Your Left! Your Left-Right-Left!

[Going into this weekend hoping for a little peace and quiet after the last couple of weekends with guests. The gods aren't conspiring with us: Sebastian's band is playing tonight, and we really should go, and Patrick is having a birthday party as well which promises to go to all hours. We could hit both, but isn't it time John and I Just Said No? Of course, it's going to be the first rain-free weekend, and I'm craving sunshine, but what I should do is stay home, do lots of laundry, and clean in preparation for Jessica's visit next weekend.]

[The copyediting class was fun. There are more people than in last year's abortive creative writing class, and the subject matter makes it much more about listening to the instructor rather than engaging in lots of group discussion. I might have liked a bit more discussion: I still disagree with the instructor regarding subject-verb agreement in a couple of cases.]

[Most of Harvey Milk's classes take place at an elementary school in the Castro renamed (relatively recently, I assume) the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy. You have never seen a temple of learning so dedicated to the most conventional, touchy-feely political correctness possible. Some of it (like specifically posted guidlines about not putting down others) would've been welcome back at dear old El Verano Elementary, but others, like the Pledge of Allegiance to the Earth, drove me up the wall with their rewarmed hippie sentimentality. I confided to Violet at dinner that, while I think my politics are well within the stated goals of the New College of California, I worried that the lockstep leftism of the place might alienate me. She told me not to worry; her closet support of the death penalty, IF EVENLY APPLIED (major caveat!), just doesn't enter into discussions. Great, another place where difference is stifled.]

[I hope I'm making too big a deal out of this. I'm probably sensitive right now because of the stupid brouhaha over David Horowitz's ad. I think Joan Walsh has the right take. I hope I never become so leftist as to call dedication to free speech a "bourgeois fetish." What's more important: diversity of opinion, or those opinions' correctness? Don't we have enough media outlets out there to make the choice unnecessary?]

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