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• Sunday, February 18, 2007 05:29 AM

  High School Madness

  I remember being in high school in the early sixties and starting up an underground newspaper with some friends. It was amazingly successful drawing interest from jocks, ham radio nuts, metal shop majors and of course the vast left wing conspiracy. We wrote about the Civil Rights struggle, the early stages of the United States involvement in Vietnam, cafeteria food, some weirdness called girl's sports night, the Kennedy assassination, in short everything. This made school administrators and some community leader types furious but the paper lasted for four or five years which meant it bridged a few graduating classes. It cost some us college recommendations and some time in detention. At first we sold it on school grounds. When we were forbidden to sell it we held a few hootenannys ( google that ) and raised enough money to give the paper away.

  This brings me to blogs and the nasty treatment Ms. Marcotte has received. Blogs are a bit like that old underground school paper. There are few rules, people can really express themselves, and you get published quite easily. The down side is that freedom of expression has always been seen as subversive as well as highly valued in our culture. People's words have been used against them in very unfair ways for as long as the country has existed. I guess we ( well you yougins...I am old enough to not have to give a shit anymore ) have to decide if you want to express yourselves publicly and honestly or if you want to be anonymous so that in the future your words won't be used against you. All of life really is like high school and turds like Mr. Donohue are just waiting to give out detentions.

  —GregoryG Read GregoryG's other letters
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