Mary Mitchell faces a problem in her own town, and she’s not so sure those Proviso East expellees didn’t deserve it.
As harsh as that is, it may be the only way to keep Proviso East from succumbing to the problems that have ruined some Chicago public schools.
And the school board president defends triage in solving social problems.
“[T]hese [expellees] are not the students that we should be focusing our resources on. There are 5,000 other students who are coming to school. We are not going to tolerate the kind of violence that was displayed in this case.”
[TRB writer, New Republic, Peter] Beinart is well known among Washington journalists as a quick-witted polemicist and a gifted stylist. He’s also regarded as one of the most energetic careerists anyone has ever seen.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Banish careerists from the ranks of Washington journalism and the only people left would be a handful of newsroom librarians and a couple of copy editors from Human Events.
St. Basil (330-379) stated: A cleric or monk who seduces youths or young boys is to be publicly flogged . For six months he will languish in prison-like confinement he shall never again associate with youths neither in private conversation nor in counseling them.
That’s not the half of what Basil had in mind. Here’s a fuller version:
“The cleric or monk who molests youths or boys or is caught kissing or committing some turpitude, let him be whipped in public, deprived of his crown [tonsure] and, after having his head shaved, let his face be covered with spittle; and [let him be] bound in iron chains, condemned to six months in prison, reduced to eating rye bread once a day in the evening three times per week. After these six months living in a separate cell under the custody of a wise elder with great spiritual experience, let him be subjected to prayers, vigils and manual work, always under the guard of two spiritual brothers, without being allowed to have any relationship . . . with young people.”
Nailing this down in Basil’s writings has been a challenge, however. Best near-ancient source seems to be St. Peter Damian (1007-1071), in his ever-popular Liber Gomorrhianus, or Book of Gomorrha — a primary source book for protesters of ecclesiastical indifference to abuse.
You’ve got to wonder what these pastors are thinking of, what part of “culture of violence” they don’t get. That or what a purely vidictive school board they have in Maywood. My bet’s on the former.
We all know that Manny Ramirez brings a lot of baggage to the White Sox. Here are some potential ugly scenarios I’m most worried about seeing:
— Hawk Harrelson shows his support by sporting dreadlocks.
— Teeny-weeny Juan Pierre plays a practical joke by hiding in Manny’s ridiculously baggy pants, but it goes horribly wrong when Manny slides into second base.
