Horizon

I'm always pleased to see a reference to our local Dutchies, but who are these people "who think U.S. citizenship means speaking nothing but English"? I'm ambivalent about the English-as-an-official-language argument myself, but that's a distortion of their position.

Plainly you haven't been listening to talk radio lately. Certainly movement to restrict immigration is a heterogenous one, but it includes some nasty bits.

Plainly you haven't been listening to talk radio lately.

Plainly. But if an argument is to be judged only by its nuttier proponents then that leaves precious few areas of inquiry left to us.

It's also unfair to judge an argument by its nobler proponents, particularly when they make up only a tiny fraction of its supporters.

I'm sure that some Intelligent Design proponents are bona fide scholars of Philosophy of Science, making careful criticisms of the academy. That does not make them the representative voice of the political ID movement, however.

Fair enough. But where does that leave us?

Well, to come back to the PA Dutch, some of my older relatives make good case studies in the distinction between treason and the retention of foreign culture. They called sauerkraut "liberty cabbage" through both World Wars. At the end of WWI the kids in my grandfather's family celebrated by burning his youngest brother's teddy bear as an effigy of "the Kaiser." My maternal grandmother was obsessed with "The Sound of Music," probably because it reassured her that some Germans had been decent people and anti-fascists despite the many contrary examples. I suppose the same thoughts are a cause of my own emphasis on anti-fascism as well. There is a need to prove that one has not inherited a propensity for evil.

My maternal grandmother was obsessed with "The Sound of Music," probably because it reassured her that some Germans had been decent people and anti-fascists despite the many contrary examples.

Possibly, though a great many people appear to be obsessed with TSOM for reasons that have little to do with lurking genetic fear. There are some pretty good songs, after all.

That was in there too but the family belief anyway is that her fascination with the Trapp Family generally went beyond the singing.

Interesting how we inherit family politics, isn't it? Like any tradition, either we come by them unconsciously, or analyze them and make the decision to accept or reject them.

Someone please explain what in the world that means.