Plenty of response to my column answering little Stephanie T. of Wausau, Wisc., who wrote in a letter as part of a classroom project, urging everyone to send in their census forms.
The best came from a schoolmarm named D.J., who attributes my ignorant "rantings and howlings" to the fact that I "went to a redneck backwater school." (The letters requesting refunds from the bursars of Eaglebrook and Wesleyan will shortly be wafting their way eastward.)
Ms. D.J., of course, contends conscripting widdle Stephanie into this propaganda project was an admirable undertaking, while simultaneously insisting any classroom discussion on whether the Census Bureau now exceeds its constitutional authorization would be "totally inappropriate for the age-group."
Funny how that works.
D.J. writes:
"A friend has been forwarding your columns to me for some time now, and most of them seem mildly interesting but annoyingly inflammatory. This column concerning Stephanie's letter, however, shows your need to stop, take a break, and decide what your message really is.
"After 15 years of working with children, I can guarantee you that with a response like that, no 'Stephanie' would ever write another letter, and no teacher of Stephanie would let their students correspond with a journalist like you for fear of quashing their students' enthusiasm.
"Sure, the spelling and grammer need attention, but that is pretty mild stuff and could be covered gently. The point is that the child had the guts to write this letter and pursue this interest, and you stepped on her like a stinkbug. You also speak back to her like a William F. Buckley wanna-be, instead of speaking in terms a young person (not a child, a young person) would understand. Your letter taught this child (and other young people who might be reading) not a lesson in civil liberties but a lesson in smart-ass response.
"I admire this kid for at least trying to pursue an interest in what her government is doing, as opposed to the common 6th grade interests of clothes, boys, and MTV icons. Do the right thing and respond in such as way as to further that interest, while gently pointing out grammer corrections that will help her communicate her ideas.
"That is, if you really want to forward your concepts and teach a younger generation, and not just sit in your pulpit and whine. -- D.J.K.
I replied:
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Dear D.J. --
Ha! Ha! That's great. These kids shouldn't have their errors pointed out (errors occurring in a formal, signed, classroom-produced letter to the editor of a major metropolitan newspaper), because it would damage their self-esteem!
And then you insist on seeing the problem as primarily involving "pelling and grammer" -- completely ignoring the main substance of my observations, which were the outright socialist notions about government's role which she and her classmates have come to accept as foregone conclusions.
Come on, admit it, you're a paid propagandist in some branch of the youth propaganda camps, aren't you? I bet you even took your degree in "Education," after the grades you received in the more rigorous subject areas (the ones where the instructors insisted there are actually such things as "wrong answers") proved too damaging to (start ital)your(end ital) self-esteem.
The "guts to write that letter?" It was a classroom project! Her salaried government propagandist (in the USSR, at least the MVD used to forthrightly honor such efforts by handing out bronze medals) got paid that day to take her through that little "exercise" from the government-supplied "Census Kit."
"Pursue an interest in what her government is doing?" Do you think teacher led a classroom discussion on the constitutinal authorization for the census, and asked the children whether they thought the government might now be doing anything with the census (start ital)not(end ital) constitutionally authorized, and whether that would be appropriate under a constitutional government of "limited powers, specifically designated"?
Oh stop! Heeeeee haw! You're killing me!
If embarrassment was to be avoided, it was the responsibility of that salaried government propagandist, and no one else, to make sure the kids proofread their letters before sending them out.
(Should little Stephanie have been promoted from the fourth to the fifth grade without mastering at least the two-syllable words? From the fifth to the sixth?)
By the way, as to little Stephanie's "spelling and grammer" needing some attention ... you might want to look up the spelling of that word "grammer," your own self.
Thanks for making my day.
p.s. -- I attach below a somewhat more thoughtful response, from a veteran (start ital)private(end ital) school teacher.
# # #
Dear Vin,
I relish all of your columns, and have just finished reading "Send in the Waco Killers," which has, of course, resulted in my losing even more sleep than I did before (and believe me, I wasn't sleeping so well before, since Mark and I have been researching the white squirmy things under the fed-gov rock for way too many years.) But your latest column, "To count all the people we need to feed" is simply beyond wonderful.
As an ex-English teacher whom J.J. has billed as the SierraTimes.com "Local School Marm," I applaud your response to the dear public fool, "Widdle Stephanie." It touched every base and nerve, and set me positively a-tingle with admiration. I taught 6th grade and high-school English for 10 years, and I would have given that child an "F" on her pathetic missive to you -- for both language use and content. Gag. -- Tina Terry.
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available by dialing 1-800-244-2224; or via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.
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Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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