Native americans

The Native American man with the drum who – now so infamously – approached a group of high schoolers from Covington, Ky., on Friday has been widely identified as a Vietnam veteran. But he isn’t one. The man is called Nathan Phillips, and he identifies with the American Indian Movement, an extremist separatist organization tied to at least one murder. He was singing their song when he approached the kids. He told the Washington Post that he was ‘blocked’ by the students, though later video evidence suggests that that was an exaggeration, to put it mildly. Phillips remains adamant that the boys should be punished for what they did to him, and has refused to meet with them.

I spent my formative years at an all-boys’ Catholic prep school in rural New England. It was a magical, Bridesheadian sorts of place, where everyone’s only pretending to be gay (probably) and women exist as a kind of theory or abstraction – like Persians, as Maistre would say. Our library was endowed by, and named for, John J. Studzinski: the distinguished-looking gentleman you see seated behind Donald Trump (and in front of Maria Bartiromo) at the infamous 2016 Al Smith Dinner. Other alumni include comedian Bo Burnham, who is, predictably, a prick. So, with more than a little skin in the game, I must ask: why do progressives have it in for Catholic prep schools? First it was Georgetown Prep, which is both Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch’s alma mater.