https://troutsfarm.com/2004/10/17/plastic-farm-animals/ Where Reality Becomes Illusion Thu, 09 Jul 2020 21:21:34 +0000 hourly 1 https://troutsfarm.com/2004/10/17/plastic-farm-animals/comment-page-1/#comment-30478 Sat, 17 Oct 2015 20:02:34 +0000 http://troutsfarm.com/?p=218#comment-30478 Nothing to do with plastic farm animals. BUT. I “discovered” this blog after having read the (now late?) Prof. John Illo’s letter to the editor of the NYT in Oct. 1965, blasting the Johnson Administration for cracking down on opponents of the Vietnam War who were advising prospective draftees of their right to resist the draft by claiming conscientious objector status. Painfully ironic that the same issue of the NYT included notifications that the draft call for December 1965 would exceed 48,000, by far the highest number since the Korean War, and that up to then approximately 1,000 American servicemen had died in Vietnam. Recalling I was then an 18 year old college freshman, expected by society to be both grateful for my 2s deferment and silent about the budding tragedy and crime that was Vietnam, facing threats and hazing from fellow students and condemnation from faculty for my views and activities in opposition to the war, I am, 50 years later, most grateful for Prof. Illo’s courage in sending that letter to the NYT. His letter brings back memories of faculty debates, in which the economics and poli sci professors defended the war, history professors were divided, and it fell upon the humanities faculty to label the Vietnam policy for the madness that it was. Reading a bit more about him, I know that he took positions with which I don’t agree on some matters, but what else could be expected of a passionate exponent of the humanities? Contemporary academia seems to have found an answer to the likes of Prof. Illo: diminish the humanities departments to a mere vestige, ripe for excision, like the human appendix, should they become inflamed.

]]> https://troutsfarm.com/2004/10/17/plastic-farm-animals/comment-page-1/#comment-30476 Thu, 13 Aug 2015 19:35:33 +0000 http://troutsfarm.com/?p=218#comment-30476 In searching Accra Community 6 I came across your blog. I was so excited to see your pictures. My family lived in the Valco Community from 78 through 82. My parents were Joseph and Yvonne Davis and My Dad worked for Kaiser. We lived in a large home similar to the ones I saw in your photos. I was a baby, but remember the animal statues in the playground. Thanks for posting your photos.
Ammy Davis Nord

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