Newsroom

I have been somewhat disappointed in HBO’s “Newsroom” compared to “West Wing,” but the last few episodes have improved.  The segment about rape on college campuses was amazingly prescient in light of the Rolling Stone report about UVA.  The themes about the rise of social media and the decline of edited news, and of the government infringement of free speech in the name of national security are also ripped from current headlines.  Aaron Sorkin has taken a thoughtful approach to raising important issues, even down to my bugaboo, the role of Jews in America, of which Sorkin must be one.  I did not get that Will was alone in the segment when he appeared to be debating with a cellmate in prison; so, he was presumably discussing his inmost fears and prejudices, including about Jews.  Will has apparently made his peace with Jewish elites who vowed never to work with their hands, while his boss, Charlie, is killed by having to cope with brash, young billionaires of Silicon Valley, who want to disrupt the news business.

I was surprised to find this story in the NYT about backlash to the rape story on “Newsroom.”  I think “Newsroom” was trying to show two sides of a difficult issue, while the real new media is screaming for lynching anyone accused of rape.  It’s as if the new media is saying, “Hey, remember the KKK, McCarthy, yellow journalism, we’re back!  Presumption of innocence does not apply to rape.”  Congratulations to Sorkin for getting these undemocratic troglodytes to come out of their caves.        

Conservative School Board

In last November's election Jefferson County, Colorado, elected three new, conservative members to its five member school board.  The are opposed to increasing taxes to support the schools, but favor more charter schools, which will take more money away from the existing public schools.  At the most recent board meeting, the county superintendent of schools resigned, according to the Denver Post.  The board said it was her choice, but indications are that she was under pressure to leave, if only because she would not be able to run the schools as she thought they should be run.  It sounds as if she was particularly pressured by the conservative law firm in Colorado Springs that the new board has hired to represent them.

This is a bad sign for education in Jeffco.  Soon evolution and other topics that conservatives don't like will be removed from the county's lesson plans.  They want to institute an incentive pay plan for teachers, which in theory should be good, but in practice turns out to be very hard to implement fairly.  It discriminates against teachers who teach in school with a high percentage of poor, disadvantaged students, and of course could be implemented in a way that rewards teachers who teach a conservative agenda in line with the board's agenda.

The fact that one of their first board meetings was so divisive and raucous is a bad sign that they intend to pursue their agenda without trying to compromise with their opponents.  It will not be a pretty or pleasant transition, and the political infighting will not help the students.

Against the Tide in 1970

The Showtime TV movie "Against the Tide" was about an Alabama football game that took place just after I returned from Vietnam and restarted law school at the University of Alabama in 1970.  I don't remember the game at all.  The Army allowed me to leave Vietnam a few weeks early in order to start law school in September so that I would not lose a year by returning in October.  However, I could only leave in time to start exactly on time; so, I had almost no time to arrange my affairs before law school started.  The game would have taken place just about the time I was arriving in Tuscaloosa, and apparently the game was played in Birmingham.  Integration would have been no big deal for me, since the Army I was returning from was thoroughly integrated. However, relatively few Southern white boys went to Vietnam.  When I went through basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, most of the white boys were going into the National Guard or Army Reserves, not the regular Army that was fighting in Vietnam.  I had a black drill sergeant who ended up putting most of the black trainees in my squad; I was a squad leader because I had been to college, and probably because I was in the small group that was going to stay in the Army after training, while most of the other white boys were going home to the Guard or Reserves.  So, that relatively small group that went on into the Army was pretty thoroughly integrated (on both sides).  I'm sure it was hard on the blacks to be in a squad led by a guy with a strong Southern accent.  But I credit the black drill sergeant with trying to be fair to both sides and do his best to get us ready for the real Army.  After basic training we all went out separate ways.  I went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and I never knew what happened to the guys who had been in my squad.  When I got to Vietnam, my deputy section chief of our fire direction center was black, and we lived together for much of my tour, sometimes sharing a sleeping bag, since one of us slept while the other worked, twelve hours on and twelve off.