"Besides the danger of a direct mixture of religion and civil government, there is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by ecclesiastical corporations.
"The establishment of the chaplainship in Congress is a palpable violation of equal rights as well as of Constitutional principles.
"The danger of silent accumulations and encroachments by ecclesiastical bodies has not sufficiently engaged attention in the U.S."
— -- James Madison, being outvoted in the bill to establish the office of Congressional Chaplain, from the "Detached Memoranda," Elizabeth Fleet, "Madison's Detached Memoranda." William and Mary Quarterly (1946): 554-62.
The Rutgers Girls
were very carefully prepared for, and protected during, their post-Imus press conference, which I watched live on cable. Several were not allowed by university policy to speak to the media at all, because they were freshmen (freshwomen?)
And they *certainly* were not left alone!
Favorite Daughter, at 17 and in college classes, is being interviewed for a magazine article. We chose to have it done by email so she could be thoughtful and say what she really means, and I've asked that her real name not be used in publication.
Of course he shouldn't be left to fend for himself, with the media or anywhere else!
It's possible he shouldn't have been competing at all. He might have been much better off not to have learned to use his mental aptitudes in this gladiatorial competition as spectacle in the first place. I have a whole story to tell about that, the time a Dick Clark Productions special tested FavD for their "Who's the Smartest Kid in America?" special. She was 9 or 10, quite the chilling episode for her and her mother . . ..
This is the first I've heard of this boy's case, Liza, but I'm not surprised. I haven't seen the video nor read the 450 comments mocking this young man, probably won't, don't need to, to know what kinds of minds and attitudes are on display in this sad public spectacle.
(People mock homeschooling and unschooling --and "gifted" education -- just like they mock this little boy. And for the same reasons, I am thinking . . .apparently they haven't learned any better, however they were schooled.)