A bunch of us are in Lisbon, that splendid and dreamy Portuguese capital, about to begin another National Review cruise. If you haven’t yet, you should really try one — they’re a very good time. Special guests on our Portuguese jaunt include Paul Johnson, Otto Reich, and David Pryce-Jones. It hardly gets better: Portugal in spring or early summer, and traveling companions like those.
Thanks to all NRO readers who have written about the Oslo Journal, my jottings from the Oslo Freedom Forum. (The sixth installment is on the homepage now, here. It discusses several remarkable people, including Clara Rojas, who was a hostage of the FARC in the Amazonian jungle for six years.) Many have written to say, “I’m so grateful to live in a free country, and I wish I could do something to help those who don’t.” Admirable feelings.
A different matter: For many years, particularly in Impromptus, I’ve written about Ann Arbor, Mich., my dear hometown — “a small citadel of the Left,” I call it. It had much to do with the shaping of my political outlook, which is, of course, conservative — Reaganite. I am, in part, a “backlash baby.” I particularly rebelled against the incessant racial nonsense that was shoved down our throats, that was almost the air of everyday life.
Well, many readers have sent me the news that an Ann Arbor elementary school arranged a black-kids-only field trip. (See this, for example.) I’m not in the least surprised. Racial separatism is very strong in the Ann Arbor I know — and it’s promoted and imposed by the Left, always. Part of being a “conservative” today is believing in racial integration, colorblindness, One America, E pluribus unum — all those things that used to be associated with liberalism. That was a long time ago. Long before I came of age, that’s for sure.
Anyway, you remember the old postcard line, “The weather is here, wish you were great”? I would never say that to you! Até a vista, as Arnold Schwarzenegger did not quite say, but as the locals do.