Ward on Words

David Brooks was probably feeling very smart and intellectual and clever when he posted his most recent column . He links a great John Ford Western with a look at manhood today in America; he covers current unemployment stats, reflects on boy culture and school culture; he quotes the American Enterprise Institute along with lines from The Searchers . It's all in there. The column is a muddled mess. He opens with a rather vast claim: "As every discerning person knows, The Searchers is the greatest movie ever made." Now I think we can say that discerning people know The Searchers is one of the greatest movies ever made. [I make that claim myself here .] But to assert as fact that it is the very greatest film ever made and to note that if you don't get that fact, you are not a discerning person - which is disdainful and argumentative - is perhaps not the best way to open this column. He goes on to note that the close of the West has left American manhood in a...

Two days ago, as we were watching Saige: An American Girl , our program was interrupted to give us the verdict in a trial reflecting today's American zeitgeist - that violent and bloodied intersection of guns and race, the George Zimmerman trial. It was a very jarring end to the sugar-sweet American Girl story about the travails of a 9-year-old artist. My children were upset; they wanted to see the end of the movie; instead we all watched the verdict. Today, as I ponder the news and analysis of this trial, I remain melancholy. Was it appropriate to let my 9-year-olds watch the verdict? What about my 13-year old? I remain torn about this. I know that as the verdict was announced, my three children wanted to know what happened. What was this trial about - a trial so significant it cut into the conclusion of an American Girl movie? After I explained the details, they did not understand how an armed adult could kill an unarmed teenager and be considered "not guilty." In o...