Church of the Creator, an anti-Christian,rnanti-Jewish, anti-non-white reHgion.rnHale was a law-school graduate who hadrnbeen denied the right to practice law inrnIllinois because of his racist beliefs.rnSmith’s promotional zeal won him the titlernof “1998 Creator of the Year.”rnAfter being forced to quit the Champaign-rnUrbana campus of the Universityrnof Illinois because of charges that he hadrnbeaten his girlfriend. Smith entered thernBloomington campus in 1998. There,rnhe deliberately put himself in harm’srnway. Switching his major from computerrnscience to criminal justice, he enteredrna field of study known for its extreme liberalrnorientation on that campus.rnThen came that fateful Friday in July.rnThat day. Matt Hale’s latest attempt tornbecome a lawyer had been rebuffed. Atrnthe hearing. Smith had testified that,rnwithout Hale’s advice, he would havernbeen in jail. The ruling could well havernbeen the final straw in his slender holdrnon sanity. After Smith’s suicide. Hale receivedrna letter announcing that Smithrnhad left the Church of the Creator inrnApril 1999 “because I am unable and unwillingrnto follow a legal resolution of Values.”rnWhen his ex-girlfriend realizedrnwho the shooter was, she said that “this isrnhis Independence day from the government,rnfrom everything.”rn(Incidentally, Hale’s rejection by thernbar because of his beliefs was not somethingrnthat was rigged just to fit a racist likernhim. Back in the McCarthy era, an applicantrnwas repeatedly denied admissionrnto the bar because he held that the Declarationrnof Independence granted thernright of revolution.)rnEgalitarianism has been the inspirationrnfor political murder since thernFrench Revolution. It would be temptingrnto conclude that Harris and Kleboldrnhad accepted an abstract propositionrnwhich Smith in turn rejected. But in arnmore fimdamental way, they both embracedrnthe same notion. If the twornteenagers hated Christians for not acceptingrntheir strange habits as merely anotherrnalternative lifestyle and despised the athletesrnbecause the latter enjoyed a morernprivileged lifestyle. Smith thought it outrageous,rnin a land which prided itself onrnequal consideratioir, that Matt Hale’s petitionrnto become a lawyer was not regardedrnthe same way as that of a conservativernRepublican. Smith probably would havernsneered at anyone who tried to say thatrnfreedom of speech cannot exist longrnwithout reciprocity, and that those whornexercise that right without granting it tornothers drag down American society morernthan any welfare queen ever did. Forrntheir part, Klebold and Harris wouldrnhave considered as “trite” anyone whorntried to tell them that freedom of speechrnincludes the freedom to disapprove —rneven of them. In a sense. Smith was arncontinuation of the anti-McCarthyrnmovement of the 50’s: He believed thatrnauthorities should not make “value judgments”rnwith respect to the unlawful consequencesrnof the ideas of a political dissenterrn(in other words, they should neverrnreject such an applicant even when theyrnmay legally do so). The perpetrators werernin different ways victims of the presentrneducational system—but that system didrnnot make them first-degree murderers.rnMost dissenters still remain within thernlaw.rn- Peter EricksonrnCIVIL WAR REENACTMENTS arernmore popular today than at any time inrnthe 135 years since “the late unpleasantness”rncame to an end. Recent news stories,rnhowever, have been less than favorable tornreenactors. In these remarks, delivered torn14,000 spectators of the J 999 Gettysburgrnreenactment, Ronald F. Maxwell, writerrnand director of the motion picture Gettysburg,rnexplains why.rnI’ve been going to reenactments for morernthan 20 years, so I’ve had a chance to observernthis phenomenon up close.rnIn a time of all-encompassing and oppressivernpolitical correctness, when thernruling elites and their media acolytesrncontrol most of the information we getrnand tell us what to think, what opinionsrnto hold, what to buy and what to wear,rneven when and where to go to war . . .rnthere are some, the audacious and irasciblernfew, who persist in thinking for themselves.rnJust who are reenactors? The mainstreamrnmedia has described them asrnweekend warriors, Civil War fanatics,rneven misfits who should, as they say, “getrna life.” What they really mean to say isrn”get their life,” fit into their worldview—rnthe New World Order.rnhr their worldview, which now dominatesrnthe academy as well as the media,rnall the old heroes are to be deconstructed,rnthen discarded. Thomas Jefferson,rnwe are told with sanctimonious relish,rnwas a seriously flawed persotr who mayrnhave fathered offspring by one of his domesticrnslaves. Lee and his generals werernpart of the same corrupt bondage system.rnFor these crimes, the generafion of 1776rnand their grandsons of the I860’s must bernhollowed of their humanity and gutted ofrntheir greatness, brought down and reducedrnto the paltry, squalid place inhabitedrnby more than a few present-dayrnpoliticians and so-called leaders. Then,rndiscredited, they are to be diminishedrnand eventually deleted from our historyrnbooks, except perhaps as footnotes to thernrevisionist history of America.rnWhy this attack on these two generationsrnin particular? Could it be becausernthese same elites want to stop us fromrnlooking up to men who questioned authorityrnand fought for liberty? Wlro didrnso brilliantly and courageously? If theyrnare to succeed in their goal of transformingrncitizens into consumers, to reduce usrnfrom those who would defend liberty tornthose whose only concern is for celebrityrnand fashion, they must teach us to avertrnour gaze from the likes of Washingtonrnand Jefferson, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson,rnand Robert E. Lee.rnWliat I admire most about reenactorsrnis that they refuse to forget. They are notrnweekend warriors, for that implies frivolityrnand a lack of conviction. They are a livingrnembodiment of an American spiritrnthat is still alive and well despite pervasivernand well-financed efforts to belittle,rnridicule, marginalize, and neutralize it.rnThey are warriors, as in Lee’s first greatrnseries of victories, seven days a week.rnThere are still those among us whorncherish the sacred memory of our ancestors,rnwho value the traditions tested byrnthe generations, whose lives vibrate yet inrnthe distant chords of memory. Thesernreenactments, eirtertaining as they are,rnfun as they are, are pathways between therngenerations, connecting old antagonistsrnwith new witnesses in an atmosphere ofrnconciliation, compassion, and understanding.rnTake from us our media, our universities;rntake from us our libraries and ourrnbooks; take our newspapers and our textbooksrn—take it all. With malice towardsrnnone and charity for all, we here todayrnwill never forget. We here today will longrnremember.rn— Ronald F. MaxwellrnL’AFFAIRE LEWINSKY, most of usrnthought, ended with the escape of ourrnPresident in the United States Senate. Asrna particularly sweltering July turned torn6/CHRONICLESrnrnrn