Huck Finn Petition Goes to School Board

The Oregonian ^ | 10/29/02 | Clifton R. Chestnut

[Devil_Anse]

Mac, never once, when I was college-age, did it bother me when people appeared to presume that I was clueless. It didn't bother me, b/c I knew I had something that even rich people can't buy: I knew I had youth.

What does bother me is that kids in their teens regard people like me (in their 40's) as really stupid. I am not accusing you of doing this; I'm thinking more of the kids I see every day. (I have to see them b/c they are associates of my kids'.)

I wasn't really trying to attack you or the others who were posting to you. Frankly, I was kind of attacking James Joyce. (I never read "Ulysses," but I did read some other works by Joyce.)

[MacDorcha]

I guess I'm just a little arrogant. I appreciate your actual talking to me, instead of attacks. It lets me know that some people aren't as they first appear. Sorry if I come across as bittered, I just get tired of the song and dance that others you saw were giving me. It's cool that people didn't bother you by saying things like that to you while you were my age, but I feel like a throw-back or something. (I mean WAY back) My heritage is one in which you respected your youth for their power and potential, as well as the elderly for their longevity and wisdom. Some times I tend to act like everyone else should be the same as then. As i said, I'm a throw-back. No harm done, no harm intended. Trust me, I do not view you as stupid. I'm just still t'ed off at the presumtions others have made, and you were in the line. Terribly sorry to you.

[Devil_Anse]

I wasn't as politically savvy as you are. I actually never dreamed that things would ever be any other way than they were at the time that I first really became aware of them (the 70's): Nixon was the Bad Guy, Kennedy, deceased, was the Good Guy. Conservatives (I was one back then, too) were to be ashamed of their very un-hip views. Then the Carter period, when I first worked. I just assumed that inflation was a way of life. Imagine my surprise when suddenly Reagan was elected, and everything changed. After that, I always knew things were cyclical or transitory.

Although I did have a bit of a scare in the winter of 2000. I suddenly thought our system of government was breaking down. I had a fleeting suspicion that it was all planned, possibly to somehow install Clinton as a dictator. Fortunately, it soon passed.