Document 20: Some of the Pinks are Asking for It
21 July 1948, Snohomish County Tribune.
Some of the Pinks are Asking for It
The Canwell committee's hearing this week on the activities of certain professors at the University is of peculiar personal interest to the writer because one of those under investigation was a classmate many years ago.
Even in those days he was different. He refused to take part in college pranks and activities, sneered at pre—game student enthusiasm, had little respect for his professors — and generally conducted himself as an outsider. Yet he continued in school, took advanced courses and became a member of the profession he formerly ridiculed.
We lost track of him years ago, but evidently he hasn't changed. He still is an outsider; holding up to ridicule many of the customs the rest of us love and follow and believe in; tearing down the very public school system which gives him his daily bread, without offering a worthy substitute; defying our government.
We presume psychiatrists could find some deep-seated childhood incident is the cause of his peculiar outlook on life. Probably he is what they call a psycho-neurotic, but we would designate him by another name. Years ago he was often told to get in and do his share with the rest, or get out completely. And we think he should be told the same thing now.
Because he and others of his ilk want to be "different;" free-thinkers; free-lovers; tearers-down but not builders-up; is no reason why we taxpayers should pay him money to teach our kids his screwball ideas.
Instead he should be kicked out of the public schools and compelled to make his living in the rough and tumble of the business world. Remove him from the economic protection of academic walls and he'd probably starve to death — or learn that being sulkily "different" is merely a form of retarded mental development.