<p>CGM, reading your last post, I think you just defined throw-the-baby-out-with-the bathwater nihilism perfectly.</p>
<p>FountainSiren, I suggest you listen to a recording of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”.</p>
<p>Dstark, “Strange Fruit” is about lynching. What an absurd and inappropriate comment to add here.</p>
<p>No…its the looking back in time, thinking that all was so wonderful when religion was the base of some school and that if we JUST BRING THAT BACK, all will be okeydokeyfine.</p>
<p>My point is, during that time, it was not okeydokeyfine. There were so many problems and that jsut bringing back in religion is not going to change anything, because when it was more prevelant, we still had huge problems, and even worse ones, in my opinion.</p>
<p>So saying that if kids were just more religious and all would be well, is a farce.</p>
<p>
But that wasn’t said. The suggestion was that the utter rejection of religion had left something lacking in the mix. And the reply so far has been that religion fosters racism, sexism, and lynching.</p>
<p>No, its not. FountainSiren thinks that going back to when things were religious based would fixd things all better. Well, we were a pretty religious country during the lynchings. ANd during segregation and during the times of prevelant sexism and during times of strife.</p>
<p>And to disregard that that think, well, religion will fix everything is to deny history.</p>
<p>And to think, well we can seperate all those problems from religion, well, those WERE times of religion and religion in school, yet kids still had sex in college, still did hazing still drank. But during those religios glory days, FS, would not have been able to even go to but a few schools.</p>
<p>So to think bringing back religion will make things better for everyone, when religion WAS part of everythin, many people had a very tough time.</p>
<p>Driver, what sect of Christianity do you believe in?</p>
<p>I’m from a very old Quaker family, but I’m not an adherent to any particular form of religion at this point in my life. But I have much more in common with devoutly religious people than I do with militant secularists or cafeteria-style religionists.</p>
<p>"The issue of racism/sexism that’s been brought up here is a red herring, and a sloppy, decomposing, smelly one at that. It has nothing to do with the the article FS posted. For an opinion on what it was like being a Jew at Williams in the 30s, you could try Ben Stein: <a href="WRAPS organizes campus-wide food drive, adapts to COVID restrictions – The Williams Record;
<p>Very nice. Ben Stein didn’t attend Williams. Neither in the 30s, nor the 60s. Herbert Lehman did. He gave more than $20 million to the College, too. Even built a dorm named after himself. Was Governor of New York. They never let him on the Board of Trustees. No Catholics either. William Buckley would have been persona non grata. But not anymore, which I think is absolutely wonderful! (and stunning, too.) A tribute to that “militant secularism”.</p>
<p>Youth crime rates are at their lowest rate in three decades. Teen pregnancy rates are at their lowest point in more than four decades. Must be that “thorough-going nihilism” at work. I don’t think anyone has any data to compare alcohol use rates at Dartmouth in 2005 with what they were in 1955, but I doubt you’d find much difference (except that alcohol use rates are much lower among Asians, African-Americans, and Hispanics, and there are a heck of a lot more of them at Dartmouth these days.) I expect more date rapes, though - there weren’t any women at Dartmouth back then.</p>
<p>CGM,
You seem to feel that I am not appreciative enough of what people before me have done on my behalf (meaning those politically active between 1960+ and sometime thereafter, not before) and yet you say it with so much emotion that I worry that you believe I do not show enough appreciation for what you, citygirlsmom, have done for me and I have somehow offended your personal charity and efforts in my regard (though I am a Canadian-American, after-allmy father is an American of European ancestry, my mother Iranian).</p>
<p>If this is the case and I have offended you and not shown all due gratitude, I offer my sincerest appreciation now for all of the ways in which you have made this country better for a person like mebeing an Iranian-American Sufi and all that; I suppose I, especially it seems, needed it.</p>
<p>…
“FountainSiren thinks that going back to when things were religious based would fixd things all better.”</p>
<p>show me where I said that.</p>
<p>Gotta run…</p>
<p>Driver, don’t you think the world is a better place if we accept people for who they are, and not whether they are religious, the right color, the right sex, the right ethnic group, the right wealth?</p>
<p>Why do people have to conform to something they are not?</p>
<p>Why does somebody have to spend time in a church if that is not who he/she is?</p>
<p>Why is morality decided by whether you believe in something that was written about 2000 years ago?</p>
<p>During the exact time you’re talking about, the priests in the Catholic religion were sexually abusing kids and they wouldn’t report it, because of the strong structure of the church they felt NO ONE WOULD BELIEVE THEM and they would be considered sinners. We don’t want to go back to such a strong church that can get away with anything, because they were so strong and pervasive. I so agree with citygirlsmom, you didn’t live then it was not the golden era you believe it was. I also get so upset when people think that religious people are more moral. My son and one of his best friends are not religious. They do not drink at all, nor do drugs. They feel digusted with others who waste their time getting wasted. They are very moral, my son and his friends would never ever think of cheating. Morals can be stronger is you are doing acting a certain way, because it is the right thing to do, not because of some vague reward after death…or fear that some higher power will smite you. You should have a strong inner moral compass that tells you what is right and wrong, not what people in your church decide is right. Do you really believe that the death penalty is right??? Is war really right?? Is fighing with another religion really what any God would have wanted? I’ll take my morality over organized religion any day.</p>
<p>FoutainSiren, don’t forget “Strange Fruit”. One of my closest friends in the world is a Sufi. He wouldn’t want his kid educated in a Christian school. He would prefer a school where intelligence is valued.</p>
<p>I have always like the story “When Water was Carried”. I think that’s the title form “Tales of the Dervishes”. I hope that’s right.</p>
<p>
Again, it would be so nice if the oldsters here would read thoroughly before they post. Ben went to Columbia, and was then first in his class at Yale Law. His father, Herb Stein–a very important man that you may have heard of–was a Williams '35. Ben’s speech at Williams about his father’s experience there was very moving. Ben chose not to go to Williams “because they didn’t have girls then.”</p>
<p>Ben made a good choice. The man who ran Williams’ “Jewish Studies” program left last year. He didn’t like the atmosphere.</p>
<p>
Yes dstark, that sounds a lot like what FountainSiren and the Dartmouth Review writer were talking about. What were you thinking???</p>
<p>Who used to do the lynching?</p>
<p>
OK, you’ve got me there. Was it Dartmouth students?</p>
<p>Is that a rhetorical question?</p>
<p><a href=“http://impiousdigest.com/lbj/breaking_news.htm[/url]”>http://impiousdigest.com/lbj/breaking_news.htm</a></p>
<p>And are you now claiming that Williams College is anti-Jew because a particular faculty member left?</p>