College Journalists are Funny

Radicalism at Home
By Chris Kulawik
Columbia Spectator

Her name is Lauren Weiner, she’s 20 years old, she went to my high school, and she’s a terrorist.

The FBI recently arrested Lauren for her involvement in the planning and preparation of a series of domestic attacks under the auspices of the Earth Liberation Front, a recognized terrorist organization. They sought the destruction of cell phone towers and U.S. Forest Service labs, among others. Lauren’s FBI report highlights her preference for “direct-action”, as well as her support for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. An eco-anarchist, Lauren “expressed her desire to create a state of martial law and undermine corporations.” Mind-boggling hypocrisy aside, bomb-making materials were purchased at Wal-Mart and Kmart.

Admittedly, had this been any other person, I would have never given the article another look. While no rational individual could even attempt to defend these actions, we instinctively rush to minimize such radicalism; we call it a “negligible minority,” the work of a few “twisted minds,” but never do we find fault within ourselves. This was different—I knew her, not well by any means, but a senior class of 200 can do that. More importantly, I knew the school, I knew her teachers, I knew the ideas instilled and reinforced, and I knew her friends and mentors. Only two years out of high school, probably her sole formative intellectual experience, memories of the recent past could not be far off. ,I found myself revaluating my own high school experience. How did those four years shape who it is that I would become? How did I become an exception?

The answer frightened me; two years of a Columbia education had provided much-needed hindsight and clarity. The rampant progressivism and muddled indoctrination bestowed by ivory tower elites with the “education” moniker is not limited to those hallowed institutions of higher learning. While I may only speak from a personal, East-Coast experience, the trend toward liberal and progressive thought in all such vestiges of academia has long been accounted for and documented. In a county that calls itself home to noted Republicans Sue Kelly, Jeanine Pirro, and George Pataki, the Fox Lane High School faculty boasted only a handful of openly conservative or Republican teachers. Often ostracized by their peers for their beliefs, they were indeed a rare breed. Unfortunately, it would take some 12 years of schooling before I met them.

Continued...