAL POINTS
Published: June 13, 2004
GNAT SOLZHENITSYN understands why so many people have warm thoughts of Ronald Reagan, but one of his earliest memories is on the frigid side.
In 1980, Ignat was an 8-year-old transplanted to Vermont by his father, the famous chronicler of Siberia's gulags. As Ignat tells the story, on the morning after the presidential election he got a taste of American political re-education at the progressive private school he and his brothers attended.
In response to the Reagan victory, the school's flag was lowered to half-staff, and the morning assembly was devoted to what today would be called grief counseling. The headmaster mourned "what America would become once the dark night of fascism descended under the B-movie actor," recalled Mr. Solzhenitsyn, who is now the music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. "At one point he interrupted himself to inquire if anyone present did not share his gloomy view of the Reagan victory."
The only students to raise their hands were Ignat and his two brothers, Yermolai and Stephan. After a stony silence, he recalled, they were sent outside, without their coats, to meditate on the error of their ways underneath the lowered flag. Vermont in November was hardly Siberia, but there was frost on the ground, and they spent an hour shivering and exercising to stay warm. Still, Ignat said, their political exile was a relief from sitting in the auditorium listening to the party line.
The mood in this story is unclear: is this a condemnation of misguided brats - or propaganda of best practices in progressive education?
Later down the page the NYT redeems itself by kicking Bush in the shin with an unflattering comparison to Reagan: "Would Mr. Reagan have done what Mr. Bush did in Iraq?" The answer is a resounding NO! Reagan would've acted just like Jimmy Carter before him - everybody knows that!
-- Red Square
A Cold Morning in Vermont
By JOHN TIERNEYPublished: June 13, 2004
In 1980, Ignat was an 8-year-old transplanted to Vermont by his father, the famous chronicler of Siberia's gulags. As Ignat tells the story, on the morning after the presidential election he got a taste of American political re-education at the progressive private school he and his brothers attended.
In response to the Reagan victory, the school's flag was lowered to half-staff, and the morning assembly was devoted to what today would be called grief counseling. The headmaster mourned "what America would become once the dark night of fascism descended under the B-movie actor," recalled Mr. Solzhenitsyn, who is now the music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. "At one point he interrupted himself to inquire if anyone present did not share his gloomy view of the Reagan victory."
The only students to raise their hands were Ignat and his two brothers, Yermolai and Stephan. After a stony silence, he recalled, they were sent outside, without their coats, to meditate on the error of their ways underneath the lowered flag. Vermont in November was hardly Siberia, but there was frost on the ground, and they spent an hour shivering and exercising to stay warm. Still, Ignat said, their political exile was a relief from sitting in the auditorium listening to the party line.
The mood in this story is unclear: is this a condemnation of misguided brats - or propaganda of best practices in progressive education?
Later down the page the NYT redeems itself by kicking Bush in the shin with an unflattering comparison to Reagan: "Would Mr. Reagan have done what Mr. Bush did in Iraq?" The answer is a resounding NO! Reagan would've acted just like Jimmy Carter before him - everybody knows that!
-- Red Square