Have Hunter, Cunningham Ignored Sedition in Their Own Back Yards?

The next time Duncan Hunter and Randy (Duke) Cunningham are in San Diego, they should maybe do some snooping in the public schools.

As you know, the two Republican congressmen have been the lead riflemen for President Bush in attacking Bill Clinton for his participation in anti-Vietnam War rallies and a one-day student trip to Moscow.

They’re outraged--23 years after the fact--that Clinton could have taken to the streets to oppose American policy during wartime. In tones rife with righteous indignation, they ask: What kind of American does a traitorous thing like that?

Hunter and Cunningham may not know it, but the problem didn’t begin or end with Clinton.

The San Diego public schools, even as Hunter and Cunningham try to portray Clinton as unpatriotic and a commie dupe, are letting students read a seditious essay by Henry David Thoreau called “Civil Disobedience” that promotes the dangerous idea that dissent is not disloyalty.

I made a quick call to the school headquarters and discovered that “Civil Disobedience” is on the reading list at Hoover, Morse, La Jolla and Crawford high schools and maybe more.

(I have the names of the teachers, if Hunter and Cunningham want them investigated for treason.)

Pat Crowder, a teacher at La Jolla High, says that “Civil Disobedience” helps to get students thinking about the moral complexities of American democracy: about the inevitable clash between the individual and the state, between liberty and responsibility.

For the record: La Jolla High isn’t some whacked-out Berkeley-style school. Crowder alleges that the school follows a “traditional” approach to literature.

Right now, Crowder says, students are reading “The Scarlet Letter.” She says it’s a classic, but it sounds like an attack on organized religion and family values to me.

Fred Moramarco, a literature professor at San Diego State University, asserts that “Civil Disobedience” is “more relevant today than ever” and that dissent is “as American as apple pie.”

“Thoreau’s point,” Moramarco says, “is that when you feel your government is doing something evil, it is not only OK to protest, it is your responsibility to protest. Otherwise you are capitulating to that evil.”

Check this out, Rep. Hunter:

“The mass of men serve the state not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. . . . A very few--as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men--serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.”

Get a load of this, Rep. Cunningham:

“Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters and so frequently the most serious obstacles to change.”

The common story is that Thoreau was protesting the Mexican War of 1846-48, which modern historians say was the Vietnam of its day.

In fact, during the Vietnam War, the Old Globe did a play called “The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail,” but everybody knows what pinkos those theater people are.

I asked Prof. Moramarco if Thoreau, like Clinton, ever traveled to Czechoslovakia and Moscow and maybe was in contact with the KGB. He said no.

Don’t believe him, whatever you do, Duncan and Duke. It’s probably just another liberal cover-up.

News Tidbits From Here and There

Seen and heard.

* Memo and Bruce Oshier swear they saw a bumper sticker in Rancho Bernardo: “I Like Ike.”

* Look for a vigorous demonstration by Bruce Herschensohn supporters Thursday night when Barbara Boxer attends a downtown fund-raiser for her U.S. Senate campaign (Lily Tomlin is the headliner).

* How angry is State Sen. Wadie Deddeh (D-Bonita) after losing a congressional nomination fight with Councilman Bob Filner?

Deddeh is advising Republican candidate Tony Valencia on how to beat Filner. Among his tips: Criticize Filner for being too pro-Israel.

* For most reluctant candidate of the season, it’s hard to beat Sally Sherry O’Brien, 75, Peace & Freedom nominee in the 78th Assembly District.

“If elected, I would serve,” she told a reporter, “but I’d really rather not, at my age.”